It’s common for businesses to send traffic directly to their website. This seems logical enough on the surface. After all, you want to introduce potential customers to your business and let them know all about you. The problem with this approach is that the information on your website is probably too general and spread out to make a strong impact. What you really need is a targeted landing page that solves a specific problem or addresses a specific issue that concerns your audience. Let’s look at the top reasons why you shouldn’t send people to your website.
The Purpose of a Landing Page
People who are new to online marketing often don’t understand the difference between sending visitors to a landing page as opposed to a website’s home page. A landing page is a page designed to appeal to a specific audience. Your home page, meanwhile, is the page that describes your business in general terms and links to all of your website’s other pages.
One purpose of a landing page is to sell a specific product, describing its features and benefits. If you sell multiple items, it’s often best to create separate landing pages for each of them. Landing pages are also extremely effective for obtaining leads. Visitors type in their email addresses in exchange for a gift or a subscription to your newsletter. Surely you’ve encountered this all over the internet. There’s a reason why so many marketers employ this tactic. It gives them the ability to send out emails whenever they want to targeted prospects. Using a landing page in this way is also called a sales funnel. The landing page is the top of the funnel that gets people interested.
Although the strength of a landing page is its focus, it’s fine to provide links to your website for people who want to learn more about you. Links to your Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media pages are also good.
Why Not to Send People to Your Home Page
Your website’s home page is like the lobby of an office building. The lobby may have a directory posted by the elevators where visitors look up the floor and office number they need. Or visitors sign in at a desk in the lobby. Your website is the digital version of this. The problem is, people on the internet are not patient. If they’re not presented with the specific information they’re seeking, they are likely to abandon your site and look elsewhere.
One solution is to try to stuff as much information as possible on your home page. This might include links to other pages, product descriptions, images, videos, and other relevant items. This tends to make your page cluttered and unfocused. Visitors don’t know what to look at first and they end up missing what they came for.
If your home page is like the lobby of a large office building, a targeted landing page is like a small, well-arranged store. As soon as the customer walks in the door, he or she knows exactly what’s for sale. Similarly, a landing page puts specific information in front of your visitors. This prevents them from getting confused or distracted.
How to Make the Most of Your Landing Pages
Now that we’ve covered why it makes more sense to send traffic to a landing page than to your home page, let’s look at some ways to make your landing pages more effective.
- Add features that make your offer more compelling, such as images or a video. On the other hand, don’t clutter your landing page with too many items.
- Testimonials and reviews are effective to build trust and credibility.
- Make sure that the focus of your landing page closely matches the ad or content that people clicked on to get there. Never misrepresent your offer to get more clicks.
- Landing pages aren’t only good for sales funnels. A good landing page is educational and gives your visitors an introduction to your products and business.
To find out how to make your website a more effective tool for getting clients, contact us
