This is part one of a two-part blog series on landing pages. In this post, I will define a landing page and discuss the importance of the lead magnet. So let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
What is a landing page?
A landing page (sometimes also referred to as a squeeze page) can be any page your visitor lands on after selecting a call-to-action online or offline. The single purpose of a landing page is to drive your visitor toward a conversion goal, such as prompting a buyer or seller inquiry.
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Now, let’s compare that to a home page, which typically has a much broader focus and is designed more for the purpose of encouraging exploration rather than to prompt a specific action from your visitor. A home page can also be a landing page, but it’s not usually ideal.
Think of the last time you visited the home page of a website; how many different navigational options were you presented with? Did you know exactly what action to take next or did you do some exploring to get where you needed?
Home pages tend to contain a lot of distracting links and navigational options, which is great for exploring but bad for converting.
The single focus of a landing page is to increasing conversions. It enables you to keep the visitor on the desired path toward conversion, but a home page, with its many navigational options, makes it far too easy to wander from that path.
Essentially, your home page allows visitors to get to know you and your business, but landing pages should focus on a single conversion goal such as capturing an email.
Capturing an email means you have an opportunity to build an actual relationship.
An important part of capturing that email and building a relationship is the lead magnet (also sometimes referred to as a content upgrade).
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What is a lead magnet?
The majority of visitors to your website will not be ready to commit to very much, which is why capturing their email is so crucial. The relationship has already come to a screeching halt if they are not even willing to provide an email address for you to follow up with.
That’s why the lead magnet is a key component of an effective landing page.
Sometimes the visitor might simply value the content on the page, but often, visitors need a bit more prompting. For these visitors you could offer a lead magnet such as a property listing and status PDF for their area, a free consultation, a relocation packet, a how-to video, etc.
Providing something of value and relevance in exchange for a lead’s email is a great first impression that makes it that much easier to build a relationship.
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Now that we have defined a landing page and explained the importance of a lead magnet, you are probably wondering how your current landing pages stack up.
A number of online resources will help you create and evaluate an effective landing page. But in general, when assessing landing page quality, look to these six criteria to guide you:
- SEO
- Analytics
- Responsiveness
- Navigation
- Page load
- Forms
Stay tuned for part two on using landing pages to build relationships tomorrow.
Jason Pummill is the senior campaign manager of LeadPages. Follow LeadPages on Facebook or Twitter.