If you work at or own a business that invests in digital marketing, you’ve surely heard of landing pages. But what exactly is a landing page?

A landing page is generally a standalone web page that a user lands on when they click on a “search engine optimized search result, marketing promotion, marketing email, or an online advertisement.” It can be seen as almost a secondary home page that is narrowed to just the topic at hand and is focused on leading the clicker to a specific goal.

Simply put, when we click on an image, text, or link, we often get taken to a landing page as part of a curated journey.

A landing page takes prospective customers forward on their journey with you, eventually helping you accomplish your business objective.

A landing page typically has one of two goals:

1. To capture a lead by collecting their information (with a lead magnet or squeeze landing page)
2. To make a sale

A lead magnet/squeeze landing page provides value to a user in exchange for their contact information.

The value you provide can be:

• Cost savings
• Time savings
• Giving Information or sharing knowledge

While landing pages with discount coupons are common and may be one of the quickest ways to capture more leads, the value you provide will vary and should depend on your business goal.

Focus on your eCommerce business goal. Are you new to the market and want to introduce yourself to prospective customers? Do you want to learn more about your target audience?

If your goal at this time is brand awareness, you may want to consider using a lead magnet or squeeze landing page.

A lead magnet page can be used at the top or middle of the customer funnel (the customer funnel isn’t linear, so it’s important to keep that in mind).

A squeeze landing page form offers various advantages to your business such as:

• Gathering your potential customer’s contact information
• Capturing information on what products or services they are interested in

A lead magnet page can take several forms, however, the most effective ones will share a few common elements including:

• Short, engaging copy
• Clean imagery
• A convincing call to action

Great landing pages will persuade a prospective customer to move forward on the page and click the call to action.

Because landing pages are destinations your prospective customers arrive at after clicking another link, you can assume they are already interested in your offering. Now, you need to build trust. The best way to do this is to provide value.

This is where it can get tricky. To provide value, you should know what is important to your potential customers. What did you say in your previous message that convinced them to click and land here?

Are they ready to buy the product? Will this nudge motivate them to “buy now,” or do they want to “learn more”? Understanding how the prospective customer got here, and what keywords they used, will help you understand their intent.

The best landing pages deliver what they say they will.

For example, if someone arrives at your lead magnet landing page after clicking on an ad, the landing page should deliver on the ad’s promise. Let’s consider an example:

Imagine a scenario where someone browsing for summer t-shirts comes across your ad below:

If this ad intrigues them, they will click on it and be taken to your landing page.

Great landing pages should continue the story from the ad.

If the ad says, “Make a Sustainable Choice” by purchasing our fair-trade t-shirts, then the landing page should not only showcase the products but also show what makes the products sustainable (fair-trade, fair farming practices, sustainable logistics). It is important to be intentional about giving your potential customers a reason to consider your product.

If you want to capture this customer as a lead you can nurture, then you must deliver on the promise made in the ad.

Below is an example of a lead magnet page that gives your customers a reason to consider your product.

Using an informative lead magnet during the awareness stage offers distinct advantages such as the opportunity to:

• Backup your claims with facts
• Share your “why” with the prospective customer
• Build your email list
• Nurture your lead

This is far more worthwhile than risking the potential customer bouncing off your page because your offer seems too aggressive.

Within a prospective customer’s buyer journey, there are optimum moments that are ripe for specific kinds of landing pages. When the customer is hearing of you for the first time, it is a good practice to attempt to build a relationship via a lead magnet or squeeze landing page that provides something more than a simple discount.

You can always use a discount-led sales landing page as the customer moves forward in their journey. An example of a good time to send such a page is along with your newsletter.

A sales landing page, well, attempts to make a sale.

A sales landing page is usually used toward the bottom of the funnel. This is when a customer has almost decided to buy your product.

In addition to the obvious benefits of increasing your sales, a sales landing page also:

• Gives you an opportunity to show other aspects of your business to your customer
• May encourage word-of-mouth marketing of your brand if you can deliver an end-to-end quality service
• Gives you continued access to your customer’s attention

Depending on your customers’ preferences, your product, and your industry, your sales landing page can take different forms. The most important thing during this time is to maintain your visitor’s trust via the experience you deliver.

A sales landing page’s design and content depend on the promise you made in the previous copy that brought someone to your sales landing page. If your ad or organic post promised a discount, then your sales landing page must make it easy for the customer to use that discount.

Just like in the lead magnet stage you know the customer is interested in “learning more,” in this sales stage, you know they are strongly motivated to “buy now.”

A sales landing page may often have long-form content to not only satisfy the search engine algorithm but also to provide value to your customers. Or, it may be heavier on visuals. Either way, your goal is to keep your audience interested in your product, fortify the trust you’ve built throughout your customer’s journey, and deliver a seamless checkout experience.

According to Drip, the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69.57 percent! That is an incredibly high percentage of customers to lose right at the finish point. Solve this by ensuring that:

• Your site user interface is not clunky
• The page is easy to navigate
• The copy and visuals continue to encourage the customer to move forward and complete the transaction on your website.

Here is a hypothetical example of an effective sales landing page for Comfortable Clothing Company.

Your business not only can, but should continue using landing pages even after your customer completes their first purchase with you.

Post-sales landing pages are important during the “nurture” phase of your customer’s journey. Use them as an opportunity for your business to gather valuable customer data.

For example, ask the customer for feedback on their experience or request they refer your product to friends and family. In return, offer them a guide on their purchase, give them more information on the region your product comes from, or provide a discount coupon for their next purchase.

There are tons of ways to continue nurturing your relationship with customers. This is one of the reasons we recommend eCommerce businesses invest in landing pages. From the awareness stage all the way to the nurture stage, landing pages are not only a great way to establish trust with your customers, but they are also a gold mine of information that helps your business.

What Makes This an Effective Landing Page?

• Clean look doesn’t distract from the ask
• Clear benefit in the headline and the CTA
• The different kinds of products showcase the brand’s range

What Would Make it Better?

The click-through-rate on this page may be higher if there was a time estimate on how long this quiz will take.

What Makes This an Effective Landing Page?

• Clean design
• While there is plenty of text and visual information on this page, it does not look cluttered
• The page gives as much information to the user as needed, but also does not inundate
• Extremely on-brand. The first thing Pact wants you to know is that your purchase is made of organic cotton. It gives you a reason to buy.

What Would Make it Better?

• We simply love this landing page!

Landing pages provide immense value to your SEO, lead generation efforts, and your bottom line, which is why they are an integral part of our SEO strategy at Boxwood Digital.

If your business needs help with eCommerce SEO and content writing, schedule a consultation with us or see our results page to see how we have helped our clients get impressive results.