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This series is not aimed at the experienced marketer, although we could all benefit from brushing up on our basics every now and again. Marketing Eric works on the foundation that anyone can be a great marketer and that any organisation can create an effective marketing strategy to grow sales and amplify brand values. Many organisations suffer from a lack of knowledge sharing and this shortcoming is often prevalent within digital marketing operations. Marketing Eric supports a transparent approach regarding marketing activity in the workplace .
The landing page
Landing pages are among the greatest misconceptions of the marketing industry. Put simply, their function is to assist in the conversion of prospect to lead and lead to client. Landing pages achieve this with the offer of a proposition to nurture the lead through the sale’s cycle and convert to business.
The landing page offer
The landing page proposition should focus on a single offer with a clear outcome. Offers should vary dependent on what you are looking to achieve from the page. Top of the funnel offers such as webinars, open-registration events and resources focus on attracting a prospect to your page and offering something in exchange for their contact information. Middle of the funnel offers are often lead nurture propositions to warm the lead and encourage their journey through the sale’s cycle, an invitation to a networking event would be an example of this type of offer. Bottom of the funnel offers attempt to convert the lead into business. These offers will be attractive to a nurtured lead who has interacted with your company in the past. A demonstration or invite to an exclusive event would be an example of a bottom of the funnel offer.
The landing page design
Landing page design is most effective with a clear 'call to action' (CTA). The call to action of a landing page will generally be an offer, as outlined in the 'landing page offer' section above. Emphasis on the offer and what the user must do to receive said offer should form the focal point of the page. Some brands choose to apply graphics to their landing page design, images are not detrimental to conversion success unless they detract from the proposition. A form to capture the required information is essential. Forms vary in detail, from a simple email holding page to a detailed ‘contact us’ style enquiry. Some marketing automation platforms offer ‘smart form’ functionality for marketing intelligence. These forms will use the visitor’s cookie information to pre-populate any fields that have been completed on previous visits to the site. A clear CTA button to forward the user’s information and navigate their progress through the cycle is also required; these buttons are often of a distinctive design or shade. The key to landing page success is a strong proposition, clear CTA button and accessible form.
Landing page completion
It is best practice to follow the landing page CTA or ‘submit’ button with a thank you page. This page functions as a click-through and provides additional opportunity to further encourage your lead through the sale’s funnel. Use this page to advertise social media channels and promote sharing of content. If your landing page has additional steps, inform your lead at this stage to encourage their compliance.
Workflow to nurture landing page submissions
If your marketing tool allows, it is advisable to enter all landing page submissions into an automated workflow. Send an email automatically to promote engagement between lead and brand. This is particularly important if the form completed was regarding the services of your organization. Use this process to nurture your submissions for free resources; provide a downloadable PDF via email, promote social sharing and suggest similar resources. These tools are invaluable at nurturing your leads with minimal resource from the marketing team.
Marketing landing pages are used for an array of marketing offers from prospect to client. For each proposition, think of an effective operation to promote each offer with maximum clarity. Ultimately, how does the landing page encourage conversions?