Run an ad. Create a landing page.

Think of it as a phone call. Your prospect sees your ad and has enough interest to want to learn more about what you have to offer. So they visit the link to your website. Sounds simple enough, but what happens next?

To understand the process, travel back in time to the “pre-website” days of marketing, where instead of a URL, you have only a phone number. If your prospect were to call that phone number and get a pre-recorded “one size fits all” message, what do you think would happen to their level of interest in what you have to offer—and by extension, to your prospective sale? The answer is “not much.”

Now imagine this scenario: your prospect calls the phone number in the ad, and instead of a generic message, they reach a live human who speaks directly to the prospect’s area of interest, drilling down on the message(s) in your ad, answer their questions before they’re even asked and deliver a logical, easy-to-act-on call to action. What do you think the result of that scenario would be? Much better, you would think. And you’d be right.

Those two scenarios illustrate the difference between driving a prospect to your general website and driving them to a custom landing page. By driving your prospect to a custom landing page, you’re able to focus and lead the conversation to and through the specific information that your prospect needs to see, read and hear in order to deepen their interest in, and connection with, your brand, core competency, service line, etc. It’s a no-brainer. And it’s a lot easier to implement than you might think.

Every ad you create should be accompanied by a specific landing page, customized to the topic/message of your ad. And while you’re at it, make sure that both your ad and your landing page also contain links to your social media sites so that you can continue to build the conversation with them, too.

Have a question? Get an answer. If you have a question about custom landing pages or social media integration, give us a call at 610.478.8448. Happy landings!

-Tom Sheehan is Principal at tomsheehan worldwide. He can be reached at tomsheehan@tomsheehan.com.