Up Your Email Marketing Game with Landing Pages

Every business needs a website to represent their brand online. Your website has information on your services, your brand, your team, your location, and so much more. When someone visits your site, you don’t just want them to buy your services or products, you also want to make sure that all of the information they need about your company is available. Landing pages are very different, and are a crucial element of marketing campaigns, especially email marketing.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a standalone page, created with the goal of guiding visitors that come from an ad or newsletter, to the next step in your conversion funnel. The design and text of landing pages are very different from other elements of a marketing campaign, as it is designed to get visitors to take one specific action. This means that there is usually no menu or other links and buttons that may distract users from the main ‘CTA’ or call-to-action. This makes landing pages much more effective in increasing conversion rates than a website’s homepage.

When a landing page is created as part of a conversion funnel in a specific email marketing campaign, it is not only focused on one call to action, but takes into account where the visitor came from in order to create more relevant and customized content.

How Do You Create a Landing Page?

There are many ways to create landing pages:

Build it Like a Regular Website

A landing page is a one-page site focused on one call-to-action. In essence, when you consider the technical aspects involved, it is simpler than creating a full website. Any method for building websites can work for landing pages. You can create a landing page from scratch by hiring a designer and developer to do it for you, or you can use a site builder like Wix or WordPress to create it.

If your website is already on WordPress, you can use a WordPress plugin to create landing pages that are different in layout and design from your template. A few options to consider are Unbounce, Leadpages, and Instapage, which are very popular but require a monthly or annual fee.

Whatever method you choose, make sure to use tracking links and Google Analytics to track where your visitors are coming from and what the results are so that you can optimize the page accordingly and understand the success of your campaign.

Use an Email Marketing Service

If you plan on implementing email campaigns in your marketing strategy, you’ll need to choose an email marketing service. Many of them allow you to create landing pages as part of the features they offer. A few examples are:

• AWeber: A highly intuitive platform that offers various packages, depending on your needs and volume.
• Benchmark: With support and services in 9 different languages, this easy to use platform is a great option, and you can start with a free plan to test it out.
• Campaigner: Part of the j2 Global brand, Campaigner has a free 30-day trial for you to test out their features, and landing page creation tool.
• Constant Contact: A popular choice among small business owners, it offers a long list of features with an easy interface.
• GetResponse: This company has been around for over a decade and is used by major brands like Hilton. It also allows you to easily create landing pages very quickly.

While many email services let you create landing pages, they all have different newsletter and landing page templates to offer in terms of design and layout. This gives you the important task of testing them out first to see what they offer before choosing one. There is no best email service out there, but rather the best one for your specific needs. Any one of these can help you create amazing email campaigns that increase your conversion rates. You have to choose based on their:

• Features
• Services
• Support
• Cost
• Reliability, and
• How they relate to your brand’s needs and goals.

Are Landing Pages Necessary – What are the Benefits?

Landing pages are a must in your email marketing campaigns, or any marketing campaign for that matter. Here are the main benefits to consider:

• Customized to Niches and Audiences
  Your website most likely caters to various audiences. With landing pages, you can create one for sub-niches and smaller audiences. For example, landing pages in different languages for different locations, or landing pages with varied content depending on the audience’s interests and what campaign they came from.
• Valuable Market Insights
  Landing pages generate data and insights into your target audience. Through this you can learn a lot about how different types of people respond to different campaigns. You can also see the hotspots on the page to see how you can optimize it so that the call-to-action is clearer and more effective.
• Specific Campaigns
  You can create specific campaigns that wouldn’t work with your website. For example, you can create a lead generation campaign with a landing page that has a form as the main call-to-action. When someone visits that page, they fill in the form and with the information provided and you can contact them to make a sale or add them to your subscribers list.

The bottom line of these benefits is the conversion rate – the actual bottom line. Landing pages are targeted for specific campaigns and audiences, and are created and designed to focus visitors on one primary call-to-action. That, in itself, will increase the conversion rate. With proper tracking, you can learn from the insights you gain to optimize your landing pages and improve conversion rates even further.

5 Tips for Creating Great Landing Pages

There is a long list of best practices when it comes to landing pages, but here are the 5 best tips that will put you on the right track:

1. Align Your Page with Your Audience and Campaign
   When you write the content and design your landing page, remember the specific audience that will be visiting, and where they will be visiting from. Keep that in mind to create a logical flow that will make sense, support your brand messaging, and guide visitors to the call to action. This means using headlines that match the copy in your ad or email campaign, for example.
2. Write Compelling Content
   Content is very important and you need to think about what your visitors will see first. Make sure the main headline is powerful and compelling, and convince them to continue to the next step in your funnel. Create additional content underneath that supports your headline and goal for those that need more convincing before clicking the call-to-action button. Remember to provide them with enough information, but not too much that it becomes overwhelming or confusing.
3. Create a Persuasive Call-to-Action
   Your call-to-action needs to be short (2-5 words), understandable, and based on an action. This is done by compelling your visitors to do something, for example: “Download Your Free Report”, “Get Your Free Discount”, “Start My Trial”, etc. This is much more appealing and effective than just using the word “Submit”.
4. Ask Your Visitors for the Minimum
   The more your visitors will have to do, the less likely they are to complete the process. This means that if you ask them for information, ask only for the information that you need, and create very short forms. If your funnel includes multiple steps, try to keep them short and simple, with as few clicks as possible. If you have to create multiple steps, consider adding the number of steps along the way, so visitors know how much longer it will take. For example, write “Step 2/5” at the top of the page.
5. Responsive Design
   Make sure your landing page works on all devices and screens, especially mobile. Most of your visitors use their mobile devices, and you’ll want to test out the design to make sure that it still compels them to continue to the next step.

Final Thought

Remember, landing pages are focused on the call-to-action, so that means no navigation, no additional buttons that aren’t needed or anything that may distract users from what you want them to do. When you first start out, you may not know much about your target audience, but proper tracking and analytics will help you learn and optimize with each campaign so that you can constantly improve while learning more about your market. Landing pages are an inseparable part of any marketing campaign, especially email marketing, and most email marketing services provide you with the tools, and even tips, you need to create great-looking pages for your brand goals.