So, you have a website, you’ve got social media networks and you’ve even got a decent email marketing plan. But, somehow, even with everything working together, you’re just not getting your ideal customer to commit to a sale. What are you doing wrong? Well, if you’re not specifically appealing to your ideal customer through targeted content aimed specially at them, you’re probably losing them BEFORE they even get to your website’s call-to-action or worse, before they click-through to get to your site at all. So, how do you get your ideal customer to commit? One way, is through a landing page.

Landing pages aren’t new; however, it’s a relatively new way to think about reaching your target customer. Think about it: your website is built and the content written to appeal to the entire internet – but not everyone has the same needs or interests. For example, if you offer pool supplies, you’d probably want to target those customers or potential customers who have or WANT a pool. Conversely, you probably don’t want to offer baby products, for instance, to an older couple or a family where the kids are all passed that age. It comes down to content marketing – laser focusing your content – your text, images and message – to speak to your ideal customer so that they’ll accept your offer and contact you. But how do you do it?

Well, here’s how we’d go about it:

First, define your ideal customer.

Decide what they look like, their consumer behaviors, what speaks to them, what pushes them away from a sale, what they had for breakfast (why not?). Once you know what’s going to “hook” your ideal customer, you can start creating your offer. What can you offer of value that would get a potential customer to contact you? A discount? Free product? Free advice? Give careful consideration to this because it could make or break your landing page.

Next, start building your landing page.

Now that you know what’s going to appeal to your ideal customer and you have selected an offer that has value to them, it’s time to start creating your landing page. Landing pages are simply that: a place for your online visitors to land. It should have limited navigation (you really want them to accept your offer and contact you so all navigation should point them to that end) and should be geared toward the ideal customer’s defining traits: consumer and buying behaviors, business type and size (large company or small entrepreneur), industry (if applicable) and goals (usually to save the business time, money or both).

The goal is to include a form whereby the potential customer either signs up for an email list (to contact for future mailings) or to contact you directly. It should be the only method of contact on the page, save for a link to your website or a phone number. The purpose of this is to minimize the opportunities for the user to leave your site and not convert. A conversion occurs when a user utilizes a call-to-action (CTA) on your website.

Elements that your landing page should have:

• Irresistible Offer with CTA (call-to-action)
• Supporting images, graphics or video
• Testimonials showing social proof that you are trustworthy
• Bullet points stating benefits of your product or service
• Limited navigation – keep them on your page!
• Social network links to further prove your credibility

Incorporating these features can again, make or break your landing page and thus, your opportunity to convert a potential customer to a paying client.

You’ve got a landing page, now what?

You’ve got an awesome landing page that’ll knock the socks off of anyone who visits it – what now? Well, even the most awesome web pages are ineffective if no one knows about them. This leads us to publicizing your landing page.

There are a lot of different options for publicizing your new landing page – free vs. paid, social media vs. traditional advertising, sharing with networking groups vs. word-of-mouth. However, the whole point of this exercise is to make your website work for you, rather than you having to do extra work for your website. Ultimately, you want it to bring in the bucks, so to do that, you probably want to consider pay-per-click marketing.

There are a variety of options when considering pay-per-click (PPC) marketing – social media, search engine and banner advertisements are all effective methods of marketing on the internet by the click. As is implied, it costs money to run these ads, however you can specify the budget and how much you want to spend. For more information on pay-per-click marketing, visit our website.

The best way to get the word out, we’ve found, is using a combination of social media PPC ads as well as some search engine marketing. Google offers Google AdWords which allows for some pretty accurately targeted ads based on search keywords. Facebook and Twitter both have image based ads with limited text and links that get served up to users who fall into specified demographics. These are perhaps your best bet at getting the word out to your network and beyond. Both AdWords and social media PPC ads are pretty affordable, too. Using both of these ads maximizes your exposure and increases your opportunities for landing page conversions.

Once you’ve decided on how you’re going to market your landing page, you need to drive all links and traffic to that landing page’s url. By doing this, you ensure that when someone clicks an ad, or if you’re using a QR code or something different, it directs them to your landing page, with your offer and sales pitch.

Time to put that plan in motion.

You’ve got your landing page tested and it’s ready to go live. You’ve got your PPC advertisements setup and scheduled. You’ve tested the workflow of your form submission and setup automated messages. Time to make the page live and start your PPC ads so that they start appearing in timelines and search results.

Additionally, publicize your landing page on your website or rather add a section that links to the page. Make sure the buttons and any navigation are big enough to get noticed. Also, post the link to the landing page on social media – the purpose of your landing page is to get seen, so don’t keep it a secret.

Once live, don’t be discouraged if your page isn’t overwhelmed with visitors and clicks immediately. It’ll take some time for people to see the page in searches and on social media. If, after a week or so, you don’t have any visitors or clicks, consider revising your PPC ad text or demographics. Language plays a huge role in whether or not a user will click on an ad and if they don’t think your ad is trustworthy or is uninteresting, they won’t click on it.

Summary

To summarize, landing pages are gold. They should receive more attention than any other page on your site including your home page. Yes, even your home page. Make sure your landing page is well thought out, considering your target customer, page design, how you’ll market the page (PPC, social posting, etc) and tracking. Revise as necessary until you’re getting the satisfactory results. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Do you currently use landing pages? If so, how? Sound off below with any suggestions to add to this post.

 

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