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An Introductory Guide On How To Choose The Best Type Of Landing Page For Your Marketing Campaign (And How To Always Know What’s The Next Step)

Do your landing pages feel like walking a tightrope or a sidewalk?


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Mauro Accorinti

3 years ago | 6 min read

Because walking a tightrope is no easy task.

It involves a 40 foot pole you have to hold at all times to balance yourself during the walk.

You have to wear special leather-soled thin slippers for the maximum grip on the wire.

One walk could take months of preparation alone.

And then, after all that, there’s still a lot of bloody courage involved.

So then… why does making a successful campaign sometimes feel like walking on a tightrope hundreds of feet in the air?

Why can’t it feel easier, like walking on your neighborhood’s sidewalk?

Maybe it’s because you feel like there’s only one single way to make it successful.

Perhaps you limit yourself too much and can only see “one path” forward.

It might even possibly feel like one wrong step could make you fall at any moment.

But whether you’re tightroping or walking down the street, the method of how you reach your goal doesn’t change…

You go at it one step at a time.

But how do you know what the next step is? And how do you give yourself “more room” to zig-zag instead of immediately falling?

Let’s simplify your campaigns by exploring this idea of “next steps” through the different types of landing pages you can have in them.

And we’ll start with…

Your audience’s awareness level

Whether you’re focusing on landing pages or any other part of your campaign, the things you’ll say to your audience at ANY stage will depend on what awareness stage your lead is at.

I’ve gone into depth of this before, but as a summary, your leads at any point of your sales cycle will go through a journey close to this:

  1. Oh no, buyer isn’t aware of their problem
  2. <They find out about the problem>
  3. Yay, buyer knows of the problem, but still doesn’t know a solution exists
  4. <They learn about different solutions>
  5. Buyer learns solutions exist but might not know about YOUR solution
  6. <Probably introduce it to them>
  7. Buyer now knows your solution exists but is probably isn’t convinced yet
  8. <Convincing shenanigans insue>
  9. Buyer thinks your solution is worth it, so they’re hella’ ready to buy
  10. <You make it easy for them to buy>
  11. Buyer buys your thing.

And this could be simplified even more for your campaign like this:

Not aware -> Problem aware -> Solution aware -> Product aware -> Most Aware

This is Eugene Schwartz’s model for audience awareness (the author of Breakthrough Advertising) and is one of the best ways to tackle landing pages and campaigns.

And this is because it gives you a clear route to getting more customers.

Instead of thinking “how do I get more sales”, it forces you to think “what does my lead currently know and what do they need to learn to advance down the process?”.

Not only is this a more helpful approach to selling, but it helps you get out of any ruts you might be in your campaign.

And if we sit down and think about it even more in the context of landing pages, we realize that if we’re using these pages to help leads advance through stages, there’s only really 5-ish types you’ll ever need to worry about.

Introducing: The 5 types of landing pages you’ll ever need to worry about for your campaigns (starting backwards and with examples!)

Ready? Here we go:

For leads that are the most aware…

Ramit Sethi’s Earnable Course Purchase Page
Ramit Sethi’s Earnable Course Purchase Page

Use a purchase page.

Ecommerce sites use them and, in this example, so does Ramit Sethi with his Earnable program. After going through a full email campaign and a sales page, this is the last landing you’ll see before you buy.

You’re not justifying the price anymore, you’re not continuing to sell. You’re making the purchase easy.

He uses social proof and trust indicators like his face, testimonials and guarantees to reassure the lead they’re not in the wrong place.

The rest?

He doesn’t create any more friction between the lead and the purchase.

For leads that are product aware:

Platforma 2’s Website Wireframe Kit landing page
Platforma 2’s Website Wireframe Kit landing page

Here leads are researching and seeing if your product is right for them. Or maybe they’re looking for the right offer.

In this wireframe offer landing page, the lead is already pretty aware of the benefits that a wireframe can give you. So they’re more invested in learning a bit more about the features and HOW it works.

How it can be used.

What else can it do?

Can it integrate with my existing software?

Can it break?

What happens if I have a problem?

How long does it take to finish one wireframe?

And so on and so forth.

For leads that are solution aware:

East Paws’ landing page from their PPC campaign
East Paws’ landing page from their PPC campaign

Here is where most of your campaigns will probably start.

People who aren’t familiar with your product will probably need to slowly be introduced. They’re looking for what solutions are out there.

I found this dog-walking and pet-sitting service landing page from a google ad.

Leads need somebody to take care of their pup and are looking for solutions (You can tell cause I found this by googling “pet walking Florida”).

Here is where you go heavy on the benefits and what the product/service can do for them. It doesn’t get into the nitty gritty, it’s just an introduction.

You’re invited to set up a meet and greet (to learn more, ask about details), but the great thing this page does is help you start thinking about their offer.

For leads that are Problem aware:

Morcan Direct’s Morgage landing page
Morcan Direct’s Morgage landing page

Here leads understand there’s a problem but who the hell knows if there’s a good solution? This landing page does that — I mean, who do you go to when you need to borrow money? Apparently, these guys.

People who find this page are vague about their searches.

An example here might have been if I searched up “How to borrow money when you have a mortgage”.

So at this point in time, they don’t even know what’s out there.

What I like about this page in particular is how light it is on the offer — and it should be!

The lead doesn’t know who you are yet and they’re just learning about your solution.

There’s social proof right under the hero image so it seems trustworthy at least.

You’re not sold on anything, but invited to try out a free calculation in the CTA.

Another alternative you’ve probably seen around the internet is the classic “lead magnets in exchange for your email” landing page.

Like this one:

MuleSoft’s magnet landing page
MuleSoft’s magnet landing page

The offer is usually to help somebody looking for something to solve their problem and the lead magnet is a good start.

This one is more for the long haul and involves walking leads through the awareness process in a funnel to help them along.

And finally, for leads that are currently not aware…

*Shrug*

Here’s the thing.

You can’t really target people directly who are unaware.

Because they’re unaware.

They are as cold as leads can get. They don’t realize their problems are problems. They don’t know who you are and talking about solutions out of the blue doesn’t work.

And apparently, the best strategy is through common brand marketing.

Commercials, billboards, radio segments, podcasts, you get the gist.

And the hope there is when they DO realize they have a problem, what do they think of?

Your brand.

BUT!

Landing pages aren’t really a part of this equation, so that’s something you shouldn’t have to worry about :)

So summing it all up…

  1. Take into account what your lead knows (and doesn’t know) and gauge their current awareness level in regards to your product.
  2. Use this info to guide them to the next level of awareness they need. This might include more or less work, depending on how complicated your product is. Every level comes with its own number of customer objections, so keep that in mind and do everything to help leads cruise forward.
  3. Where you plan to have a landing page, ask yourself “what do I need to say right now to help the lead forward? What do they need to know and when?”. If you create your landing page around these questions, things are more likely to convert.

That’s how you know where to use the right landing pages. And, if done right, the next step will always be just a right question away.

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Created by

Mauro Accorinti

I’m a front-end developer and digital marketer. My newsletter "In One Snap" features weekly insights to help marketers, designers and devs increase conversions on landing pages. You can get my free landing page swipe file (and sign up to In One Snap) by going here → http://bit.ly/Free-landing-page-swipe-file


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