Since it’s the summer, I think it is time for some Summer School! So this blog post and maybe the next couple are going to focus on your education. Specifically, your Digital Marketing Education. I’m going to pick three Digital Marketing Terms, and demystify them. So welcome to Digital Marketing Summer School, Lesson One.

Digital Marketing Summer School, Lesson One:
What is a Landing Page?

This simple explanation below is from a great company called LeadPages. They live, breathe and die by landing pages, and they are a great resource. So here’s what they have to say about Landing Pages…

A landing page is any web page you set up that’s designed to:

a) Collect traffic (from one or several sources), and

b) Prompt visitors to take a specific action. (aka a “call to action”… stay tuned for lesson two in the next blog post)

So, let’s look at an example. Here’s a Google Adwords Campaign, designed to “collect traffic”…

People who Google “rainwater harvesting” are shown this ad, and if it seems to match what they are looking for, they hopefully click on the ad, which takes them to this purpose-built landing page. It has a very clear call to action… Get A Quote On Rainwater Harvesting. It also has a catchy headline, some basic information, and some branding. It doesn’t have menus or sidebars, anything that distracts from the the very specific goal in mind… getting the quote request.

Of course, the definition above covers a lot of different kinds of pages. Let’s play LeadPages‘ quick game of “Landing Page or Not a Landing Page?” and consider some potentially tricky examples.

• Registration page for a webinar you’ve promoted on social media: Yep, definitely a landing page.
• Page listing your business’s address, hours, and contact information: Not a landing page—it doesn’t ask visitors to take further action.
• Pre-launch page where visitors can sign up to receive updates on an upcoming product release: Landing page!
• Sales page promoting the benefits of one of your support plans: Could definitely be a landing page, especially if it has a button to purchase or sign up.
• E-commerce page listing all your inventory: Probably not a landing page—it offers dozens (maybe hundreds) of potential choices for visitors to make, so the goal’s not well defined.

Hopefully that helps you understand what we digital marketers are talking about when we talk about Landing Pages. Stay tuned for my next lesson… the “Call To Action”.

Happy Summer, Everyone!