In digital marketing, a landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after they click on a link in an email, or ads from Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or similar places on the web.
Unlike web pages, which typically have many goals and encourage exploration, landing pages are designed with a single focus or goal, known as a call to action (or CTA, for short).
It’s this focus that makes landing pages the best option for increasing the conversion rates of your marketing campaigns and lowering your cost of acquiring a lead or sale.
As you can see, the landing page exists after prospects at the top of the funnel click a link in an ad, email, or anywhere else on the web. It’s where the conversion (like a purchase, signup, or registration) will take place.
In this post we’ll explore the main benefits of landing pages and answer some common questions. By the end of this page, hopefully you’ll love landing pages as much as we do.
Landing pages are an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. But how exactly do they work? In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain what landing pages are, why you need them, and how to create effective landing pages that convert visitors into leads and customers.
What Are Landing Pages?
A landing page is a standalone web page that is created specifically for a marketing campaign or advertising effort The goal of a landing page is to convert visitors into leads by prompting them to take a desired action, like providing their contact information or making a purchase
Unlike regular website pages landing pages have a singular focus and remove site navigation and other distractions. By limiting options and streamlining the user experience landing pages funnel visitors towards one call-to-action, increasing conversion rates.
Here are some key characteristics of landing pages:
- Created for a specific advertising campaign or purpose
- Have one clear goal or call-to-action
- Lack main site navigation and footer
- Keep visitors focused on converting rather than exploring
Landing pages can have various goals, including:
- Collecting contact info for an email list
- Getting sales leads
- Driving purchases for an ecommerce store
- Promoting signup for a software trial
- Getting registrations for a webinar or event
- Downloading gated content like ebooks
But regardless of the purpose, an effective landing page makes it easy and compelling for visitors to convert.
Why Are Landing Pages Important?
Landing pages are important because they can significantly improve campaign conversion rates compared to sending traffic to your main website home page.
There are a few key reasons why dedicated landing pages outperform homepages:
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Increased focus: With one goal and limited links/options, landing pages eliminate distractions and keep visitors laser-focused on converting.
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Message match: The content on a landing page is tailored to match the advertising copy and language. This creates a cohesive user experience.
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Relevance: Visitors land on a page highly relevant to the ad or link they clicked on, keeping them engaged.
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Reduced friction: By removing navigation and streamlining forms, landing pages reduce obstacles to converting.
According to Unbounce, landing pages have an average conversion rate of 5-12%, while homepages only convert at 1-2%. Clearly, properly designed landing pages give your campaigns an edge when it comes to generating leads and sales.
How Do Landing Pages Work?
Let’s take a look at the step-by-step process of how landing pages work to turn visitors into leads or customers:
1. Visitors arrive from ads or other campaigns
The first step is driving traffic to your landing page. Visitors typically reach landing pages by clicking on:
- Pay-per-click (PPC) search/display ads
- Social media ads on platforms like Facebook or Instagram
- Links in email campaigns
- Direct mail pieces containing the URL
- Online ads on third-party websites
- Links within marketing content like ebooks, checklists, or videos
The advertising and campaigns bring targeted traffic that is primed for conversion based on the messaging used in the ad or content.
2. Visitors land on a dedicated, optimized page
When visitors click on an ad or link, they are taken directly to a tailored landing page, bypassing your homepage and main site navigation.
This allows you to create a user experience focused solely on the advertising message and converting visitors. Site distraction are removed, and the copy, images, videos, etc. all align with the campaign.
3. Page focuses attention on one clear CTA
An effective landing page keeps attention focused on one primary call-to-action (CTA). This could be a form to fill out, a link to purchase a product, or a button to schedule a call or demo.
The page copy, design, and layout all work together to guide visitors to the CTA and explaining why they should click and convert.
4. Visitors convert by opting-in or purchasing
By optimizing the landing page experience from arrival to CTA, you maximize your chances of capturing leads or sales.
Visitors convert by providing their contact information, making a purchase, or completing another desired action. The conversion is then tracked based on campaign parameters and goals.
5. Visitors receive offer confirmation or thank you
Once someone converts, they should receive a confirmation that their action was completed.
For example, opt-ins should receive instant confirmation their signup was received. Ecommerce orders should get order confirmation emails or checkout completion pages.
Providing confirmation improves the experience and lessens the possibility of duplicate conversions.
Landing Page Best Practices
Now that you understand the purpose and process of landing pages, let’s explore some proven best practices to maximize conversion rates:
Keep it simple
Don’t overwhelm visitors with excessive text, multiple offers, or unnecessary images/videos. Streamline your page with just essential info and a prominent CTA.
Use high-impact headlines
Catch visitors’ attention right away with compelling, benefit-driven headlines and subheads that speak to their needs and interests.
Show relevance
Make it clear with your copy how the offer or CTA on page relates back to the visitor’s original intent based on the campaign they arrived from.
Promote scarcity
Using scarcity elements like “Only 5 spots left!” or “Sale ends today!” can effectively create urgency and prompt action.
Align with campaign
Ensure your landing page aligns seamlessly with the promotional campaign in terms of design, messaging, and offer specifics.
Reduce friction
Eliminate obstacles to converting like excessive or unnecessary form fields. Make your CTA and opt-in process as simple as possible.
Single-focus CTA
Keep your page focused on only one CTA option. Adding multiple CTAs creates distraction and reduces conversions.
Social proof
Include trust-building elements like customer reviews, testimonials, case studies, or security badges as appropriate to increase visitor confidence.
Creating Effective Landing Pages
Now that you know how landing pages work and some best practices, let’s look at how to actually create effective landing pages. Here is an overview of the process:
Choose Your Goal
First, get crystal clear on the goal of your landing page. This could be to capture leads, promote a sale or event, generate downloads, etc. Defining the goal informs all other planning and design decisions.
Plan Messaging & Offer
Next, plan the messaging, copy, and offer that you will feature on the page. This should align closely with the campaign driving traffic to the page while persuasively conveying the value of your CTA/offer to motivate conversion.
Design & Layout
With messaging in place, you can begin designing the page layout and elements. This includes wireframing, creating a visual theme, writing copy, adding graphics, and laying out key sections of content.
Build Page
Now you are ready to use your landing page software to build out the page and publish it. Many solutions like Instapage and Unbounce offer drag-and-drop builders to make landing page creation fast and easy.
Connect to Campaigns
Once your landing page is tested and live, the final step is connecting it to your ad campaigns, email marketing, social promotions, etc. so traffic begins flowing to the new high-converting page.
Continuously Optimize
Use A/B testing and analytics to monitor performance and find ways to continuously improve your landing pages over time for maximum results. Testing headlines, copy, designs, offers, and more allows you to iterate on your winners.
Examples of Top-Performing Landing Pages
To help inspire your landing page designs, here are a few examples of real-world landing pages that do an excellent job at converting visitors:
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Lead generation: Unbounce’s Conversion Centric Page Design training landing page uses a lengthy headline, minimal sections, and simple form to capture emails.
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PPC ecommerce: Nike’s running shoes landing page advertisement directs PPC visitors to a tailored landing page.
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Email subscription: Buzzfeed’s [Tasty recipe email opt-in](https://www.buzzfeed.com/newsletters/tasty
What are the different types of landing pages?
You’ll see a lot of variation out there depending on the specifics of the business and whether you’re looking for leads, signups, or sales, but here are the main types of pages you’ll see:
Lead generation landing pages: Also called “lead gen pages,” “lead capture pages,” or “squeeze pages”, these use a form as their call to action. This form almost always collects lead data, like the names and email addresses of visitors. (You can read some expert-certified lead gen strategies here.)
B2B marketers and companies selling high-ticket items use this type of landing page to build a list of prospective customers. They sometimes offer something free, like an ebook or webinar, in exchange for contact info. Ecommerce brands can also use these pages for list-building, or offering free shipping or special deals, too.
Some examples of lead gen landing pages include:
- Ebook landing pages: If you offer a valuable educational resource (like a research report or a how-to guide), prospects are often more than willing to fork over their contact information.
- Webinar landing pages: You can put on a free webinar about a topic your customers wanna learn more about (and use a landing page to collect the registrations).
Clickthrough landing pages: Frequently used by ecommerce and SaaS (software-as-a-service) marketers, clickthrough pages go straight for sales or subscription. Usually, they have a simple button as the call to action that sends the visitor into the checkout flow (like the app store) or completes a transaction.
Clickthrough landing pages can take different forms, including:
- Ecommerce landing pages: By devoting an entire page to showcase the features, benefits, and s of your product, you can bring the user closer to a buying decision.
- Signup landing pages: Encourage users to take the first step on their journey by signing up for a free trial or subscription with your service.
- Sales landing pages: Sales landing pages are all about getting folks to make a purchase, answering the exact questions and highlighting key benefits to get ‘em to convert.
Why not just pay to increase my traffic?
You totally can—in fact, a lot of marketers do this. But it also makes sense to convert more visitors and get the best return on your marketing dollars. It’s kind of like carrying water in a leaky bucket—you can always try pouring more water into the bucket, but fixing the leak will make your life a lot easier (and dryer).
What Is a Landing Page And How Does It Work?
How do landing pages work?
Landing pages work best when visitors get just as much as they give, such as an ebook in exchange for their email address and name. What they get in the exchange is known as a lead magnet. When you include the benefit that visitors get from your offer right on your landing page, they imagine themselves in the future with your offer.
What are the benefits of a landing page?
A.J. Beltis told me one of the biggest benefits of a landing page is the opportunity to add context to your marketing offer. “Marketers feel motivated to bypass the landing page process and skip right to the conversion by encouraging form fills in other methods, such as through a chatbot,” says Beltis.
What is a landing page example?
Simply put, a landing page is any page that has a form on it and doesn’t include other distractions—here’s an example: If you remember anything from this article, remember that any page on your website with no navigation and a form used to convert visitors into leads is a landing page, and every site should have them. How Do Landing Pages Work?
How to create a successful landing page?
Pro tip: To get the most results from your landing page, stick to one goal (or one CTA). Not only does this make it much easier to create an effective landing page, but it also reduces the amount of work your visitors have to do when they arrive on your page. 2. Choose a platform.
