The ultimate guide to landing pages
When should I use a landing page?
Chapter 03
Whether you’re sending emails, posting on social media, blogging, or buying ads, landing pages have limitless possibilities for growing your business.
A well-optimized landing page is the single best way to get the greatest possible return from any inbound marketing campaign.
Because landing pages are carefully tailored to a specific target audience and are unique to each offer, they deliver value in a way your website simply can’t. Static websites aren’t equipped to deliver different messages to different audience segments. That’s why a landing page is important for your marketing: it emphasizes action where other webpages don’t.
Nothing is more persuasive than a personalized experience, which is why we often recommend marketers create a landing page for every launch, product, event, signup, or piece of content that they create.
10 Landing page examples and uses:
- To increase your return on digital advertising or PPC campaigns
- To tailor your messaging to a variety of unique digital campaigns
- To encourage people to sign up or pre-register for events (both online and off)
- To collect subscribers for your email newsletter
- To promote a product or the sale of a unique service
- To offer a discount coupon or promo code in exchange for an email address
- To offer more detailed information on a product, service, or offer
- To personalize your social media profile links with a special offer
- To invite visitors to download a free digital resource or unlock free digital content
- To link to from a guest blog post (author bio box)
When should you use a landing page in your marketing campaigns?
Whether you’re driving traffic from a pay-per-click (PPC) ad, email, social media, or organic content, if you’re trying to move people to the next stage in your sales funnel—a landing page is likely the best tool to do the job.
Here’s a good rule of thumb to use when deciding whether a landing page is required: if you can measure the action your customers are taking, you’ll likely want a landing page to compel that action.
Think about the goal of your marketing campaign. Boil it down to a single objective or call to action. That exact moment—the moment of action—is where your landing page should come in.
See our article on The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Campaign Planning for more context.
Examples of when to use landing pages:
- Generate leads
- Offer a free ebook or other downloadable content
- Sign up for a free consultation
- Enroll people in an email newsletter
- Encourage a purchase
- Promote a new product launch
- Share a sale or promotion for a product/service/bundle
- Give a printable coupon or pass for in-person storefront/event
- Nurture a relationship
- Reserve a table or book an appointment
- Contact you via phone or chat
- Encourage signups for a live or digital event
Learn how to create a landing page (and see awesome landing page examples) that fits each of these key objectives.
You’ll know when to use landing pages for the right audience based on your offer (lead magnet) and initial source of traffic:
- By offer type: Every offer won’t be right for everyone. Treat your prospects and leads to content that’s suited to their stage of the funnel, while inviting your customers to engage in content or promotions that are exclusive to your innermost community.
- By traffic source: Each digital channel is distinct and the traffic you drive from your Facebook page will behave differently than the traffic you get from a Google ad. Easily tailor your message (match it to your ad) and track your return by creating a unique page for each channel source.
Even landing pages have their limits: when not to use them
By now you know that landing pages are designed with a singular call to action in mind—but what about when you have several different audience groups and several different actions? In these cases, you’ll still want to optimize your page but won’t necessarily rely on a landing page to get the job done.
Consider your ‘About’ page or ‘Contact’ page, for example. Rather than compelling a visitor to take action, these pages are meant to inform or educate. Your About page exists primarily to emphasize your brand’s history, mission, and team. Even if you include a call to action on these pages, the main point is the information, not the action.
Rather than turning every page into a landing page, turn your informational webpages into traffic sources. These sources can then direct visitors to key landing pages that promote a specific call to action and pull the visitor to the next step of your funnel.
Bottom line: You’ll know when to use a landing page whenever you are encouraging a specific action that guides your customer through the marketing funnel.
