Customer Acquisition Through Custom Landing Pages

I have a love/hate relationship with shopping online. I love being able to type in what I want and buy it in just a few steps. I hate when I have to jump through hoops to get to, or even find, the shopping cart.

Being in the Internet marketing field makes me intensely critical of ecommerce Web sites. It’s truly amazing how few companies do it right. It is fairly easy to type something into Google and land at the appropriate product page in the natural results. What confounds me is how companies pay to be in the sponsored results but never seem to send me where I want to be.

For example, I was recently shopping for a DKNY coat so I typed it into Google. Out of the top 5 paid search results, only one of them actually took me to a page with DKNY coats on them.

That one site was Nordstrom.com. It provided pictures of 6 coats and when I clicked on one, it went right to a page where I could add it to my shopping cart. Obviously Nordstrom understands customer acquisition. The others need to go back to pay-per-click 101.

It’s not just pay-per-click that so many companies mess up; it’s online advertising in general. What seems like common sense to me, few marketing people grasp: the concept of custom landing pages.

When I develop a marketing campaign intended to take someone to a Web page, I create a unique page designed especially for that campaign. This landing page is a stand-alone page to which I send my customers that drives them to action. It targets specific audiences and leads them directly to a sale, or when necessary, directs them deeper into my site.

It’s not rocket science. It’s not even brain surgery. It’s a simple customer acquisition engine.

Getting Them There

Various marketing methods such as search engine optimization, banner ads, promotions, direct mail, email, television and print advertising should not lead customers to your home page. Oftentimes home pages have too many options and no clear path to follow.

A landing page is a more effective marketing tool than a regular Web page because it is specifically designed to highlight one or a few products or services. It is typically more focused than other Web pages. At their simplest level, landing pages provide limited information with two options: “buy now” or “learn more.”

The Call to Action

The singular purpose of a landing page is to make someone do something.
The primary call to action is to buy now (or sign up, or whatever you decide leads to “conversion”). This receives prime real estate and a prominent graphical treatment on the landing page.

The secondary action to learn more is slightly less noticeable, but is still highlighted somehow on the page. This streamlines the conversion process, allowing those customers who are ready to buy to act and providing those customers who need more information with the resources they want.

The buy now link leads customers to the acquisition page, whether that is a shopping cart or a registration page. The learn more link goes to the individual product page where customers can read about a specific product. This page then has a buy now link to the acquisition page.

An effective landing page may have two options, but the calls to action all eventually lead to the same place: the acquisition page. Landing pages are all about customer acquisition.

Navigation

Landing pages are unique in that they are merely means to an end and therefore do not have to follow the same constructs of a company Web site. While it follows usability best practices to have global navigation for your site on every page, the landing page can survive without it. If it confuses the customer and detracts from those calls to action, it’s better to leave it off. Whatever you choose to do, make sure the navigation is clear and simple.

Landing Page Guidelines

When building a landing page, certain guidelines should be followed to make it as effective as possible.

1. Your landing page should graphically match your advertising campaign.
Create your landing page to reflect the look and feel of your banner ad, direct mail piece or television commercial. Don’t concern yourself as much with branding the landing page to match the company. They’ll see your corporate brand when they land at the real Web site.

2. The action you advertise should be available on the landing page.
If your advertisement is all about saving 20% on your product, make sure the landing page provides the means to do that. Don’t send customers on a wild goose chase to perform an action. Get it right up front on that first landing page so conversion is as easy as possible.

3. Show only the product(s) you’re advertising.
This is a tricky one. While you may want to include related products on a landing page, it’s best to stick to the bare minimum. Otherwise, you give your customer too many options, making it harder for them to make that snap decision.

Customer acquisition on the Web requires simplicity and easy maneuvering. When it comes to Internet marketing, you need to predict what your customers want and then give it to them in as few steps as possible. Whether you’re running a direct mail promotion or pay-per-click campaign, a custom landing page is vital to maintain a sense of consistency and ease.

I judge Nordstrom by their Web site, and your customers are doing the same.