What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a special type of website sales page. It may be a page that directly sells a product or service. Alternatively, it could be a web page that sells visitors on the benefits of entering their name and email address in exchange for a free download; or to get more information about a product or service (usually for more expensive or complex products or services); or to subscribe to a newsletter; or to register for a contest; or to call for more information; or for any of many other types of lead generation strategies.

In most cases a landing page is not a home page (although there are exceptions – including for certain websites that only sell one product or service).

In certain limited examples, a landing page is not even part of a website’s navigation menu, which means that users would not end up on such a page as a result of browsing a particular website. They would arrive, or land there, by being purposefully directed to that page via an email, or an advertisement. (By the way, the advertisement could be an ad on one’s own site, in addition to other sites).

Landing Page Expectations

Typically, a visitor “lands” on a landing page via an advertisement (such as PPC or other ads), e-mail, or search listing. That initial message establishes the viewer’s expectation for what the user expects to see when they click on a link that leads them to your landing page.

An obvious point that contributes to the sales success of any landing page is how well the landing page delivers on the promise of the ad or email that drove the visitor to the landing page.

If a person clicks on a link from an ad, or email, or search result, with a promise of a solution to a problem, or more information, or certain details, only to land on a generalized page about a company (such as a home page), then the visitor is forced to search again for the information that brought him to the site. Most visitors will leave such a site and look for another website that makes it easier for the searcher to find what they’re after.

For example, if a searcher clicks on an ad that describes a sale for a particular brand of motorcycle tire, only to land on the home page of a motorcycle dealer’s website that features all kinds of motorcycles, helmets, jackets, accessories, parts, mechanical services – as well as motorcycle tires – the visitor would be forced to do further searching on the dealer’s website to find the tire sale. Many visitors will leave such a website disappointed, and continue their search for a site that will show them the exact motorcycle tire they’re after.

A better example would be a searcher who clicks on an ad for a particular brand of motorcycle tire, and arrives on a web page that has a picture of that exact tire, with the regular price, the sale price, the tire’s specifications, shipping details, a phone number to call for any questions, and a very easy-to-see “BUY” button (or “Add to Shopping Cart”) so that such a consumer can get the info they’re after (if they want), but more importantly, so they make their purchase and move on with their day.

Landing Page Call-to-Action

The “call-to-action” is what you want the visitor to do, such as make a purchase, download some information, make a phone call, etc. In the above example, the call-to-action is represented by a very prominent “BUY” button.

Whatever it is you want the visitor to do, be sure to clearly state it on the landing page. Any visitor should be able to quickly identify what their expected action is.

Market Testing Landing Pages

There is more than one can know about landing pages, including not distracting visitors from the main intent of the web page. Hence, landing pages can be made more effective by “not” including other advertisements.

More importantly, landing pages can be made more effective by testing, testing and more testing. Market testing landing page variables such as the wording in the headlines, the main copywriting information, the placement of “more details,” and product images are among some of the fundamental items that should be statistically compared and then refined.

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State of Internet Marketing: 16 Predictions for 2012

Another whirlwind year in Web marketing is behind us, and the one ahead seems just as exciting. The big news of 2011 emerged as Google worked to make results even more relevant and useful to users, which eventually led to the Panda algorithm update that targeted low-quality sites in the results pages. Then of course, big strides were made by major search engines like Bing and Google to make social search more of the norm leading to perhaps the biggest news in social and personalized search, just announced this month by Google with its Search plus Your World feature.

In keeping with our annual tradition here at Bruce Clay, Inc., I'd like to share with you my forecast of the search climate in 2012:

1. Budgets will be larger than expected, although not crazy, and spending will be rapid. I expect that spending will ramp quickly early in 2012, then flatten during the middle of the year, then grow in the fourth quarter for a yearly growth of 13.73194 percent. Top firms will be busy and by mid-year many will stop accepting clients. There will be significant early excitement as online leads grow significantly.
2. Internet marketing optimization (IMO, the umbrella for SEO, PPC, analytics, social, conversion and information architecture) is finally recognized as the new online marketing battleground. Specialists such as SEOs are forced to learn about all other disciplines as projects require participants to know more about more about the other IMO disciplines.
3. Conferences see massive popularity as companies fight to learn the Internet marketing optimization disciplines. As the IMO disciplines become more competitive, training will become a significant factor in businesses wanting a slice of the online pie. Training demand grows rapidly, and the best online and classroom courses will be exceptionally popular. Training classes at conferences will fill early and will often be the justification for the conference.
4. Google+ will collect data that assists Google search in providing unique and exceptionally targeted results. Personalization of search results (ads, organic and local) is essentially accomplished.
5. The cost of AdWords ads doubles, but the ROI resulting from personalization targeting justifies it. Personalization makes it work. Google releases a new version of AdWords management tools combining demographic targeting to compete with that found in Facebook.
6. Local results are shown for a majority of queries, generally resulting in only three organic results getting the vast majority of search traffic. As a result, SEO becomes more difficult for national non-local businesses. Many untrained people abandon organic SEO as costs climb and results are evasive.
7. Local results become a massive revenue source for the search engines. A local paid inclusion program develops where brick and mortar sites can get local result preferential listings for a reasonable monthly fee. Some engines will offer comprehensive call tracking and analytics for local paid inclusion programs. This is less of a prediction than it seems. Ask us how we know.
8. Local Paid Inclusion will replace traditional SEO and PPC as the first traffic tactic. Premium listings in local results will immediately gain popularity as early adopters happily get traffic for a low fee in a matter of days. This will be the most significant traffic tactic in 2012. Everyone that has a local address will participate.
9. As labor costs in Asia skyrocket, the massive use of offshore labor will no longer be seen as cheap. Increasing prices will have a consequence to businesses naively desiring "cheap" SEO services. It does not help that the dollar and euro are weaker currencies throughout 2012, although this lower dollar value causes businesses in Asia and India to find U.S. and European-quality services within their economic reach. As a result of increasing labor costs and currency fluctuations, the cost of online traffic increases. Several vendors will create their own captive overseas workforces (some through acquisition) to contain costs during 2012, but customers can still expect that the entry point for professional services will climb.
10. Google, with its Google+ intrusion into search, will lose market share to Bing. People will dislike the complexity of a hybrid social and search system. The systems will not be understood by a fifth grader. We see the beginnings of "Occupy Google" as protesters become vocal.
11. Expect that Google will come under heavy fire from governments worldwide as they show preference to their own services within search results. This becomes less of an issue of quality and more an issue of anti-competitive moves. Having Google executive bonuses tied to sales and popularity from and of Google+ turns out to be a nightmare for Google.
12. Social media remains a major bright, shiny object. It drives traffic and influences decisions. This segment will develop ad, organic and reputation/service specialties by mid-year and most companies have "official" social media programs in one or more of these areas. Social media will be seen as a key influencer for the research stage of the buying funnel, driving traffic to conversion processes. Without social media, brands will weaken and sales will be lost.
13. Conversion and analytics emerge as the only items common to all company 2012 budgets regardless of what generates traffic (social, local, SEO, PPC … whatever). Traffic without conversion is a waste, and integration of conversion methodologies into projects is mandatory.
14. As the quality of content continues to climb in importance, the easy money attitude will evaporate. You can no longer just build it and they will come, and one-person at-home lead generating businesses will often be unable to compete with larger content publishers. And larger publishers that simply regurgitate derivatives of other peoples content are also going to increasingly find rankings penalized. The focused expert sites rooted and recognized by peers for quality content will rise and succeed. Sites must really earn that traffic, and SEO tools and methodology become necessary for success much more than ever before. For businesses needing online traffic but unable to master the skills needed to achieve top rankings, SEO experts will be in very high demand.
15. Phones, tablets and desktop systems will see processor speeds faster than ever before, and the evolution of the operating system will become a bottleneck. New technology will see the broad use of touch screens, and by year end we will see support for tablet application-like websites. Touch screens will be most loved, and the mouse goes by the wayside like the floppy disk did as systems evolve.
16. By the end of 2012 Internet Marketing practitioners will adapt to being expert at multiple disciplines, or they will need to resolve themselves to buying traffic for their clients.

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