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Lose the 'Under Construction' Blues:
5 Steps to Creating the Perfect Landing Page
You found the web designer of your dreams. Your favorite copywriter is working on your new site's content, crafting the words that will make your visitors excited at the thought of working with you.
You are out there marketing, networking, telling your story.
So what happens when someone says, "I'd love to visit your website. What's the address?"
Now you might be thinking, be thinking, My website won't be ready for another month. I'm losing customers!
Or, worse yet, I can't send them to my old site. It's a mess. It's the reason I'm building a new one.
Why bother with a landing page, anyway?
If this sounds like you, your solution might be a temporary landing page: a skeleton of your new site that will still help your visitors accomplish the goals they have in mind when they visit. A landing page can:
- jump start your web presence
- keep your prospects happy and interested in your products or services
- build your audience and grow your email list
- get a head start with the search engines
5 Steps to Creating the Perfect Landing Page
If your landing page is created in a WordPress blog-like format, you'll have even more flexibility. For example, you can keep it updated with news on your new site and other content to keep it fresh. But even if you don't go with WordPress, you can make your landing page truly useful- to you and your readers-by:
1. Focusing on the "big idea." You should have one primary goal. You won't have pages and pages to talk about you, your company and your services. So decide on that big idea and keep that in mind as you write.
2. Highlighting key messages. I'm working on a landing page for a client right now. I have organized it simply: Who We Are; What We Believe; Who We Serve: including two simple questions for each audience to show that the company can solve the problems they have; What We Do (a brief description of services). That's it.
3. Keeping visuals to a minimum while keeping a professional look. Your message is key on a landing page, so keep your graphics appealing, but not so much that they overpower the text. Your designer has likely already started working on the header for your new site. Just make sure, for branding purposes, that your landing page matches your new look, with the same colors, use of your logo, fonts, etc.
4. Capturing user data. Make it a place to build your email list. Ask for visitors' addresses and promise they'll be the first to know when your new site launches. If you can, offer some kind of reward for signing up for updates and news, such as a free tips booklet, a white paper or other resource of value.
5. Making it easy for readers to contact you. Include a "Got a question?" contact form and make it easy for people to respond and request more information-by phone or by email.
For more marketing tips, visit the Cat's Eye Marketing blog.
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