Jack Meisinger
We’ve talked about the importance of setting a specific goal for your Barbour ABI email campaign (to read more about that click here). But after you have a goal, you need a landing page that will convert your contacts and help you achieve your goal. If your goal is for a prospect to download a whitepaper, view an infographic, use a calculator, or book a meeting, then you need a landing page focused on helping people do that.
Here's an example of a great landing page from our friends at Project Prospecta.
The offer is clear. The action is clear. And the use of authoritative quotes is great.
You might be wondering, why not just send them to the page on your website where that content is hosted? The message on a typical page is not focused, and they could easily be distracted by your other website content, including the menu bar. Landing pages help you communicate the value of your offering without distractions. It’s almost like an advertisement specifically for your content offer. It highlights all of its value and benefits, then points to the next step.
There are other benefits too, such as shareability and searchability. If people like your content, they can share the landing page, and it summarises the offer for a wider audience. Also, if you use good SEO practices, landing pages can rank highly in search results.
Landing pages are a crucial part of your prospects' journey. Creating an attractive landing page with a strong message will help you achieve your campaign goals. Let’s look at the specific elements of a great landing page.
Header
You have two considerations for the header.
- Impact – think of the header as the headline of an advertisement. You want to instantly grab attention and communicate as much value as you can. Don’t waste this space.
- SEO – While prioritising impact, your header should contain your key search terms if possible. Google pays extra attention to the words in the header. If they contain the keywords your audience is searching for it will be more likely to show up in search results.
There is tension between these two priorities. You will have to decide how you want to approach it. What’s more important – the message, or the SEO? My preference is to prioritise the message. However, the issue is usually creativity. There should be a way to do both. You may just have to think more about it.
Image
Having a good image on your landing page is crucial.
Have you ever built a webpage and thought: why doesn’t it look like a PROFESSIONAL landing page? The difference between professional and amateurish web pages is often in the images used. If you don’t have images, it communicates a lack of quality.
Also, which image you choose has an impact. If it’s a generic stock photo it does very little to increase the perceived value of the page. If you use a relevant photo that doesn’t look generic it will stand out and communicate authentic value. If you include a custom graphic or chart, this looks even better, and prospects may download it to take it with them.
Value
Focus on communicating the value of your offering on your landing page.
A tried and true way of doing this is by identifying three key messages that will resonate particularly well with your audience. List them as bullet points. This forms the bulk of the copy on your page.
You can keep the rest of the content pretty light. Copy should be honed down to the essential. Only words and phrases that highlight value or provide clarity. Don’t complicate this or you will work against the impact of your page.
SEO
Don’t miss an opportunity to target your audience with their favourite keywords. Landing pages show up in searches just like regular pages. They should be part of your SEO strategy along with blog posts and topic clusters.
Form
Historically, landing pages have always included a form. The form helps you to capture lead details. It also gives you an insight into what a particular lead is interested in.
Don’t forget to make the "thank you" page a bit more personal than whatever your CMS generates generically. And the "thank you" page should lead into the rest of your website. That way you properly align your landing page as one more touchpoint along a longer online journey. And by making the “Thank You” more personal, you create a more human interaction.
Conclusion
Landing pages are a crucial step between an email campaign and a conversion. After you’ve identified the goal of your campaign, you are going to want to create a landing page to host your content offer. This is going to make sure your prospect's journey doesn’t lose momentum and they quickly find what they’re looking for.
Don’t have the digital chops to pull it off? We can create a landing page for you as part of a Project Prospecta email campaign. It’s not hard. I’m sure you COULD do it. But your time is limited. And you don’t need to be faffing around with creating new website pages. We would be happy to do it for you.
If you’d like to talk about email campaign strategy with Barbour ABI and Glenigan book a strategy session now. We can talk about your business, your campaign strategy, and how to pull it off.