When you send an email, more often than not, you want your subscribers to take action. Whether it’s signing up to an event, purchasing a product, downloading an eBook, emails are designed to incite action.
But how can you get your subscribers to do just that? Unfortunately, a brilliant email campaign alone isn’t always enough. To boost conversion rates, you can pair your email campaigns with an equally effective landing page.
Email marketing and landing pages are powerful tools on their own. But together, they’re an unstoppable marketing force.
Landing pages work well with emails because they create a streamlined flow from one touchpoint to the next. Read our blog to learn how email marketing and landing pages can work together to deliver impressive results.
What are email landing pages and why are they important?
A landing page is a dedicated page designed to convert visitors into leads. In this instance, users will arrive there after clicking a link in an email.
There are a number of common landing page attributes including:
- A form where visitors can enter details such as their name and email address
- An engaging and relevant call to action
- A clean page design so as not to distract the user from the page’s purpose
But why are they so important to your email marketing campaign? The sole purpose of an email marketing landing page is to move prospects through your sales funnel. This is a place to build a repository of leads that can be nurtured with personalised marketing campaigns using further emails, paid ads or other targeted advertising.
4 key benefits of landing pages
Here are some of the top benefits of using landing pages for your email marketing campaigns:
- Generate more leads and conversions: A relevant landing page will interest visitors, encouraging them to give you their details in return for something valuable. This will also result in a bigger email list for you to market to.
- Better customer insights: A landing page makes it possible to collect valuable data that can empower your team to improve their marketing activities in the future. By collating relevant data from your audience, you can get to know your potential customers better and have more in-depth insights into their wants and needs.
- Targeted content: The best landing pages are targeted. This means you can create super-specific content such as messaging, imagery and offers to ensure it resonates with the audience you’re targeting.
- Simple campaign measurement: With only one call to action on a landing page, your analytics become much easier to track. A user only has two options – to complete your desired action or not so you can see exactly how well your landing page is performing.
You know what they are and why they’re so important. The next step is to actually create a landing page that converts.
10 email landing page best practices for increasing conversions
Just as the design of your email can make a big difference to success, landing page design also matters. By following best practices, conversion rates can dramatically rise.
1) Know your audience
When implementing your marketing activities, you should always have a representative customer in mind – often known as a buyer persona.
Once you know what type of audience you want to attract, it’s much easier to create a landing page that will entice them to provide their details or take action. It also gives you the insight to make adjustments, for example, using larger fonts if your audience is older.
If you already have a large subscriber list, you may even want to segment your data. This allows you to create unique landing pages based on unique segments such as age or gender.
2) Write captivating headlines
Just like your email campaigns, success is heavily reliant on the headline of your landing page. When it comes to creating a headline for your landing page, make sure it’s in line with where the traffic has come from otherwise this could lead to confusion and prospects clicking away.
It needs to capture the user’s attention and make them want to continue reading. It’s the first thing they’ll see when they land on your page, but you don’t want it to be their last.
3) Make your CTA irresistible
Your engaging headline and considered copy must support an irresistible CTA. It can be tempting to add multiple CTAs to drive traffic to other parts of your website that need visibility, but this can often dilute the attention of your audience and should be avoided.
Your primary CTA should be placed above the fold. Think about the language you use and what you are offering. You may offer your audience something they want such as a one-off discount to increase the chances of conversion.
4) Build trust with your audience
The truth is prospects will trust the opinion of a stranger more than your marketing. Shoppers are aware that your objective is to sell. Therefore, the power of reviews from genuine customers who have used your products or services is significant.
Nothing inspires trust and confidence in a potential customer more than an authentic testimonial from a satisfied customer. Including these testimonials on your landing page is a great way to encourage users to take action.
Social proof, also known as user-generated content (UGC), can be collated from multiple places including your Instagram feed, review sites such as Trustpilot and other UGC channels before adding them to your email campaigns and landing page.
5) Don’t ask for too much information
The typical format of an email landing page is a form that features one or more fields for your audience to fill out before they can claim a deal, sign up to the event, be added to your mailing list or download a resource.
While it might seem tempting to use this as an opportunity to get to know your audience more, it’s better to hold off as this can come further down the line. Resist the urge to add multiple fields, the more you add, the less likely the form will be filled in.
Requiring longer to complete the form and asking for too much information can lessen the effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing campaign and deter prospects from not leaving their details.
6) Add the FOMO factor
It’s human nature, we don’t like missing out on a good deal. But if that good deal is around for the long-term, we have no rush to jump in and make a purchase. This is where FOMO (fear of missing out) techniques can come in handy.
This is easily done by running limited and time-sensitive offers that are advertised on your landing page. Using more urgent language such as ‘today’, ‘now’ and ‘don’t miss out’ can help grab the attention of prospects.
7) Make sure it matches your email
When it comes to email and landing page copy, repetition is your friend. The messaging on your email and landing page should reflect each other. For example, if your email campaign revolved around signing up for an exclusive discount on your new sofa range, ensure your landing page matches this messaging.
The design of the email and landing page should also have a similar look. While you’ll likely have more design capabilities on a landing page, it’s important that the design is consistent. Consider your colours, branding and font. When subscribers click through to the landing page from the email, this will reassure them they’re in the right place which acts as a visual cue to follow through with the action.
8) Keep it simple
Make it simple but significant. Avoid overcomplicating your landing page – you don’t need tons of text and imagery. In order to keep attention on the elements that matter, it’s important to stick to the basics.
This could include only featuring the necessary text, branding and buttons to make the page easier to navigate and to cut down on any confusion. A simple landing page encourages your visitors to focus on the prize: your call to action.
9) Use eye-catching images and videos where relevant
Including eye-catching images and videos can up your conversions when used appropriately. In fact, using videos on landing pages can improve conversions by up to 86 percent!
Visual features can attract attention and often do a more impactful job of conveying information in a fraction of the time it takes people to read. The same can be said for relevant images which can enhance the overall message you are trying to communicate.
However, it’s critical to ensure that any images or videos used are relevant to the landing page content and describe your product or service in the best way possible.
10) Test your landing page
Just as you would test your emails to maximise performance, we also suggest testing your landing pages. Testing allows you to make decisions based on data instead of gut instinct.
When it comes to your landing pages, certain elements such as image, text or CTA can be tested to see which resonates best with your audience. A/B testing your landing pages is one of the easiest ways to ensure you’re converting as much traffic as possible.
Wrapping it up
Marketing emails and landing pages go hand-in-hand. A great pairing to supercharge your marketing efforts, email campaigns perform better with custom landing pages and vice versa.
Want to see how you can connect your email marketing and landing pages in Wired Plus? You can build email campaigns and pages in minutes. Book a demo of our platform to find out more.