Landing pages reside outside the normal navigation of your website and are used to capture leads from various channels,  such as email marketing, banner ads, pay-per-click ads or search engine optimization (SEO). Landing pages serve a singular purpose – to fulfill the offer advertised. To drive up conversions (leads captured via submitted forms), follow these best practices.

  1. Match the look and feel of the ad or email that drives traffic to the landing page. Keep it simple. A cluttered page with too much content will confuse prospects and they will likely bail.
  2. Target your audience with relevant messages and content. Focus on the benefits of the offer – what prospects will learn, how it can impact their business, etc. Make sure the headline and value proposition match what is in the ad. Consider adding a testimonial from a satisfied customer or quote from an analyst that supports your product or services offering.
  3. Include a single call to action/offer that is available once the prospect submits a form. The best offers for B2B continue to be free educational content such as white papers, case studies and product comparisons. Pull some key points from the content so viewers can get a taste of what they’ll receive once they obtain the offer.
  4. Only ask for a few pieces of information in the form – name, company and email should be mandatory for B2B programs. Include an option for the viewer to receive a phone call if they prefer not to submit the form.
  5. Do not include links to other content or web pages on the landing page. The goal is to have the person fill in their information in the form, submit it and retrieve the offer.
  6. Do include a “thank you” page with links to additional content and your company’s contact information.
  7. Test, test, test. Try different offers, layout and messaging to measure what drives the most conversions. Don’t overlook other elements such as buttons and button copy.

According to Fireclick, conversion rates for email marketing in the software industry is only in the .03%-.04% range. Benchmark for yourself what your average conversion rates are for ads, emails, or other channels and then test until you are satisfied with the results. Check out marketingexperiments.com for more tips and examples of optimized landing pages. And let me know what’s working for your B2B campaigns.