A landing page is an entry point to a web site that draws in traffic from a search engine, ad, or external link; and then convinces the visitor they want the product and then helps them to start the process to get it.
To be effective a landing page needs the following elements;
- Visual Appeal
- Enticing Product Information
- Call To Action / Buy It Now
Though a landing page fulfills some of the same roles that a home page would, the home page is also about selling the institution and providing a service to existing users. Those are roles you need in a web site, but they distract from what a landing page needs to do.
A landing page has a specific focus where needs like “Where are your branches?” and “Are you hiring?” are not addressed. What IS addressed is a single product or event, the reasons the visitor needs the product, and how the visitor can get it.
So a landing page should be separate from the home page so it can be tailored to fit the specific role.
Visual Appeal
Visual appeal for a landing page has two components;
- an uncluttered page with an eye catching look
- some text that can find it’s way into search engine indexes
Many web sites use a “Template” or a standard look that may have too much going on for a landing page. You will still want some simple branding, but may want to consider not using the standard template for this page. Use a top banner but leave off the typical side fly-out menu, whatever works to make the page focused and clean. They key being not forcing the visitor to work too hard to find the information you want them to have.
After observing web users many years, and being a web user myself for many years; I know that judgments about whether or not to stay and look at the page happen in a fraction of a second. That’s all the time it normally takes, and that’s all the time users will normally give you before they decide to stay or not. The eye catching look is what starts this decision, which usually is accomplished by a pleasing graphic (picture) that provides the emotional “hey look!” role.
All the graphic has to do is keep that finger twitch on the “back” button from happening.
On the “Finding this Page” side, stripping out extra HTML and reducing page clutter will force you to use meaningful key words, and increase the signal to noise ratio of the page. This will help get the file listed well in search engines. (This isn’t the only thing you should do for that, but it’s a start.)
Enticing Product Information
The product needs to be spelled out in short points that let the user quickly gather the information that answer the questions they have. Once the keywords got the user here and the graphic has done it’s work, now you need to make the case for the product.
It may be tempting to put this information in a Flash object or colorful pie graph, but both of those things take too much time to absorb. Both of them will be invisible to search engines which can only read text. You want plain text (maybe bullet points) with clear everyday language organized in order of the essential to the details.
You need to put on your user hat for this. You cannot simply list out what is different for this product from the rest of them. That sheet that came out of the meeting listing the fees, minimum balance, interest rate and all that. Turn it over to the blank side and in two plain English sentences describe what the now face-down side means to your customer; what would they say it does for them?
Write it out.
Then put those two sentences at the top of the landing page, right under the eye-catching graphic. When you are finished, turn the sheet back over and put the details on that side at the bottom of the landing page.
Call to Action / Buy It Now
The call to action is an equally important part of the landing page. The page just made the sale! Now what?
If your web site visitor has lingered long enough to get the idea of the product, or be convinced they want the product, don’t leave them feeling caged, you need to have an exit for follow through where the visitor can proceed.
Give them a way to get started right now. Don’t get in the way!
For this element you should have both a summary of what happens to get the product, and a way to start the process. Draw them in with a bold subject heading, “Ready to Start?”
The summary provides context and helps the person feel at home with where they are and what they are doing.
Here is an example:
“Ready to Get Started?”
“Call us at (phone #), we will gather your information (name, SSN, address and phone #) and email or mail you the forms. Bring in or mail your completed and signed forms along with a photocopy of your incorporation papers. That’s it!”
From this short paragraph, we know what to do (call) and what will happen when we do (exchange of information, and then forms), and we know a trip to a branch or a wait for postal mail will occur.
This paragraph helps apply the momentum the landing page created to closing the sale.
An even better way to apply this momentum is with a web site form. The benefit of using a form for the follow through, is your new customer can “put the ball in your court” all hours of the day any day of the week, holiday or not. A form will prevent your sales opportunity from ending up as a phone number on a coffee stained post-it note at the bottom of a backpack because it was after 7 PM at the time of the web visit.
You can either use a customized form for this, or work the role into an existing form. A customized form can appear right at the bottom of the page and should request what is needed to get them started.
If you are going to link to your normal “Contact Us” form, make sure the wording in that form suits a user coming with the “I just want to buy X” mindset. And make sure whomever picks up this information knows these requests will be coming through, and what should be done with them when they do.
When your new customer is finished with the form, as far as they are concerned, they have bought the product and are your customer.
In Summary
A landing page single purpose mini-web site that lets the user entice themselves into wanting your product, then shows them the way, and gets them started.
A good landing page has visual-appeal with a graphic and a clean look, which then goes on to educate the visitor about what the product is, and then offers a call to action and the first step on the process. A well done landing page will maintain the momentum the visitor builds for themselves to turn the site visit into a sale.
