The Key Ingredient for a Successful Marketing Campaign

Published: July 17 2014

Sometimes the difference between a successful online marketing campaign and an unsuccessful one is a well-designed landing page.

Campaigns that have clear, concise, targeted messages that direct the audience to targeted landing pages will always out-perform ones that do not. We have briefly touched on targeted landing pages a few times before, but for the purpose of this article, we will explain why they are essential in any online (or offline) marketing campaign.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a page that typically exists on your website and delivers a clear, concise message to visitors. More importantly, they offer a clear path to purchase the product, or simply find out more information. Quite often, landing pages are developed to generate leads by collecting valuable contact information from potential customers. A great landing page can also be tailored to reflect the specific information in a marketing campagin, whether it is a sale or new product or service. Basically, landing pages are essential in a well oiled, effecient, lead-generating machine. We have some great examples in this article a bit further down.

What makes a great landing page for a marketing campaign?

There are a number of things that make a great landing page. The most important thing is that they are targeted. Landing pages are sort of the exact opposite of your website’s “home” page. The homepage of your company’s website needs to speak to a variety of products, services, and demographics. A landing page needs to talk only to the people that you send there, and only about the products or services that they are looking for.

Example time!

Let’s do a quick search for “new running shoes” on Google. We will get the below results:

The first two of the three results are paid positions. Sport Chek and Brooks are paying cold hard cash to Google every time someone clicks on one of those ads – so they better make sure they do a good job of converting those clicks to sales!

Lets look at Sport Check’s campaign. They are paying for an ad speaking to people looking for new running shoes, and they had a choice. 

Either they:

1. Send people to their homepage when they click on the ad, where they have information on all their latest sales, sports gear, atheletic wear, and of course, a bit on shoes.
2. send people to a page about running shoes

Which do you think is the better option, given the search term that is being used?

Running Shoes. Exactly. I think you've got it now.

Great landing page examples

Now that you know what a landing page is, and why they are useful tools in your marketing toolbox, lets look at some great examples!

Example 1: Highrise landing page.

Highrise is a great online software service that helps businesses manage customer relationships – they also have a great landing page.

We have a very clear picture of what the product is, a bullet-point list of its features, and obvious purchase path. The big green button at the bottom of the page is begging to be clicked on. This landing page also has a nice big testimonial – another thing that helps with conversion rates.

Example 2: Kelowna’s Quincy Vrecko and Associates "List Now" landing page

Tracey and Quincy Vrecko are two Kelowna realtors that are doing landing pages perfectly.

This campaign is free from distractions and gives visitors only one option – to find out what their home is worth. Visitors are encouraged to click the great, big, white button, and send their contact information to the Vrecko team, resulting in a lead for the realtors. Clear, concise, and to the point. 

Example #3: Mint.com and the perfect homepage

When you only have one service to sell, it makes designing a homepage for your website easy! In this case, the example is taken from the Mint.com homepage, but it still has all the characteristics of a great landing page. It is very clear what they are selling, and the benefits of their product. They also have a very easy to fill in form to start the process. Notice that they are only asking 3 questions from visitors. Try asking for as little as possible and see how it will effect your conversion rates.

Building your websites for conversions

Your website is a sales tool and you need to make sure it is converting visitors to customers. Having landing pages for different products, services, and offers will help convert those site visitors to company customers. At the recentOkanagan Marketing Summit that was hosted in Kelowna, BC, we gave a presentation on successful marketing strategies, and landing pages were the key ingredient in each one – make sure to check it out.

We have been seeing great results for businesses that focus on the sales funnel. Things that are measured tend to be improved, resulting in an overall refinement of the marketing strategy and a greater return on your marketing investment. If you need help reviewing your website’s conversion rates, sales funnel, or even setting up landing pages, don’t hesitate to contact us.