Landing Pages – How To Build Internet Marketing Conversions

What Are They?

Landing pages are an important aspect in building an online marketing strategy. Essentially a landing page is considered primary pages that people browsing are first presented with when they visit, or commit to a marketing advertisement. In a general sense, a lot of websites can consider their home page as their primary landing page. However, when investing in marketing online, there is a more focused and integral role that landing pages play, and typically they are created seperate from your main website.

Why Are They Important?

Scenario 1

On average you may visit a store like Best Buy, have a general idea of what your looking for as you enter the automatic doors. You see a wide variety of products all around and you catch yourself scanning the whole store floor for where the Rewritable CDRs. You don’t see them right away so you perch up on your tippytoes a little and look at the hanging signs for something that looks like a relevant area. You spot computers and head over and serpentine down two isles before you find them. After a few minutes you make a decision on which brand and head to the checkout line and then head home.

Scenario 1 would be the equivalent of having people directed to the home page of your website. Unfortunately, when people are browsing online they have hundreds and thousands of different stores they can visit within seconds. If a person is looking for something and is not presented with something relevant, a majority will leave within a few seconds or 1 to 2 clicks. If they are presented with something relevant right away there is a greater chance they will commit further.

Scenario 2

You go back to the store to buy a new movie release, as you enter an employee asks what you are looking for. You reply giving some details about your favorite types of movies because you can’t quite remember the title. The assistant walks you right to the movie you are looking for, you give a smile of appreciation thanking the person. The assistant then mentions that it is 20% off with the purchase of another movie that they have that match your preferences, and that they also have DVD cleaner, DVD cases etc. if you are in need of any additional accessories. You realize a compact storage case would be better than the stacks of the original DVD cases and also buy one of the suggested videos which was a classic you had not seen in a long time. A week later you get an email following up from the purchase asking if everything is working well for you and also includes a few more suggested movies they have in stock that match your preferences.

This scenario would be the equivalent of having a landing page that displays different content based on the search terms they use. It presents those relevant items and also gets them to input a few things about what they like and some contact information. There is also mention to the fact of a discount for their purchases highlighted, and at checkout they are presented with more relevant items to the one they chose. A week later an email is sent to the customer thanking them again for their purchase with contact information if they need any assistance and includes additional items that they may be interested in to purchase from the store in the future.

Using Main Website or Custom Landing Page

As previously mentioned, the more relevant the display is to the potential client/consumer, the chances of converting them into a sale is greatly increased. Typically main websites encompass a broad range of information and detail. You could do pay-per-click marketing with popular search engines like google, yahoo, msn live, and have the ads go to more relevant pages on your site instead of dropping them off on the home page; However, there is a unique level of customization and presentation that can be achieved with focused individual landing pages.

For instance:

• Purchase a keyword relevant domain name and have it directed to the custom landing page to increase search relevance.
• Have sub-domain names that match the different categories of search terms point to the landing page.
• Have the landing page reflect different content based on what the original keywords and search phrase was used in the original search.
• Include forms for information gathering to aid in future marketing which may look out of place on your normal website.
• Include more direct and precise verbiage to push the sale harder.
• Include calls to action, a testimonial etc.

The greatest benefit besides making a sale with custom landing pages that are hidden from regular website navigation and only reached by targeted ads is that you get more accurate tracking information. With the use of Google Analytics you can get useful information on how people are reacting to your landing page and make needed adjustments. With adwords you can implement “AB Testing” so that each time someone clicks on your ad, the landing page displays a different layout and presentation and provides information to show which presentation has proved most successful. You can also utilize online services to create virtual phone numbers to include in the landing page so that phone calls can be tracked and associated per marketing campaign or keyword to have useful information about effectiveness.

Conclusion

Landing pages are an important internet marketing vehicle to generate leads or achieve sales online from prospective customers/clients. Investing and utilizing in custom landing pages with the technology and services available is a viable resource that can greatly aid in getting a return on your online marketing investment.

We offer the services mentioned in this article and encourage you to contact us with any questions or needs for potential future projects.