Landing pages are considered one of the most critical elements of a digital marketing campaign…but what is a landing page? And why are they so important?
A landing page is a webpage that exists apart from your main website, for the sole purpose for convincing visitors to do one specific action. Because it receives highly targeted traffic—say from a social media campaign advertising a new service or an email campaign offering a whitepaper—its conversion rates are usually higher than you what you expect from a regular webpage on your website like a homepage.
How Does a Landing Page Differ from a Homepage?
A few things differentiate landing pages from homepages:
- Unlike homepages, landing pages exist apart from your website. There is no usual button on the navigation tab that exists on your website which, once clicked, leads to a landing page.
- Unlike homepages, landing pages cater to a specific stream of traffic that has been attracted because of a single offer or lead magnet. Homepages address a much wider audience: you are more likely to see casual browsers and information seekers on a homepage than you would meet on a landing page—that’s why landing pages boast higher conversion rates.
- Unlike homepages, landing pages have a highly dedicated and laser-focused on one goal: conversion. Because they cater to a wide audience, homepages have a host of options from which visitors can choose from. They essentially ask visitors: What do you want to do? On the other hand, everything that goes on a landing page, from design to content, has a sole purpose: to get the visitor to do one thing, and one thing only—fill a form, make a call, ask for a consultation, do a survey, download an ebook. A landing page essentially says: This is what I want you to do. With that understanding, you could consider homepages as passive, and landing pages as active.
Your marketing campaign will stutter if you confuse these two pages or use them interchangeably.
Why Are Landing Pages so Important to Your Marketing?
Homepages are not focused enough to make good landing pages; and if you have been doing so-so by leading your targeted (usually paid) traffic to your homepage, then you would probably increase your ROI by switching to a landing page.
Here’s the thing: a landing page puts you in control by allowing you to lead the reader towards a specific action.
Imagine you receive a visitor from a Google Adwords campaign for one of your most valuable keywords. What would you ideally want them to do next?
Do you send your visitor to your homepage where they have no clear direction on what to do next because there are so many options? Or do you send them to a dedicated landing page that convinces them to carry out the exact action that you want them to do?
Once you figure out what you want your visitors to do, make it super easy for them to do it by sending them to a landing page.
We would love to give you a free review of your current landing pages or help you create new ones. Let's talk today about how we can help convert more of your visitors into customers!
