Creating and utilising landing pages

TAGS: Email marketing | Landing pages

You have on average 50-60 seconds to engage your reader to interact with your email communication. Louise James, Client Service Manager at Silverbean, discusses how utilising a suitable landing page can help to improve your email campaign performance.

People nowadays get a lot of email – some of which interests them, some of which doesn’t! You’ve worked hard on your subject line to ensure your email falls into the latter category…and then the race is on! You have on average around 50-60 seconds of your recipient’s time, once they have opened your email, to convince them they want more. So how to you achieve this?

Keep the body short and sweet

Time is precious nowadays – people don’t have time to read reams of text as to why your offer is fantastic, or what they need to do in order win a prize etc. So, you need to create the right email message – keep it short and to the point. Communicate the main reason why you are contacting the recipient and the benefits on offer if they do choose to interact with you.

And then link your message to a suitable landing page…

Cushion the landing…

…and make sure you put as much effort into designing your landing page as you do your email. The two should work in harmony. Too often the recipient is just sent through to the homepage upon click – which in some cases is the most suitable page – but if you can synchronise your email and a landing page, you will see great improvements to your campaign.

So what makes a great landing page?

• First of all, make sure the design, layout and main goal are synchronised as much as possible with the email itself – readers will feel more “comfortable” in their journey if their environment remains the same at every step. Repeat the main header from your email in the landing page too…this is the main focus and will receive the most “eye fall”, so needs to marry up.
• Take away distractions where possible – don’t offer a click to homepage, contact us, FAQ’s etc…one click (or two if you include the click from the email!) from communication to offer is best practise and will see drop out rates reduced.
• The rule of short and sweet is still true when designing your landing page…there shouldn’t be TOO much detail within this. (If someone really wants to know the in’s and out’s, direct them through to a “Terms and Conditions” or “Full Details Page”.) And keep everything above the fold if you can – the less scrolling the better!
• Add strong call to action buttons. Whilst you have grabbed a little more attention time from your recipient by encouraging the click to your landing page, most people will still just scan - as they will your email. So make sure your header and any sub headings, plus the “click here” buttons, are strong and clear. Give the reader plenty of opportunity to click too - and direct them into the correct page on your website. Try and avoid the homepage if you can – remember you are trying to keep the journey simple and clear!

To summarise…

Creating a supporting landing page is all about improving the usability journey of your email recipient…so keep this in mind at all times when designing. If at any point you think “I would have lost interest by now”…then change your approach! Short, to the point, ease of read and one click to interact are the most important things to remember.

Louise James is Client Services Manager at Silverbean. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Silverbean can help you achieve your marketing objectives through email marketing; please contact our resident email marketing services expert using one of the following.

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