Congrats you’ve decided/realized you need to step up your game when it comes to generating sales & leads from your website. In this post I want to provide the steps you need to take, in order to get a landing page planned, designed and live in the shortest time possible.
Now, I’m not saying this is the only way to go about it… as there are literally thousands of paths to take.. but if you’re looking to start off the right way, then read on.
Let’s kick off by clarifying what a landing page is
Landing pages are specific web page designed to collect contact information from potential customers. For example, if you click on an ad for a weight loss product, the landing page will be a page about the product.
The goal of the landing page is to collect a visitor’s contact information in exchange for a resource you can deliver at scale, like an ebook, free appointment, a help guide, checklist whatever makes sense and, most importantly, provides something of value.
This strategy has been coined as permission marketing by Seth Godin, a thought leader in the marketing space and author of numerous best selling books on marketing.
The idea is simple: you request permission to market to the person in exchange for something of value.
A landing page is a necessary part of any online marketing campaign. And in most lead generation campaigns will be the first page a visitor lands on after responding to your marketing message – be it an ad, a blog post, a social media post etc.
If you’ve not come across this before, the idea of creating a landing page can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be… in this post I’d like to show you the exact steps you need to take.
Step 1: Choose Your Landing Page Builder Platform
There are a few things you need to consider when choosing your landing page builder platform – you’ve got to choose the right tools to do the job. Each business is unique, your situation will be different to the next one, but really when choosing a landing page builder (any tool for that matter) the thing to look for is a balance of cost vs results.
To get started I would suggest you take a look at these landing page builders:
- Mailerlite (an email service provider with a solid landing page / website builder)
- Landingi (build landing pages, pop-ups, funnels & sell products)
- LeadPages (a dedicated landing page builder platform)
Building landing pages and funnels on WordPress
If your website is built on WordPress, then you should consider building your landing pages with page builders like Elementor & Beaver Builder. It takes a little more work but you’ll have complete control and not shackled to another subscription based service.
If you’re not used to using landing page builders and the very thought of if overwhelms you I won’t lie: getting set up on these platforms might take some time to get used to but however you do it, the upfront effort will be worth the time investment.
Step 2: Pick A Landing Page Starter Template
A good landing page builder will provide good quality starter templates. Simply find a template that fits your specific needs and add your branding, swap the text with yours, add custom-designs or if you’re feeling adventurous start from scratch.
Here’s a tried and tested landing page layout with one objective. The call to action, as its known, is to entice the visitor to click the download button to the high value offer.
This click would initiate a pop-up with a simple Name & Email request, once completed the high-value PDF would be emailed using the address entered into the form.
The most crucial factor here is congruence of messaging between the content used to attract awareness, usually in the form of paid advertising (but not exclusively) and the offer on the landing page.
Step 3: Identify Your Ideal Audience
You will see huge uptake in conversions on your landing page if you get the right offer in front of the right person, at the right time. This takes a fair amount of trial and error, so keep at it.
A good tool that I use for my 1:1 coaching is called the empathy map, and the idea is to brainstorm an ideal client and get into their minds and try to answer what they might Say, Think, Do & Feel on a daily basis.
To be clear the empathy map is an ideation tool and not an exact science, so don’t get to critical at this point. This is no right or wrong, so just have some fun and explore ideas on new potential audience, use it to kick start the discovery process.
In my experience a good brainstorming session usually produce a solid basis on which to do further audience research.
Here’s a few resources I recommend to help you with that:
- How To Find Your Target Audience And Create The Best Content That Connects
- How to Define Your Target Market
- Steps to Find Your Target Audience
Step 4: Build Your Landing Page
Now that you have your goals set and your audience identified, it’s time to start creating your content. This can be done in a variety of ways, the key is to keep your audience in mind at all times.
A good landing page should have a strong offer and be able to explain why the offer is valuable in clear and… provide a key opportunity to promote the value of your offer. – Wordstream
Remember, the content needs to put the needs of your audience first and foremost, so don’t talk about yourself.
Recommended reading:
- 40 Brilliant Landing Page Examples That Convert [New 2022]
- 9 Tips on How to Create an Effective Landing Page
Step 5: Publish and Test Your Landing Page
Landing pages are the final product of your marketing efforts. The best landing pages are the ones that are tested and tracked. Testing and tracking are essential for seeing what your landing page is doing right, and what it is doing wrong.
KPI (key performance indicator)
There are many metrics to track but the KPI you should focus on to start is the conversion ratio – the percentage of people signing up for the offer (leads) vs the number of unique page views (visitors).
For example:
350 visitors / 53 subscribers * 100 gives you a 15% conversion rate (CR).
It’s very easy to fall into what I call the “analysis paralysis” trap where all data points are tracked and you end up getting so swamped with it all your brain freezes and/or explodes!
I’ve not covered what happens to leads once they sign up, which is email automation follow up sequences. That’s another topic entirely, which i do plan to cover at some point. Your landing page builder will provide the sign up forms and some, will send the new lead data to your email or store them for you download anytime.
Conclusion:
Creating a landing page is not difficult, but it does require some planning and effort. Following the steps above will help you create a landing page that is effective and converts visitors into leads or customers.
If you have a question about this strategy drop it the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer it there – the same goes if you prefer to contact me privately.