INBOUND ACCELERATOR

Each year, we count down the 10 most-frequently downloaded assets in our Inbound Marketing Learning Library, and this template for organizing the content of website landing pages is always on the list (you’ll find it at #5 on 2020’s most-used marketing tools list).

Landing page or contact forms are at the heart of inbound marketing—you can’t nurture leads unless you can capture their information and begin connecting. Paying attention to the details of your landing page and contact forms is essential.

One of the key components in an inbound marketing strategy is the landing page. While it may seem like a small piece of the puzzle compared to the rest of the elements — an in-depth downloadable report, blog posts, contributed articles, social media updates to promote the posts and report — this is the link between all of those other elements and leads.

It is on the landing page that a visitor or readers makes the decision to download that report and, in doing so, converts into a lead who can be nurtured through the sales funnel. If you get the landing page right, it makes that decision an easy one. Get the landing page wrong and you lose those lead opportunities.

In marketing, as with almost any endeavor, there is theory and there is reality. Just ask any veteran of a given profession who has recently had a conversation with a freshly-graduated newcomer full of ideas about “how it works” that come from classes and books.

Those classes and books are great, and should be very close to what happens on the ground and in the trenches, but real-world results can also be much different. Which is why it pays to take time to review your actual results and see how they compare to what you would have expected based on best practices and industry averages.

Usually when we talk about marketing content, we are referring to a few obvious elements: blog posts, social media posts and visuals, contributed articles, or downloadable content such as reports, ebooks or templates.

Too often, we overlook how the same concepts and strategies that are winners when creating the “big picture” content should be applied to the smaller elements, including the landing pages that are gateways for those downloadable offers that convert visitors into leads.

When you’ve succeeded in attracting a visitor to one of your website’s landing pages, whether through calls-to-action in blog posts, organic or paid search, or social media, the last thing you want is for them to immediately bounce off. Conversion rates will vary greatly, but according to research by Unbounce, there are six elements you can control that have the potential to increase conversions and reduce bounce rates.

Creating and implementing calls-to-action—one of the most important links in the content marketing and lead nurturing chain— requires several steps and attention to detail.

We outline 8 of those steps in this guide.

Winter is a great time to delve into quiet indoor pursuits that keep your mind busy, like jigsaw puzzles. The puzzles provide a great combination of attention to detail and seeing the big picture that can stimulate your brain (or drive you crazy).

How do you KNOW that you’ve created the right landing page for your offer and your audience? Even if you’ve followed all of the best practices, could it be better?

It shouldn’t be a secret that landing pages are the key to online lead generation—they are the part of your website where visitors trade a bit of contact information for a great offer.

But what do you do with those leads once you have them?