Custom Landing Pages: Critical Component to Lead Generation
To be successful at online lead generation, you've got to leverage custom landing pages as part of your strategy. The reason is simple: custom landing pages provide specific support to marketing efforts that help prospects take important next steps to engage with your organization. A typical scenario that supports this concept is as follows:
- An email that has an offer message is sent to an opt-in prospect list
- A prospect receives the email and opens it
- The prospect finds the offer message compelling and wants to learn more
- The prospect clicks on a link in the email that promises to provide more details
- A custom landing page opens in the prospect's browser
- The custom landing page contains specific details about the offer
- The custom landing page also has a specific call-to-action (CTA) that enables the prospect to take directed next steps
- The prospect takes the next step and a conversion occurs
The above scenario demonstrates the primary function of a custom landing page, which is to make it easy for prospects to engage with your brand and/or take advantage of an offer. Offers can be resource downloads, webinar and event registration, opt-ins for specific types of communications, etc. The important take away here is that custom landing pages are fundamental to generating lead conversions. Without custom landing pages, prospects are left on their own to figure out the details of an offer message and how to take advantage of it. Not to mention, creating custom landing pages can also help your page rankings when it comes to your SEO efforts and PPC campaigns.
These are just some of the reasons why custom landing pages are key to effective marketing efforts. It's not only important to incorporate them into your strategy, but to also make sure they are designed properly to ensure the highest possible conversion rate. Custom landing pages must continue where the initial communication that attracted the prospect left off. This means there must be a consistency when it comes to branding, messaging and the flow of content. Pages that have too much information, are over-designed and cluttered or lack clear CTAs can result in lost conversion opportunities.
Here are the basic components of effective custom landing pages:
‣ Headline -- The headline is the first thing visitors will see. An effective headline must communicate the offer as clearly and concisely as possible.
‣ Copy -- The content must communicate the benefits/value of the offer clearly, simply, and in a compelling way.
‣ Keywords -- The page should be optimized with associated keywords which should appear in the page title, headlines, and content.
‣ Social Sharing Buttons & Links -- It's important that prospects who respond to your offer are able to share it with others that may also be interested. Providing links that enable sharing on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, extend the reach of your offer beyond your own network of contacts, fans, and followers.
‣ Restricting Navigation -- A landing page should not provide prospects with navigational options that may distract them from engaging with the page and ultimately converting.
‣ Conversion Mechanism -- Having an effective CTA message supported by a conversion mechanism such as an online form or a dedicated, trackable call-in number is essential to achieving success.
‣ Images -- Having supporting images is important as they help to engage the prospect and provide visual details to help drive the value of the offer.
Custom landing pages are a critical part of online lead generation and must be designed and developed properly to be effective. Using them will increase conversion rates and provide a means of testing to determine the most effective landing page makeup. Make them part of your marketing strategy -- you'll be happy you did.
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