MISSED OPPORTUNITIES -- LANDING PAGES vs HOME PAGES - HOW TO CAPTURE QUALIFIED PROSPECTS AND UNLOCK SALES

Many people tell us – I have a website!  My Home Page tells visitors everything about my Company!  What's a Landing Page?  What's the Big Deal?

About Landing Pages - HubSpot - A successful Inbound Marketing software firm - tells us "Did you know landing pages are one of the most important elements of a website?  In fact, 94% of companies say landing pages are a highly effective tool for capturing leads."

A Little History about Internet Marketing!  Computerworld told us in 2002 that "During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, some Web sites were slapped together quickly, and the biggest challenge for webmasters was keeping up with the spikes in traffic generated by their Super Bowl ads. Crashes and outages were headline news. 

After the dot-com bust, the new goal was to apply time-honored IT disciplines, such as scalability, reliability and security, to make Web sites solid platforms for doing business. 

But Web sites are growing increasingly complex, with multiple servers, load balancing, caching, firewalls, search engines and personalization - all geared toward improving the end user's experience" Mitch Betts - August 19,2002

Major Changes Since Then!  If you're in the Insurance or Benefits Industries, your websites were probably designed to inform with the purpose of creating BtoB or BtoC prospect generation and ultimately Sales.  Unfortunately, your traditional  "Home Page" does not provide the website visitor with what they are looking for - The Plan, Program, or Service you are featuring and trying to Sell!  This is Why Landing Pages were developed!

An Analogy - If someone came into your appliance store and asked for the refrigerator that you had advertised, you would not start off by telling them the history of your Company, show them pictures of your staff, and discuss your philosophy of business!  You'd show them the refrigerator they asked about, explain the options, explain delivery, and close the sale.  When Qualified Prospects arrive at your website The Landing Page shows them the Plan, Program, or Service you promoted and they are looking for and how to participate!. 

What is a Landing Page?  According to Copyblogger - "A Landing Page turns traffic into money.  A landing Page is any page on on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action or result. Think of a golf course… a landing page is the putting green that you drive the ball (prospect) to. Once on the green, the goal is to get the ball into the hole. Likewise, the goal of the copy and design of a landing page is to get the prospect to take your desired action.”  

So - What Needs To Change? - “If you could do one thing right now to drastically improve your marketing and increase your return on investment, it would be to use landing pages on your website.

Too many companies send their email, social media, and search traffic to their homepages. This is the equivalent of throwing leads away. You could capture these leads at a much higher rate simply by sending them to targeted landing pages.” HubSpot

To read more about Landing Pages visit HubSpot -  http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32566/Why-Landing-Pages-Are-an-Indispensable-Part-of-Marketing.aspx#ixzz22LTCkUCa

10 Tips For Building Your Landing Pages

1) Display Your LOGO - Visitors need to identify who they are doing business with!

2) Create a HEADLINE - People’s attention spans are short, especially online. Make sure your offer is as clear as possible! 

3) Use an IMAGE - The image should be both captivating and relevant to your offer!

4) Make an OFFER - The offer is one of the most critical elements of a well-designed campaign.  Offers must be clear and concise. Direct mail professionals tell us that a confused mind always says "no"!  Use bullet points and numbering to simplify the visual layout.  Immediately pinpoint the top 3 or 4 most important pieces of information!

5) Create a CLEAR CALL TO ACTION (CTA) – Placed Above the Fold - "The final part of your landing page is the all important Call To Action or CTA. This is the statement or copy that instructs your visitor to take a specific action. Often it will be the button on a form, or a large graphical button that takes your new customer through to a final destination somewhere on your main website. It’s critical that the CTA is very obvious and is written in a way that describes what clicking on it will actually do." HubSpot

6) Include SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS - Social Media links encourage your visitors to spread the

word about your offer!

7) Send a THANK YOU TO YOUR RESPONDERS - When someone has finished filling out the form or contacted you through your landing page, send them a “Thank You”!  This a great opportunity to suggest next steps!

8) Create MULTIPLE LANDING PAGES - A Landing Page for each Plan. Program, &/or Service!

9) A/B TEST CONTINUALLY -  Copyblogger.com tells us - "Split-testing, also known as “A/B 

testing”, is an invaluable strategy that compares two versions of a web page, with one difference between them — say, for example, a different headline."  

10) Track Using WEB ANALYTICS -  Web Analytics tell you where you are and where you should be going with your marketing campaigns!  According to Wikepedia - "Web analytics applications can also help companies measure the results of traditional print advertising campaigns. It helps one to estimate how traffic to a website changes after the launch of a new advertising campaign. Web analytics provides information about the number of visitors to a website and the number of page views. It helps gauge traffic and popularity trends which is useful for market research."

What 's Next? - Build and Test LANDING PAGES!  "Too many companies send their email, social media, and search traffic to their homepages.  This is the equivalent of throwing leads away.  You could capture these leads at a much higher rate simply by sending them to targeted landing pages." Hubspot   

For more information Email - max@benefitplace.biz or Call Phil - 216.577.5579