Close your eyes and picture the homepage of a typical software company—it can be your own site, if you have one, or somebody else’s.
What do you see?
Probably many things. That’s because typically a homepage is designed with a general, exploratory purpose in mind. It speaks to brand and corporate values.
And it’s likely loaded with links and navigation to other areas, whether that’s info about your team and company, editorial content designed for search engine optimization, or other marketing materials such as press clippings, white papers, case studies, and social media feeds.
In short, there’s a lot on the typical homepage. For most businesses, it’s probably a necessary evil to have all these links. But they won’t do your conversion rates any favors.
A landing page, on the other hand, has a singular purpose: converting your website’s visitors into customers or leads.
How does it accomplish this? Well, when it comes down to it, there are really two factors set landing pages apart from everything else on your site: attention ratio and message match. Let’s explore.
Attention Ratio
Every link on a page that doesn’t represent your conversion goal is a distraction that will dilute your message and reduce your conversion rate.
Attention ratio is the number of things you can do on a given webpage versus the number of things you really should be doing in order to convert.
While a homepage might have a ratio of 30:1 or higher—essentially, 30 shiny objects vying for the visitor’s attention—a successful landing page will get as close as possible to a 1:1 attention ratio.
Landing Page Navigation
The biggest culprit when it comes to creating leaks on your landing page is navigation. Whether it’s found at the top or bottom of the page, it will carry visitors away from your call-to-action and flick the invisible switch in their brains from “buy” to “explore.” For that reason, keep navigation off your landing page whenever possible.
Yes, that means your visitors won’t have a direct path to the rest of your website. But, if you want them to convert, that’s a good thing.
Message Match
Have you ever walked into a restaurant that looked promising from the outside, only to realize that, yeeeah, you don’t actually want to eat there? (Is that a cockroach!?)
Message match is the ability of your landing page to accurately reflect the ad copy that got your visitor to the page in the first place. People leave restaurants before being seated all the time when their expectations aren’t matched, and they do this frequently on the web too.
Most visitors will leave your site within a few seconds of arrival if you don’t reinforce their mission, so it’s crucial that the buyer’s journey flows smoothly from ad to page. By ensuring a strong message match, you’re letting them know that they’ve made a “good click” and helping them along.
Another Big Reason You Should Choose Landing Pages
It’s entirely possible to create landing pages that adhere to the rules above using your existing development resources—provided you have them.
The problem is that creating new pages on a traditional site can take a lot of time (and money) and it likely needs to be done by devs outside of your marketing team. Often, you risk ending up with something you don’t want in a timeframe that doesn’t work.
By using a landing page builder, like Unbounce, you can design and publish pages in a matter of hours, without the support of a development team. Drag-and-drop features and various integrations allow you to create, track, and optimize your pages for maximum impact.
And if you are looking for a professional who can help you in creating that perfect tailor made landing page for your website which also provides you a great conversion rate, then feel free to send us a mail at Info@arkitglobal.com