Let’s start with an answer: because they help increase your conversion rates.
We increased ProveSource signup conversion rate 2x using landing pages (more on that in another post).
What’s a landing page?
A landing page (also known as a destination page or lead capture page) is a web page that a user arrives at after clicking a search result or online ad. Landing pages are (most of the time) focused on a single subject that matches the intent of the ad or online search result that your visitors clicked on to reach your page.
You might be wondering why you need to create separate, distinct pages focused on a single subject that visitors will be redirected to when they click your ads or a call to action.
If you were to send your visitors to your website’s home page, they could take a wide variety of unwanted actions, from checking out your pricing page to reading your list of features. The visitor’s engagement is great and informative, but it’s not what you wanted to happen, and it can completely change your visitor’s next step.
An effective landing page will “force” your website’s visitors to make a decision by eliminating all distractions and helping them focus, having a clear message and having a clear call to action.
Landing page fundamentals
A landing page must have a single very specific purpose – a goal, whether it’s to subscribe to a newsletter, buy a product or leave contact details. Before you start building you page, have a goal in mind. This goal can also be compared later with your “old” version performance (e.g. homepage).
Simplicity is beautiful. Simple has several aspects when it comes to creating websites.
- The design should be very simple, not ugly, but not loaded with eye-candy. Larger fonts are a good practice too.
- Concise copy. Be persuasive and use simple wording – don’t try to be a smartass or have a copy so creative it becomes hard to understand.
- Call to action / forms – don’t ask for too much information, ask only for the vitals. Remember you have a goal in mind and you should persuade the visitor to complete it.
- Navigation elements – remember distractions? That’s one big distraction, keep it to a minimum.
- The Fold – pay attention to what’s the first thing your visitors see, many of them won’t even scroll down.
- Testing – it might sound hard and you might procrastinate and never get to it, but I highly encourage you test your call to action texts, your descriptions and headlines. Setting up a test takes a few minutes and the results can be astounding! (We used Google Optimize).
What are the benefits of creating landing pages?
The benefits are countless, but the most important ones are:
- Landing pages are the simplest, most effective way to generate more leads for your sales and marketing teams.
- Landing page data is easier to track and analyze to better understand how well your offers are performing.
- Landing pages force your visitors to make a decision – take an action or leave.
- A landing page removes all distractions and focuses your visitors on the one thing you want them to do: convert.
- A landing page is lightweight and fast to load. Page load speed plays a critical role in user retention and conversions (and Google Ads quality score).
Yes, it’s a headache
Building separate, subject-focused landing pages can be frustrating, time-consuming and potentially expensive, especially if you try to create them by yourself or hire a developer to do it for you.
That’s where landing page tools come in. With these tools, you can have maximum flexibility. They make it easy to build high-quality landing pages quickly, With zero technical knowledge, not even a snippet of code.
Leading landing page builders you can use to kick ass
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
Our favorite is Paperform, which is a versatile and intuitive form builder that allows you to create custom forms and landing pages in as little as 3 minutes. It also happens to be most upvoted form tool on Product Hunt. It has a straightforward UI, 1100+ integrations and robust features for collecting payments and subscriptions.
What’s Next
Landing pages are important for your marketing and paid campaigns because they drive targeted traffic to a specific web page, one that’s designed with zero distractions in an effort to lead the user to a specific goal. Landing page builders make it easy, cheap and almost effortless to improve your marketing strategy.
Did you already get some signups for a free trial? Here is an awesome post from our friends at UserPilot on how to hack your free trial conversion rate.
P.S. When someone lands on your landing page or website, they don’t know whether your offer is any good. Add ProveSource to your landing pages to increase trust & conversions.
Main photo credit: Campaign Creators
