How to Create Landing Pages for Your Business -- and 7 Reasons You Should

Landing pages have one purpose: To get people who visit the page to convert to the next phase of the buying journey, whatever that means for your brand. Do you want people to sign up for a free trial of your plan? Purchase immediately? Subscribe to your newsletter?In an ideal scenario, the customer experience on your landing page should work like this:

1. Click link2. Read content3. Click ‘go’ and...

drumroll, please!

4. Conversion is complete. Your visitor is excited about your offer, and you’ve added to your customer-lead database.

While the end goal is to increase conversions, a targeted landing page – linked to a unique campaign URL -- offers several other benefits for your business.By the way, any campaign you build using ShortStack, whether it's a contest, a quiz or a newsletter signup, technically functions as a landing page. Yes, you can publish your campaigns to Facebook but we don't recommend that anymore. We recommend embedding campaigns. Why? You have much more control over landing pages than you do over anything published as a Facebook tab.With that said, here are seven reasons to create landing pages for your business:

You're seen by your customers, wherever they are

Your landing page URL is published to the web – people can access it from any marketing channel.You can also promote your campaign URL online, by including the link in emails, on your website, and in online ads. Links can also be included offline in print ads, brochures, or in-store materials.The result? Increased views, higher engagement, and more entries.

ShortStack's Landing Page with Form template

You’re brand-building with each conversion

Delivering a landing page with a clear, succinct call-to-action – with a bit of fun thrown in the mix – enhances your credibility as a brand that knows how to run a successful business. Customer journeys don’t necessarily begin with a visit to your homepage anymore. For some potential users, your landing page may be their first online engagement with you. Your landing page is an opportunity to start a ‘conversation’ that can lead to a long-term relationship.

You have design freedom

A landing page that lives outside your website allows you to choose the features and contest requirements important to your campaign goal, without having to conform to any website architectural restrictions. You’re also free from the constraints of various social media platforms' guidelines.But design freedom isn’t a license to add clutter (e.g., links or menus to your homepage). Focusing on the campaign’s purpose will help the customer focus, too.The landing page also provides an opportunity for visual freedom – a bright orange call to action may get the results you need, even though it falls outside the corporate website color guidelines.

ShortStack's Pick Your Discount template View and Create Your Own

You don't have to worry about social media policy changes

Building a campaign on a landing page means not worrying about policy changes, downtime, or outages on social networks. As long as ShortStack is up and running, you're running, and we have a 99.8% uptime rate.Remember, a good landing page has no global navigation tying it to your website. Although you have design flexibility with a landing page, the separateness from your website means you’ll need to make sure the landing page carries similar, complementary branding. Continuity in branding helps fans viewing the landing page recognize that the campaign belongs to you.One way to quickly brand your landing page is to customize your campaign URL with the brand or business name. This reinforces your brand in the customers’ minds, fostering trust and increasing your click-through-rate.

You can collect leads and build targeted lists

The independence of a landing page provides you with an opportunity to reach out to potential customers without cluttering your website.Keep in mind, though, effective landing pages are concise and have straightforward ‘asks’ of customers. If you do decide to capture information, keep your forms short and simple. You’ll achieve a higher conversion rate by respecting your customers’ time.

ShortStack's Video Landing Page template

Simple campaign measurement

Landing pages will typically have only one CTA on the page (with a possible ‘upsize’ or additional offer as a conversion safety net). As a result, you’ll quickly be able to employ analytics to evaluate success – visitors to the page either complete an action or they don’t. If performance isn’t as high as your targeted goal, you can make refinements to the page.

Greater campaign accountability

Having your campaigns anchored to a landing page separate from your main website gives you greater visibility to each campaign. Reports on single-goal landing pages can tell you who and what has the strongest performance. If ten people on your team link campaign traffic back to your homepage, you won’t have visibility and your team members won’t have accountability. It’s likely important to your team members to ‘own’ a campaign, especially when results are stellar!Your campaign landing page, much like the drive-up window, should enable your customers to quickly answer these questions:

• Who are you and what do you do?
• Why are you valuable or interesting to them?
• What should they do next?

With strong design, creative copy, and a compelling offer, your campaign will deliver great customer experience. You’ll generate conversions and build your brand and your business.

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