Email Marketing

Landing Pages vs Homepage: What You Need to Know

lrm

Published on November 1, 2023

If you’re serious about growing your business, having a homepage isn’t enough. You need landing pages too!

So, what exactly is a landing page?

It’s a web page with one main goal: converting visitors into customers.

Typically, landing pages fall into two categories:

Lead generation landing pages: These convince potential customers to provide their contact details.
Sales landing pages: These persuade potential customers to purchase a specific product or service.

There are also other conversion goals, like sharing content or leaving a review, but these are less common.

Now, let’s talk about the types of landing pages:

Short-form landing pages (aka squeeze pages): These are simple, one-page designs used for lead generation.
Medium-length landing pages: These longer pages require scrolling and can be used for both lead generation and sales.
Long-form landing pages: These are the longest pages and are mostly used for sales, except for “FREE + Shipping” offers.

While the term “landing page” generally refers to any page with a single conversion goal, online marketers usually use it to mean lead generation pages. Sales landing pages are often called “sales pages”.

But when should you use landing pages?

To answer that, let’s consider the Value Ladder sales funnel.

Landing pages don’t exist on their own; they’re part of a broader sales strategy. Designing your sales funnel first will help you create effective landing pages.

The Value Ladder sales funnel, created by our co-founder Russel Brunson, has four stages:

Bait: Offer a lead magnet in exchange for an email address.
Frontend: Offer a low-cost product or service.
Middle: Offer a higher-priced, more valuable product or service.
Backend: Offer the most expensive and valuable product or service.

It’s also a good idea to include downsells, upsells, and cross-sells to maximize revenue.

This funnel works because it allows you to start a relationship with free value, nurture that relationship through email, and build trust by offering progressively more valuable products.

The first stage, the Bait stage, is where lead generation landing pages come in. Here’s how it works:

Create a lead magnet.
Create a landing page for that lead magnet.
Drive traffic to the landing page.

Once someone gives you their email address, they become a lead and enter your sales funnel. This is the fastest way to build an email list, especially with paid advertising.

By incorporating landing pages into your business strategy, you can take advantage of the Value Ladder sales funnel to grow and maximize your revenue.

Are you using landing pages effectively to grow your business? Here’s how:

Instead of bombarding potential customers with a sales pitch right away, try a more strategic approach. Send them a welcome sequence of six emails:

Introduce yourself and make a connection.
Share your origin story and how you got to where you are today.
Explain in detail what you do and the value you provide.
Showcase your expertise and qualifications.
Highlight your dream customers and share a success story.
Present your front-end offer and invite them to purchase.

The idea is to use landing pages to capture email addresses, then use email marketing to build trust before directing traffic to your sales pages.

But here’s a common mistake to avoid:

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of driving traffic directly to their sales pages without providing any value or building trust. This approach is like approaching a stranger and asking them to buy from you without any introduction or credibility. So why would they trust you? Instead, focus on building a proper sales funnel with valuable content and drive traffic to it through your landing page.

Now, let’s talk about homepages:

A homepage is the main web page of a website. While you could use a landing page as your homepage, it may not be the best approach. Consider Jakob’s Law, which states that users prefer websites that work in familiar ways. If your industry follows the traditional website format with a navigation bar, using a landing page as your homepage might confuse potential customers.

For example, on our homepage, we have a navigation bar that includes a “Pricing” tab. This aligns with industry expectations and makes it easy for visitors to find pricing information. It’s crucial to understand your potential customers’ expectations and ensure your website meets them.

On our homepage, we’ve combined elements of a traditional homepage and a landing page. While our homepage isn’t a landing page because it has clickable elements other than call to action buttons, everything on our page eventually leads to our free trial. We’ve taken the “all roads lead to Rome” approach, making it easy for potential customers to navigate to our desired action.

Unlike most SaaS companies, we prioritize the call to action and minimize distractions like blog links or social media profiles. This streamlined approach ensures a clear path to conversion.

In conclusion, use landing pages strategically to capture email addresses, build trust through email marketing, and drive traffic to your sales pages. Don’t make the mistake of skipping the value-building step. Consider the user experience when deciding on your homepage format, and aim for a hybrid approach that combines the best of both worlds. Remember, the goal is to guide your visitors to take action and become valuable customers.