Why Landing Pages are Critical to Your Success

How often have you fallen into this trap? You click on an ad with an irresistible offer, but instead of landing on a page that tells you more about the offer that brought you there in the first place, you find a page that tells you absolutely nothing about it.

I fell into one just now. I clicked on a hotel ad offering special discounted rates for this season. To my disappointment, I was taken to a reservation page that gave me regular rates, with no mention at all about the special offer they advertised. This hotel just succeeded in giving itself a bad impression. I thought that:

• It can’t be trusted to deliver what it promises
• Their landing page has totally ruined the purpose of running a good ad, which probably cost a lot of money.
• They just lost me and probably many others as a potential customer

In other words, flawed landing page translate to ROI down the drain.  Not only will it miss opportunities of making a sale, it will also turn potential customers to annoyed visitors. Imagine spending money on PPC, SEO, etc. just to get negligible conversion rates and a negative image? In the end, what’s the use of spending money and effort to get potential customers in, when your landing pages drive them out?

What a Landing Page Should Be

A landing page can make or break your chances of success. To convert visitors to sales or leads, assess your landing pages using these criteria:

• Relevance

Consider your landing page as your entry point of sale. It is the first page a visitor is taken directly to after clicking on your ad or finding you from a search engine, so it should address the specific and most important needs of that particular market.

• Instant gratification

Your landing page should give your visitors the information they’re looking for, without having to scour through a page full of links.

• Ability to Close Sales

Since most visitors who land on this page already have an interest in your offer, make it easy for them to buy, sign-in or opt-in. Your forms should be visible enough and should not require too much information.

Landing pages undeniably provide the lifeline to your online business’ success. Hence, a lot of thought and attention should be put in designing them.