Are Landing Pages Necessary For Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing can be very fulfilling or very frustrating. There are incredible highs and rock bottom lows. But, the journey of affiliate marketing is oh so much fun. And like any journey you need the right equipment to get to your destination. In affiliate marketing one piece of equipment that you do need is a landing page.
A landing page is simply a one, or maybe two, page website where you funnel all your traffic to. Every link, every article, every social network, every ppc ad is directed to this one simple page. You’re being an air traffic controller and directing each and every plane to your landing strip.
On a landing page there are usually a few different other pieces of equipment that help you build a rather healthy affiliate income. Opt-in list sign up, free ebook, video, audio, and maybe some reviews and comparisons of similar products are all examples of what you can find on the landing page. All great tools to use in converting all that traffic to commissions. But, the problem with landing pages is that sometimes people just don’t think you need to have one.
Do you need a landing page for affiliate marketing?
In almost every case, I would say that when marketing products as an affiliate you should have a series of landing pages working for you to convert traffic to profit. I say almost every instance, because there are always exceptions to every rule.
However, the fact remains that in affiliate marketing, a valuable – must have- piece of your overall advertising campaign is a landing page. Why? Why are they so important?
1. Landing pages give you a base of operations. This is very important when you want to drive a point home about you, the product you are advertising, and how it will benefit the visitor. You want one page to do all that. Landing pages are also great for use in social networking. You can send all the traffic from people looking at your profile to this page also.
2. Landing pages are incredible list builders. When you are in affiliate marketing one of your greatest assets is your mailing list. Landing pages build them for you. By giving away a free ebook, or access to “special privileged” videos or even “insider” coupons are great incentives for people to sign up for your mailing list.
3. Landing pages give you a place for your voice. Your landing page is where you can differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack. If you are into network marketing then this is especially important for you. When there are a lot of different people advertising the same thing – with the same supplied landing page – the effectiveness of it goes down. But, different ones, with different information, different voices drive results sky high.
4. Landing pages can be easily changed and tested. The great thing about a one page, or two page site is that they don’t take that long to create. (And with the new Affiliate Theme product for Wordpress, landing pages are incredibly simple to make.) And they are easily tested and changed. It wouldn’t take too much time to create two to three different landing pages for testing with PPC, or even article marketing, to see which one converts more. Or, you can keep them for different target audiences.
5. Landing pages pre-sell your visitor. This is something I have heavily reinforced with my clients and their advertising. Pre-Selling was made mainstream by Ken Evoy of SiteSell.com. And it works. You can’t expect someone to see a PPC ad and automatically want to buy. They need a little coaxing first. Landing pages can do that.
Landing Pages Should Also Be Well Designed
A major problem with most affiliates is that they just don’t know how to create all these landing pages, embed videos, design graphics, and write copy to pre-sell each visitor. While landing pages can be easy to churn out, it can be quite intimidating. Especially considering their importance.
It is just common sense to realize that if you are sending visitors to a poorly designed, hard to read or understand landing page not much is going to happen in the way of sign ups or clickthrus. Not a good thing.
So, you must take some time to present an appealing landing page to the visitor to achieve the maximum results.
1. Landing pages should have a striking header graphic. This is where you grab the attention of the visitor immediately. The graphic should be big, bold and contain colors that are pleasing to the eye.
2. Landing pages should have big, bold headings. After the graphic your words are going to pull the visitor in. The first ones they usually read are contained in your heading text. Make them good.
3. Landing pages should contain an incentive right off the bat. Get your visitor thinking about what is in this visit for them. Let them know what you are offering.
4. Landing pages should contain some sort of picture, or video, that will further instill desire. Video is the affiliate tool right now. I suggest using it and making it visible almost immediately.
5. Landing pages should be easily understood and navigable. Cluttered up pages, and hard to understand copy will cause people to leave and never return.
6. Landing pages should contain a big call to action. Hey, you want them there for a reason. Don’t be shy about asking for what you want.
Affiliate marketing is made a lot simpler with landing pages. And now with some great landing page tools that practically do the entire design for you there is no reason why you are not pumping out landing pages for each of your offers.
Don’t be intimidated by the “shoulds” and “needs” of a landing page. Just dive in and start using them.
