If you’re looking to market your business consulting practice online, you’ve probably come across the term landing page.
Landing pages are single web pages that have a specific conversion goal – like increasing your number of newsletter subscribers, providing an eBook download, or capturing leads for a new service you’re promoting.
Like the name suggests, a landing page is a place where prospects “land” when they click through from somewhere else online. However, not all landing pages are the same and, within a website, you’ll most likely have multiple landing pages depending on the messaging, campaign, or call to action (CTA).
Confused yet? You’re not alone. The world of landing pages can be complex. That’s why we’re here to help.
In this ultimate guide to landing pages, we cover what a landing page is, how business consultants can use landing pages to benefit their business, and 7 tips to create your own high-converting landing page.
Let’s begin.
What is a Landing Page?
A good place to start is with a definition of what a landing page is – and what it is not.
For business consultants who aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of “digital-marketing-speak”, there’s sometimes a tendency to confuse a landing page with your homepage. However, they couldn’t be more different.
Your homepage is the front page of your website, available to anyone who wants to visit and contains general information about your business. A landing page is a unique page that you purposefully send people to with the intent of getting them to take a specific action. It has tailored messaging about one thing, along with one call to action. It’s also usually hidden from your website’s main navigation and sometimes even from search engines.
Let’s look at some examples of how people use landing pages:
- If you’re running a Google Ad about one of your services, when someone clicks on the ad, they should be taken to a landing page you’ve created that’s all about that one service only and that has one form for them to fill out if they want more information.
- If you’re promoting a free webinar to your LinkedIn followers, when they click on your post to learn more, they should be taken to a landing page that has information about the webinar and a form to register for it.
The idea here is that when someone shows intent to take an action – they’ve clicked on an ad with the intent to learn more about a service, or they clicked on your LinkedIn post with the intent to register for your webinar – you take them directly to a landing page where they can accomplish that goal. If you took them to your homepage instead, they might get distracted by other content on your website or get frustrated trying to find what they came for.
Here is an example of what a landing page can look like (this is from Value Builder, a software that helps business consultants find, win, and keep their most valuable clients):
In summary, a landing page is just what it sounds like: a page your audience “lands on” when they’ve clicked from somewhere else, and that has information specific to a particular offer or service you’re promoting.
Elements of a Successful Landing Page
So, what makes for a successful landing page? Though each landing page is different, they share common elements that position them for success.
Some of the best business consulting landing pages will include:
- Concise copy: Every landing page should have simple and direct copy. This will help your audience understand exactly what you’re offering and make it clear to them what step they should take next.
- The use of multimedia: Although your landing page will have written content, don’t shy away from multimedia. In fact, other elements like graphics, images, and videos are strong mediums you can use to deliver your message.
- A form that’s “above the fold”: “Above the fold” simply refers to the information that’s visible on a web page before a user needs to scroll down. The term is borrowed from newspapers, which were folded in half, making the sections “above the fold” the most valuable. From a landing page perspective, “above the fold” is prime real estate and you should make sure your strongest and clearest message is stated here, along with your lead capture form. Only make people scroll if they need additional details.
- One CTA only: As we’ve already mentioned, the purpose of a landing page is to encourage visitors to take one action, whether that’s to send you an inquiry, download your free eBook, or subscribe to your newsletter. Any more than one ask and your visitors might get confused about what action they’re supposed to take.
- Social sharing buttons: Social sharing is one of the best ways to broaden your audience and every landing page should have easy ways for your visitors to share it on their social media platforms.
- Mobile friendliness: A large number of your visitors will be using their mobile devices (phones and/or tablets) to visit your landing page. So, make sure it looks just as great on mobile as it does on desktop.
Benefits for Business Consultants of a High-Converting Landing Page
By now, it should come as no surprise that an effective landing page equals more visitors taking the desired action (aka “converting”). And that more conversions equals more business growth.
But let’s dive into this a little further. There are several ways high-converting landing pages can help your business consulting practice thrive.
A high-converting landing page will:
- As mentioned, increase conversions. What you define as a conversion will be dependent on what action you’re hoping the user will take. For instance, a conversion could be someone completing a form fill, registering for a webinar, or subscribing to your newsletter.
- Help you gain additional insights into your audience’s behavior or preferences. A landing page that doesn’t convert can tell you as much as one that does. For instance, maybe you haven’t communicated your value proposition clearly enough.
- Allow you to run A/B tests with different copy and/or multimedia. A/B testing is when you change one element (such as the headline copy or the color of a button) to see if that change will positively impact your conversion rate.
- Allow you to measure KPIs (key performance indicators) in accordance with your business goals.
- Increase your brand awareness, value, and authority.
7 Tips for Business Consultants to Create High-Converting Landing Pages
Of course, getting started with a landing page can feel a bit overwhelming, particularly for owners of business consulting practices who have a laundry list of other responsibilities.
Here are a few tips to help you with your consulting landing pages, so you can watch your business grow.
1. Think About Your Headlines
A good headline is worth its weight in gold. If people don’t immediately connect with the first few words on your landing page, they’re much more likely to leave (or “bounce” as digital marketers like to call it).
So, pay close attention to your main headline and subheadline (the text beneath the headline) to ensure you’re getting your message across. If you’re offering an eBook download, make sure your headline communicates that clearly. Don’t make people wonder why they’ve come to your landing page or what they’re supposed to do next.
This can take some wordsmithing on your part, however don’t overthink it to the point you get stuck. Remember, you can A/B test your landing page and it might take a few tries before you hit the nail on the head.
Need some inspiration? Here are some examples to get you started:
Tip: Don’t have the time to create landing pages yourself? Value Builder offers prebuilt landing pages designed just for business consultants.
2. Visualize the Message
Like we mentioned above, multimedia is a great way to capture your audience and create high-converting landing pages.
Turn your messaging into something visual, like videos or graphics. Even consider something interactive that visitors can engage with. This helps solidify your position and creates a memorable experience for your audience.
Additionally, make your message personal with videos of you speaking to your audience. Depending on the type of landing page, this can help warm up your audience and show them the person behind the brand. It builds trust and for a business consultant, trust is everything.
3. Include Benefit Statements
Regardless of the type of landing page, your visitors want to benefit from something. They want to know the time they spend on your landing page is well worth it and that they’ll come away with a benefit.
Explain to your audience what’s in it for them. For instance, if you want them to subscribe to your newsletter, give them 5 reasons why doing so will benefit them.
This could include messaging like:
- Get the latest insights first
- Keep up to speed on industry trends
- Gain early access to content
- Enjoy exclusive offers
- Get early bird pricing
- …and so on
Ultimately, make sure you include how you can help them. Afterall, that’s why they clicked on your landing page.
4. Personalize the Content
Personalized content is content that’s written to appeal to a particular audience segment. For instance, if you have visitors coming from different industry backgrounds, your messaging might be slightly different for each vertical.
Personalizing content helps you create a more tailored experience for your audience, which can improve your conversion rate. Overall, it usually delivers stronger results than generic content.
However, personalizing content does require a lot of effort on the outset. You’ll need to write and create several versions of each landing page to appeal to your user group’s specific needs, pain points, and nuances.
But the great thing about personalization is that you can use your creativity to really let your brand – and your authority – shine through.
5. Provide Social Proof
The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Well, the same goes for any claims – benefits, results, and so on – that you state on your landing page. You need proof to back you up and increase your credibility.
This proof also needs to be relevant to the messaging you deliver on your landing page. For example, if your landing page is for an early bird event registration where you’re the keynote speaker, appropriate social proof could be testimonials from business owners who’ve enjoyed one of your past events.
Just make sure that whatever social proof you add to your landing page is specific to the messaging and goals of that landing page.
6. Create a Connection
Making your landing page personal is all about speaking to your audience’s pain points, understanding their needs and goals, and being able to offer them solutions.
But that’s not where it ends. Because your work as a business consultant is very people-oriented, your face (or the faces of your team members) will go a long way in building trust.
To make your landing page content even richer – and higher-converting – create videos for your audience, introducing them to you and letting them know your value proposition.
7. Add a Clear Call to Action
What makes a landing page different from a website homepage is that each landing page will have a unique and clear call to action (CTA). A landing page without a clear CTA isn’t going to do what you want it to.
Your CTA should be easily identifiable and use active language. Whether your CTA is to download a piece of content, watch a video, or sign up for a free consultation call, the CTA button or form field should be explicit and easy to navigate.
Not sure what your CTA should be? Let’s look at a few examples.
Let’s say you’re running an ad campaign on LinkedIn to grow your subscriber list. In this case, you’re offering a free whitepaper in exchange for the prospect’s email address. When the prospect lands on your landing page, you’ll offer them a form. Above it, your CTA language could be: Provide your email to download your free whitepaper. And below, the CTA button could read: Download now.
Or, perhaps you’re running an email nurture campaign and you want to encourage your subscribers to contact you for a free consultation call. Your landing page will include a crystal clear contact form that’s easy to fill out. Above it could read: Complete the form to book your free consultation call. And the CTA button could say: Book Now.
There are lots of different CTAs you can use, and some people get creative with them. But whatever you do use, make sure you include only one CTA per landing page, and that it’s clear.
Get High-Converting Landing Pages the Easy Way
As you’ve seen, creating high-converting landing pages can take considerable time and effort.
While some business consultants create landing pages themselves, others rely on Value Builder to get it done.
Value Builder’s Smart Content feature offers prebuilt landing pages that are statistically proven to resonate with audiences. Plus they support 500+ ready-made podcast episodes, eBooks, articles, copy and content, and much more.
With Value Builder, you can:
- Eliminate writing time and production costs by leveraging expertly written and designed marketing material.
- Convert 4x more business owners than the typical landing page.
- Position yourself as a thought-leader with content that is tested and optimized against a panel of 25,000 business owners.
Try Value Builder today <link to Book a Demo page when live> and see why it’s the leading choice for business consultants who want to find, win, and retain more clients.
