Every marketing strategy you create for your business should be designed to ultimately deliver on one of your marketing goals. Chances are your two biggest goals are likely to either makes sales or to develop a list of eager people who are almost, almost ready to pull out their wallets and buy from you.

In short, at the end of the day, you’re putting all this effort into your marketing because you’re trying to get people to take action with your business. Right?

I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not churning out loads of content on Instagram for my health. I do it because I want to ultimately turn that effort into massive results for my business, like Scrooge McDuck diving into a pool of gold coins kind of results.

You too? Then keep reading.

The truth of it is that no matter how great your offer or product is, some people will take action and some people won’t. It’s nothing personal (although it’s super hard not to look at it that way). It’s just a reality of marketing.

But as a business owner, I know that I want to try to get as many visitors to take action as possible. And that starts with a little marketing power tool called a landing page.

According to a study done by Omnisend, landing pages had the highest conversion rates at 23%, while pop-ups only converted at 3%. That’s 7x the conversions, which is HUGE!  If you could do the same marketing strategy but get 7x the results, why wouldn’t you do that?

In this post, we’ll cover what a landing page is, how it differs from a regular webpage, when to use one, why they’re so effective, and some simple steps for setting one up.

Are you ready to supercharge your lead generation?

What is a landing page and how does it differ from a regular webpage?

When I was just starting out in my business, I was so confused about what a landing page was. It looked like an ordinary webpage to me and I just assumed it was the page people “landed” on when they first came to your website. I mean, kind of makes sense, right?

So if that’s what you’ve been thinking up to this point, trust me when I say that I was right there with you. 

At first glance, a landing page looks like any ordinary webpage. But it’s got major Wonder Woman-type super powers. 

Business owners often use their website homepage or product page to welcome visitors and lead them into taking further action with their business. If your goal is to have your visitors browse your shop or take a look at your service offerings, then that’s totally fine.

BUT if you’re wanting them to take one specific action as part of a specific campaign or initiative, like downloading your eBook or signing up for your webinar, then sending them to your homepage is probably one of the least effective ways to get your visitors to take that action. Which is where a landing page comes in.

A landing page has ONE solitary objective – to get visitors to actually take that ONE specific action. It does this by focusing entirely on your ONE offer or product, removing all other distractions, and leaving your visitors with only ONE option – to take you up on your offer or not.

With a landing page, it’s just your visitor and the goal that needs to be achieved for your business at that exact moment in time. The entire page is focused on getting your visitor to take that one action with you – which is exactly what you want!

What makes landing pages so effective?

When someone lands on your website, there’s probably a lot of different things they can do, right?

They can learn more about you, they can shop the items in your store or look at your services, they can read posts on your blog, and so on.

That’s great for a website because it gives people the opportunity to learn more about you and your business. But it’s actually NOT so great if you’re specifically trying to encourage someone to take a specific action, like signing up for your webinar.

If you drive people to your website to sign up for your webinar, they might get distracted by your latest blog post. Or they might wonder what your professional background is and where you live. And suddenly, they’re navigating away from your offer and that webinar you really wanted them to sign up for? Completely forgotten.

A landing page is the simple solution to this super common problem.

A well-designed landing page doesn’t allow for any distractions. There are NO other links on the page to distract your visitors, no navigation menus, no mention of any other products or offers but the one you’re trying to get them to take action on.

Basically, if it doesn’t serve the goal of getting your audience to convert on your one offer, it’s not included on the page.

When to use a landing page

There are lots of different ways to use landing pages for marketing purposes, which makes them a super valuable asset to your business.

But generally, you want to use a landing page when your goal is to get someone to take one specific action, like opt-in to your email list, purchase a specific product (like a course, package), or register for a specific event or offer.

A few of the most common ways to use them are for:

Lead generation

The goal with this type of landing page is simple: get contact information from your visitors. You can do this by offering something in exchange for their name and email address, like an ebook or webinar signup.

Sales page

A sales landing page is designed to close the deal on a sale – it does this by offering discounted prices, free shipping, or anything else that will motivate your visitors to “pull the trigger” and buy from you.

Offer pages

An offer page will promote a specific product or service you want to sell. You can use these types of landing pages for things like affiliate promotions, paid partnerships, or your own lead generation offers.

Simple landing page tips

Successful landing pages are lead-capturing machines. But more than that, they’re also meant to be super user-friendly for anyone visiting them. There are a few essential things to keep in mind when creating your landing pages:

Keep it simple

Don’t overload your landing page with a ton of information, colors, and options. Keep it simple so that you can easily communicate whatever it is you’re trying to get across.

Have one CTA

Remember, a landing page is about getting your visitor to take one sole action. All of the space on the page should be focused in that same direction – make it easy for them to accomplish what you want!

If your landing page is long, you can (and should!) have multiple CTA buttons, but make sure what you’re asking them to do is always the same.

Promote the value

Let your visitors know why choosing this option is the right choice by sharing the benefits of what you’re offering, not just the features. Tell them what’s in it for them and what they can ultimately get out of it.

Landing page tools that will make your life easier

Creating landing pages from scratch can be a pain in the butt, but luckily several email providers offer simple landing page builders as part of their platforms (like my two favorites MailerLite and ConvertKit).

You can also use a standard visual website builder, like Divi for all the WordPress users out there, and create specific landing page templates with the header and footer navigations removed.

Or you can use a platform specifically designed for creating landing pages, like Unbounce or Leadpages.

Using tools like these can help you create beautiful, optimized landing pages for your offers in minutes.

What to do with your landing page once you’ve created it

Once you’re got your landing page complete, I recommend setting up a simple email automation to welcome your new leads. It doesn’t have to be anything super long, but an email or two that welcomes them to your list, outlines what they can expect from you, and introduces them to your business is a nice way to start building a relationship with them them.

When all that is set up and ready to go, the only step left is to start promoting it.

Get your landing page in your social media bios. Make an effort to promote your offer and share your landing page in social media posts frequently to remind people it’s there. Add a link to it in your blog post side bar, the description of your YouTube video or podcast episode, etc.

People have a tendency to forget things they’ve only heard once.  You want it to stick?  Then get in the habit of repeating yourself.

As with everything marketing, it’s not just enough to create the landing page – you have to let people know it exists and why it should matter to them.

In short, landing pages can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your website and conversions – if they’re done right! They should be simple in design and easy to navigate with a very clear goal of getting people to take one specific action.

Do you use landing pages in your business?  What are some of your favorite tricks of the trade?  Share your knowledge in the comments!