ReDrew Innovations

As a small business owner, you might be wondering if landing pages are still relevant to your business. Throughout this article, I will walk through what a landing page is, how it is different from a home page, and provide examples of good and bad landing pages. I will also walk you through the creation of a landing page for a local small business in Bellingham. 

What is a Landing Page

According to Unbounce, the #1 landing page and AI copywriting platform:

With only this definition in mind, you might be thinking, as a small business I don’t have the funds necessary to run an advertising or PPC (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/utilizing-ppc-increase-brand-awareness-rebecca-andrews/) campaign. However, for a small business, landing pages can also be used to increase conversions. According to Neil Patel, a successful digital marketer,

So if you’re a small business and you’re interested in learning how to have a consumer purchase your product or services, then landing pages will be useful for your business. 

Landing Page Versus Homepage

As a small business owner, you might be wondering how is a landing page different from a homepage. Right below this paragraph, you’ll see a image of a homepage and below that, an image of a landing page. 

As you might have gleaned already, a landing page has a lot fewer stimuli on it than that a homepage. A homepage might include the same content as a landing page, but it will also include other paths like a navigation map, product or service content, features, and resources.

Whereas the single purpose of a landing page is to only provide enough information to get a consumer to convert while avoiding unnecessary stimuli that can distract consumers to other paths. A landing page should consist of a:

• Headline
• Subheadline
• Call to action (CTA)

1 Bad Landing Page Versus 2 Great Landing Pages

    Since it can be just as important to learn by seeing what not to do. I will share an example of a landing page by See’s Chocolate that isn’t the best landing page and analyze how it could be better.

See’s Candies

Searching up the keyword “sees chocolate” on Google I was able to find a PPC ad for See’s Candies. A couple of reasons why this landing page isn’t optimized include:

• Distracting Images: Visually the images are very stimulating and would cause consumers to block out any stimuli that are too overwhelming. That may also lead consumers to block out you’re CTA.

Small-scale CTA: The purpose of a landing page is to get consumers to convert to a user. If it isn’t clear what you want consumers to do next, they will either bounce from yo Searching up the keyword “sees chocolate” on Google I was able to find a PPC ad for See’s Candies. A couple of reasons why this landing page isn’t optimized include:

Curl Smith

Searching up the keyword “curly hair products” on Google I was able to find a PPC ad for Curl Smith. A free reason why this landing page a good includes:

• Good structure: The heading and subheading are visible and separated by varying font sizes.
• Clear CTA: The Call to action of “don’t miss out” clearly stands out from the background image and is highlighted. Also, the CTA is personalized to fit this promotional ad and is strong, using a fear appeal to push consumers to not miss this opportunity. 

Cetaphil

When searching the keyword “face wash” on Google I found this PPC ad for Cetaphil. I like this landing page because it includes:

• Good Structure
• Clear CTA
• Listed Benefits: This landing page lists vital information that benefits the consumer and may sway them to purchase the product. That information is also listed with bullet points to provide a clear structure for the consumer, so they don’t become overwhelmed.
• Social Proof: This landing page also has clear symbols right under the header that lets consumers know that others have found value in this product. This approval makes consumers value the product more as they know others have agreed that it is a socially acceptable product. 

Creating A Landing Page For Calypso Kitchen

Building a landing page might seem daunting for a small business owner especially when you don’t know about digital marketing. Below are 7 steps that small business owners can follow to build a great landing page.

Step 1: Determine The Need For A Landing Page

The first step in creating a landing page is to determine that your business needs a webpage for it’s PPC ad, or a webpage focused on driving conversions. For Calypso Kitchen, there is a need for a landing page focused on converting consumers.

Step 2: Create Your Copy  

In marketing, copy refers to text-based material used to educate your consumers. Marketers use the Unique Selling Propositions (USP) of a brand to communicate to consumers the value of their brand. The USP is what differentiates your brand from that your competition.

For example, Calypso Kitchen is the only catering company in Bellingham that offer Caribbean cuisine. It is also one of the few brands that offers private catering at consumers home.

Brands can also use emotional appeal to resonate with their consumers. For example, with Calypso Kitchen, we provide the emotional benefit of taking the pressure off event holders so that they can spend time socializing at their event.  

Step 3 Create Your CTA

With your USP in mind, you can now create a personalized and strong call to action. For example, Calypso Kitchen’s call to action can be:

• View Caribbean menu
• Contact us about your event
• Book Calypso Kitchen now
• I need catering

Step 4 Design Your Landing Page

The next step is to design your landing page. If your small business already has WordPress or Wix, those are great tools to build your landing page on or you can utilize Swipe Pages, Hubspot, or Mailchimp. When designing your business landing page make sure to:

• Create a consistent visual appeal with your current brand or campaign
• Keep forms on your landing page simple
• Ensure landing page copy is clear and concise
• Include vital information above the fold on your landing pages
• Your call to action should be near the top of the page
• Use a few images if they support them, they would be the landing page

Step 5: Connect Your Landing Page  

Brands should then attach their landing page to their PPC ad or organic content.

Step 6: Promote your landing page

If you’re a small business and you can’t utilize PPC ads, you can still promote your landing page through organic content. For example, you can share images and videos about your product or service to share on social media platforms and then attach a link to your landing page. Or brands can create blog posts that link to their newly created landing pages.

Step 7 Analyze Results and Optimize

Now that your landing page is created and traffic is being directed to it, a business needs to track it’s analytics and adapt. Small businesses can you Google Analytics 4 to view their website results as it is free and tracks many conversions.

Small businesses must define their key performance indicators (KPIs) for their landing page. For example, for Calypso Kitchen, a KPI of our landing page would be the number of consumers who book catering.

Once a brand knows how to track the landing page, they can then go back and review what aspects of their landing page consumers are responding well to and what could be AB tested to be better.

Conclusion

Landing pages are important assets to a small business as they help to increase conversions. As it is now known from my reading, creating a landing page is quite simple with as little as 7 steps. Even if you don’t have the time to create a landing page as a busy small business owner, you can still give your digital marketing agency this article to reference when detailing what it is you want your landing page to look like.