In the age of continuous optimisation and cost-cutting, a dedicated landing page can create a streamlined user journey and improve conversion rates. Now that we dropped a few buzzwords and got your attention, let’s see what exactly a landing page is and whether you should even bother creating one.
Should I bother?
Yes, you should. Read further.
A landing page is a dedicated page where you land your website visitors. What makes the difference between a landing page and any other page on your website is that a landing page has one main goal – converting visitors on your website.
Companies usually land their website visitors on the homepage, creating a long discovery user journey where visitors might scroll through different pages but fail to convert. Homepages are still great for brand awareness, discovery and they allow people to explore the company. The beauty of a landing page is that it usually has a simple design and a main lead generator form with a clear and visible call-to-action.
Depending on the purpose of the landing page, it can contain:
- An email capturing form to download a white paper or ebook
- Enquiry form
- Contact form
Pros of having a landing page
No cons included in the package.
Landing pages are particularly useful in paid search campaigns.
- Easier to generate leads – When you direct visitors to landing pages, you are shortening the user journey and closing the conversion funnel. If your page contains enough information about your product or service, a visitor doesn’t need to visit your main webpage. They can convert straight away using the contact form.
- Optimise marketing spend – A dedicated landing page with content that matches ad keywords means better ad relevance, higher ad quality score and lower cost per click. And they say there is no such thing as a perfect solution?
- Easier A/B testing – Anyone can create a landing page. There are many drag and drop options on the market that allow you to do simple A/B testing on your pages and see which content, design and CTAs perform the best. All without involving developers!
- Understand your customers – Once visitors start converting, you can build an understanding of who your main customers are and what converts them. Combined with analytics data, this is a powerful tool for your sales team.
What makes your landing page successful?
Helvetica and millennial pink, but also..
- Keywords – do your homework and research what the best performing keywords are for your website, then include these keywords in the content. Simple as that.
- Clear CTAs – the goal of your landing page is to streamline visitors, so there is no need for different and confusing call-to-actions. A few well designed and above the fold CTAs can do the job. Focus on a clear message and easy navigation.
- Clear design and contact form – the end goal of a landing page is to provide enough information for visitors to convert, but not too much as you don’t want to distract them. Finding the right balance between content and simplicity is crucial. You don’t want to rebuild a whole new website after all, right?
What are my options?
Did you know that If you Google this question, the first organic result is the UCAS website? Well done UCAS SEO team!
In this part of the blog we won’t talk about confusing career choices, but about something a bit more tangible – the sea of landing page builder options.
There are multiple drag-and-drop solutions on the market that will just make your life easier. Depending on their widgets, add-ons, and capabilities, there are solutions at different price points. We’ve tested a few solutions and we can recommend a few on the cheaper and pricier side of the spectrum.
Leadpages
Leadpages is that new kid in class – mysterious and cool. We’ve used Leadpages on multiple projects and frankly, it’s not that mysterious after all. It’s a pretty easy drag-and-drop solution that allows you to build on a predefined template or start from scratch. You can either publish a page using the Leadpages domain or host it on your website. It also includes onsite analytics and SEO optimisation.
Price: 5/5. Subscription based, starting at as low as $15 per month for a site
UX: 2/5. Both templates and blank editors are available, however, limited
Ease of use: 3/5. Once you crack it, it’s easy to create anything. Doesn’t support
Features: 2/5. There are certain features which are available only if you upgrade to a higher price level, but you get what you pay for
Verdict: A good starting point for small businesses or people with less experience creating landing pages. Limited on the functionality side so think twice about what your main objective is.
Unbounce
Unbounce was the first on the market to provide a landing page solution and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Widgets, 100+ templates, WordPress integration, maps, you name it. Unbounce has it all. It is a bit on the pricier side compared to Leadpages, however, you have more freedom to customise your content and get exactly the design you are going for.
Price: 4/5. Starts at $75 per month
UX: 5/5. Templates. Lots of templates
Ease of use: 4/5. Again, once you dive into it, it gets pretty easy to navigate through the features
Features: 5/5. If it wasn’t clear already, you can add maps! Also sticky headers, pop-ups
Verdict: An amazing solution that we’d definitely recommend for both new users and experienced users. Probably the best value-for-money solution out there!
Clickfunnels
Someone told me that websites are outdated and clickfunnels are the future. That person was my mom. I felt outdated because I didn’t know what Clickfunnels were.
Clickfunnels is an end-to-end solution incorporating a full website and marketing funnel in one. You can select a design that is specifically for your product You can add lead capture, product purchasing, and payment solutions
Price: 3/5. $97 a month
UX: 1/5. The templates are quite limited and you can’t really escape from that salesy looking page
Ease of use: 5/5. There are multiple videos explaining how it works and you can’t really get confused
Features: 4/5. not a traditional landing page solution
Verdict: It’s a good all-in tool, however, layout and overall design feel seem limited.
Instapages
Instapage allows you to choose from more than 200 templates that give you flexibility on design. It also takes less than 5 mins to set up and integrates easily into your website – no dev skills needed!
Price: 3/5. $99 a month for the core plan; it’s a bit on the pricier side
UX: 5/5. An easy drag and drop UX, mobile responsive
Ease of use: 5/5.
Features: 4/5. Direct WordPress, Google Analytics and Facebook integrations, capture lead forms
Verdict: On the pricier side, but you get what you pay for! Excellent UX and easy to use.
Our Final Verdict: And the winner is.. Unbounce. If we have to choose just one product that does it all that would be Unbounce.
What we like the most about this product is the combination of simplicity of use, advance configuration and tracking integration with your main
domain. The variety of templates is simply the cherry on top of the cake.
If you need help with setting up a landing page or managing your marketing campaign, don’t be shy – reach out at contact@taksudigital.com!
If you are already a pro that knows how to do it but just lacks a bit of a tech touch, reach out and we’ll help you with the set-up and integration of your landing page. Just click here to get an overview of our web design services.
