What is a B2B landing page?

The basic definition of a landing page is a dedicated page on a website that you land on directly from an external source such as a paid ad or email.

In B2B you usually want to generate a lead, or offer a downloadable resource.

A lead generation landing page is highly targeted and focused on one specific outcome. The aim of the landing page is to encourage a specific action using targeted copy to connect with a user and persuade them to act.

Landing pages for B2B can be constructed for paid ads through search engines or social media. They can also be used for SEO purposes to capture organic search traffic. 

What is the difference between a landing page and a home page?

Home pages are the portal to a destination. Somewhere you come in order to go somewhere else on the website. There are many points of entry and different destinations.

Landing pages are the destination and all about conversion. They aim to keep the user from navigating elsewhere and are laser focused on a single objective.

When should I use a landing page vs. home page?

Landing pages are used for paid ad campaigns that are either targeting a cold, engaged or warm audience on social media or paid search. 

I usually direct branded traffic to the home page, that way the user can navigate themselves to where they want to go. Unless it is “brand + specific product/service” then I steer them towards a dedicated landing page, or in worst case a product page.

Yes, there is actually a third option that is very common in B2B lead generation: the product page.

I would put the product page in the same category as the homepage. There are however ways of making a product page look more like a landing page but the outcome is usually worse than a dedicated landing page.

The reason for this is that you want to create a siloed funnel for a specific traffic source and target audience, so that you can optimize and test what copy and creative works for that source/audience combo. Optimizing a home page or product page that gets visitors from all kinds of places, and from different target audiences will make the page too narrow and it will lose its purpose.

The more landing pages you have, the more your conversion rates will increase. Companies that have more than 10 landing pages see a 55% increase in leads (Hubspot, 2021).

1. Page Headlines and Ad Copy

The landing page headline and ad copy should reflect each other.

A user that clicks on an ad on Google or Social media does so because the headline and copy made them. If they are not welcomed to a page that reflects that message you will most likely get a bounce. 

Ad platforms such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads know this and rate your ads based on the relevance between ad copy and landing page copy, and give you a score that determines your CPC (what you pay for that click). 

Being one of the first things a visitor will read, the landing page headlines should not confuse or be boring, it must compel the visitor to continue down the page.

Every line of text's mission is to make you read the next.

It needs to be CRYSTAL clear what you are offering, remember the visitors do not have the knowledge you have about your company or services.

2. Product / Solution Fit

What makes your offer appealing and enticing? Why should the user take action? Use the proposition in the headline to gain attention and encourage the user to read the supporting copy.

After you get them interested, you need to go for the hook. 

Don’t sell features, sell benefits. The buyer doesn’t care if the product is green or red. They care about how it will make them feel and what they will get.

No fluff, no buzzwords, plain and simple.We can divide this content into 3 parts; Product / Solution Fit, Authority and Trust, and Value.

Their questions:

‍Is this product/service the best solution for my problem? Is the product worth what they are charging?

Your answer: 

Show how similar problems are being solved by your solution. Show them the end result and what they gain in concrete terms. Go look at Capterra or G2 for the drawbacks in your competitors' reviews and use that to your advantage.

Proof of potential ROI. Case studies. Demonstration of the product itself. Talk actual numbers and back it up with proof. Every company claims that they are faster and better - you need to show how.

3. Authority and Trust

‍Their question:

Does the company selling me this product know what they are talking about? Why should I listen to them? Does this company or person have my best interest at heart?

Your answer: 

Social proof 

Customer logos, customer testimonials with name, head shot and logo, extracted from your case studies, 3rd party rating sites etc. 

Demonstration of expertise 

Who are the founders, what have they done before, are they known within the industry, are you venture backed, where is your HQ located, how many employees do you have, have you gotten any press recognition. The more transparent you are, the more the visitor feels they can trust you. It doesn’t have to be a full page, but sprinkle it in where it makes sense. 

4. Segmentation

Segment your personas and target one per landing page.

Remember 1 Persona, 1 Problem, 1 Solution in your marketing copy. This applies here as well.

Any marketing you do should be created with your target audience in mind. Even more so for a landing page. Dynamic landing pages can be created to target different audiences on the same topic using dynamic keyword insertion for Google Ads, to save you some time.

5. Social Proof

Include social proof to help the user justify their decision.

This can be a customer testimonial, number of customers, big name businesses that use your product, or all three.

Buyers are swayed by social endorsement to avoid making a mistake or being considered weird.

Group opinion is a powerful persuader. Most people want to be convinced to buy a product. Emotionally they want an expensive exercise bike, but they just need you to justify the decision for them. If everyone else has bought one, that effectively gives them permission to do the same.

Social proof, word of mouth (even digital) and social approval offers trust and this will sell more products and services than anything else. People do not like to take risks. Seeing that others have a positive experience offers credibility and instills confidence that the product will meet their needs.

For an effective way of building trust, incorporate testimonials, press mentions, guarantee seals, and 3rd party trust and security certifications.

6. Use a strong call to action

Have one action that you want a user to complete and don’t try to confuse or dilute what you want from the page. Avoid offering different CTAs or links to other pages other than where you want the user to go. 

Don’t make your visitor think.

Position the offer above the fold and make it instantly understandable.

Avoid anything that distracts away from the CTA.

Every element placed on the page should support the CTA goal.

The CTA should be the most visually prominent element on the page. Color, size or using the weight of space around the button will draw attention to it and make sure it stands out.

Repeat the CTA on the page.

The first CTA should be above the fold, so it can be seen as soon as the user drops on the page. If you have a scrolling page, always repeat your CTA at the end — never leave a user without somewhere to go.

After a visitor reads the landing page headline, it is crucial that they know what to do next. In the case of Mozilla Firefox, when they changed their call-to-action from “Try Firefox 3” to “Download Now - Free”, it outperformed the original copy by 3.6% and had a confidence level of over 99%. And that is just for the copy on the CTA-button.

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7. Minimize the amount of links

Links connecting the user to too many other sites or pages will distract them and have a negative impact on conversions.

Lots of links may make sense on a regular homepage, but on a landing page simplicity is key.

A tip is to remove the top and bottom navigation totally on the page, so that there is only one button to click on the whole page and that is, you guessed it, the CTA-button.

8. Put in a FAQ

Counter objections directly. Every visitor comes with their set of beliefs, you need to meet them and counter any possible objections they might have.

Don’t be afraid to feature customers' objections on your landing pages… and directly counter them.

Common objections include:

Why should I believe you?

What if it doesn’t work for me?

It’s not worth the money.

How does this compare to…?

9. Test

Invest in the User Experience to squeeze out every last conversion.

Conversion optimization can make a huge difference to the conversion rate on pages. Start out by following best practices for the anatomy of landing pages (see below). And then test your own variations.

Test and iterate every part of the page. Test the color of CTA buttons. Test the message in the button. Test button placement. 

A/B testing has never been easier. We have instant feedback on performance and can leverage that to tweak our page until it’s a conversion machine.

A rule of thumb is 300 visits over 3 weeks to get enough statistical significance between 2 variants.

Google has a free tool called Google Optimize.

10. Speed

The landing page should load in 5 seconds, or the conversion rate starts to fall.

Core Web Vitals brought home the importance of a fast-loading webpage, but landing pages are even more critical. Every second a page loads is more money taken off the table.

After 5 seconds, just 1 more second is a 4.42% reduction in conversion (Portent.com, 2019) and keeps dropping by 2.11% for every second after that.

Bonus: Lead Gen Page Template

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