Landing pages are often considered an essential part of digital marketing campaigns . They can help you capture leads, encourage visitors to sign up for mailing lists, or direct users to your online store.
While there are many ways businesses can use landing pages, it’s worth noting that landing pages aren’t used by every type of business. Understanding whether you should use a landing page or a website can help you improve your ability to sell your product or service online.
Landing Page vs Website: What You Should Know
Your website usually consists of your homepage, a contact or about us page, and additional pages to describe your products and services. Your website may also have an online shop if you have e-commerce options.
Your website has navigation menus to help visitors get to different parts of the site. The different parts of your website are designed to give visitors a better overview of your business. Ideally, the website gives visitors all the information they’re looking for, regardless of who they are. By including relevant keywords, websites can be found through organic SEO, as well as paid campaigns.
A landing page, on the other hand, is a single page that is focused on a very specific call to action. To eliminate potential distractions, the landing page works as a kind of microsite. It has minimal text, compelling images, a great headline, and a single call to action because it is focused on a very specific goal. Landing pages often have targeted language focused on a specific group or demographic.
Most landing pages also include a form for lead capture purposes. Instead of providing an overview of all of the business’s products and services, the landing page focuses on a single offer, product, or service. They’ll even remove navigation bars so visitors focus exclusively on the action you want them to take. Landing pages often rely on PPC (pay-per-click) advertising to appear in search results.
When Is a Landing Page Useful?
Many small business websites don’t bother with a landing page because they are focused on creating a strong homepage that serves as their brand’s digital version of a brick and mortar location. But while a standard website can be good for building your digital presence and SEO rankings, landing pages can still be valuable for running specific campaigns and driving conversions.
One of the most important differences between a landing page vs a website is that the landing page is tied to a specific offer for lead generation. This could involve giving away a coupon for your business, a free trial of your services, or access to an ebook or webinar in exchange for a user’s email address or other information.
Landing pages are designed for a specific purpose — to guide visitors to take a desired action that makes them more likely to do business with you. Because a single landing page should focus on a single message, many businesses create different landing pages for different campaigns. They may even create different landing pages with different messages for the various demographics they target.
With this in mind, landing pages should be used when you have a specific marketing campaign you want to use to increase sales or capture leads for your business. They are most useful for B2B businesses and companies that sell high-value items with a more involved sales process. However, even local businesses like gyms and restaurants can use a landing page to promote a special offer to bring more visitors to their location.
Make the Most of Your Web Presence
Regardless of whether you feel like your business needs a landing page to win over potential customers, you should always strive to optimize your content so that it ranks well with search engines and provides useful information to your target audience. By helping users find what they need, you can achieve higher conversion rates and drive more customers to your business with your digital marketing efforts.
