The humble landing page. In the world of B2B marketing the landing page stands as one of the highest value assets of them all. In some cases, it even usurps the very content it is designed to contain. With the sole duty of clinching the details of the prospect, the landing page is a culmination of everything that has come before. With so much at stake, optimising these pages is absolutely key, but of course the question remains, how?

How do we go about making a landing page the very best it can truly be? Well unfortunately this is one of those pesky questions that births a million different answers, it all depends on who you ask.

Project Manager

“A landing page should be clutter free, it should not host multiple call to actions and should be single minded. It should contain simple forms and only look to collect the information that is considered absolutely essential. Not only that, but it should be flexible too, mobile optimisation is integral to driving conversion rates!”

Now this answer makes sense, after all, your efforts up until now have been designed to drive the prospect to this very page! Why would you want to overcomplicate it? Hosting only the bare essentials ensures all distractions are removed and complete focus can be placed on capturing prospect data. Of course, there is the counter argument to consider; this reductionist approach is incredibly risky. What if the prospect decides they aren’t yet ready to offer up their details? Where do they go? Their journey has come to an end abruptly and without an offering of alternatives, the chance of losing the prospect is all too real!

Inbound Consultant

“We would refer to these stripped back landing pages as ‘convert or die’ assets; you’re either going to drive a successful conversion or the traffic is going to bounce and bad times begin! If this is the route that is to be pursued then the traffic driven to the page, the messages delivered to that traffic and how the landing page delivers on the expectations that have been laid out before arrival will be integral. After all, if prospects know exactly what to expect as they click through then a clean page should be of no issue.”

So with Inbound’s contribution it appears the risk of these simple landing pages is only worth taking if the prospect is 100% sure they know what they’re getting themselves involved in. Everything needs to be thought about up front as the risk really is that high. If just one element is missing or not quite right, you die. 7 fields in your gate for a limp asset? You die. Vague messaging pushed out through inbound channels? You die. A loosely defined audience and targeting through inbound? You die. Complete faith and understanding in the individuals driven to the page is essential for this strategy to produce results.

In reality it appears the simplicity of your landing page should be based upon:

  • How much you know about the prospects arriving
  • How valuable the asset behind the gate truly is
  • How much information you’re requesting to access the asset

With this information in tow you should be able to recognise whether the risk of a ‘convert or die’ landing page is worth taking. A clean landing page undoubtedly looks great and ensures the prospect is 100% focused on your content proposition, but it requires a great deal of faith. Do you really know your prospects well enough to risk driving them to a dead end? There is no right or wrong answer, only you can decide if your landing page really is clean enough to do the job and effectively drive conversion.

Learn more about the benefits of optimising your landing pages, and best practice tips on how to do it, with our Inbound Marketing 101 Guide.