Do you want to generate more leads on your website? Without landing pages, you’re like the single guy who doesn’t ask Miss Right for her phone number.

One day back when I was single in the City of New York and living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, I met the girl of my dreams. It’s true – it was like a thunderbolt struck me. We hit it off immediately.

Among the things we talked about, we discovered we were both runners and members of the New York Road Runners Club. We talked about how it would be fun to run a race together.

We parted ways that day, and later I realized that in all my excitement of meeting her I’d forgotten to ask for her phone number. D’oh!

It’s said that you don’t regret the things you do in life, you regret the things you don’t do. And boy did I regret not asking for her phone number.

Her number wasn’t in the Manhattan phone book. But I remembered she mentioned that she often went on morning runs at the Central Park Resevoir. So, for several weeks before work I went running there hoping to bump in to her again. I never ran so much in my life. Not even in the army.

And then one day, I saw her again!

This time I got her number. We went on our first date. Long story short: we dated, got married and have two great kids.

If I’d just asked for her number when I first met her I could have avoided the risk that I’d never see her again. And we could have started the relationship sooner.

Sadly, many companies who want to generate leads on their websites are making the same mistake I did when I forgot to ask for Miss Right’s phone number when I first met her.

Many companies are doing content marketing to attract more of the right kind of traffic to their sites. But some are dropping the ball in the conversion stage by not using landing pages to generate leads.

What Are Landing Pages?

A landing page is a website page specifically designed to convert visitors to leads. It collects and processes information on website visitors who identify themselves in return for valuable content.

Here’s how landing pages work: When someone visits your site, goes to a landing page and fills in a form, landing page software automatically adds that information to a leads database.

Based on the landing page and the information provided, that lead is then segmented into a group of similar leads. And with landing page software, you can see which pages the lead visits, what they’re searching for and even how they got to your site in the first place.

Why Landing Pages Are So Important

Landing pages are like your digital sales reps, gathering information for marketing and sales about your prospects that help move them through the process of purchasing a product or service.

Capturing their contact information is crucial, because 98% of all website visitors will never come back to your website. Using landing pages to capture the prospect’s email address, your chances of getting them to return to your site improves dramatically.

Weak Offer = Weak Landing Page

Since all leads are not created equal, it’s important to synch up landing pages with buying cycle steps and timing, which vary by industry.

Studies show that 75-98% of B2B website visitors are performing research. They are looking for content or information to solve a problem or fulfill a need, but THEY ARE NOT READY TO BUY.

To convert those types of visitors into leads, content that appeals to researchers is offered behind a landing page. Examples of effective lead conversion content for the research stage include white papers, guides, tip sheets, eBooks, checklists, videos and kits.

Leads Are Not Generated By Landing Pages Alone

Of course, landing pages are not the only part of the conversion process. There are important before and afters in the form of call-to-actions and thank you pages.

A Call to Action (CTA) is a website button, image or text link that encourages a visitor to take an action by typically clicking on the button, visiting a landing page and filling out the form in return for some kind of valuable content.

After the visitor submits the form they are then redirected to a thank you page which has the content download link or pre-recorded webinar.

Do Landing Pages Work?

According to HubSpot, inbound marketing and landing pages generate 2X more leads than non-inbound marketers.

Want more leads? Add more landing pages. Marketers see a 55% increase in leads when increasing landing pages from 10 to 15.

Why Are Landing Pages So Important?

Sure, landing pages play a big role in the lead conversion process. But most importantly, they are the first step in generating a potentially long-lasting, mutually-beneficial relationship between prospect and customer.

photo credit: Wendy Longo photography via photopin cc