A landing page is a critical part of your customer’s journey to buy one specific offer. It’s the bridge of persuasion taking visitors from ‘maybe interested’ to ‘definitely yes’. They are singular web pages that exist to support one specific marketing campaign.
Embedded in each campaign strategy, the right landing page is a powerful tool to drive conversions or generate leads – and keep your lead acquisition costs down.
The secret to their success is hyper-focus. Each landing page directs all visitors’ attention to the benefits and value of one offer. And there’s only one simple yes/no decision – making the next step towards a conversion really easy.
You can create as many landing pages as you need to target each of your audience segments. This is great because you can design the look and messaging of each one to resonate with each section of your audience.
In this blog post, we explain how to get started by choosing the right type of landing page for your prospects and making sure they’ve got the key elements for success.
Landing page definition (FYI – a contact form doesn’t make it a landing page!)
Landing pages are standalone web pages with one purpose: to drive lead generation and conversion. It’s a bespoke destination created for visitors that have clicked through from PPC ads, email, social media, or wherever they found you online.
Each landing page directs your visitors to do one specific thing. This might be to:
- Make a purchase
- Join a waitlist
- Take a quiz
- Subscribe to a newsletter or podcast
- Watch a webinar
- Download an ebook
- And much more…
They’ve already signalled their interest by clicking the link, so now you can direct them to exactly what you want them to do.
This hyper-focus makes them super successful. For example, Foundation’s latest research analysed the keyword and SERP data of more than 25,000 landing pages belonging to 50 SaaS companies. According to their results, SaaS landing pages will generate traffic worth over $150m through organic sources in 2024. Mind-blowing!
To achieve this precision, your landing pages must showcase the real benefit and value of your service or product in the most persuasive, concise way possible. ScoreApp’s design makes this a quick, frictionless experience for you. Landing page creation and lead generation data collection are built into its functionality.
What is the difference between a website and a landing page? (And why it matters)
Websites and landing pages have distinctly different purposes that are equally important to your business.
Websites
Purpose: Your website is your company’s permanent digital presence and represents all the elements of your business.
What this looks like:
- Potential customers arrive from many different starting points
- Websites are designed for exploring
- Your homepage has all the information and signposts customers need to find the answers to their questions about your business
- A clear navigation menu and perfectly placed internal links link guide visitors through their journey
Landing pages
Purpose: Landing pages are temporary web pages that support a specific campaign.
What this looks like:
- You take customers by the hand to this particular part of your website from an ad, social post, or other digital location – it’s the next step on a path you lay
- Once they’ve arrived on your landing page, they can’t get anywhere else. There aren’t any menus or interlinks
- Visitors only get the information on the landing page and one option. It’s a completely customised destination that’s tailored to one specific offer
Websites should be a hub of multiple pages and features that deliver all the possible information a visitor might need. But they’re not a great place to invest advertising pounds because visitors are met with way too many options. It’s too easy for them to be bamboozled by all the exciting features and interesting information – all taking attention away from hitting ‘buy’.
Landing pages remove this confusion of choice and give laser-focused information about one offer. They are one tool, with one job.
Types of landing pages
There are different types of landing pages to suit your business goals. The two main forms are lead generation and click-through landing pages.
1. Lead generation landing pages
Lead generation landing pages are designed to gather contact information about your ideal customers, in exchange for your offer.
These can be in different formats, depending on your industry, what your offer is, and what information you want to collect. For example:
Newsletter sign up
You want your landing page visitors’ email addresses. And exchanging that information for your useful, exciting, funny, industry-leading, famous-people-read-it, newsletter makes complete sense. It’s a fair exchange that doesn’t need any explanation – I’ll give you my email address, you send super stuff to my inbox.
This leaves you plenty of room to sell the value of your newsletter to your ideal customers. Add big, bold ‘Subscribe’ buttons and your landing page is almost good to go.
A lovely testimonial will seal the deal: ‘I actually save your newsletter to read when I’ve got time to read it properly, with coffee and biscuits. I don’t want to accidentally miss any of your amazing advice. You’ve helped me so much already.’
Lead magnets
There are a tonne of different lead magnet ideas you can use to attract your ideal clients. The ‘magnet’ is any free offer you give in exchange for the prospect’s details.
The key to a successful lead magnet is to know your customers well enough to use something they’ll find irresistible, attracting them to sign up. Here are three easy ideas: which do you think your customers would like best?
- To take a scored quiz that gives personalised insights, revealing their existing strengths and giving them an action plan to fix areas of improvement. Lots of insightful information for you, a useful assessment and plan for them. You can launch a free quiz with ScoreApp today and see how easy it is to get started.
- Complete a survey about a topic that’s important to them. This allows you to collect a lot of valuable data, but the main benefit to your customers is the opportunity to be heard.
- Watch an exclusive webinar – live or recorded – that tackles a key pain point. This takes some effort on your part, but once it’s recorded, it becomes an asset your prospects hold in high regard. And a webinar is a great opportunity to make human connections while building your status as a thought leader in your industry.
If you’re now thinking, ‘one group of customers would really love that, but another group would respond better to this’ – that’s great! There’s no limit on how many landing pages you create and the more tailored they are to your different customer segments, the more successful they’ll be.
Waitlists
Waitlists are the perfect way to build excitement in your audience.
- Want to know when the tickets for this exclusive tour go on sale? Join the waitlist
- Want to be first to own the shiny new thing? Join the waitlist
And you get lovely warm leads that are poised to convert the moment you decide to launch! Along the way, you can drip-feed tidbits of information to increase the hype – all the while gathering a goldmine of data from the odd extra questions, like:
- Which band are you most looking forward to?
- What colour do you hope the shiny new thing will be?
Waitlists are great for all industries – both e-commerce and B2B companies can reap the rewards of using waitlists, just by using a little imagination.
- You’re creating a community for industry members. Use a waitlist to see a show of hands from potential subscribers.
- You run different courses throughout the year. Get those keen beans on a waitlist for the next start date.
2. Click-through landing pages
A click-through landing page is – horror of horrors! – a page without a form. Its purpose is to convince visitors that they really do need the thing they’ve just seen in the ad (they clicked on to get here), before escorting them to the final stage of the purchase journey with a clear CTA. This is typically used in e-commerce, where the CTA is a variant of ‘Buy now’.
For example, a prospect clicks on your Facebook Ad showing a particularly popular pair of shoes on sale. They arrive at your click-through page, which does a great job of confirming how many different outfit styles these shoes complement and how many famous people have been seen wearing them recently. After a reinforcement of how much they’ll be saving if they ‘Buy now’, they click on your CTA button. This takes them to the exact page they need to put their size in the basket and…sale made!
This doesn’t mean that a click-through landing page wouldn’t be useful in your B2B marketing. But B2B sales often involve a more complex product or service and team of buyers – making this kind of straightforward slide down the sales funnel less common.
Key elements of a great landing page
The key elements of a successful landing page are more or less universal, whether you’re selling a complex SaaS product or the latest in Instagrammable dog accessories.
The power of one
Each landing page has one clear conversion goal – this means one offer and one CTA. You’re aiming for absolute clarity. No signposts, distractions or options. Visitors have one choice: do the thing or don’t. They either commit or exit the page.
Compelling copy
The words on your landing pages must be both persuasive and concise. We’re not settling in for a story here. You don’t want to divert them from the straight path to your CTA.
For great landing page copy you need:
- An irresistible headline that’s understood on first reading and captures attention straightaway. E.g. ‘How happy are you at work? Discover your work happiness score.’
- Clear subheadings that showcase benefits, one at a time. Be obvious. If it’s free, say so. E.g. ‘Increase your work happiness with a free, personalised action plan (And it only takes 5 minutes.)’
- Persuasive vocabulary that resonates with your audience’s emotions and don’t be afraid to deploy emotive words like epic, discover, and powerful.
- Use bullet points. A list is skimmable and highlights each point individually.
- Closing statement to leave them with the essence of how they want to feel and a little nudge of urgency. E.g. ‘Start feeling less stressed at work today.’
Social proof
People want to buy things that other people have bought. Or do quizzes that other people have completed. Or join waiting lists that are already ridiculously long… All because they want to trust the businesses they’re sharing their information with. (And, sometimes, FOMO!)
You need to show them testimonials that prove the value of your offer. It’s always useful to add a picture to show it’s a real person, alongside their name, job title, and company.
To add further kudos to your offer, include the logos of any high-profile clients. You don’t need any written explanations or links to case studies if you don’t have them, the images themselves carry reputational weight.
CTA buttons
Use one call-to-action but include multiple buttons throughout the landing page – preferably with one above the fold. Your CTA needs to be in a recognisable button, visually standing out from the rest of the page, telling the user what happens when they click it:
E.g. ‘Join the waitlist’, ‘Get your exclusive discount’, ‘Take the quiz’, ‘Get your action plan’.
Images and Videos
Your landing page images can be photos or graphics that complement your words. They must be relevant to your offer, your business, or might even be of you! Your visuals need to be interesting, but not distract from the main message.
Explaining your offer in a video, alongside the copy, is a great way to include people who prefer this method of information gathering.
Extra incentives
You may want to include a special bonus that’s only for customers who use this CTA. ‘Listen to this exclusive podcast about tackling difficult conversations with your boss.’ or ‘Download my ebook about detoxifying your workplace for free. Usual price £15.’ Who doesn’t love a goody bag?
Other landing page considerations
There are other practicalities you need to consider for your landing pages.
- Simple design: You need to keep your landing page design clutter-free. A clean page keeps eyes focused on the one offer and one action you want your visitors to take.
- Fast loading speeds: No one’s hanging around to wait for your landing page to load. Check all the details, like image size and video length, to make sure your key lead gen assets are super-speedy.
- Mobile-friendly: With 54% of your traffic on a mobile phone, you need to know how to make your landing page design completely mobile-friendly. A recent Forbes report discovered that respondents expected a website to load in 3 seconds and 73% experienced a mobile site that was too slow to use. The good news is that 74% said they would return to a site that’s mobile-friendly.
ScoreApp has all these essential features baked into every landing page template design as standard.
How to build a landing page with expert knowledge
There are lots of landing page builders on the market. Before you start shopping around, you need to identify exactly what you need it to do, your preferences and your existing systems. Finding the best landing page builder for you can be tricky. Here are four key features to look out for:
- It’s easy to use. The user interface is immediately understandable, with intuitive tools you can pick up and use straight away.
- It’s got the key features you need. Such as a variety of templates that are fully customisable, drag-and-drop editor, A/B testing, analytics tools, responsive design, and integration with your existing tech stack.
- Price represents value for money. Do you really need the most expensive subscription tier? Will you make good use of its full scope? ScoreApp offers a variety of subscription levels to suit everyone, starting with a free option.
- Great customer service. What’s the company’s customer support reputation? If your landing page goes down, you’ve got a major leak in your sales funnel – costing you leads and revenue. You need to know that you can get help when you need it.
Create beautiful landing pages with ScoreApp
ScoreApp’s landing page builders create brilliant landing pages that are incredibly easy to use:
- Build your own landing page from scratch with over 50 individual sections ready to go – including your CTA, banner, and testimonial section.
- Save time and choose from ScoreApp’s extensive library of pre-set landing page templates. Everything’s completely customisable. Brand it up with your colours, fonts and logo. Get your hero image from ScoreApp’s free stock image library – or upload your own. Move sections around to best suit your messaging, with easy drag-and-drop capability.
- Build multiple pages to target each of your audience segments, or A/B test different layouts and messaging to maximise conversion rates.
- ScoreApp integrates with the most popular CRMs including Mailchimp, Hubspot, Keap and Zapier. So you can go deep with data mapping and uncover actionable insights.
We can’t think of how it could be easier. Because whenever we do – we make it happen!
Yes, ScoreApp creates beautiful landing pages. But lead generation is just one of its superpowers. This platform also conducts the most elegant of streamlined marketing campaigns. Scorecard marketing puts you in charge of each step of the process from the top of your quiz funnel to the bottom.
Get better leads, juicy data and more sales. Try ScoreApp for free now.
