What Is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a standalone web page that potential customers can "land" on when they click through to it from an email, ad, or other digital placement. The goal of a landing page is to capture information from contacts in exchange for something of value, such as a retail offer code or business-to-business (B2B) white paper insights. Landing pages differ from other web pages in that they don't live in the evergreen site navigation. It serves a specific purpose at a specific moment in an advertising campaign to a target audience.
A website's home page usually provides a general overview of the business. However, if you have a specific short-term goal, a landing page is a valuable online marketing channel that can help you reach that goal in the buyer's journey. Because landing pages are designed for a specific target audience, they give you the perfect opportunity to convert visitors into paying customers.

Landing pages are ideal for digital advertising campaigns, but they can also be useful tools when you attach a QR code to a specific page on printed marketing materials. The goal of a landing page is to convert visitors, so it's a basic tool you have at your disposal for all types of marketing campaigns.
A landing page is a separate web page that a person "arrives" after clicking through from an email, ad, or other digital placement. Every content strategy should include using landing pages to convert more traffic and increase conversions.
Once the user lands on your landing page, they are prompted to take an action, such as joining your list or buying your products. If the user takes a specific desired action, then your landing page has succeeded in getting them to convert.
Landing pages usually prompt their users to take one such action, such as filling out a custom registration form on the page. Why?
This is because of what scientists call the "paradox of choice." Simply put, the more options you give people, the harder it is for them to make decisions and take action.
Imagine offering a free e-book. But on your landing page you also invite your users to visit your blog and buy a product and check out your social media channels. With each query, the chances of your users downloading your new eBook increases because you have diverted their attention away from your primary goal.
At the extreme end, too many options can overwhelm your users, causing them to get stuck and take no action at all. That's why it's important to focus on one call to action (CTA) rather than 3 or 4.
This is why a landing page should have a clear visual hierarchy and value proposition and should be tested for the best conversion optimization.

How is a home page different from a landing page?

There are several things that differentiate homepages and landing pages. The homepage has:

Additional links. A typical home page will have at least 10 links. There is often a navigation menu at the top, links in the footer, and many in the content of the page. However, on a well-optimized landing page, you will usually find fewer links, and sometimes only one – the link that allows your users to convert.
Broader CTA. Your home page represents your business and serves as a hub from which users can navigate to other areas of your site. Because your home page has so many tasks, its content is often broad and has fewer specific CTAs (eg "Learn more"). Because landing pages have 1 goal, they have customized calls to action (eg “download our free e-book”).
Different audience and purpose. Many people who visit your home page probably haven't decided what they want yet. On the other hand, users who end up on your landing pages have already shown an interest in what you have to offer. They've delved deeper into your customer journey and are ready to convert. Not all landing pages are created equal. They can be divided into 2 broad categories which we will discuss below.

2 main types of landing pages

In terms of structure, landing pages are generally designed to serve 1 of 2 functions: generate leads or direct users to the next step.

Lead generation landing pages

Also known as "lead gen" and "lead capture" pages, this type of landing page focuses on collecting lead data. In other words, it collects information about your customers.
The hallmark of a lead capture page is a form that serves as a call to action. Asks users for data such as their names, email addresses and phone numbers in exchange for a product or service. You can even ask for more specific details like their age range or job title. This way you can contact potential customers and encourage their interest in your business.
This data also serves another purpose. The information you collect can teach you about your contacts. You can then focus your marketing efforts and target people who match them and are therefore more likely to convert. This can increase your return on investment (ROI), especially if you run paid advertising campaigns.
In this way, the data captured by lead generation pages helps improve your marketing strategy and make it more effective. It allows you to tailor ads to your audience so you don't spend money advertising to people who aren't likely to convert.
Lead generation landing pages are a valuable asset to your business because they provide information about who your potential customers are and how you can reach them. If lead nurturing is a priority for you – or you need to better understand your audience – consider adding it to your website.

Landing pages

Unlike lead pages that use forms, landing pages are the focal point of a click-through call-to-action button. Clicking the button will redirect the user to a page where they can take the desired action.
For example, a button that says "schedule a demo" might redirect the user to a scheduling page, "order X now" would redirect to a checkout page, and so on.
On e-commerce or other websites, you will often find click-through landing pages that are more focused on making an immediate sale than gathering information about users. In addition to a call-to-action button, these landing pages generally include compelling information such as product details or user testimonials to further engage and engage potential customers.

The importance and benefits of a landing page

Landing pages are different from other pages on your website because they focus on specific short-term goals so you can achieve the results you want. In addition to increasing conversions, improving paid advertising campaigns and gaining new audience insights, landing pages can:

Increase your credibility:

Users usually appreciate clear and simple messages that explain the value of what you have to offer. A well-planned landing page will show your customers that you have their best interests in mind. They are also places where you can post testimonials about your product or service, an element of social proof. Social proof is proven to increase conversions.

Strengthen your brand:

You've already put in the work to build your digital brand, so use what you've learned. It's the result of keeping the look, tone, style and copy of your website consistent. Having a clear and strong brand has several advantages. When your users don't convert right away, a strong brand identity can help them remember you in the future, respond to your remarketing efforts, or refer you to their friends.

Lead Generation:

Both types of landing pages can generate leads for your business and increase sales. Landing pages are more targeted, allowing them to focus on conversion rates rather than education and information. Instead, you can highlight the features of your products and services and sell more to a target audience that is already interested in your offering.

Drive traffic:

Even if generating leads isn't your primary goal, you can still drive traffic to your website with a landing page, increase brand awareness, and let potential customers learn more about your business. When your landing pages are optimized for SEO, they can further target organic traffic to increase conversion potential.
It goes without saying that landing pages are critical to your marketing strategy. And the more optimized landing pages you have, the better. However, this raises 2 questions: how should they be optimized and what should they be optimized for?

16 Best Practices for Landing Pages

Of course, you want your landing pages to be well-oiled conversion machines. However, it is also important that you design them for search engines, a practice known as search engine optimization (SEO). This will make your site more visible in organic search results, which can help increase traffic and conversions.
Here are 16 landing page best practices to improve your landing page SEO and optimize them for conversions:

1. Target long-tail keywords

These are highly specific keywords or keyword phrases that tend to be 4 or more words. For example, “top copywriting tips for landing pages” is a long-tail keyword phrase, as opposed to the much simpler keyword “landing pages”.
As a general rule, it is much easier to determine rankings for long-tail keywords than for short-tail keywords because long-tail keywords are less competitive. And because landing pages contain very specific calls to action, it's easy to naturally place long-tail keywords on them.

2. Segment your traffic

Chances are your target audience is more than 1 person. For example, if you're selling reusable water bottles, you'll want to target several types of buyers: athletes, travelers, hikers, and so on. Because these buyer personas are different, you'll need multiple approaches to reach them.
Consider creating a separate landing page for each segment of your audience. This will require researching the keywords that each person would use to find what you offer. When you segment your traffic, you can increase your visibility in search engines and tailor your message to reach people with different needs.

3. Improve page loading speed

It's hard to keep a potential customer's attention when there are so many other companies competing for them. Users can be impatient and easily distracted, so if your landing page loads slowly, your chances of conversion will decrease.
In order to maintain a high conversion rate, landing pages must load at lightning speed. Fortunately, since they only have one purpose, they are easy to optimize. Reducing the size of images is just one way to speed up page loading.

4. Get backlinks

These are links that point from other sites back to yours. They send traffic to your landing pages and act as signs of trust in the eyes of search engines. When they come from well-established, high-authority sites, backlinks show that what's on your page is valuable. As a result, your website's ranking on search engine results pages will increase.
Consider contacting other websites that will allow you to post backlink opportunities, but be wary of any site that asks for payment - Google frowns on link building schemes of this nature.

5. Enable content sharing

This means that it is unique or novel in some way. Remember, all of your potential leads are connected to others who might also want what you have to offer. By allowing them to share your landing pages, you can tap into these larger networks. In addition to driving more potential customers to your site, this added traffic will boost your search engine rankings.

6. Write an enticing headline

Appeal to users with an interesting and well-written headline. You can grab attention with specific keywords like “free” or “now”. Combine your catchy title with strong copywriting to keep users on the page long enough to convert.

7. Match the H1 heading to the metadata title that users clicked on to get to your landing page

This assures the user that they are in the right place. Otherwise, your reputation and search engine ranking can be damaged, as both readers and search engines tend to view inaccurate meta titles as deceptive and misleading.

8. Try to place calls to action above the margin

Your CTA should be one of the first elements of your website that visitors see. Unfortunately, this isn't always possible, especially when you're designing for mobile users.

9. Use directional hints to guide users to your CTA

Good examples include arrows or a picture of someone looking in the direction of your CTA. This is especially important if your call to action is not above the fold. Skillfully placed cues encourage visitors to scroll, continue reading, and convert.

10. Show your product or service you use

A video or product demo can provide context if you're offering something unusual or difficult to understand. This information also helps potential customers imagine themselves using your product or service.

11. Provide social proof

Do you have references from satisfied customers? If so, include them in your landing page copy. If your product or service is popular, you can also notice how many people have already taken advantage of your offer. Providing social proof can convince others to jump on the bandwagon and try your product or service for themselves.

12. Use bullet points

There is likely more than 1 feature or benefit of what you offer, so list them using numbered lists or bullet points. This is more reader friendly as it is easier on the eyes and easier to scan than a large block of text.

13. Repeat your call to action

If your page contains a lot of text, it can help to place your call to action at the beginning and end – and even in the middle. By presenting your readers with multiple opportunities to convert, you increase their chances of taking action, but be careful not to overwhelm them. Here are some other landing page design tips to consider.

14. Enter your contact details

Giving your prospects the option to come to you with questions or concerns will put them at ease, even those who don't actually do so. Why? Providing your contact information is a sign of legitimacy and tells customers that you are ready to help if they need it.

15. Deliver your message through video

Not everyone will stick around to read the text on your landing page, which is part of why video content is growing in popularity. But that doesn't mean your website should be text-free. Pairing text with video can be an effective way to grab and hold users' attention. Since many users don't turn on the sound, it's also a good idea to include subtitles whenever possible.

16. Test several variations of your site

Different headlines, visuals, calls to action and more can produce different results. Run A/B tests and experiment with variations of your landing pages to see which ones work best. This can help you optimize your landing pages to be as successful as possible.

Landing pages: FAQ

Why do I need a landing page?

Landing pages can help you attract new customers through effective digital advertising campaigns. With a dedicated landing page for each of your campaigns, you can effectively target each customer segment to increase conversions and generate leads. Additionally, landing pages can help you attract leads by offering a lead magnet in exchange for customer data.
Landing pages are more targeted than other areas of your website, allowing you to provide someone with information about one specific offer. With just one call to action and offer, you can focus your audience and avoid the distractions that are common with regular websites.

What should the landing page contain?

Effective landing pages have the same elements that improve performance and generate more leads. Landing pages must include:

• Caption
• Description of the offer
• Image and video support
• Social proof in the form of testimonials or reviews
• A dedicated form for capturing customer data.

How do I create a landing page?

You can create a landing page using a landing page builder such as Mailchimp's page builder, which allows you to easily drag and drop design elements, including videos, images, icons, and text, without the need for a web developer or coding skills.
Landing page builders allow you to test every element of your landing page to make sure you're getting the most out of your design and copy. For example, you can test different headlines, body text, and even adjust the menu to see what increases conversion rates.

Create targets that you have to click

Because they help convert leads into paying customers, landing pages are a critical part of your digital marketing strategy. These pages help guide users further along your customer journey by acting as a call to action. Every unique landing page is an opportunity and there is no limit to the number of landing pages your site can have. Most studies show that the more landing pages a website has, the more conversions it will get, as long as its landing pages are not competing with each other. To ensure your landing pages aren't competing for traffic, make sure each one targets a different demographic or encourages users to take a different action.
Now that you know what landing pages are and how to optimize them, you're ready to create them. Use Mailchimp's website builder to create an effective landing page and test different elements to ensure better performance with each click.

Landing page?

In digital marketing, a landing page is a standalone web page created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It's where a visitor "goes" after clicking on a link in an email or on ads from Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or similar places on the web.
Unlike web pages, which typically have many goals and prompts for exploration, landing pages are designed with a single focus or goal, known as a call to action (CTA for short).

It is this focus that makes landing pages the best choice for increasing the conversion rate of your marketing campaigns and reducing the cost of acquiring a lead or sale.

Key difference between homepage and landing page(aka Why landing pages are so insanely good at converting)

Below we have the home page and landing page side by side. See how the home page has tons of links and the landing page just one? That's pretty typical. While the home page has dozens of potential distractions — you can basically call them "leaks" instead of links — the landing page is super focused. Fewer links on the landing page increase conversions because there are fewer tempting clicks to take visitors away from the call to action. That's why marketing professionals always use a dedicated landing page as the destination of their traffic

Sure, the home page looks amazing. It introduces the brand, allows people to explore a range of products and offers more information about the company and its values. From there, a visitor can go anywhere – apply for a job, read some press releases, view the terms of service, post on community boards, etc.

But they don't necessarily make a purchase. And that's the point.
The landing page for this customer serves a completely different purpose. Coupled with super slick ads that promote a single offer, it all works hard to turn those visitors into customers. It is better to convert the traffic that the brand is already getting. That's the power of landing pages!
Lead generation landing pages: Also called "lead gen" or "lead capture" pages use a form as a call to action. This form almost always collects data about potential customers, such as visitors' names and email addresses. (You can read some expert-certified lead gen strategies here.)
B2B marketers and companies selling high-priced items use this type of landing page to build a list of potential customers. Sometimes they offer something free, like an ebook or webinar, in exchange for contact information. E-commerce brands may also use these sites to create listings or to offer free shipping or special offers.

Click-through landing pages:

Often used by e-commerce and software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketers. Click through pages are used directly for sales or subscriptions. They usually have a simple button as a call to action that sends the visitor to the checkout flow (like the app store) or completes the transaction.

Driving traffic to landing pages

For your landing page to work, you'll need to fill that funnel full of visitors. Fortunately, you have plenty of options. Let's explore some of the more common sources of landing page traffic.

Traffic from paid search

Most search engines include paid advertising. When someone searches for something (say, "cheese of the month club"), these ads appear clearly marked in the search results, but not too clearly. Here is a typical example from Google.
Unlike other results on the page, pay-per-click ads are created and paid for by merchants. Someone who clicks will be filled with your charming copy (and sometimes your visuals). And you probably targeted them based on their search query, demographics, or interests revealed by their browsing history.
Crucially, when you create an ad, you can choose where the link takes your visitor. Yes, you can choose to post them on your homepage. However, as we'll explore below, it's much better to create a separate landing page that matches your ad text and offers a clear call to action.

Paid social traffic

Showing ads on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn is a great way to target people and communities that will be interested in your brand, regardless of whether they are already in the market.
Instead of searching for "cheese of the month club", you can advertise to people who have added "cheese appreciation" to their Facebook profile. The beauty is that you can connect with customers before they start looking for your product – or even want it!
In addition to offering advanced targeting features, each social channel has its own characteristics. For example, Instagram works well for product and lifestyle brands with strong visual appeal. On the other hand, B2B advertisers prefer to use LinkedIn to reach professionals working in specific industries.

Email campaigns

Email is often touted as the most effective marketing channel because of its huge reach (and low cost) compared to other platforms. A 2018 study by the Radicati Group says there will be 4.2 billion email users by 2022. That's more than half the planet!
A powerful combination of email and landing pages can be used to both maintain existing customer relationships and acquire new ones. Once you've built your contact list, your carefully crafted email allows you to entice readers to your offer, while your landing page fills in the details and directs visitors to a call to action.

Traffic from organic search

The term "organic traffic" refers to all visitors that come from a non-paid source - such as the bottom half of Google or Bing search results (SERPs). By creating compelling, legitimately useful content on your website or landing pages, you can ensure that your business appears more often in related searches. The higher the content rating, the better.
However, calling it "free" is a bit of a misnomer. This does not mean that time and money are not invested in the assessment. (If only!) There are a number of professionals dedicated to driving as much organic traffic as possible from Google through a balance of careful strategy, technical know-how, and great content creation. That's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in a nutshell.