Landing pages for campaigns and promotions

When you run a campaign, whether it is a free challenge, a limited-time discount or a workshop that leads into your membership, it is tempting to send everyone to your home page. But the home page is built to serve many kinds of visitor at once. Someone who clicked an email about a free strength challenge lands among menus, course lists, testimonials and a newsletter sign-up, and has to work out for themselves where the challenge is.

A landing page solves this. It is a single page built for one campaign, one audience and one action. Because it does only one job, it is usually simpler to write and more effective than any general page could be.

What makes a landing page different

Your home page and sales page each have broad jobs. The home page introduces the membership to every kind of visitor, as described in designing a home page that turns visitors into members. The sales page answers every question a serious prospect might have, covered in writing a membership sales page that answers the real questions. A landing page is narrower:

• One offer. The free challenge, the discount or the workshop, not the whole membership and everything in it.
• One audience. People who saw a specific email, post, ad or partner mention.
• One action. Register, claim the offer or join. Nothing else competes for attention.

Because of that focus, most landing pages remove the main menu and other distractions. Every link that leads elsewhere is an exit from the campaign.

Match the message that brought people there

Visitors arrive on a landing page with a specific promise in mind: whatever the email, post or ad told them. The first thing they see should confirm they are in the right place, using the same words and imagery. When the page does not match, people assume they clicked the wrong link.

Imagine a fitness challenge group promoting a free challenge by email:

Email subject: Join our free 21-day strength challenge

Mismatched page headline: Welcome to Strong Together, the fitness community for real life

Matched page headline: The free 21-day strength challenge: fifteen minutes a day, no gym needed

The matched headline repeats the promise and adds useful detail. If you promote the same campaign in several places with different angles, consider a slightly different version of the page for each, so every visitor sees a headline that matches what they clicked.

A simple structure that works

Most campaign landing pages can follow a short, predictable outline. Here is one for the fitness challenge:

1. Headline and subheading that match the promotion and state the outcome.
2. A clear button or short form near the top, for visitors who already know they want in.
3. What happens, week by week. Three short workouts a week, a daily check-in and a live session at the end.
4. Who it is for, and who it is not for. “Suitable for beginners and people returning after a break. Not a program for competitive athletes.”
5. Proof. A few specific comments from people who completed a previous challenge.
6. Answers to the obvious questions. Do I need equipment? What if I miss a day? Is it really free?
7. The button again, with a reminder of the start date or deadline.

Keep the page as short as the offer allows. A free challenge needs little explanation, so a brief page often works best. A time-limited discount on an annual membership needs more, because the visitor is making a bigger decision.

Keep the form and the action simple

The action on a landing page should take as little effort as possible. For a free challenge, a first name and email address are usually all you need. For a discount, the button should take visitors straight to a checkout with the offer already applied; making people copy and paste a code adds a step where many will give up.

Label the button with what the visitor gets, such as “Join the free challenge” or “Claim my annual discount,” not “Submit.” And be honest about any deadline. If the offer ends, it should really end. Deadlines that quietly reset erode trust with the very people you hope will become members. If your campaign involves a price reduction, the cautions in discounts and coupons without devaluing your membership are worth reading before you build the page.

Plan the page after the page

The thank-you page, the one people see after they register or buy, is part of the campaign too. It is often the most overlooked page on a site and one of the most useful, because the visitor has just said yes and is paying attention. Use it to:

• Confirm what happens next and when, such as “Your first workout arrives by email tomorrow morning.”
• Ask them to add your email address to their contacts so your messages arrive safely.
• Offer one next step, such as joining the challenge discussion group.

For a free campaign that leads into membership, plan the path from the thank-you page and follow-up emails to the membership offer before you launch, not after.

Measure one thing, then improve

Because a landing page has one job, measuring it is simple: how many visitors take the action? Track visitors and sign-ups for each page, and for each source if you have separate versions. As an illustration, if 500 people visit the challenge page and 150 register, three in every ten visitors are taking the action. The next version of the page can then be compared against that figure.

Change one thing at a time, such as the headline or the length of the page, so you can tell what made the difference. And keep your pages when a campaign ends. With updated details, a good landing page can be reused for the next round.

Your landing page checklist

• Write down the single offer, audience and action for the campaign.
• Use a headline that matches the words in the email, post or ad.
• Remove the main menu and any links that lead away from the offer.
• Put the button near the top and again at the bottom.
• Ask for only the information the offer requires.
• Write a thank-you page that explains what happens next.
• Test the full journey on a phone, from the email link to the confirmation.
• Decide in advance how you will count visitors and sign-ups.

One focused page, built well, will usually outperform a campaign pointed at a busy general page, and it gives you a clear result to learn from.