This week’s Masterclass is all about the landing pages your readers click through to from your e-newsletter. Often you put so much into the e-newsletter content, that the landing pages can be an afterthought. Beware this expensive oversight!
One small step for man. (Here is his footprint.)
American astronaut, Neil Armstrong, stepped onto the Moon’s surface (in the Sea of Tranquility) at 02:56 GMT on 21st July 1969, and left this actual footprint in the moon dust. NASA asked him to take a snap of it for posterity – maybe they thought it might be useful in a blog 39 years later? I like to think so.
Neil wasn’t sure what landing on the Moon would feel like – but he stepped off the ladder anyway. See the moonwalk footage on YouTube here.
Your readers need to ‘step off the ladder’ out of your e-newsletter onto your landing pages – and most importantly – they need to perceive value in doing so. Or they will stop stepping.
A step. A click. It’s the same thing.
Q. How can your landing pages deliver value?
A. The basic rule of thumb is to generate a clear expectation in your link and then check that the landing page meets that expectation.
For example: If you are running a special offer ‘widgets at 50% discount’ make sure your link clicks through to the actual discounted widgets page inside your webshop. Don’t just leave them at the front door – go deep and show them the 50% discounted widget page with only one more click to buy. The landing page must be relevant and useful.
Nothing frustrates a reader more than trying to work out why the link went to some obscure landing page. The home page seems to be the default destination for lazy e-marketers – ‘if all else fails, link through to the home page’. No, no and no a zillion times! Readers are not Google bots happy to crawl your site hunting for clues. If your e-newsletter creates an expectation in a link – meet that expectation with a properly thought through landing page.
End of rant footnote: I guess it’s easily overlooked. But only once! Examine the next issue of your own e-newsletter (before you broadcast) and write down what expectation each link creates. If that doesn’t put the cat amongst the pigeons (and gets you to re-write some of those links with a strong call-to-action), then check that the landing pages meet those expectations – that’ll do it! Until next time. Dom.
