7 Ways Landing Pages Increase Online Marketing Success

Want a foolproof way to increase your email and search engine marketing success? You may not realize it yet, but the answer isn't necessarily in the subject line or the ad copy - it's in your campaigns' landing pages.

When it comes to increasing conversions, landing pages are a formidable yet sometimes overlooked tool in a marketer's arsenal, so if you've been putting your landing pages on the back burner you aren't getting the full return for your online marketing investment.

Here are seven ways that well-designed landing pages can help maximize the value of your online marketing efforts.

Landing Pages Keep Your Open and Click-through Rates High

Believe it or not, landing pages can have a direct impact on your email click-through and open rates. How? Well, as you already know, the key to getting someone to read and react to your email is to make it easy to scan the content for information that is relevant to them - there's nothing worse than a wall of text to make an email recipient reach for the "delete" button. Properly crafted landing pages allow you to keep email messages short, succinct and to-the-point by giving you a natural place to provide more information specific to the recipient's interest. Your email marketing needs to contain just enough info to convince readers to click through - let your landing pages do the heavy lifting when it comes to providing detailed information.

For example, let's say that you have a white paper you want prospects to download. Listing its table of contents, sample graphs and author bios in your email will likely take up too much space, dilute your "Download Now!" call-to-action with too much information - and actually decrease your click-through rate. Instead of trying to fit all of the white paper details into your email, save them for the landing page. There, you'll have much more room to include not only the original call-to-action, but also the detailed information that will help visitors decide to download the document.

This advice holds true for search engine marketing landing pages as well. With a mere 130 characters to get your message across, including an ad title and display URL, providing detailed information just isn't possible. Use your SEM landing page to confirm the offer or claim made in your search ad and give visitors the information they need to take the next steps.

Landing Pages Create Cross-sell/Up-sell Opportunities

So you've created a strong call-to-action that has interested an email recipient or search engine visitor, and you've ensured that the visitor sees exactly what they expect they'll see when they arrive at the landing page. That's great, but there's still more that you can do to maximize their landing page visit. Don't miss out on the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell visitors once they've arrived on your landing page. Take advantage of your landing page to direct them to offers that complement the one that originally interested them.

For example, if your call-to-action is to download a white paper on a particular topic, take advantage of your landing page to also alert visitors to an upcoming Webinar on a related topic. Or, if your call to action was to buy a newly-released Disney DVD movie, your landing page is a great place to offer visitors a slight discount for buying two or more children's movies or for introducing visitors to other children's movies they may like. As you're designing your landing pages, consider what else visitors may be interested in and make it available to them.

Landing Pages Segment Your Messaging

Landing pages provided the perfect opportunity to customize messaging for a specific audience, a tactic that has proven time and again to increase conversions. For example, lets imagine that your email marketing campaign has two distinct calls to action - one inviting visitors to sign up to receive a free consultation and the other asking visitors to download a white paper. You could design one landing page that handles visitors from both links - but your calls-to-action may be diluted, and visitors who clicked on the white paper link may be confused by the 'free consultation' headline on the page.

Instead of designing one landing page that speaks to both calls-to-action, design one for each. By designing a landing page for each link, you're providing each visitor specifically the information and offer in which they're interested. And when you consider that highly targeted landing pages are much more likely to convert visitors and produce a higher ROI, the brief time spent customizing a landing page for each call-to-action proves to be a smart investment.

Landing Pages Provide Clear Choices and Set Expectations

Landing pages offer you the real estate you need to reinforce trust and ensure that visitors know exactly what to expect. Consider, for example, a landing page for a Webinar your company is hosting. Your landing page is the place where you'll want to outline the two available dates, show the logos of the hosting sponsors and let visitors know that each event will take one hour. If the landing page is to join your e-newsletter list, you'll want to note newsletter frequency and perhaps even outline a list of upcoming topics. And if you've directed folks to a landing page so that they can purchase the latest Brad Pitt blockbuster on DVD, you'll certainly want to highlight the fact that your shipping is free and fast. To further build trust be sure to include company contact information, restate your guarantee and return policies, and provide a link to your privacy policy.

Landing Pages Introduce Useful and Relevant Content

Certainly, your landing page's call-to-action is the most important part of the page - after all, a conversion is what you're after. But landing pages also allow you to highlight additional content that may be useful and relevant to specific segments of your target audience.

For example, let's say that your email marketing campaign's call to action is to buy the latest action/thriller movie at a discounted price. Creating a landing page that lets visitors see the other parts of your site that may be of interest to them - a list of the top ten action/thriller movies of all time, a preview of movies in the action/thriller movies bargain bin, or a link to a page detailing upcoming action/thriller new releases are a way to increase interest and perhaps even create additional conversions.

Landing Pages Create a Great Brand Experience

A landing page is an extremely important representation of your brand, especially for SEM campaigns that may serve as a customer's introduction to your business. A pleasant and highly relevant landing page experience is one that is likely to lead to future engagement and conversions.

Consider this: There are two search ads for a new comedy that's just been released on DVD. You click through the first ad and are directed to the store's home page that features a dizzying array of movies, including comedies. You go back to your search results and click on the second ad, which takes you right to a page all about the new comedy with a big "buy now" button in the middle of the page, and links to other movies in the same genre. Which experience feels more personalized? Which company seems like it cares a bit more? Which company best met your expectations for what you thought you'd see on the site? In highly competitive situations, every interaction with the brand counts even more. Well-crafted landing pages can create a positive brand impression that may turn a window shopper into a buyer, and keeps a new customer coming back for more.

Landing Pages Provide Valuable Campaign Insights

A/B testing isn't just for email marketing - it's a good tool when it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of landing pages, too. Are customers more likely to purchase the horror DVD if there's a trailer available on the landing page? Does your conversion rate go up or down based on the presence of user reviews on the landing page? Knowing the elements of a landing page that are most successful will help inform the successful design of future landing pages and can give you guidance on all of your marketing activities, from email marketing campaigns to e-newsletters and even search engine marketing.

Maximize the Value of Your Online Marketing Efforts

Well-crafted landing pages offer online marketers with a powerful way to optimize your overall investment. By ensuring that your landing pages create a positive brand experience, learning from how visitors are interacting with your landing pages and using landing pages to introduce visitors to additional relevant content, you'll be well on your way to improving the return on your overall marketing investment.