Having a WordPress website gives you a great deal of flexibility with pages, content and marketing. Landing pages are a key element of online marketing campaigns and being able to create them quickly and efficiently with WordPress gives you an advantage.
A landing page is a page with a particular focus. Typically designed for maximum conversion with little distraction from your primary goal. A landing page is different to a general page or post on your website. The pages on your website provide an overall view of your products or services and can have a focus on delivering an extensive range of information, trust factors and in-depth illumination. A landing page facilitates the action you want someone to take when they have clicked on a promotional campaign.
Situations when a landing page can be invaluable include:
- Social media campaigns
- Paid search campaigns
- eBook promotions
- Local marketing
- Lead magnets
- Retargeting advertising
- Launch campaigns
- Building your email list
- Marketing funnels
Landing page design
The actual content design of your landing page is critical. This article focuses on what tools are available to build your landing pages. Look out for my landing page design article. You need to consider; headlines, call-to-action copy and imagery, all blended and balanced to encourage a conversion.
Minimise distractions
Landing pages are all about focus and presenting your offer in a clear and compelling design. With the only focus being on the benefits of your message and the goal you want the visitor to take. Try not to offer them links to other parts of your website or links to external websites and domains. Keep them on this page to complete the action you want them to take. Keep any navigation to a minimum or even consider no navigation. Keep messages clear and any imagery relevant and supporting the primary goal. Remove any sidebars or distracting footer content. Keep your visitor focused on the task at hand.
Match your message
Your landing page has to have the same look and feel as the advert or the thing they clicked on to end up at your landing page. Make sure copy matches the original offer and that images are the same used in the external link. Avoid any confusing call-to-action and keep the look and feel professional and easy to use.
Split testing
Split testing or A/B testing is a way of creating a variant of your landing page and using software to track which variant converts visitors the best. The 'winning' design can then be split tested again with another option – the outcome being a high converting page.
Landing page plugins for WordPress
The benefit of having a WordPress website is that there is a good range of plugins available to help you create landing pages right within the WordPress dashboard, which saves time and also keeps the page on your website without sending your visitor to another platform. There is an ever-increasing range of landing page plugins available; I am not going to cover all of them here, just a few of my favourites (note: a couple of links are affiliate links and are highlighted as such).
Thrive Leads
Thrive Leads WordPress plugin which requires a self-hosted WordPress website. It includes a wide range of opt-in forms with a simple drag and drop editor. A/B testing feature, reports and insight and a range of templates to get you started. This is a paid for plugin packed with features. Thrive have a full suite of tools that includes Thrive Architect, Thrive Headline Optimiser, Thrive Themes to name a few.
OptimizePress
OptimizePress provides both a plugin and a theme. The plugin provides great flexibility to create landing pages and lets you retain the design and layout of your current theme. It has a live editing feature, mobile ready and quite a few custom elements.
Optinmonster
Optinmonster isn't strictly a landing page builder it is designed to create lead capture forms with tracking and split testing included. It has a wide range of features and form types. The reason I include it here is that you could use Optinmonster throughout your website to drive results. Yes, on a dedicated landing page but also with Exit intent, a lightbox that opens as a visitor leaves your website. Providing a useful prompt a visitors disappears.
Beaverbuilder
Beaverbuilder is a page builder plugin. Not explicitly created to design landing pages. However, it is an easy to use drag-and-drop tool with real-time feedback on what your page will look like when published. It comes with a range of landing page templates built in and works with a wide range of themes.
Remember the 'Thank You'
Always remember to create an informative and useful 'Thank You' page that opens when a visitor has completed your landing page goal. A 'Thank You' page is critical for tracking, conversions and communicating 'what happens next' to your visitor. Include information on how they will receive the next stage of information or content, other useful information, up-sells and cross links.
The Takeaway
With an ever-increasing need to be able to create new pages for a specific promotion quickly, WordPress combined a landing page plugin can be a cost-effective and streamlined way to build conversion driving content for your website. With each new campaign or promotion you create, you can build a new focused landing page quickly and track and test for maximum results.
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