The goal of today's web site is more significant and more difficult than ever, especially when it comes to a multichannel sales strategy. Consumers arrive at your web site through a variety of online channels: pay-per-click (PPC) and organic search, e-mail offers and print offline ads. Once there, they need to complete the objective of acting upon a promotion, or buying a specific product.

If their entry leaves them unsatisfied because they don't see anything relevant to what drove them there, they're most likely to exit, having wasted their time and your marketing dollars. Landing pages serve as a bridge between the marketing tactic that brought visitors to the site and the site functionality that enables them to take action, such as making a purchase or submitting a lead.

== Minimizing Bounces ==

A web site landing page is simply a page that keeps the momentum going from the referring channel's message. A common attribute might be the pay-per-click search keywords that brought them to the site, or a specific e-mail campaign that was clicked on.

In fact, personalized landing pages with keyword search terms appear more germane to visitors who have landed via a specific search engine query. As a result, fewer "bounces" take place. A bounce is a visitor who hits the landing page, stays for a brief time, then clicks the back button to return to the search engine page -- in essence a totally useless paid click. Targeted landing pages diminish this risk.

For example, an e-mail campaign for a discounted travel package would bring the visitor directly to a landing page that reassuringly describes the offer in more detail and provides links to check availability and confirm the trip. It appears simple enough, but put yourself in the visitor's shoes and do a few online searches of your own. You'll be amazed at how many retailers still aren't using landing pages.

== Tipsand Tricks ==

Creating a effective landing page isn't challenging, and you can easily experiment and learn as you go. First, figure out which page you'll utilize as the landing page for a specific promotion. You may very well have a current web page that you can use (one that's more specific than your homepage), but if you don't, consider publishing a new landing page. If that's the case, keep in mind these six best practices:

(1)Include a graphic along with the offer for visual appeal.

(2)Eliminate navigation to keep visitors focused on the objective and reduce distraction.

(3)Keep the graphic design standards of your primary web site so visitors will immediately recognize your brand.

(4)Include a compelling call-to-action that should relate to the offer. For example, the copy for the travel campaign above could have a call-to-action such as ?Save Money?Reserve Now.?

(5)Minimize data collection as much as possible to decrease abandonment. If you must collect more information, try putting those fields onto a form on a second page; the effect is that by the time visitors click through to this additional page, they've already created some momentum in the conversion process and are less likely to leave.

(6)Whenever asking for personal information, include privacy and security statements to help establish trust.

Landing pages for lead-generation sites typically should focus on a single, specific objective -- getting the user to register or submit a lead. These kinds of landing pages should have very little unrelated navigation or content, and should display only relevant, reassuring content that encourages consumers to efficiently take the next step in the registration process. There are many similarities to direct mail. Every piece of literature, every page, every visual and every word in a direct mail promotion serves a very specific goal -- there's no waste. Everything is focused on getting the recipient to respond. The same goes with lead-generation landing pages.

Also, remember that you'll need to include the landing page's URL in the hyperlink of the message on the referring channel. For example, pay-per-click search, e-mail, and print hyperlinks should all point to your specific landing page.

== Raising it Up a Notch ==

Once you've made landing pages as part of your marketing toolbox, you should set your sights on optimizing them for the greatest efficiency. Direct marketers have utilized A/B split testing for decades to discover which competing ad or sales letter works most effectively, and you can do the same with landing pages.

For example, does putting your product's cost on the landing page make more sales than if you required the user to click onto the following page before showing price? Using A/B testing, or more sophisticated multivariate testing, you can learn exactly which combination of alternate offers, headlines, copy, images and calls-to-action are most persuasive to visitors.

In addition to A/B and multivariate testing, you can also use behavioral targeting methods to present consumers with landing pages that are personalized based on whether the user is new versus returning, time of day or day of week, and so on. Utilizing behavioral targeting alongside testing, you can easily optimize promotions and other factors that will drive increased conversions and increased loyalty. For example:

*Employ and test multiple landing page strategies to learn which is most efficient on a segment-by-segment basis.

*Dramatically increase leads and conversions generated by PPC traffic, without increasing your SEM budget.

*Identify search terms and keywords that will yield the best quality traffic, then target those segments with specific, highly optimized promotions and relevant landing pages.

Landing pages are an significant component that should be in every online marketer's toolbox. Try out the tactics outlined in this article to produce better landing pages for your visitors. By optimizing landing pages through the steps of testing and targeting, you'll not only increase the effectiveness of your online marketing dollars, but you'll learn unique and valuable insights into what persuades your visitors to take action.