It’s 1:38 AM where I am right now. At this hour of the morning, I doubt most business owners are losing sleep over exactly which landing page to use in their business. (Unless, of course, you happen to be a digital marketer or copywriting geek like me—in which case, no judgement here.) No, I’d imagine the vast majority of business owners probably don’t spend sleepless nights worrying about landing pages specifically. However, you might lie in bed wondering how you’ll find more customers this year (or more patients, consulting clients, students, blog readers, speaking gigs, etc). You might toss and turn thinking about how you’ll reach your team’s revenue goals for the month or quarter. You might even spend a few sleepless hours pondering how you’re going to sell your latest product or fill up that conference you have at the end of the year. The answer to all of these worries is the same: You start by picking the right landing page.
Why You Need Landing Pages
Just so we’re all on the same page (er, landing page), LeadPages defines a landing page as:
“A web page that’s designed to collect traffic (from one of several sources) or prompt visitors to take a specific action.”
Today, I want to focus on the second half of that definition. I want to show you landing pages that prompt your visitors to take the kinds of actions that grow your business. Specifically, landing pages that: 1. Grow your email list, so you have leads you can turn into customers 2. Sell your products and services, so you can get a positive ROI on your marketing efforts In other words, good landing pages accomplish the two goals that can keep you up at night as a business owner. Think of it this way. Every landing page that you publish on your website or on your Facebook page, or Twitter, or anywhere else online gives you another opportunity to: 1) Attract a different audience, 2) generate leads, and 3) turn leads into customers. Put more simply, more landing pages = more leads and sales. In today’s post, I’ll share with you 15 of our favorite landing page types that you can use to start growing your business (and when to use them). In a hurry? Download my quick reference guide below so you can see at a glance how to use these 15 landing pages in your business. Then read on for more details on all 15 page types.
1. Hyper-Focused Paid Advertising Page
At LeadPages, we spend upwards of $100,000 a month in paid advertising—most of it on Facebook advertising. Why do we do that? Because Facebook helps us effectively reach the kind of new leads who turn into great customers. But Facebook’s platform is only part of the reason. Our paid advertising wouldn’t work nearly as well if we didn’t link our Facebook ads to the right kind of landing pages. So what makes a good landing page for paid advertising? First, if you’re using paid advertisements to send people to your landing pages (PPC ads, Facebook ads etc), create a landing page that’s focused on generating leads, not sales. The reason: it’s much easier to inspire a complete stranger to join your email list than to hand over their credit card when they don’t know you. Here are a some best practices for creating your own paid advertising page to generate leads:
- Ad consistency: No matter what you add to your landing page, you should always use the same branding, headline, and copy elements on both your ads and your landing pages.
- Uniform call to action: While you can certainly have multiple call-to-action buttons on your landing page, all these buttons should link to a single call to action: sign up for your email list.
- No extra links (not even social): You should only have one link on your landing page: your call-to-action buttons. Don’t add social share buttons, extra links to your website, or any other external links. They will only hurt your conversions.
- Internal navigation only: If you’re using a navigation bar, these links should be anchor links that immediately jump to other sections on your page. This way, you won’t distract your customers by asking them to click away from your landing page.
- Social proof: Providing testimonials or listing news publications your business has appeared in can instantly give your business more credibility.
- Valuable giveaway Most importantly, you must be giving away something of value on your paid advertising page. In your landing page copy, be sure to tell your would-be customers exactly how to get this valuable giveaway (like your free report, webinar etc).
Here’s an example of this kind of page from the LeadPages template library. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Make sure your landing page only links to one call to action. (LeadPages template: Facebook Advertising Page.) [/caption] When to use the paid advertising page:
- When you’re running PPC ads
- When you’re running Facebook ads
- When you’re running LinkedIn ads or Pinterest ads
2. (Very Short) Webinar Page
If you’re looking to grow your business this year, consider hosting a quick 60-minute webinar to answer questions and sell your product or service. When you’re marketing your webinar, your landing page itself can be just as brief, like this condensed webinar page below. I love testing short webinar pages like this, because you can literally create this kind of landing page in less than 5 minutes. You can keep the copy short too. No need to craft complicated stories or execute the perfect benefit bullets. Instead, you just need to create a compelling headline. Tell your customers when the webinar is going to be and how to register for your webinar and you’re done. As an example, check out this webinar page that I recently created for our real estate webinar. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
On a webinar page, short copy can be just as effective. (LeadPages template: Webinar Page from James Schramko)[/caption] When to use the very short webinar page:
- When you’re mailing your email list about your upcoming webinar
- When you’re marketing your webinar on social media
- Anywhere on your site where you’re linking to your webinar, including banners, blog posts, hello bars, etc.
Pro Tip: Make sure you add every webinar registrant to both your webinar and your email list. If you’re a LeadPages member, you can integrate both a webinar platform (like GoToWebinar) and an email service provider (like Mailchimp) with the registration form on your webinar page, so you can easily grow your list and fill your webinar at the same time.
3. 404 Lead Generation Page
Where do your web visitors go when they click on broken, or outdated links on your site? If your site is set up like most, then your would-be customers will see a frustrating 404 error page. That’s unfortunate, because anyone who sees an error page is likely to leave your site, and they may never return. It doesn’t have to be like that. Enter the “404 lead generation page.” You can use this type of landing page on your site to capture all these lost leads and grow your email list. To use this 404 landing page effectively: 1) Acknowledge that your visitors have reached an error page, and 2) Offer something of value so they will join your email list while they’re there. Here’s an example of what this page might look like: [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
The right 404 error page can turn lost leads into business growth. (LeadPages template: Opt-in 404 Page)[/caption] When to use the 404 lead generation page:
- Set up your website so this page displays whenever your visitors would see a 404 page. (If you’re a LeadPages member, you can use our WordPress plugin to set this up.)
- Set up a redirect link to a modified version of this page from sales pages for past promotions, past events, or other outdated content you no longer want people to see.
Pro Tip: You can also add a link to your 404 landing page to ask your customers to report these broken links. This can also help engage otherwise lost potential leads.
4. Lead-Gen Home Page
Your homepage is your most important real estate for capturing new leads and growing your business. Unfortunately, many business owners simply don’t use it enough. You can fix this immediately by testing out a landing page for your homepage, like the blog homepage below. To create this type of homepage for yourself, be sure to include:
- A valuable giveaway: Just as with a paid media page, you need to offer value instantly to entice web visitors to subscribe to your email list.
- Prominent call to action: This call to action should be visible on the first screen of your homepage, so your would-be subscribers know instantly how to join your list.
- A link to your full website: I’d recommend adding a link at the bottom to your website, so your web visitors can check out if your site even if they don’t subscribe to your email list immediately.
Here’s an example of what this type of landing page might look like: [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Turn your homepage into a lead capture page to grow your list. (LeadPages template: Blog Home Page)[/caption] When to use the lead-gen home page:
- As your homepage itself: Specifically, this type of page works well for bloggers or podcasters, but it can also be used for any other type of business.
- As your blog homepage: If you host your blog on a separate site, consider testing this page as your blog homepage.
Pro Tip: Include testimonials on this type of landing page to give your visitors another reason to join your list.
5. Offer Ended Page
Any time you run a special promotion, host a webinar, or sponsor an event, you create a very intriguing opportunity to grow your business. Sounds a bit counterintuitive, but this opportunity comes after these events are over. As soon as your webinars, events, or special offers end, you can replace your existing sales page or webinar page with an “offer ended” page. You can use this offer ended page to:
- Generate interest in your next webinar or event: You can either ask your subscribers to instantly sign up for your next event, or you can ask them to join your list so they hear about your next conference or webinar first. For example, whenever a promotion ends at LeadPages, we redirect our sales page to a new page that invites visitors to our webinar.
- Generate new leads by giving away value: Even if your would-be customer missed your special offer, you can give that person another valuable piece of content just for checking out your page.
- Direct traffic back to your blog or site: If you’re not planning another webinar or event soon, you can just add a call to action to your offer ended page to check out your best blog post or the most popular page on your website.
- Alert customers when your product sells out: You can use your offer ended page to let your customers know this product is no longer being sold (and perhaps when it will be available once again).
If you look in the LeadPages template library, you won’t see an “offer ended page” per se. But you will see dozens of opt-in, sales, and webinar pages you can use to create one. For example, last fall, we hosted our first annual CONVERTED conference. Once this 2-day event ended, I created an offer ended page from the “Testimonials Sales Page” inside LeadPages. As you can see, we’re using this page to build interest for CONVERTED 2016, and we also asked any interested potential attendees to sign up to get notified about this event first. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Use your “offer ended” pages to build up interest for your next event. (LeadPages template: Testimonials Sales Page)[/caption] When to use the offer ended page:
- After your webinar ends
- After your conference ends
- After your book/CD/product launches
- After your special offer or promotion ends
- After your product sells out
Pro Tip: If you’re a LeadPages member, you can use our redirect feature to instantly direct all your traffic from your existing webinar or event page to your new offer ended page.
6. About Me Page
Most business owners have some version of an “about me” page on their website. After all, it’s your place to brand yourself and your services, right? If you already have this page sitting on your website, you can use it to start generating new leads (and potentially customers) for your business. You can take advantage of this page in one of the following ways: 1. Replace your about me page with a landing page that’s designed to both brand your services and generate new leads to your business. 2. Add a call-to-action button and social share buttons to your existing About Me page. As an example, here’s a sample About Me page featuring our Manager of Marketing Education, Bob Jenkins. As you can see, this page not only features his biography and his services, but it also contains a link to his courses, a link to LeadPages, and call-to-action buttons to ask people to share his services on social media. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Your “About Me” page should contain a call-to-action to share your services and join your email list. (LeadPages template: About Me Page) [/caption] When to use the about me page:
- Linked from the navigation bar on your website
- Linked from your social media bios on Twitter or Facebook
- Linked from your bio on your blog posts or guest blog posts
- Linked from your signature in all your emails
- Linked from any customer materials where you introduce yourself (webinars, courses, etc.)
Pro Tip: When you’re writing your About Me page, include links to both your blog and a sales page to sell your services as Bob has done above.
7. Launching Soon Page
If you’re launching a new product, service, website or business any time in the next year, then you’re missing out if you’re not using this type of landing page. It’s called a “launching soon” page. You can use a launching soon page to generate new leads, and create a buzz in your industry about your new product or service in the weeks (or months) leading up to launch. Posting a page like this also gives you a chance to create an email list of interested potential customers long before your product or service launches. It allows you to test the market to see if there’s any interest in what you’re offering. Here’s an example of a launching soon page we created for our soon-to-be-released product Center: [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Start building interest in your product before you launch. (LeadPages template: Trendy Webinar Page) [/caption] When to use the launching soon page:
- To host your homepage until your full site is built
- To replace your sales page for your soon-to-be-released product launch
- To replace your website or page for your soon-to-be-released book
- Anywhere else you’ll be launching a new product or service
Pro Tip: For best results, use the bare minimum of copy on your launching soon page—just enough to get your customers interested in your upcoming launch.
8. Free Ebook Sales Page
Not all landing pages give you the chance to both sell your products and generate leads at the same time. The free ebook sales page does both. This ebook page allows you to sell your book and give away a free chapter when a new subscriber joins your email list. Even if you’re not an author, you can use this type of landing page to drive new sales and give away a free piece of your product to generate new leads. For example, if you were a business consultant, you could use this type of page to give away a free module of your online course, and to sell your course outright. If you were a real estate agent, you might use this type of page to give away a free guide on selling your house, and then offer your services on the same page. The possibilities are endless. To create this page on your own, you need:
- A link to your payment processor to sell your products or services, and
- A lead-capture form set up to collect leads, so you can deliver this free piece of content
[caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Sell your product and grow your list at the same time with this page. (LeadPages template: Free Ebook Page from Pat Flynn)[/caption] When to use the free-ebook sales page:
- Linked from your navigation bar on your site
- Linked from any sidebar banners or other boxes on your site
- Linked from an image of your product or book on your site
- In posts on your social media channels
9. Free Course Page
If you have a free course to give away, you already have a superior way to grow your business. Now you just need to start using it to generate leads. You can use a landing page like our free course page below to start marketing your course to the world (and using it grow your email list). What’s unique about this landing page? For starters:
- Longer copy: Even if you’re giving away a course away for free, you’re still asking your subscribers to invest their time to consume it. You can use longer copy to give would-be a compelling reason to check out your course.
- Free video content: This free course page features a place to add your video course content. That means would-be subscribers can watch your course videos for free without joining your list. And guess what? That works. Seeing the valuable content you’re giving away often inspires people to join your list to see more.
- Place to sell your product: Even if you’re not selling this course, you can include a call to action on this page for your customers to buy your product or service.
Here’s an example of one of our free course pages below. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
You can post your free video content on a course page and still entice people to join your email list to download it. (LeadPages template: Free Course Page)[/caption] When to use the free course page:
- When you’re running Facebook ads or other paid advertising to your course page
- Linked from the navigation bar of your website
- Posted in your sidebar banners or other boxes on your site or blog
- Shared on social media
Pro Tip: Along with your videos, give away extra downloads with your course like MP3s, transcripts, and other resources to entice subscribers to download the entire course, who may want to see your course in different formats.
10. Video Lesson Page
Already have video content that’s designed to sell your products? Or do you have blog videos or other content that your fans already love? If so, you can use what we call a “Video Lesson Page” to send this video content to your potential customers and sell your products or services. For example, this is a Video Lesson page we have used in the past to share one of our top LeadPages features with our new email subscribers below. For your own audience, you can immediately send new subscribers your best video content when they first join your list. For best results, make sure you include a call-to-action button below each video so they can purchase your product or service. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Give away your free videos, and use them boost your sales. (LeadPages template: Video Lesson Page)[/caption] When to use the video lesson page:
- When you’re emailing new subscribers to introduce them to your content
- When you’re emailing customers a new tutorial series
- When you’re creating a video course that will be delivered one video at a time
- To sell your product or service by showing it in action
Pro Tip: Add a spoken call to action to the end of each video to tell would-be customers to click your buy button below to get started with your product or service. (Just asking for this sale can make a significant impact on your conversions.)
11. Facebook Landing Page
If you already have a Facebook fanpage, you have the opportunity to grow your email list and attract new customers from inside your page itself. You can set this up by publishing any landing page as a custom Facebook tab on your fanpage. If you’re a LeadPages member, you can set this up in 4 clicks. For example, on our LeadPages Facebook fanpage, we published one of our webinar registration pages as a Facebook tab. This page is constantly marketing our upcoming webinar and helping us grow our email list. You can do the same. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Use your Facebook fan page to generate new leads. (LeadPages template: Webinar 3.0 Registration Page.)[/caption] When to use the Facebook landing page:
- When you want to convert all your Facebook followers into email subscribers
- When you want to sign up people for your next webinar on your Facebook page
- When you want to drive Facebook advertising to a Facebook tab landing page
Pro Tip: Update the name of your Facebook tab so it describes what your Facebook landing page is offering. For example, our tab is called “Webinar” as you can see above.
12. Twitter Followers Page
If you’re on Twitter, this is one of the simplest ways to constantly grow your email list. Frankly, I don’t see business owners use this strategy enough. Simply take any landing page and customize it for your Twitter followers. Then link to this page in your description on Twitter. This way, you’re constantly marketing who you are and what you do to everyone who’s following you on Twitter. For example, below, LeadPages member Ian Brodie is using the following page on his Twitter page. Notice how he addresses his Twitter followers in the headline. Nicely done! [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Customize any landing page for your Twitter followers and post it in your Twitter profile. (LeadPages template: Blog Home Page)[/caption] When to use the Twitter followers page:
- Linked in your Twitter profile
- Tweet out this Twitter page regularly
- Pin this page to the top of your Twitter profile
- Encourage your followers to retweet your page
Pro Tip: If you have thousands of Twitter followers, use this page to regularly offer a special giveaway to join your email list, or an exclusive bonus when they purchase your product or service.
13. Your “Best Of” Landing Page
Do you have one specific free giveaway (or lead magnet) that generates more leads than any other in your business? If so, you should have a landing page in place at all times to offer this lead magnet to your potential customers. For best results, I recommend using a lead generation page with as little copy as possible, like this sample lead generation page below. [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Always have a landing page on your site that showcases your top lead magnet. (LeadPages template: Basic Squeeze Page, Aligned to the Right)[/caption] When to use the “best of” page:
- Linked from the navigation bar on your site
- Linked from the bottom of every blog post
- Linked in your email signature
- As a landing page for Facebook ads or other paid media
Pro Tip: If you don’t have a “best of” lead magnet yet, I recommend testing a resource guide, filled with your top tools and resources. (Learn more about how to create this lead magnet here.)
14. Contest Page
If you need to grow your list quickly, you can create a contest specifically designed to generate new leads for your business. Ideally, you should use a contest page like the one you see below. Notice: this particular “Enter to Win” page entices your subscribers to share your new contest with their friends and followers on social media. I’ve run several contests like this here at LeadPages, so I can tell you from experience, you need to add this viral sharing element. Otherwise, your contest won’t really be generating new leads. You’ll just be running a contest for your existing subscribers. Here’s an example of what your contest page might look like: [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Get your participants sharing your contest to generate even more leads. (LeadPages template: Enter to Win Page)[/caption] When to use the contest page:
- Emailed out to your subscribers when you start (and end) your contest
- Posted in as many social media channels as possible
- Shared with your affiliate partners so they can share it with their audiences
Pro Tip: If you’re running a contest, be absolutely 100% certain you’re following all the legal requirements in your particular country or region. Consult an attorney if you have questions.
15. “Thanks, And” Page
I saved the best for last. It’s the landing page that I’d encourage you to start using to grow your business immediately—your thank you page. If you’re selling anything or you’re using any webpage to grow your email list, then you’re already using some sort of thank you page. Your “thank you page” is the first page your customers or subscribers see as soon as they purchase your product on a sales page or join your email list. Most business owners send new customers and subscribers to a page that says something like “thanks for joining us!” when they subscribe to their email list or buy their product. But you can do so much better. You can use every thank you page to its fullest potential, so you can make additional sales, upsell your customers, and even help with retention. For example, you can use your thank you page to:
- Invite your newest subscribers to your next webinar: This is a favorite tactic here at LeadPages. We regularly use our thank you pages to invite our newest and most excited email subscribers to our webinars. (You can see the page we use below.)
- Ask new subscribers to share your landing pages on social media: This is how you start a viral share campaign for your landing pages. Send your new subscribers, webinar attendees, or customers to a thank you page that instantly invites them to share your original landing page on social media. This helps spread the word about what you have to offer!
- Give away an additional lead magnet, like a free consultation: Would you rather get on the phone and speak directly with potential new clients? If so, you can offer an additional lead magnet like a free consultation on your thank you page when a new subscriber joins your list. (This is a great way to collect phone numbers too.)
- Start selling your product or service immediately: You can send your new leads directly to a sales page or Video Lesson Page (see #10 above), and start selling your product or service. Note: If you test this type of thank you page, be absolutely certain to provide value in your sales video, so you don’t annoy your newest, best subscribers.
- Invite customers to check out your tutorials or trainings: It’s never too early to start bonding with your newest customers. You can use your thank you page to welcome customers to your product and service, and immediately invite them to check out your tutorial videos or other trainings so they can start using your product ASAP.
- Upsell your new customers to another product: For new customers, you can also use your thank you page to immediately give them a one-time-only special offer as a thank you for purchasing your product or service.
Here’s an example of one of our favorite thank you pages: [caption width="795" align="alignnone"]
Use a thank you page like this one to instantly invite new subscribers to your webinar. (LeadPages template: Webinar Registration Thank You Page 2.0)[/caption] When to use the “thanks, and” page:
- When you want to fill up your live trainings
- When you want new leads to share your landing pages
- When you want to start selling your product or service
- When you want to invite new customers to trainings
- When you want to upsell new customers
- Any time you create any type of landing page
Pro Tip: When you sit down to create any of the 14 landing pages you see above, plan on creating a companion thank you page so you get the maximum sales, leads, and exposure.
Which Landing Page Will You Try First?
As a I mentioned: I doubt business owners often lose sleep over landing pages. But I hope you’ve seen how using the right landing page can translate into new email leads, clients, sales, and overall revenue for you. As a business owner, it’s up to you to start testing different pages to see what resonates with your specific audience. If you’re already a LeadPages member, you can dive into your account and start testing any of these landing pages you see above immediately. (Note: You get unlimited landing pages with your LeadPages account, so don’t hold back.) Plus, make sure you download the quick-reference guide to these landing page types below so you can use each of these pages to the fullest.
