Marketing Campaign: Landing Page or Homepage?

One of the major decisions that you will have to make when creating an online marketing campaign is where to redirect the people who have clicked on your advert. Should you divert them to your home page or should you use a landing page that is specifically for the marketing campaign? Learn what to do and when to use a landing page vs home page.

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

Regardless of the nature of your business, your overall strategy is in flaw if you do not have an online presence as of 2017. People use the internet to search for products and services that they need. Every business needs to have a web presence to cater for internet users.

Your homepage is the main web page that users see when they type out your web address on their browsers. It tells users about your business, the products and/or services that you offer, your location and any other relevant information that your potential clients need to know about your business.

A landing page, on the other hand, is a web page that has been created SPECIFICALLY for a marketing campaign. It  focuses less on your larger business objectives and focuses on the product/service that you intend to promote.

Its main purpose is to convert visitors into clients and not to provide information on your business. Due to the specific nature of landing pages, they act as the ‘face’  your business. This is what you should present to create a marketing campaign.

Why use a landing page and not your home page?

There are two main reasons

1.Home Pages are distracting

A homepage design is the online equivalent of a physical ‘brick and mortar’ location. It gives your organizational history, your mission and vision statements. It also gives a brief profile of your staff members and a catalog of the products and services that you offer.

While all this information is useful, it does not serve the purpose of converting visitors who click on your advert into clients.

The example above is the homepage for KIND snacks. It has numerous links to the various products that they offer, an ‘about us’ page, their mission statement and their online store.

This is for those who want to know more about the company. You realize it doesn't act as the page that visitors land to if the company runs a marketing campaign to launch a new flavor to their line of breakfast bars.

This page would be distracting. A landing page that specifically outlines the new product and links visitors to where they can specifically purchase the bar, or learn more about it, would better serve the marketing campaign.

2. Possibility of multiple landing pages

One of the key rules of online marketing is to ensure you match the message in your advertisement to the landing page. You cannot have multiple home pages to serve different clients, but you can have multiple landing pages.

Sticking to the breakfast bar example, let’s say marketing research reveals that your new product will appeal to two main market segments: young women that want a calorie light but nutritious breakfast alternative and hikers who want a nutrient rich pocket size snack they can carry during their expeditions.

You can have two adverts, each to target one of the market segments. When visitors click on the advert, they get into a landing page which appeals to them.

Once they respond to the call to action, they can both be redirected to the same checkout page where they can make their purchase. a landing page gives you the flexibility to appeal to different market segments, with the same product.

When should you use Home Pages?

If you have a business that specifically deals with one product, then you can forego the need to have a landing page. The main purpose of a landing page is to allow a business that has multiple products to showcase a single product that you promote.

If you don’t have any other products, then your homepage will only focus on the product that you want to market. In this case, you might not need to have a landing page, as your promotional content can serve as your home page.

The home page above is for Petra, a tourist attraction. Since there are no other services offered by the tour provider, if they have any promotions for their service they can incorporate them in the homepage without having to create a landing page.

While landing pages are the preferred destination to the potential clients who respond to your marketing campaign, in some circumstances, you can make do with your homepage.