Context! Context! Context!
Context helps to create a successful Landing Page. Similar to ‘Location, Location, Location!’ in real estate terms, when creating a landing page you need to create a page that speaks to everything the user experienced before clicking on your PPC ad, Display ad, Search Engine Result, Email, affiliate link, etc. This post will help you to learn how to create a successful landing page that is contextually efficient and profitable.
Here is an example of a landing page that is missing the context of their ad. Say you are searching for ‘insulated hot tub covers’ you are probably expecting to land on a page serving you exactly that, lots of insulated hot tub cover options to purchase. However, when you click on a paid link within the first page of the SERPS, you are led to the homepage of a hot tub site. This link doesn’t lead you directly to what you were looking for, only a cluttered homepage trying to sell you everything from hot tub spas, covers, to a multitude of accessories.
Now imagine this site is cluttered with no clear menu items, you spend about 1-2 seconds trying to quickly find the spa cover options, fail, then hit your back button to return to your search results page looking for cover options. The insulated hot tub covers were there – they were just at the bottom of the homepage, where you would have to scroll down and look in the footer for the menu to find them. The fail here comes from the website not having the correct page ranking in the SERPS for a specific query – therefore the customer is overwhelmed by not finding what they are looking for quickly, and moves on.
Correct Context Leads to Conversion
As in the above example, you can see that when context doesn’t align, the consumer gets frustrated and looks elsewhere. When searching for something online, you only have a finite amount of time to pull someone in before they quickly move on to the next option. Un-bounce co-founder Oli Gardner in his 7 Principles of Conversion Centered Design would consider the above ‘hot tub cover’ example message a “match fail”, and business is lost because there is no delivery of what was promised, almost a bait and switch issue.
If I were the hot tub cover supplier in this example, I would want the URL for my ‘insulated hot tub covers’ ad to take the potential customer directly to the ‘insulated hot tub covers’ product ‘landing’ page.
As Gardner states in his 7 Principles outline, there are many ways that people can come to your site, so always be aware of the intent and message of each advertisement and make sure the landing page is in sync with the look, feel and product options the ad is selling. Online advertisements can be through paid advertising like:
- Pay Per Click
- Display ads
- Facebook ads
- Email advertising
- Affiliate marketing
No matter where the visitor is coming from, brands need to be aware that the tone of the advertisement or affiliate link needs to match the tone of the landing page. Time is limited and expectations are high, so if you promise something on the front end, the only way to win is to offer it after the click in a clear and succinct way that provides confidence to the consumer. I hope this was helpful in teaching you (at least in one area) how to create a successful landing page. Please leave any comments or feedback.
To learn additional ways to increase your conversion rate you can read about credibility, clarity, and more on the iMarketing site.