Page Landing – Cleared for Landing Page Design

Page Landing, sounds kind of corny huh? Back in the day, like last year, one page sales pitches were known as Landing Pages, Stealth Sites (or Stealth web sites) and now today some people refer to them as Squeeze Pages.

What Are Page Landings (aka Squeeze Pages)?

So, now that you are up to date on the terminology, what is IT?  A Landing Page by any other name is quite simply a one page ad. It shouldn’t be overly long, have a simple message (like what you’re offering), and a sign up box to capture an email address and/or a phone number. IMPORTANT: Landing Pages DO NOT link off to any site or company. They are a one page standalone “site”.

For most this is a free report or e-book, sometimes courses are offered, but mostly someone is selling a product. Now the most popular question is, why would I need that? I have a website or a blog. My site details everything we offer or sell.

Websites and blogs are great for telling your clients who you are, what you do and what you offer. However, I find that most people’s attention span is very short and if not, then the last thing they want to do is be sold something. I know when I’m in the mood to surf the Internet and something catches my attention I will probably read it regardless of length. But what about the times I’m surfing and not in the mood to read the history of the plastic bottle and why it should be recycled and how great your water bottle is in lessening the carbon footprint? I’ll be there and gone before you know it.

The Velvet Touch

Think of your landing page as an interactive postcard. Short sweet and to the point, but it allows you to collect contact information in exchange for buying your product or giving away a free e-book. This is called list building. Everyone needs to have a list. Why? Because this is how you sell your products or market a new product.

For example, I had a client that was in mortgages, but what do most people do when they see a mortgage site (even if they are giving away a free report?) run for the hills of course. So, we created a “stealth site” or landing page that offered the free report without the company’s name on (it was in the free report along with the company’s phone number, BUT it was not on the landing page). They collected the required Name and Email Address, and the phone number was optional. This allowed them to send follow-up emails about the report and other product specials to the potential borrower without the stress of some mortgage broker breathing down their neck. SIDE NOTE: You’d be amazed at how many people entered the optional phone number and were waiting for the company to call them to discuss their mortgage.

After you gather some basic information (and what basic information is is always up for debate) you can then send emails to your potential clients with details of that great water bottle and why they should buy it from you. Now there is a fine line between being informative and helping your clients and, well, um, Spamming.

SPAMMING – DO NOT DO THIS

Need I say more? OK, here’s another example (this time I’m the guinea pig). I signed up for this free e-book about using social media to promote my business. Once I read the e-book I found that it wasn’t well written, had a ton of typos, and really didn’t provide me with any information that I didn’t already know. OK, I got past that and was on my way to offering this person my services as a technical writer to make his book better, but before I got that far my inbox was filling up with one email after another from them.

Well, what better way to have someone unsubscribe then filling up their inbox? The company sent daily emails, and yes, before you asked, I didn’t unsubscribe right away because (1) I wanted to see if they would finally start sending me valuable information (which they didn’t) and (2) were they really going to send information everyday? (Call it research for this post.) As I look at my inbox (right now) I have 53 emails from them and only a few days (looks like Sunday) that they didn’t send an email to me. Want to guess how long I’ve been subscribed to their list? Want to guess how many of them I actually read?

Coming in For A Landing, Page Landing that is.

So, now that we’re cleared for landing, how do you go about designing or creating a landing page? Well, there are several ways of doing that. Preferably, you contact us. We can customize and setup a landing page for your business within 7 business days. Or you can do some research and download some free landing pages and do it yourself. Now keep in mind if you’re a DIY type person there is more than designing your squeeze page. You must also come up with a Domain Name and add some SEO to the page so that Google and those other necessary search engines can find you.

Now that you understand what a Landing Page is, take a second and tell us how you build your list.