What are landing pages? Uses, Advantages, and Examples

In online marketing, a landing page is a web page to which visitors are directed from an advertisement or by clicking on search engine results. Landing pages are used for lead generation and are also known as lead capture pages. These pages are designed in a way to convert random or targeted visitors into leads and sales.

Nowadays landing pages are used in almost every online marketing campaign to capture visitors personal data such as name, emails, numbers, etc. These pages are designed very differently from normal site pages as they have only one goal which is to convert site visitors into leads.

Also, some confuse between homepages and landing pages but both are completely different. Homepages are not designed to convert visitors while a landing page does not even have navigation to not distract the visitor and just directing them to take the desired action (signing up for a free trial or for the newsletter, downloading something etc.).

So now you know what a landing page is but why are they so important?

Why are Landing Pages so Important?

You should use them as they help in increasing the conversion rates. And a good landing page can increase both conversions and revenue. The landing page is the page to which all your users must be directed from any marketing campaign you are running such as AdWords, email marketing, Facebook ads etc. Most businesses don’t do this and then they think why they are not getting any results.

If you are running an AdWords ad about your company new product then you must have a landing page having all the information about your product linked to that ad. Whenever someone will click on your ad, it means he is interested in your product and he is expecting all the related information so that he can decide whether that product is good for him or not and make a final purchasing decision.

According to HubSpot research, companies having more than 40 landing pages generate 120% more leads as compared to those having less than 5 landing pages. Both B2B and B2C companies benefit from landing pages and having more targeted landing page is better as more pages mean more conversion chances and you will have more leads.

Also, the number of your landing pages indexed in search engines will help with your site’s SEO. Landing pages if properly used, can increase the likelihood of increasing the conversions easily. Most visitors leave the site within seconds so it is very important to grab the users attention and convince them to take the desired action. Lead capture pages are best to get conversions for content opt-in pages and sales pages of products/services.

Uses of Landing Pages

There are many uses of landing pages such as:

• Directing visitors to a landing page from every ad campaign
• Use of a landing page for the promotion of new product launch
• Use of landing page to get email newsletter subscribers
• Giveaway of something in return for users emails
• Getting registration for webinars
• If your business offers a free trial or your product or service then you can use landing pages to get your visitors to sign up for your free trial

Landing pages are so effective as they increase conversions while supporting the business goal. These pages are specifically designed to encourage people to take action and you can measure the ROI as well with landing pages.

Advantages of a Landing Page

One of the main and biggest advantages of landing pages is that they simply increase the conversions. And increased conversions mean more leads and ultimately more sales provided that proper lead nurturing plan is in place.

Also, these pages generate a lot of useful data and insights when they are deployed. You can get the number of clicks, heat maps, bounce rate, etc. Then you can use this data to improve your landing page further for more conversions and also this data can be used for company internal processes such as why people are signing up for one particular product as compared to other.

You can do A/B testing as well with the landing page. That helps a lot of that saves time and you get to know what elements are working for you and what can be changed. By tracking your visitors’ behavior you can use that data in targeting specific audiences and in creating customer persona.

If you are running PPC (Pay Per Click) and then you must use a landing page and not any random page linked with your paid ad. With PPC, you will be spending a lot of money so it is necessary that you get the results for what you are paying and if you are not using any landing page with paid ads then you will lose a lot of potential clicks. Make sure that the landing page linked to ads is aligning with the ad as only when you will get good conversion rate. Give the user what they want and they will become loyal to you.

Nowadays everybody from a small blogger to big companies is focusing on increasing their email lists. Though email marketing sounds simpler but in reality that is not the case. Email marketing works with having targeted and active subscribers in the email list… and for that, you must collect the emails of your users. Now as everybody is trying to collect emails from their users, the conversion rate of email sign up forms are declining. But if a landing page is used for the same purpose, it can help a lot. Landing pages direct user to take only one desired action which in this case can sign up for an email. And that is why landing pages have higher conversion rates as compared to other email capture methods.

Now we know what is a  landing page, why they are used and some advantages of them. So let’s check some examples of landing pages from which you can take inspiration for your next marketing campaign…

Proven Examples of Landing Pages  

If you have experience in building a highly converting landing page then you will know what elements make a landing page successful but if you are just starting out with these and don’t know anything about successful landing pages then here are some proven examples only for you…

1) HubSpot :  

HubSpot is very famous for their marketing blog and tools. They have specially designed landing pages for each of their product offerings and their pages convert very well. Now I don’t have the exact stats but their traffic and revenue give an idea of how effective their marketing strategy and landing pages are.

In this Email Marketing landing page, they have only one CTA (call to action) and no other distractions. They have explained the features of their product with relevant graphics and at the end, there is an image of a person to give a more personalized feel to the user. Also, the colors are used very carefully as they affect the user decision a lot.

2) Unbounce :

Another great example of the landing page is of Unbounce. Unbounce offers the easiest way to build and test custom landing pages, website popups, and sticky bars. So naturally, they have built some best performing landing pages for themselves. This specific landing page of Unbounce explains why PPC ads are becoming prices and how you can use a landing page to increase your ad conversions while decreasing your overall money spent on ads.

The copy used is very clear with a directed message and they have only one CTA at the end of the page directing visitors to select the plan and start building. Also, more than 14,000 brands are using Unbounce so you can trust this platform. With their 30-day free trial, you can build and test some landing pages as well.

Conclusion

Landing pages have so many benefits and every marketer should use them. They offer a better user experience, helps in increasing conversion rates and more chances for sales etc. Highly focused landing pages perform way better than normal web pages. Other than lead generation, these pages can also be used for direct sales and relationship building. And with the availability of so many modern tools such as Unbounce, Leadpages, Instapage, it is not very difficult to build a landing page. Just sign up and start building with their pre-made templates.