Did you ever buy a new car without having to go through a sales pitch? Maybe you have, but that isn’t the norm. Usually, a car salesman will come up to you, ask what you’re in the market for and lead you to the most suitable ride. If done skillfully, this process will be mostly imperceptible to you.
Why are we talking about cars, though? As an affiliate, you want to be in the driver’s seat, right? Well, before going pedal to the metal, you’ll need to take some notes on what makes a great salesman. Let’s face it: they’re kinda like interactive landing pages. Come on, use your imagination! Both have the ultimate goal of transforming a lead into a conversion through key selling points. They guide the end users through a tried & tested sales funnel that has sometimes been years in the making for maximum results.
As an affiliate, you should use landing pages whenever possible. And not just to better your craft as a great salesman in your favorite niche. Below you’ll find some of the many reasons why landing pages are critical in our business to generate leads — and sales.
Reason #1: They Increase Conversions
That’s all that matters, no? Wrong! But it might be the most convincing reason to make you pay attention for real. Landing pages have indeed proved to boost conversion rates by informing end users about your product or service and asking them to take a clear action.
However, it’s not a magic button either: conversion rates differ greatly between different industries and niches as you can see below:
Average lead-generation conversion rates by industry (Unbounce)
Some industries are definitely harder to “breach,” including anything that has to do with adult content. While it’s not shown on the graph, you can bet the average conversion rate in adult is on the lower-end due to it being a tough sell for leads.
Ideally, you'd want to reach the top 10%: landing pages with a conversion rate of 11.45% or more. When you know that the average landing page conversion rate is 2.35% accross all industries, you can feel pretty discouraged.
Great landing pages effectively seduce prospects into taking action — providing their credit card details, sharing their emails, etc.
It's like having a 24/7 salesman working for you!
Reason #2: They Offer Valuable Data & Insight
Once you send traffic to a landing page, you’ll be able to gather significant data. As long as you have tracking mechanisms in place, of course! Google Analytics and Voluum are two great examples of tools (free and paid) that can help you learn more about your traffic.
Here’s a sample of key data metrics you’ll be able to collect:
- Number of views (hits)
- Traffic sources
- Goal completions
- Average session duration
- Bounce rate
With data, carrying out A/B Tests makes perfect sense. They can give you valuable insights quickly because there are less variables to take into account than say with a whole site. You can experiment with small changes between two different landing pages and compare your results. Sometimes, even tweaks that seem trivial can increase your Click-through rate (CTR) by a wide margin.
Using data will help you make changes that will translate into more customers. You'll get to learn more about your traffic and adapt your landing page accordingly.
Reason #3: They Build Trust & Credibility
A landing page is a terrific way to build up credibility and instill trust in your users. To do so, you’re going to rely on social proof. This can be achieved by informational social influence, or, as some people like to call it, social proof — a very interesting phenomenon.
Let’s say you want to promote MyFreeCams or any other cam offer we have for that matter. As social proof, you could then add any of the numerous awards the site has won in the past, for example. Visitors on your landing page will instantly understand it’s a reputable site, thus being far more inclined to complete an action.
We love to imitate each other. So if you see that a product has already been sold more than 100,000 times, it creates a ripple effect. It’s a powerful tactic to generate more sales — one that can easily backfire if you lie (e.g., made-up stats) or try to cheat the system.
If I’m checking out your landing page, I’m supposed to feel compelled by the content. One way to make sure I’ll never give you anything is by overusing big fonts (spam alert!), showing poor grammar skills and trying to force a sale on me.
Landing pages are great to build trust & credibility and equally great at crashing them if the only thing you care about is making a sale.
Reason #4: They deliver a focused message
In marketing, it can be challenging to deliver the right message to potential customers. If that’s your case, having a dedicated landing page will eliminate most of the “noise” around. It creates a crystal clear experience for the end users.
While your homepage might regroup many different offers and show tons of information, a landing page will typically be on the point. So if Martha is looking for the latest pair of shoes from your brand, it makes a lot of sense to create a landing page dedicated to them. You’ll be able to put your marketing efforts into driving traffic to this page and really sell Martha on why these shoes will change her life... for the better!
Remember, landing pages are great at building trust & credibility ... and just as great at crashing and burning, if the only thing you care about is making a sale.
Reason #5: They boost your SEO
Direct linking to an offer works, but in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it’s worth nothing. A great landing page can and will boost your ranking on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This is why you must carefully choose which keywords to focus on so your content doesn’t get buried.
In fact, when creating a landing page, you will need to choose your main goal: convert the traffic you already have (conversion-focused) or attract more traffic to your page (SEO-focused). In the latter case, you’ll need quality content and backlinks to work with — eventually leading your traffic to a page focused on conversions.
What do all great landing pages have in common?
Now that you're hopefully convinced of how effective these marketing tools can be, could you separate average landing pages from amazing ones?
We gathered 3 characteristics winning landing pages have in common. The idea of an ultimate landing page that will convert everyone is utopian at best, but there are key elements you should be looking for when using and/or building such a tool.
- They have a deep understanding of the target audience: successful landing pages know exactly what their target audience wants. If you're not sure how to answer this question, try creating personas.
- They're part of a well-oiled marketing machine: landing pages that convert are an integral part of an overall marketing funnel. There's not a universal answer as to what a marketing funnel must be like. More often than not, landing pages are used in the acquisition process. Instead of being the starting point, they'll be at the bottom of the marketing funnel, right before the sale.
- They're pretty classy: there's a reason why most salesmen wear suits; it's all about branding and customer confidence. Great landing pages have been built to convince leads quickly with attractive, eye-catching elements. There's a lot going on when creating a landing page, from the quality of the copy to appropriate use of colors, all working toward a hierarchy that must be easily — if not instantly — understood by the end user.
Further Reading
If you want to create landing pages like a pro, be sure to give our older posts a read:
How to make a dedicated landing & avoid the crash - Part 1
How to make a dedicated landing & avoid the crash - Part 2
