Today I want to explain what a Landing Page is and why you may need one!
Landing pages are one-page websites where someone “lands” after clicking on an ad or entering a specific URL. They are designed for a single purpose – to capture someone’s contact information. There is no navigation to other pages at the top or lots of “extra” information. It’s clean and simple.
Here are some situations where you might choose to use a landing page:
- You’re wanting to offer a free report to a prospect. They click on the free report offer on a blog post (or in an ad) and a landing page opens that describes the report and asks for their email address. This allows you to capture their email for follow up.
- You’re running Facebook ads and want someone to request a quote from your business. You put the quote information (or special offer) on the landing page and someone fills it out to start the process.
- You don’t have a full website yet and you need something simple to “place hold” until your dream website is ready.
Here’s a sample landing page I setup for insurance agent clients. (Click the link to see it live.) Let’s look at some of the elements included below:
We typically place the company logo at the top along with the agent’s name. You could specify the specific kind of quote or leave it more general depending on what you plan to use the landing page for. On the left is a short form that asks for name, email, and phone.
So why do we not ask for ALL the information to run a quote immediately?
You might include a full quote form on your primary website because when someone goes there they are actively looking to receive a quote. They are seeking it out.
Many times with a landing page, we’re advertising quotes to cold prospects! We’re catching them on Facebook or in a social media post and they aren’t necessarily shopping. So we don’t want to bombard them with lots of questions that make them overthink the process. Short and sweet is better!
Marketing studies have repeatedly shown that every new question on a form lowers the probability that the form will be filled out, so ask for as little as possible to fit your needs.
Back to the sample…on the right we see a graphic offering a gift card in exchange for a quote. You’ll want some sort of graphic in this space even if it’s not an offer. You could put a picture of the free report you’re offering, a special offer like what is shown here, or even a stock image that relates well to your business.
Now they could fill out the form without ever scrolling down, which is great, but if they DO scroll, we give some more credibility and information below.
Here you can describe your offer in detail and share why the prospect should trust you. If you have a local business address and phone number, put it on the page! Use a personal photo somewhere (especially if its one you use in marketing often and people will recognize.)
Adding in credibility factors like these, make someone feel that your offer is trustworthy and they aren’t giving their information away to a scammer. Make them comfortable!
And finally, we put the form one more time at the bottom! One more opportunity to fill it out while they’re on the page. At the bottom you can also link to your main website if you like, BUT don’t skip out on the privacy policy.
When running Facebook Ads you are REQUIRED to have a privacy policy included on any landing page. So don’t skip this step or your ads can be shut down!
What happens when someone fills out the form?
Well this depends on what software you are using. With any landing page software, you’re going to get an email notification with the information so you can follow up.
You can use marketing automation software to follow up with a prospect immediately, but this will require purchasing some additional components (like email marketing software, CRM, etc.) to make it all work well together.
Need Help?
If you’re ready to use landing pages, we can help! If you’re an insurance agent, click here for information. (Special pricing ends January 30th!) If you’re in another industry, fill out this form and we can give you a project quote.