If someone advised you to create a specific landing page for a particular campaign or market, you might have thought, ‘but I have a website with specific pages’; ‘why should I have a landing page’; or ‘isn’t my home page my landing page’? Well, yes and no…

What is a landing page?

Let’s put a landing page into context. Suppose your visitors primarily land on your home page from some source that might have led them there, then yes. In that case, your website’s home page is your landing page, or any other page on your website, for that matter. For example, suppose you post a Facebook post speaking about your services and direct traffic through a URL (or link) to your services page. In that case, that is the intended landing page. 

However, we suggest standalone landing pages for specific campaigns or markets in the digital world. It’s pretty technical. Let’s explain this further. Suppose you have a plumbing business with a nicely set up website with your home page, services, etc. Still, from your Google Analytics, you see that a new service you offer gets the most attraction from a specific location; you most certainly want a landing page specifically for those users. It creates more relevance to the users within that region. 

Another angle is that you’re still a plumbing business owner, but you only purchase your products from ABC Plumbing Supplies, and you have a solid, long-term relationship with the supplier. You can negotiate with the supplier to reference you on their website after people have purchased as ‘recommended plumbing services’ with a link to your website. Because traffic will be sent purposefully from their website, it would be wise to create a landing page for those users, offering them a discount. 

It’s a win-win. You purchase from the supplier, just as anyone else. So the supplier generates revenue. You get recommendations from the supplier offering people discounts on your services. Soon the news spreads that people who buy from the supplier get discounts from you. It’s an ecosystem, really… 

What are the requirements of a good landing page?

There are no rules for best practices. Simply put, the landing page should be readable and clear with the information users are looking for. Is there a formula for a high-conversion landing page? Honestly, there is no rule book, but if it converts users at a higher rate than average, you have a winner! 

There really are no industry benchmarks, even if sources say there are. The only measure you need to be conscious of is the landing page outperforming the previous version. If your current landing page is your first, then you don’t really have a previous version to compare it to. However, comparing it to the conversion of your website in general, or a specific page, is a good start. 

Just to get back at conversion – it refers to the point at which a person performs a specific action. It can be anything from buying an item, submitting their details through an online form, or making a call. It can also be someone viewing your store locator or about us pages. These are usually called micro-conversions or preliminary conversions with higher conversion rates than the home page because people might not take action immediately, but they would first want to learn more about you or see where your stores are to visit in person. 

Nevertheless, a good or successful landing page c-o-n-v-e-r-t-s. The landing page is either good or bad; there’s no in-between. 

A/B testing for your landing page

When should you be doing A/B testing on your landing page? Immediately. As mentioned before, when you build your landing page, test it against your landing page. Use your primary page. A/B testing is also known as split testing. It means splitting the audience to test campaign variations and determine which performs better.

Remove branded data from your A/B testing – all traffic generated from people typing your website URL in any browser and those searching your business name directly. You can choose different filters of how many users see which pages, for example, only people from specific locations or one location but with a split of 30/70 or 50/50 on the separate pages. 

You can play around with variables such as headings, buttons, colours, images, etc., but copywriting is the most important. The other variables are easy to test, except for the latter. Doing this guarantees that you will see changes in your conversion rates. 

Can I do A/B testing myself?

If you don’t have budget for an agency, you can build landing pages for your website yourself. There are great tools out there to do it on your own. Google Optimize is one such tool. It’s not a page builder but a tool to assist you with showing you which message or page engages and delights your customers and gives you the solutions that you need to deliver them.

It’s a drag-and-drop interface with filter options. You can play around with it, and when you’re ready, you can add the given script to the top of your specific webpage page to overwrite. For example, you can decide who will see the page greeting visitors with ‘Welcome our beloved client’ or ‘Welcome John’. 

Other tools include Optimizely and Visual Website Optimizer. Unfortunately, they cost money, but they have more features to offer and are fun and easy to use.

Can I create a landing page in WordPress?

You probably could, but we wouldn’t recommend it. Content Management Systems (CMSs), such as WordPress, are built for content-driven websites that change dynamically. They aren’t considered landing page builders but rather a way of uploading content regularly. 

There is no correct or incorrect way of using WordPress as a landing page builder. Still, it will take longer to create than using a tool, as WordPress was built initially for bloggers – to publish posts and constantly upload/update dynamic content. 

Tools to create your own landing pages

Tools to create a landing page include, Unbounce, Lead Pages, and Webflow. Unbounce offers A/B testing, drag-and-drop features, templates, good data, and it’s inexpensive. You’ll need a basic understanding of CSS or HTML, but in one session, you can get a landing page up as soon as possible – easy enough for a self-starter. 

Webflow is extremely advanced on the design side. It’s not a drag-and-drop but has a responsive grid. The tool is flexible for building high-level CSS and HTML landing pages, which allows for blogs, products & e-commerce. It has many features, except for A/B testing, but then you could use Google Optimizer to test various elements. 

Remember, testing copy on the landing page is the most important, not the font, typography, or buttons. It doesn’t matter which tool you use or which template you choose. There’s no chance in this world that it will help you write the correct words. Don’t get us wrong. The visual elements are also essential, but those are merely preferences. It won’t increase your conversion rate, even when great images are used. 

It is crucial to test the info – how you say, what you say and where you say it. It’s about moving sections and paragraphs around, with the most important content at the top. It’s important to test and not follow your own gut because you are the business owner, and 99% of the time, business owners don’t know the core frustrations of their customers. They know their business too well and want to include jargon that users don’t find helpful or understand. 

What call to actions are the best to use on landing pages?

This depends on what you want the user to do. However, before just adding buttons everywhere, you need to define the landing page’s purpose and who it is for. You need to determine where your users are in the buyer’s journey too. Are they only becoming aware of a product or service now, or are they visiting to make a call for a consultation?

Everything on the landing page needs to be written with the above mapped out. You’ll then understand that people in the awareness phase don’t need to see prices immediately. In contrast, people who are lower in the funnel understand that what they need will cost money, but they would want to know why you are the best and why they should choose you. Here is where you emphasise your knowledge and expertise. 

The same goes for your call to actions. 

Considerations for hiring someone to set up your landing pages

When approaching a marketing agency for landing pages, we would suggest asking for previous work that is currently live or previous work with stats. Ask for references as well. 

If it’s a start-up or someone new trying to build themselves up, they might also be good at this but might not have the portfolio or references yet, consider them as well. But don’t trust someone with no track record. A great way to start your landing-page journey with a digital partner is to have a sense of the quality of their work done. 

Also, consider choosing someone who quotes per project than per hour. This way, you won’t end up with an excessive invoice compared to what you’d initially budgeted for. 

However, we hope you land on our doorstep!

Warm regards,
Ribbit.