Branding Pages and Landing Pages

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 4:35 pm

I recently heard about a a service for business people wanting their web-pages built for them; this is a out-sourcing service, offering to set up a hub site for online businesses.

Now out-sourcing is fine, if you want someone to set up a good looking personally branded website. But (and this is a big “but”) if you’re after a Google Adwords-friendly landing page to beat Google slaps and provide the smooth transition from Google Ad to ‘Pay Now’ button, I don’t know if this is the answer. You’ll have to clarify some issues with the contractor you choose.

When I checked out one offer, it didn’t mention that they can or will design any “landing pages” for my team’s primary opportunity, who have access to templates of landing pages ‘off the peg’ to mix and match.

Now, there is a huge difference between a landing page (squeeze page, capture page, opt-in page) and a “branded personal website” or “blog site”. It’s vital to know the difference of purpose of the two.
A landing page is set up with the main purpose of capturing a lead’s name and email address (and possibly phone number). You can have dozens of these doing their job all over the internet. An example of one of my landing pages is here. —————————->

A branding page (personal website), on the other hand, serves a totally different purpose in terms of your sales and marketing process. This is where people are directed after they have become a lead. You direct them there, once you have established contact with them to get to …

• know you
• like you
• build rapport with you
• and trust you.

It’s like inviting people to your Home, after you made initial contact with them in a business sense (after they’ve been to your landing page). You are now on my personal branding website.

So, your prospects who clicked on your Google Ad will generally become a lead from your landing page, not from your branded website / WordPress blog or any hub set up by outsourced contractors.

It can be confusing. But it is risky to imagine that you can have a personal branding page that ALSO functions as a landing page (lead capture page). The two have to be considered as serving two completely separate functions. Capture pages give reasons to buy, branding is for building your relationship with your warm prospects; the confusion lies in the fact that both serve to bring people into your sales funnel at different times or places.

Whatever services you are offered by web designers, make sure web-pages will include a Google Adwords-friendly landing page design, with the form and everything. They may provide this if requested.

It’s definitely OK to include a landing page within your personal website. But the landing page’s purpose and navigation should be isolated from the rest of the site. Otherwise people will get there, but get distracted by other options on your site and start wandering around, instead of focussing and giving you their name and email address in return for the promise of “what’s on the other side”. If there is no “other side” through your portal, because the other side is already conveniently laid-out for them in your navigation bar, then they will have less reason to provide their name and address. Giving too much choice on the internet is a recipe for overload and makes hitting the back-button with no sale much more likely.

If your MLM company or direct marketing partner already has template web pages, you will want your web-designer to basically copy the general wording and layout from one of the landing pages from the back office of your business or training opportunity. But change the design and change the names of the graphics and maybe include a pic of yourself and a sentence to introduce you (to make it Google Adwords-friendly as well as more personalised to your customer).

You will want your designer to link a “form” (the box where the person fills in their name and email address) and they will need to link that back to your aWeber account and then back in to the back office of your opportunity for you so you can track your leads. All pretty involved (sheesh).

At the end of the day when thinking about planning a landing page that’s not hosted by your business opportunity don’t be thinking you can incorporate one with, for instance, a personal blog site Home Page for instance. Too distracting. A traditional welcome page with a “For More Information” Form, is not a Lead Capture page… not an effective one anyway.

It is still a good idea to have a lead capture form on your Home Page however and wherever else you might want one, but it’s not likely to get many leads for you. That being said, there’s always an exception. I have seen some savvy business owners who have designed their whole site like a personal blog site. But they are not a “blog site that act as a landing page”.

It is, rather, a landing page that looks like a blog site. Or, to be more accurate, a series of landing pages that, together, look like a blog site. You can sometimes go from one page to the next on a marketing master’s site and unwittingly you are being confronted by one “landing page” after another. Ingenious. Each page can make you want to join to see what’s on the other side.

These sites will offer a lot of information to the visitor, but they are careful about what they DON’T tell so that there is still the offer of something incredible “on the other side”. Every page has an opt-in Form. You have to fill in the form to see a “Private Business Overview”. Every web-page might have great pictures showing them enjoying the lifestyle made possible by whatever it is through their portal – powerful attraction marketing. Great headlines and every page following a similar rhythm and feel can keep the reader’s attention until finally they see the value in sharing their details in the sign up box.

You don’t have to worry about Google Adwords Friendly landing pages, unless of course, you are doing Google Adwords advertising to get your leads. If this is the case, then your transitioning and links through your funnel process require a lot of detailed co-ordination. A break in the chain can jar your reader and move them towards the back button. This, my friends is a whole new ball game.

Now, I’d be interested to hear you questions and comments on all of this, as it is essentially the nuts and bolts of attracting leads and converting prospects… Of course, no leads, no conversions, no business…Whose sites are your favourites and why? What makes your ‘Do It’ finger twitch? Does This?