Traffic is not the only measure of the success of a blog or website. You also need to look at the conversion rate and other indicators of user engagement to determine the overall profitability of your blog.
In this case study of SEOmoz (now known as Moz), designing better landing pages was the first priority during Phase I. It is a campaign that ultimately raised $1 million for the company and it involved creating longer landing pages that connected with the target audience, understood their problems, and augmented communication using visual content.
What is a Landing Page anyway?
If you are new to blogging, then you should know that a landing page is where traffic from search engines, ads, social media, and other external links are directed. If you want to secure conversions, the first rule is to present the audience with a relevant landing page based on their journey. For example, if you targeted the “local bike shops in Orange County” search phrase, you do not give them a landing page on car parts in Kentucky. You should give them exactly what they want. That is how you win their trust and, consequently, turn them into leads.
Remember that it does not matter if you are looking for customers, subscribers, or social media followers. Landing pages must help the audience take action based on the information they need. Besides, only 5.1% of your audience converts during their first visit, so you should also prioritize optimizing landing pages for would-be subscribers to encourage them to visit your site again.
To build effective landing pages, you must be aware of the best design practices to maximize user experience. Today, you can borrow inspiration from the landing pages of established brands that did it right. One example is this landing page from Wistia that is kept simple, responsive, and very informative. If users have any questions regarding the service, they could just scroll down to read the most frequently-asked questions.
Notice how Wistia made the design pleasing to the eye and made the registration process fast and easy. They also leveraged the landing page to learn more about the user for future optimization. Another example is IMPACT Branding & Design’s landing page that featured clear calls-to-action, expounded the benefits of the service, and used a direct headline to capture the user’s attention.
You do not need to be an expert marketer to appreciate the number of things IMPACT did right with this landing page. In addition to the points mentioned above, notice how they leveraged simple formatting to draw attention to important page elements. They used boldface to highlight the benefits of opting in, made sure the action button contrasts from the rest of the page, and most importantly, focused on a top-to-bottom flow of experience for their users.
Recommended reading: Web Copy and Landing Pages – “How to Get Higher Conversions, Boost Response, and Increase Sales”
Building Landing Pages
Creating great landing pages does not necessarily require extensive coding. For bloggers using content management systems like WordPress, building landing pages may only take a contact form plugin and a good theme. However, it is better to use tools that are tailored specifically to help bloggers build landing pages for their website. OptimizePress, for example, works by offering a number of beautiful landing page templates and a drag-and-drop editor for customization and branding.
However, if you are not using WordPress, there are still plenty of other landing page builders you use for your lead generation efforts. Here are three of the best tools the market have seen so far:
1. Landingi
One of Landingi’s best advantages is its scalability. First off, you can go ahead and test their services using the 30-day free trial, which should be more than enough time for you to figure out everything the tool has to offer. Should you wish to expand your plan, you can use their interactive pricing page to determine how much you should pay for a particular number of visitors. For example, 3,000 leads generated equal $59 per month while 1,000 leads will only require $29.
Apart from flexible pricing, you have access to over a hundred professional-looking templates that are already preconfigured for conversions. Of course, you can still use the visual and code editor should you wish to apply more customizations.
2. Instapage
Instapage is another popular option being used by site owners for designing landing pages that convert. It offers a vast library of preconfigured templates and a drag-and-drop editor to make the landing page creation process a breeze. It also supports seamless integration with some popular marketing tools for email marketing, social media, and CRM.
To help you improve your landing pages over time, Instapage comes equipped with A/B testing and tracking features. These tools will help you gauge the effectiveness of individual landing page strategies and layouts. Lastly, unlike other landing page builders, Instapage also offers live chat support to help answer your concerns in the quickest time.
3. Lander
Finally, Lander is a premium landing page builder that’s trusted by big brands like Gameloft and Capcom. It currently stands out as one of the most reliable in the page-building space due to their commitment to offering templates that are optimized for high conversions. These templates are built by professional designers and fall under different categories—from e-commerce stores to online portfolios.
Like what you would expect in a premium tool, Lander has everything you need for your lead generation campaign. It features a drag-and-drop editor for page customization, an A/B testing tool for optimization, and extra features such as form autofill, automated welcome emails, and countdowns.
Conclusion
In truth, blogs are pointless if the bloggers behind them do not have plans for reaching a broad audience. Remember that blogging can be sweeter if you can build a large following and monetize your efforts. Hopefully, what you have learned about landing pages can point you in the right direction from this point forward.