How to Develop a Landing Page Framework
Start by thinking beyond the landing page.
Start by thinking beyond the landing page.
Why do landing page campaigns so often convert poorly? Because in planning them, the creators fail to think beyond the page itself. Typically, prospects click through an email or a banner ad to a single landing page with a single call to action and little, if any, persuasive copy.
Don’t assume a banner or search result creates demand or understanding in a complex product or offering. Don’t assume everyone who clicks through to a landing page is ready to buy. These assumptions are the result of bad communication between marketing and sales.
Unless you sell a simple or highly targeted product or service, increasing landing-page conversion must go beyond a two-click scenario. Consider your prospects diverse buying processes; where they are in the buying cycle; and the nature of your products and their relationship to customers. Also consider the context of the prospect as he lands.
Step 1: Define Campaign Conversion Goals
This is part of what we call “uncovery.” Ask yourself:
Step 2: Know Your Prospects
Step 3: Create Driving Points
Driving points are the pages, search results, email messages, or ads (online and off-) that drive prospects to your landing pages. Ask:
Step 4: Create Landing Page Narratives for Each Prospect Type
A narrative is a rough sketch of what information a prospect will need to complete a conversion in a specific scenario.
The landing page context must communicate to the prospect he’s in the right place. Each landing page must also make it easy for the prospect to get the next piece of info necessary to convert.
Conclusion
In its highest form, a landing page campaign successfully maps your current selling process with the prospect’s buying process. One reason many fail is the all-too-common disconnect between the marketing team that creates the campaign and the sales team that sell the products. Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, a firm specializing in complex sales, says, “It’s been well documented that quality of collaboration between sales and marketing directly impacts ROI. The challenge that many organizations face is that their sales process is a black box. No one except the sales team knows what is going on inside the black box until a proposal or sale happens.”
Landing page campaigns, especially banner ads and email, can give a seller a slight advantage over home-page or organic traffic. In these scenarios, you can better determine a prospect’s true intent; ads act as a filter. When you understand your visitor and his intent, you can create a more persuasive framework.