Lead Generation for Business

In marketing, lead generation refers to the process of triggering

considerable customer interest in order to get them to inquire about
the products or services offered by a business. These interested section
of customers are referred to as leads.

Lead generation is the process of warming up potential customers for

your business and converting them into leads. Using this technique, you
make efforts that generate an organic interest within your target
segment, so it is the prospect that is most likely to come to the
business.

In simpler words, lead generation is a fundamental point in a prospect’s

journey to becoming a customer of your business. Here’s a flowchart
that explains the lead generation process:
What is a lead?
A lead is a person from your target audience who has in some way
shown interest in your business’s products or services. In simpler
words, it is a person who is more likely to convert with some amount of
pursuing and nurturing.

Why lead generation is important?

In order to effectively make sales, you have to have qualified leads.
Lead generation is the act of establishing interest in products or
services among a target market. If you want your message heard
through more than one channel, it’s important to establish a strategy
that creates some demand, which is what lead generation strives to do.
It’s all about brand awareness, pulling down leads and making sales.

There are several steps in generating leads just as there are several
levels of interest a person might have in what you are offering. The
interest can vary between non-existent to ready to buy. However, most
lead generation techniques involve some level of nurturing.

Understanding landing pages

In the purest sense, a landing page is any web page that a visitor can
arrive at or “land” on. However, when discussing landing pages within
the realm of marketing and advertising, it’s more common to refer to a
landing page as being a standalone web page distinct from your main
website that has been designed for a single focused objective.
This means that your landing page should have no global navigation to
tie it to your primary website. The main reason for this is to limit the
options available to your visitors, helping to guide them toward your
intended conversion goal.

SAMPLE LANDING PAGES

Picture Social Media Icons Phone | Email

Picture

Headline 1

Contact Form
Headline 2

Bullet Points

 1
 2
 3
 4
Get Started
 5

Testimonials
Videos
Pictures
Explanation
Value Preposition
Logical Flow
Pain
Something about Pleasure
Testimonials
Method of Contact
Guarantee
Call to Action
Understanding thank-you page
A thank you page is the site page that someone is redirected to
after filling out a form on your landing page. It's where you bring back
your navigation, deliver on the promise made on the last page (i.e.
share the eBook, video, etc.), and most importantly, it's your next
opportunity to nurture the lead down the sales funnel . 

Landing page vs website

What’s the difference between a landing page and a web page?

Do you know when you should use a landing page instead of a web
page?

We’ll explore the differences, Landing Pages vs Web Pages, in this post
and give you insights on the differences, when to use, and a easy way
to create landing pages.

The Basics:
Landing pages are a form of a web page.  They usually are intended for
a very specific purpose such as a sign-up, to gather information or to
sell a product.
 Landing Page Key:
The key difference is that they
are simplified and have no distractions.

Standard web pages are part of a larger website.  As such, they have
common design and navigation items, meaning more things to see and
more ways to go other places on the site.

Web Pages:
For example, a website often has standard links at the of the
page and often at the side of the page for items like:

 About
 Services
 Company Information
 Blog
 etc, ( Basically whatever links are key to their business)

They may have other images or call-outs as well that lead to

other pages of the website.  It’s an integrated group of pages
geared to help the web visitor coming to a website and wanting
to find and then navigate to an area of interest.
Landing Pages:
Landing pages, however, are a different tool than web pages of a site.

They are not for general use, and do not look like the other web pages,
though they can be at the same domain.

Landing pages are built to drive traffic for a specific marketing

campaign goal.

The intent is to focus the visitor solely on the intent of the page, such as
the sign-up process.

No distractions.  No other options.  Simply to inform and get user to

take the single action noted.
Best practices to create a landing page
Goal:  To create the world’s most effective landing page.
Problem:  Where the heck do I start?
Crafting a competition-crushing landing page is not for the faint of
heart. There are dozens of different components to keep in mind, a
whole science of psychology lurking beneath the surface, and the vague
idea of “what the customer wants” whispering in the background.

How can you demystify the process and unleash your landing page, to
the amazement of the watching world?

Keep reading, and I’ll lay it out for you. But before I do, I want to assure
you…

There is no standard manual on the creation of a perfect landing page.

Isn’t there some practical, step-by-step guide to putting together such a

landing page? There are guides on how to build a real rocket. What
about landing pages? Where is the easy, go-to guide?

You’re reading the closest thing to it.

Sadly, there’s no one-size-fits-all instruction book. No matter how hard

you look, you’ll never find landing page Holy Grail. Why?
Landing pages have so many differentiating factors.

Landing pages are as different as the people looking at them. Every

landing page has a different call to action (goal), a different reader
(user), a different product or service, and a different niche.

 Some landing pages are selling zero drop shoes to

ultramarathoners.

 Another landing page might be inviting in-house marketers to a

two-day conversion conference in Toronto.

 Yet another landing page may be inviting sommeliers to take an

online pairing quiz.

There is an incredible amount of variation among audience, purpose,

intent, product, angle, focus, industry, niche, perception, buy-in, cost,
messaging, value proposition, testimonial approach, shipping method,
and a host of other factors.

One size does not fit all.

There are unifying elements that characterize highly successful
landing pages.

Because we’re talking about landing pages, however, some things do

remain constant. High-converting landing pages do have several
characteristics in common. Although this article does not provide a full
review of each element, you’ll know enough by the end to get to work
creating your own compelling landing page.
Essential Element 1:  Killer Headline
A headline is where everything begins — interest, attention, and
understanding. The headline is your first and most critical action of a
landing page. Here’s what it needs to accomplish:

 The headline should grab the reader’s attention.

 The headline should inform the user what the product or service
is all about. Note: If your headline complements an image that
explains the product/service, then you’re good.

 It should be short — never more than twenty words, and

preferably only ten.

This landing page for a social skills course emphasizes the problem that
the course solves. Immediately, readers know the problem that they
will overcome.
Notice this headline from PictureMarketing. It makes no attempt to be
clever, but identifies exactly what the service is intended to provide.
Mission accomplished.
Monsoon uses a short, attention-grabbing headline, then
immediately backs it up with a subheadline. This landing page’s
clean design helps to give further power to the image and
headline.
MailChimp uses a simple, declarative statement to democratize its
product and emphasize its importance.

Essential Element 2:  Persuasive

Subheadline
If the headline makes the user look, then the subheadline should make
them stay. A subhead is part of the one-two punch of a landing page’s
power.
  Normally, the persuasive subheadline is positioned directly
underneath the main headline.

 The subheadline should have some element of persuasiveness.

Remember, you’re luring them to stay on the page with the
subheadline. You take the concept of the headline, and push it a
little bit further.

 The subheadline can go into slightly more depth and detail than
the main headline.

HelpDesk’s landing page does a position flip on the headline and

subheadline. In the image below, notice how the main headline is, “A
delightful customer experience.” The subheadline, positioned smaller
and above it focuses that general idea (customer experience) with this
statement: “A help desk for teams that insist on.”

The position switch seems to be intentional. Taken together, it forms a

whole sentence, but the attention should be first directed on that
emotionally-loaded phrase:  “delightful customer experience.”
Essential Element 3:  Pictures
The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. A user will be
affected by the images on your landing page immediately.

 The pictures should be large.

 The pictures should be relevant to your product or service. If you

are selling a physical product, it is essential that your landing page
contain an image of the product.

 If you are selling a service, then the primary purpose of the image
should be to grab attention, and demonstrate relevance to the
product.

 Make sure the pictures are high-quality. This is not the place to
feature stock photographs or last-minute Photoshop botches.

Mixpanel uses images to show the functionality of the product, and to

help explain it. These images are fun, and attention-grabbing.
Repumatic’s landing page uses large screenshots to display the
software’s functionality.
Shutterstock sells images, so it’s only natural that they would have a
landing page with a large, prominent picture.

PictureU, whose service also includes photos, does a great job of

featuring hero graphics on its landing page:
Essential Element 4:  An Explanation
If a user doesn’t understand what your product or service is about,
you’ve lost them. An explanation — in whatever form it comes — is
crucial. The best explanations are those that are straightforward;
cuteness not required.

 Your explanation can be integrated with your headline, or

completely separate.

 Your explanation may combine elements from several sources: 1)

your headline, 2) your subheadline, 3) your image, 4) a separate
paragraph. Taken in isolation, each of these elements does not
explain the product or service, but as a composite, they
accomplish what an explanation should do.

 An explanation should be benefit-oriented. Explanations are

functional, but functionality should be tilted in favor of the user.
For example, “We make websites” is a functional explanation, but
it lacks the user-focused orientation. To make this explanation
even more compelling, you could angle it towards the user to
show them the value: “Get a website that makes you money.”

This explanation is given in picture form. Using parallax scrolling

features, the website displays how the mailbox and response function
of the software work.
Essential Element 5:  Value Proposition
or Benefits
The value proposition is defined as “an innovation, service or feature
intended to make a company or product attractive to customers.”
When it comes to your landing page, this element needs to have pride
of place. The value proposition basically answers the user’s question,
“What’s in it for me?”

 Like the “explanation,” a value proposition can be found spread

among the various essential elements.
  One of the best ways to advance your value proposition is through
a list of benefits. Many landing pages use an unadorned bullet
point list to explain the benefits of their product or service.

 Benefits should be clearly focused on the user. It’s easy to drift off
mark with benefits, and start talking about yourself as a company.
Don’t do this! Instead, always think about the user and how he or
she will benefit. Benefits aren’t “we are awesome.” Benefits are
“the user will be awesome with this product or service.” For
example, let’s say you are selling Web hosting. Option 1: “We
have 99.98% uptime!” Option 2:  “Your website will have 99.98
uptime!” Which one is customer-oriented? It’s the second one.
That’s the kind of benefit you should be going for.

Crazy Egg’s landing page has three simple benefits. Each of these
focuses directly on the upside for the user.
Repumatic’s benefit list is simple and straightforward.

The benefits listing on Instapage provide the same simple,

straightforward presentation. They are explicitly user-focused with the
phrase “All the Features You Need to Succeed.”
Essential Element 6:  Logical Flow
The logical flow of a landing page is just as important as the actual
content you have on the landing page.

A truly interested customer will be cognitively engaged with the landing

page. They will read the content and follow the thought process. Thus,
you must lead them through a process of thinking that is logical and
compelling.

 Start with your explanation, continue with your benefits, include

your testimonials, and end with your CTA. This is the most obvious
and persuasive method of structuring a landing page.
  CTA placement is a critical component of landing page flow. You
can use multiple CTAs on a single landing page, positioning each
one at the end of each discrete section of the landing page.

 Allow your design to demarcate sections. You don’t have to be

subtle about the way that a page is organized logically. In fact, if
you augment the logical flow with corresponding design flow
features, then you will improve the process with visual/cognitive
coherence.

 Use persuasive elements throughout. Don’t confine persuasion to

a single section. Persuasive features should be present in every
section of the landing page.

 Remember, long-form landing pages are highly effective. Don’t be

afraid to make a landing page really long.

Short pages don’t need the same level of hierarchical rigor that a long-
form landing page needs.

Repumatic has a long-form landing page, so they use multiple CTAs

throughout. This particular landing page has six, each located after a
section. Notice the button that appears twice in the image
below:“Personal Accounts are free! Get Started!”

Essential Element 7:  Something about

Pain
Wait. “Something about”? Isn’t that pretty vague? This point is
intentionally vague, because the idea of “pain” can be anywhere.

Here’s the psychology behind pain. Humans are wired to avoid pain.
Every product or service can help to alleviate pain in some way. If you
can cause the user to think about their pain, they will subconsciously
seek relief from that pain, and thereby be more likely to convert.

 Mention what a user will lose, not just what they will gain.
According to the theory of loss aversion, we are more likely to
anticipate the pain of losing something than we are to feel the
 pleasure from gaining something of equal value. In other words, it
feels good to get $50, but the pain that we feel from losing $50 is
twice as intense as the pleasure we received from gaining the
same sum.

 You can implement pain references in the testimonials, as well as

in the remainder of the copy. Since pain is a powerful human
element, real human testimonials are often very effective at
conveying this pain in a trustworthy way.

 Be sure to relieve the pain. Your product or service is provided as

an antidote to the pain. Don’t leave the user wallowing in the
pain. Draw it to a conclusion by featuring the answer to the pain.

Prudential has a landing page designed to persuade people not to

procrastinate. The pain point that they focus on is the worry about not
having money enough to retire on, the concern about living in poverty,
and the guilt for procrastinating. They emphasize this pain with several
interactive features, like this one:
RamitSethi’s landing page for his course, “How to Talk to Anybody,” is
packed with pain. Sethi is selling a course and it’s predicated on pain —
the pain of embarrassment, missing out, being rejected, and feeling
lonely. He features dozens of testimonials that drive this feeling further
and further, making for a very effective landing page:
Essential Element 8:  Something about
Pleasure
Just as humans are pain-avoiding machines, we are also pleasure-
seeking animals. Every human is motivated by the desire to gain
pleasure, which can have a variety of forms.
  Your goal in the landing page is to show how pleasure is a by-
product of having the product or service. So, for example, you are
selling arthritis-relief medication. But you’re not just selling a pill.
You’re selling freedom, relief, and joy. If you sell cross-training
footwear, you’re not just selling something that goes on a
customer’s foot. You’re selling respect, trendiness, security,
vibrancy, and fulfillment. Each product can be presented in such a
way that it brings emotional and psychological pleasure.

 Use emotional pleasure cues. Discover the ways in which your

product meets an emotional need beyond its mere functional
role. We all desire to be accepted, loved, appreciated, recognized,
honored, compensated, admired, etc. What emotional craving can
your product or service help to satisfy?

Mixpanel sells A/B testing services. Not all that emotionally powerful,
huh? Think again. The landing page they use helps to inspire a sense of
wonder and surprise. Humans have a psychological proclivity for
surprise. It scratches an emotional itch. That’s exactly why this headline
is perfect for speaking to the brain’s pleasure center.
Reputation.com helps users gain back their reputation. It’s easy to see
their pleasure-added headline, subheadline, and CTA:
Instapage’s landing page presents the user with this question, “Want to
get it right on your first try? Welcome to Instapage.” This desire to get
things right on the first try resonates with an emotional need. We
recognize that doing so will build our confidence, our reputation, and
maybe our income.

Essential Element 9:  Trustworthy

Testimonials
A landing page’s testimonials are one of its most important trust
signals. A user wants to know that they can trust the product or service.
If they see a trustworthy testimonial, this goes a long way in cultivating
the user’s trust.

 Use testimonials from real people. Celebrities and experts are

great, but you don’t need testimonials from these people. Choose
 testimonials from people who are most relevant to your target
audience.

 Make sure you use pictures. Pictures are the keystone of trust in
testimonials. It’s important that every featured testimonial be
accompanied by a photo of a real person.

 Testimonials should be specific. Glittering generalities don’t make

great testimonies. The best testimonies are those that are backed
by real numbers, real data, and specific applications.

TasksEveryDay, which provides offshore virtual assistant services, uses

a rotating carousel of testimonials. Each featured testimonials has a
picture, a name, a video, a specific geolocation, and a clear discussion
on how the service benefited them.

The testimonial on Curalate’s page uses three different detailed

numbers:
These testimonials on Instapage also feature pictures, names (first and
last), positions, and companies.
Essential Element 10:  Methods of
Contact
Are you legit? Then prove it.

Some of the most persuasive landing pages that I’ve visited have
multiple methods of contacts — a phone number, a physical address,
an email address, and a contact form. Some even have popups where a
customer service representative asks me if they can be of help.

These go a long way to help strengthen my trust in the company, and to

eliminate any friction in the conversion funnel.

 At the most basic level, provide some assurance that you are a
real company. Usually, this involves a physical address and a
phone number.
  Live chats featured in a popup can be helpful, but not a must-
have. Using live chat is somewhat controversial. If you insist on
using one, do your homework, and make sure you have some
convincing reasons for keeping it there.

While researching this article, I chatted with one of the representatives

from IwillTeachYouToBeRich. She was helpful and courteous, and
answered my questions. Besides, I knew, as a customer, that the
company was present and responsive. If I had any questions about
signing up for the course, I knew I would be able to get answers:

The “Chat Here” box is always present, regardless of scroll depth, on

FotoZap’s landing page:
A large contact form on the TasksEveryDay landing page made it easy
to get in touch with the company with any questions or concerns.

SignNow, a service of Barracuda, has a landing page with an easy-to-use

chat function.
Essential Element 11:  A Guarantee
Customers love guarantees. A guarantee, regardless of what it is or how
it’s presented, can help people feel reassured while on your landing
page. Simply the word itself improves the likelihood of a conversion.

 Guarantees can take many forms. Choose a type of guarantee

that works for your business type, and state this guarantee on
your landing page. There’s no need to delve into the legalities of
it. Just say it. The point is that you have a guarantee, and the
customer knows it.

 In the absence of any explicit product guarantee (e.g., satisfaction,

money back, etc.), you can provide a different type of guarantee:
e.g., “100% No Spam Guarantee.”

 Position your guarantee statement close to the CTA. This

proximity will help the user 1) receive a final bit of assurance, and
2) be ready to convert.
RamitSethi gives his customers a killer guarantee and he goes into
detail to explain how it works:

At the bottom of Help Scout’s landing page, they provide this

reassurance. Although it doesn’t necessarily give an explicit guarantee,
they do provide a level of comfort that’s similar to a guarantee. The
award and shield icon are also reminiscent of trust badges, further
enhancing this assurance.
Essential Element 12:  Powerful Call to
Action
The last position is for the most important element of all — the call to
action. No element listed in this article is as important as your call to
action. Here are a few CTA must-haves.

 Make it big. Generally speaking, the bigger the better.

 Make your copy compelling. The actual CTA copy is the most
significant copy on your entire landing page. Don’t use the word
“submit.” Instead use something explosive, exciting, and
persuasive.

 Use a button. Users have been trained to expect the CTA to be a

button. Do not attempt to force back years of expectation by
using something other than a button. Stick with the tried and true.
People know what to do when they see a button.
  Use a contrasting color. Your landing page, your company, your
stylebook, and your designers all have certain colors that they
like. Your landing page has a color scheme. Now, whatever color
you use on your CTA, make it different. At the most basic level,
your CTA needs to possess color. And, to make it stand out, that
color needs to contrast from the other colors on the screen.
Contrasting colors help to attract the eye, and compel the click.

The CTA for Help Scout is located directly underneath the testimonial
section. This provides a seamless and logical flow, both from a design
and cognitive perspective.

At the bottom of Mixpanel’s landing page is their CTA. It’s positioned

brilliantly, and the copy on the button is perfect (“Try it for free.”)
Instead of using a contrasting color on the button itself, the designers
chose to use a contrasting color for the entire CTA section.
CTA positioning is important. Although the landing page featured below
has some shortcomings, the positioning of the CTA underneath the
image helps to draw user’s attention to it, thus enhancing the
noticeability and clickability of the CTA.

Instapage has a great example of a high-contrast CTA button. Notice

how this button is a contrasting red, which totally stands out from the
grays, and blacks of its surroundings.
Monsoon’s CTA is exactly what a CTA should be — big, bold, well-
written, and orange.

Look at the size of the CTA for Monetate:

Get Response goes for the big CTA, too.
Conclusion
A landing page is the place where all your efforts come to fruition. This
is the place where customers click, people buy, and you make revenue.

Don’t screw it up.

You will create a powerful and high-converting landing page by

implementing each of these 12 essentials. And once you’re done, do
some A/B testing, and keep improving. The process of creating a
landing page is never finished. You will always improve.

Best practices to create a thank-you

page
Thank you pages should accomplish a few things:

 Provide your new leads with their promised offer.

 Return your website navigation.
 Keep new leads engaged with your company through the use of
CTAs.

Begin your thank you page with a message of thanks, followed by the
offer itself. If it's a downloadable offer, make it very clear where the
user should click to download the offer.

Then you can include CTAs that might keep your converted leads on
your site. You can try to direct them to the next offer in the buying
cycle, to your blog, to informational pages, or even to your social media
profiles. And since you'll also be giving them the site navigation back,
they'll be free to explore the rest of your site.

You should not optimize your thank you page for SEO purposes because
you want visitors to have to complete a form in order to access them.

Practical exercise-creating a landing

page
No Theory use Instapage to create landing page.

Below are some videos we can refer to:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw1cMn1N20I
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUZ3OAb6ohE
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFvePUloS3I

Types of landing pages

There are 3 basic types of landing page, Click Through, Lead Generation
(also referred to as Lead Gen or Lead Capture pages) and Squeeze
Pages.

Click Through Landing Pages

Click through landing pages (as the name implies) have the goal of
persuading the visitor to click through to another page. Typically used
in ecommerce funnels, they can be used to describe a product or offer
in sufficient detail so as to “warm up” a visitor to the point where they
are closer to making a purchasing decision.

All too often, inbound advertising traffic is directed at shopping cart or

registration pages. This leads to poor conversions as the ad doesn’t
provide sufficient information for someone to make an informed
decision.

This is where the click through page comes in. As a result, the
destination page from a click through page is typically the shopping cart
or registration page – now with a much higher chance of conversion
having passed through the details of the landing page.
Lead Generation Landing Pages

Lead Gen landing pages are used to capture user data, such as a name
and email address. The sole purpose of the page is to collect
information that will allow you to market to and connect with the
prospect at a subsequent time. As such, a lead capture page will
contain a form along with a description of what you’ll get in return for
submitting your personal data.

There are many uses for lead gen landing pages, some example uses
and the items given to the user are listed below:

 Ebook or whitepaper
 Webinar registration
 Consultation for professional services
 Discount coupon/voucher
 Contest entry
 Free trial
  A physical gift (via direct mail)
 Notification of a future product launch

The length of your form and the level of personal data requested can
have a direct impact on conversion. Try to ask for the absolute
minimum amount of information that will enable you to market to your
prospects effectively. For instance, don’t ask for a phone or fax number
if you only need to contact them via email.

Squeeze Page

A squeeze page is a landing page designed to capture opt-in email

addresses from potential subscribers. The goal of a squeeze page is to
convince, cajole, or otherwise ”squeeze” a visitor into providing one of
their most sought-after and coveted pieces of personal data: the email
address.
What Makes an Enticing Offer for a Squeeze Page?

While you can host many different types of content on your squeeze
page, some will prove more valuable than others. Prime types of
squeeze page content offers include:

 Email Course
 E-Book
 White Paper Collection
 Templates / Design Aids

D. Bnonn Tennant of Kiss Metrics makes a very interesting point,

claiming that if you are going to ask for a user’s email address, it should
be absolutely necessary for the offer. Asking for an email address in
exchange for a download file or video makes the hair stand up on a
user’s spine. Most users know that they shouldn’t have to provide you
with an email address in order to watch a video. However, if you are
going to send them an e-book, needing their email to do so makes a bit
more sense.