Running PPC campaigns? You'll know landing pages have a higher conversion rate, which means a lower cost per conversion and therefore greater ROI. But is that all they're good for?
"Are landing pages limited to PPC Campaigns?"
Although an inbound marketer’s rule of thumb states that every ad campaign must have a landing page to help your users focus on the offer, landing pages can lend their power to more than just PPC campaigns.
Normally, the content on these pages is minimal, with a form “above the fold” to coax the users to fill it and convert.
However, does that have to be the case?
If the company is selling something major that requires the purchaser to have a high-involvement decision, it's going to take more than two paragraphs and a form.
Think about when multiple stakeholders in a company need to be involved in buying a product or service that is either expensive and needs high investment or directly affects the company’s capacity of production — i.e. tools (like purchasing land for building homes, etc.). It takes a good deal of time to be made from when the person first encounters the idea of the offer and makes the final decision.
Imagine You're Choosing a Study Program
Let's try an example at the individual level: where do you want to do your studies? It's a critical decision for any person because it means huge investment of money and time.
You are likely to want to have answers to a lot of questions before you even decide to make an inquiry — what are the prerequisites? What are the options? Is this the best place? Are the courses going to help you? And so on.
A digital marketing professional must always set up a complete campaign. Publishing the landing page is not enough for conversion.
- Consider how to bring traffic in
- What are you doing with this traffic?
- What are you telling them?
- Where should someone convert?
- What do you do next?
Limit Your Unsubscribes By Properly Qualifying Contacts
We sometimes take it for granted that after conversion, users will now be interested in all the newsletters, blogs, and so on that we publish. But different landing pages and different website journeys mean people are coming to your forms at different points in their buyer's journeys.
Many digital marketers make the mistake of jumping on single conversions, spamming the contact with emails in an information overload.
The only number that will increase is your unsubscribe rate.
Instead, only involve contacts in campaigns that match their interests based on what you know about where and how they converted.
You want to ensure that when a person gets to your conversion point, they have been adequately informed about the reasons why they should fill in the form and convert. This could mean multiple landing pages over an involved campaign — you might not even ask for a conversion on the earlier ones.
Too Much Content on Landing pages Versus Not Enough Content to Convert
if you manage to pack all the info you think the user will need to make an informed decision into a single-page website, you may not fare too well for a sale that requires high involvement and multiple sales touch points. In this case, it might be better to have multiple assets at multiple landing pages.
Fab Fit Fun recently had a campaign trying to get more seasonal subscribers — I did click on each of their landing pages for the same Spring Campaign. The first one was a review of the products that came with subscribing, the second landing page must be a retargeting page with a survey of what product would most suit me and my lifestyle while the third page only needed my email and had a code to get a discount on this said box.
It created a progression, with personalization, optimized for the final conversion.
You wouldn't want multiple converting pages for an easy conversions — like downloading an eBook or accessing a webinar or review. But the more expensive and the more of an investment a product or service and the more impact it has, needs more pushes.
Now let’s go to landing pages with not enough content.
As a consumer, if there's not enough information — I will keep hunting. And no matter how pretty the page, unless I have all the relevant information, I am not going to sign up.
The worst landing pages offer a learn more section, at this point you have distracted your consumer. And if this person does go ahead and click learn more, chances are you have lost them already. And with them, the cost of bringing them here.
What Happened Here?
Let's go back to the study example. It is likely you will want to get a good sense of the establishment before you decide whether to make an inquiry. Getting the information you need in this case means spending time looking around, clicking pages, watching videos, reading up bios of the various school staff and so on; something a single landing page just can't accomplish.
When the "browsing" factor is missing
Traditionally, a landing page is a standard single-page website, with nowhere else to go, which denied users of the ability of clicking around and visiting multiple pages — all of which would help them become more familiar with the brand, answer all the questions and more, and ultimately inspire enough trust and confidence for them to make an inquiry.
List of Elements That Can Inspire Trust and Confidence
- Partner/Sponsor logos – Having logos of institutions that you are a member of isn’t compulsory but does generally help to improve conversion rates — especially if the logo(s) are recognizable. Try to only have logos that may have more impact than your own branding. For example, a lot of NGOs add the UN. In most cases the user might transfer the credibility and goodwill from this logo to the campaign.
- Videos – Depending on what you are selling, videos can help boost your conversion rates and add a human touch to your website – it creates a more personable experience.
- Testimonials – Having quick, real quotes from patrons or people you want to attract provides social proof of your value.
- Social Media – digital marketing channels keep fluctuating, but the power of referrals still reigns supreme. Having an active and engaged Social Media community for a brand is needed, and it can go a long way in increasing your brand’s credibility and trust factor.
Although dedicated landing pages tend to perform better in most cases, it helps to take customer psychology in consideration when thinking about your conversion strategy.
If you are selling something that requires a high amount of commitment, in terms of time or cost or emotions, traditional conversion best-practices may become less important, and even something which may seem counter-intuitive.
Flawless Inbound is a conversion-focused inbound marketing partner that has helped more than 80 B2B organizations boost their revenue. If you want to learn more about our marketing services, head here!