What is a Landing Page?
Simply put, a landing page is a dedicated stand-alone page on a website, heavily targeted and focused on a specific outcome. Customers usually land on your landing page from an external source, such as paid ads on social media platforms or emails, hence the name “landing” page.
In e-Commerce, the ultimate intention of a landing page is to provoke a predetermined response using targeted copy to connect with a user and persuade them to take action. The mentioned outcome of a landing page varies from providing get-to-know information, gaining more leads, or even making a sale.
Landing pages benefit greatly from being promoted or advertised. Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a big role in helping a landing page capture organic traffic. Along with page optimization, paid advertising through search engines or social media platforms can also be used to generate more inorganic traffic, helping you reach more viewers in a shorter amount of time.
Based on the intention of the designer, landing pages can be categorized into a few main types. You’ll convert more by using the right kind of landing page at the right time. In the next section, we’ll go over a few landing page variations and what they are used for.
A few types of Landing page
Lead-capture Page
The goal of a Lead-capture Page is to generate leads by collecting viewers’ information. Due to it being very versatile, this type of page often shows up in the middle of the sales funnel – at which point viewers tend to evaluate your products/services and are on the fence about continuing or exiting.
A typical Lead-generation contains a web form with input fields asking for Name, Address, Phone number, Age, and Email address. The reward will be granted to viewers once the form is submitted.
Click-through Page
In contrast to the Lead-capture page, a Click-through page does not have a form and does not focus on collecting data, either. This page usually consists of big and bold images, an attractive headline, brief product descriptions, and an attention-grabbing Call To Action button with the sole purpose of encouraging visitors to click on the button to be redirected to another page – where they will get more information or be able to make the purchase.
Instead of convincing a brand new visitor to buy your product right from the start and risk losing a sale, use the Click-through page to warm your customers up first. Think of the Click-through page as a filter to help you filter out random passersby and direct quality traffic – customers who are more likely to be converted – further down the sales and marketing funnels.
Squeeze Page
The Squeeze page has one goal: to collect email visitors’ email addresses in exchange for some kind of reward. The reward can be a digital asset such as a newsletter, e-Book, discount codes, etc.
The squeeze page tends to be implemented at the top end of the sales funnel, differentiating itself from the Lead-capture page.
Similar to the Lead-capture page, the Squeeze page also gathers information in exchange for some kind of reward. Unlike the former, however, Squeeze pages collect email addresses only. Also, due to its nature of asking for just one piece of information, the squeeze page can be employed near the top end of the sales funnel.
Squeeze pages are short, basic landing pages with bold headlines and minimal content. Along with that is a clear Call To Action button and a short form asking viewers to fill in their email addresses.
Sales Page
With a Sales page, you are no longer trying to generate leads or warm customers up, instead, you are aiming for the sale. Therefore, this page often appears at the end of the sales funnel, and designing an effective one requires a lot more effort and experience.
There are two common types of Sales pages: Short-form sales pages and Long-form sales pages. They differ in length, but both serve the same purpose: To provide visitors with information about your products and actually convert them into customers:
- Short-form sales page: Short-form sales page typically packs less information than its long-form counterpart, and the whole page content fits nicely above the fold or requires very little page scrolling.
- Long-form sales page: Also known as a Sales letter. Being long-form, this type allows you to lay down as much information in as many sections as necessary. Very often, you will see landing pages that explain the product in detail, with long paragraphs and multiple product images – Those are Sales letters.
A few of our recommendations on what to include on a Sales page:
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- Headline: Let viewers know what your page is about in a glance.
- Body content: This is especially important for the Long-form sales page. The body demonstrates the product in detail and leaves no room for doubts in customers’ eyes, urging them to click on the CTA button to make the purchase.
- CTA button: Place multiple CTA buttons on the page, if customers have to scroll down for your content, give them the ability to make the purchase at any screen. You can also make the CTA button sticky. Check out this article to learn how.
- Testimonials/Reviews/Star badges/Logos/About Us: These are all necessary if you want to gain and fortify customers’ trust in your store.
- Video: A picture is worth a thousand words. Having a video helps you explain how your product works, and the background video breathes life into your page, making it more dynamic and fun to navigate.
- No navigation needed: Less is more. A landing page does not require you to have navigation. When you are trying to encourage a purchase, there is no need to confuse customers with unnecessary touchpoints and risk losing the sale.
Splash Page
A splash page is a page that precedes any page on your website. The basic idea behind a splash page is to streamline the user experience by providing important information upfront.
The purpose of a splash page varies: You can promote a new offer, show a disclaimer, or a warning depending on the industry or niche your business operates in. Depending on your goal, designing a splash page can be as simple as introducing a popup on your main Homepage. Here is an example of a functional splash popup:
Viral Page
Viral pages are intended to build brand awareness. They will usually contain links to a company website or other web page but these links are presented extremely subtly and unobtrusively. The main keys here are the content, which tends to be informative and/or fun and trendy to engage viewers and hopefully get them to share the page, together with the ability to share the page via social media. The content could involve videos, images, or even games.
Create a landing page in GemPages
Designing a landing page in GemPages is as easy as creating any new page. We’ve prepared a separate article to list out all the things you want to take into account to create an efficient, high-converting landing page, check out this article.
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