How do you think of your landing page?
I just came across this article on searchengineland.com this morning on landing pages, and since I just attended a conference on landing page optimization last week, I found it quite interesting and thought I would write about it a little here. It talked about how most landing pages are created and managed like it is part of the web site alone, when in actuality it should be thought of as a part of your web site AND as a part of your ads. So people should think of their landing pages as little of both instead of one or the other. This doesn’t always happen, but there should be some kind collaboration between the people creating the landing pages and the people creating the ads. This way there is some sort of connection between what people see in an ad and what they see after the click. The problem occurs when ads are developed and created at a much faster rate than new landing pages are developed. So companies have many ad creatives but a minimal number of landing pages. Your thinking of landing pages should be shifted to be more a part of your advertising. This article suggests changing your perspective from site landing pages to advertising landing pages. When you create your ads, you create your pages–you try to match them very closely so the ad placements now correspond to the landing pages. This way, the ad is view as the first step of the experience-one step in a sequence that has been carefully designed and executed. A good example given is snail mail. The outside envelope has limited creative space, just like text ads do. The goal of the envelope is to get you to look inside–this is sort of the equivalent of getting the click. The outside envelope and inside envelope are most usually designed together. They are part of the same marketing objective. If landing pages are thought of this way, building them as part of the advertising, this can help with your online marketing. The people creating and executing your ads ideally should be have the power to create, test, and analyze your landing pages. The goal being to launch a new landing page as easily as creating a new Google Adwords ad. Maintaining a high brand of standards in your landing pages is important, as well as making it quick and easy for a marketer, not a designer, to produce a quality landing page experience. Changing your thinking for site landing pages to advertising landing pages is a new way to think of both your landing pages and your advertising. Interesting stuff!
On another note, we want to congratulate our co-worker, Karen, who just gave birth to beautiful twin baby boys on Monday night. Congratulations, Karen!!!
