Landing Page Definition: A webpage intended to identify the beginning of the user experience from a defined marketing effort.

Landing pages are an integral part of your direct mail marketing these days, for the main reason that they finish the communication once started by your direct mail postcard. No longer is it in vogue to direct a prospective customer directly to your website to get lost in all the different services you offer trying to navigate to find the answer to what you are specifically promoting to them. To help you understand the key elements you need on your landing page, I have culled together the 6 most important tips and the rationale behind their usage.

Every Landing Page should have:

1. A design & color scheme that matches the ad that brought them there.
The reason for this is you don't want people to think they ended up in the wrong place. You are communicating a particular communication (service or product) and you want to make sure that your landing page has the same look and feel as the ad that directed them there for further information.

2. Additional information about the topic in the ad that brought them there.
Since you are continuing the communication with a landing page, you want to ensure that you do just that. If there is nothing new in the landing page, your prospect is going to wonder why they visited your landing page because they've already gotten all the data - and then they are going to leave your landing page. That is not what you want them to do. You want to give them some more information that is new data, such as more information on the offer, links to get more information, or even a giveaway. But don't give it all away there either. You are warming them up and want them to keep reaching.

3. Make sure there is a good reason for them to go to your landing page (e.g. coupons, reports, additional access to information, free consultation, free samples).
More people are going be interested in getting something or learning something rather than being sent a sales pitch - so giving something of perceived value away for free - like a white paper or informational report or additional access to information or even coupons, etc. - these can position YOU or YOUR COMPANY as the experts in the field.

4. A fill in form to capture data
Don't just give the stuff away that I mentioned above without getting something in return. Make them fill out the form so you can collect their contact information. That is the exchange. It won't cost them money, but they have to give you their contact info (so later you can sell them stuff).

The reasoning is this. You are moving people through the sales process - you don't only want the people who are ready for more information (which are your hottest leads). You want everyone, so you need to find ways to get their information and then you can continue to work them through to the point where they are interested in getting more information about your service or product. You do this by continually communicating to them, but you are going to have to give away something first in exchange for their very valuable contact information.

5. Add 'Trust Logos ... online security, BBB, affiliations, etc. Anything you have to build credibility.
The more things people see that they are familiar with, the more they are going to trust something. Let's take an all-too-simple example. You have a certain kind of dog. Your dog is sweet and is the best dog in the world. Most likely when you see another dog like yours, you are going to have a natural affinity toward that dog.

Same goes with logos that people trust and are familiar with. Position your site with identities people already trust and are familiar with to increase your own credibility. You are basically saying, "These people trust me, why don't you?"

6. All your company's contact information so that your prospect can take the next step in whatever way they feel is necessary (email, phone, address, etc.).
There are a lot of people that are further along in the sales process than the barely-warm or luke-warm lead. Those that are hot will want to contact you, so you need to have the information visible for them to do so easily. Make sure you have all your contact information on your landing page.

7. A dedicated phone number.
In order to track reaches that find your landing page you could have a dedicated phone number just for that page. That way you can see who is calling because of the data on the page. Using a service that also records the incoming calls to that number can help you on the sales end too.
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About Joy Gendusa:
Using a powerful, simple, extremely cost effective way of communicating with customers has earned JoyGendusa Inc. Magazine's recognition as the nation's fastest growing direct mail postcard-marketing firm with year 2007 revenues close to $19,000,000. Gendusa began in 1998 with zero investment capital. Today, her Clearwater, FL firm called PostcardMania, employs over 150 people and prints 4 million and mails 2 million postcards representing 33,000-plus customers in over 350 industries each week. In keeping up with their innovative nature, PostcardMania has embarked upon offering web services for their clients to immediately increase the return on investment to the direct mail marketing campaigns they sell. Visit www.postcardmania.com