You’ve probably already heard the term ‘landing page’ regularly on the Internet or on social networks. But what is a landing page? Well, that’s what we’re going to find out together. I’d like to explain to you its purpose and function, and how to create one that converts visitors into customers.
What is a landing page?
As its name says, a landing page is a page where you land. A landing page is not like a homepage where visitors come to discover your products, services and portfolio. In fact, homepages have a navigation menu, with links to other webpages on the site, something a landing page does not have.
The purpose of a landing page is very simple: to sell or convert a visitor into a prospect as quickly as possible. This is a widely-used strategy in digital marketing. Usually, landing pages are unique and personalised for an advertisement that will be promoted through different digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Google, and so on.
To illustrate what I’m saying, let’s say I’m browsing YouTube;
As I’m searching for a video about how to learn to read books faster, I click on the first one I’m interested in. But just before the video starts, YouTube plays an ad that offers a perfect solution to my need – an ebook that promises to triple my productivity and reading speed in just a few days.
Since I am interested in the product, I click on the link, arrive on the product landing page, and buy it.
What happened? Offer, demand, and marketing combined to turn an Internet user into a customer.
The different types of landing page
Typically there are two types of landing pages: the reference landing page and the transactional landing page.
The reference landing page
The purpose of the reference landing page is to collect as much information as possible about the person visiting the website. Usually this will be first name, last name, e-mail address and telephone number. In order to obtain this information, marketers typically offer a free ebook that will be of interest to the niche of people who visit the website, and visitors can download it by entering their information into a form set up for this purpose.
Below is an example from the Hubspot site.
Ok and… Next? 🤔
Of course, you are probably wondering about why there is a need to obtain this information. Quite simply, it’s because marketers will be able to retarget these prospects in the coming days. As soon as the prospect sends this information via the form, it is stored in a database. With the use of a smart automated system, the marketer will be able to send an automatic email to the prospects to sell his real product.
Visitor > Prospect > Customer.
The transactional landing page
Unlike the reference landing page, the goal of the transactional landing page is to get the visitor to take direct action. To accomplish this, the page will employ a strategy that perfectly targets the visitor’s needs, offers a solution to his problem, and creates a sense of urgency to motivate him to purchase your product or service.
The elements of a landing page that converts
A short and eye-catching title
The title is where it all begins. It’s the first thing your visitors will see and read, so you need to create something short, eye-catching and inspiring. In addition, the title should be written in such a way that the visitor clearly understands what type of product or service it is. In brief: short, simple and eye-catching.
Let’s take the Shopify landing page as an example.
A convincing subtitle
The subtitle, which should preferably be just below the main title, is your second chance to persuade the potential customer visiting your landing page. You can create a longer text and explain why they should take you up on your offer and what results they will get in return. Remember to keep it short, around 25 to 40 words.
Let’s take the example of Slack below, with their landing page:
Attractive visual content
As is often said, images speak louder than words. And yes, in the era of digitalisation, people have become accustomed to getting all the information they want quickly. Furthermore, the human brain processes visual information and images 60,000 times faster than text. If you create original and captivating visual content, you can really make a difference.
Use images to clearly show the value that your service or product will deliver to the customer. What benefits will your visitors get from downloading or buying your product or subscribing to your service? To illustrate these words, I would like to show you the example of Grammarly that does it perfectly well on their landing page:
Within 3 seconds, I understand straight away that this tool will save me an endless amount of time by correcting and enhancing my grammar, as well as suggesting various ways to write something.
An irresistible offer
And yeah, the title is good, beautiful images as well… But now you need an irresistible offer. To do so, target your niche and try to respond to an existing problem. Offer them a solution and show them the results they can achieve by purchasing/subscribing to your service.
To summarise:
- Create a feeling of urgency
- Offer a solution to a problem
- Win them over with an unbeatable deal
- Promise and deliver results
- Display customer testimonials
Calls to action
To put the cherry on the cake, the next step to take after planning your digital marketing strategy should be the creation of a clean, modern, mobile-friendly website featuring calls to action. Calls to action are very important because they significantly increase your visitor conversion rate.
We’ll take care of everything
At Growthy, we can help you set up your landing page while you focus on developing your product. Our team will take care of creating a tailor-made website for you, adapted to what you want to sell… If you wish, our team of copywriters can go a step further to develop an irresistible strategy to drive your sales. We can even take on the delicate task of writing your marketing content.
