Landing Page vs Homepage?

OOOPS! That's a landing plane, not a landing page.... Real photo btw, Maho Beach in St Maarten, but I got your attention then.

What is a landing page and does it differ from a Homepage? Isn’t it all the same? That is a question we hear a lot and there are some enormous and very important differences.

Using dedicated landing pages in a funnel instead of a homepage will have a big impact on your bottom line!

If you are not sure what a funnel is, please read this post first.

A Homepage is a window

A homepage is the ‘window’ of a website/business and homepages have LOTS of links to just about EVERYWHERE.

That is what homepages are supposed to be, a place to direct people to lots of different places on your website. A homepage has many links to other pages within your site, links to blog posts, buttons, banners etc… That means many options for people to get distracted and lose attention to what you are trying to do.

If you are running paid ads, it's a capital sin to direct people to a page with lots of distractions!

Landing pages have a single objective

A landing page has ONE link only, ONE, a Call To Action (CTA) button.

Everything on a landing page only serves ONE goal, getting people to do ONE thing, which is to click that CTA button. All text, videos, and content direct the visitor to that one thing you want them to do, WITHOUT ANY OTHER DISTRACTIONS (where you could and will lose them).

A landing page is also called an opt-in page, a lead page, lead capture page, squeeze page, sales page etc. (you get the idea), it is one page built SPECIFICALLY for capturing information from the visitor that lands on this page.

This is your first part (first step) in your sales/leads magnet funnel and you drive visitors to these pages via your paid ads on Facebook or Google, or similar.

The SINGLE objective via your CTA button is to capture the visitor’s contact information. If you have multiple objectives/links on your landing page, the visitor may get distracted and take no action!

Landing pages need a Value Proposition

People are not just going to hand over emails (or other contact info) to you for ‘free’ so you need to offer something of value to them through a Value Proposition. This can be a free E-book, a cheat sheet, a free consultation, a free trial, a discount coupon, etc.

The copy of the page should be clear and concise; all information should be value/benefit driven and kept short. People have a short attention span so too much text will turn people away. Remember, you are trying to get interested people in your funnel, the selling will happen later through re-targeting ads, email or messenger follow-ups. Every step in the funnel has its aim, and the landing pages aim is to capture leads.

Example of not quite...

In this example it already starts right with the ad. This Facebook ad is not offering a value proposition why I should sign up. The way Facebook works is simple, the ad was 'served' to me, so the advertiser is getting charged regardless of what I do (or in this case) not do. 

When clicking it, the landing page has no clear area for the user to leave contact details to start the funnel. The below landing page also has lots of other links that will guide the user away from what you want from them.

A value proposition in the ad could have been an enticing, catchy attention grabber such as GROW YOUR CAREER. It is part of the landing page copy where this ad directs the user to, so why not use that? The header on the page should be switched around to: "Grow your career! Learn UX Design" to make it clear to people why it's beneficial for them to read more and,   to fulfill on the promise of the ad headline (which was missing).  

The copy of the landing page should also be much more value and benefit driven(what is in it for me) but that is a different topic.

Examples of almost...

Here you can see he got it, almost. The ad promises 5 link building strategies.... hmmm, sounds good, I want those.....

and after clicking on Learn More you end up below. Do you see the good AND the bad?

The Good part..... straightforward and very prominent on the page where to leave your email to get the ‘book’ BUT ...

The Bad part... he includes a header menu on his page with “How It works” and “List your site” and as curiosity killed the cat, you invite people to check that out and attention is lost....

All that info on How it Works and What to do, should come later, once they are in the funnel, with automated and personalized emails where you build trust and call for a different action later down the line (BUY for example).

Examples of how it should be...

Here it is clear what the user is supposed to do, if they are interested. If they leave their details and want the book, then they ARE interested and you have a hot lead in your funnel!

In the spirit of full disclosure, this page was designed and made by yours truly... so here is another example.

This landing page has a slightly different aim, and there are 3 links on this page. But.... they all do the same, sign people up (or in) for the FREE product and nothing else. In the CTA (to sign up), the user has to leave an email address so they are in the funnel as a hot lead.

One of the services we offer is building landing pages for your sales funnels, or we can help optimizing existing sales funnels, just give us a shout!

and Busted!

This pretty much how it should NOT be done! After reading this article, you should be able to identify where it all goes horribly wrong...