Landing Pages are Experiences, Not Just Communications

Landing Pages are Experiences, Not Just Communications:from Business 2 Community by Scott Brinker

Possibly one of the most challenging transformations underway in marketing is a fundamental shift in what the marketer delivers to prospects and customers. Up until recently, the marketer has been responsible for delivering communications. It’s been a job that largely revolved around the verb “say.” Here’s what we say to our audience to inform them, compel them, and stir their imagination.
There was often physical and temporal distance between those communications vehicles delivered by the marketer and the actual customer experience, which transpired somewhere further down the road.
But digital has disrupted the ability to cleanly separate communications from experiences. As soon as someone starts interacting with your web site — or your landing pages — on a laptop, a smartphone, or a tablet, they are now having an experience with you. It’s not just what your web and mobile pages say, it’s how they behave. Are they a pleasure to interact with, or are they frustrating in their user experience? Do they feel like a service powered by modern technology, provided by an organization that has embraced the future for the betterment of their customers, or do they feel dated, underpowered, and out of touch?
Those impressions — especially at the crucial touchpoints when a prospect is first getting to know you — define your brand in the eyes of your audience.
It’s no longer enough to just “say” the right thing. Marketers must now do the right right thing by incorporating those messages into a more complete experience.
Landing pages are an excellent example of this shift from say to do. Old-style landing pages that would merely communicate a few bullet points and expect the visitor to then take the next action in the context of a generic experience seem older and more tired than ever. New-style landing pages, that are designed as experiences from conception through execution — providing interaction, personalization, deeper content beyond a single page, application-like features, and a more continuous flow from step to step — seem light years ahead in comparison.
These new-style landing pages are the first part of the customer experience journey. If you can do, not just say, you can wield them as a powerful marketing tactic to delight your audience and build your brand from the first click onward.