9 Shareable Stats on Why You’re Botching Your Landing Pages

9 Shareable Stats on Why You’re Botching Your Landing Pages:by Jasmine Henry
Driving Traffic Isn’t Enough!
All the best marketers know achieving a high search ranking on Google is only half the battle. Once you’re driving visitors to your website, you’ve got to capture their interest and nurture these leads through your sales funnel. Marketing Sherpa’s research has found that the primary reason companies don’t build landing pages is their marketing departments lack the time or technical knowledge to execute. Please don’t be so foolish; marketing without landing pages is like fishing without a hook.
1. 68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to gain new sales leads for future conversion. (via Marketing Sherpa) //
Before you give yourself or any B2B marketers you know hearty congratulations, realize that this stat is actually a little sad. 32% of B2B businesses aren’t using landing pages, which means they are relying on their website contact form or interruption marketing to generate new business. According to HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe, “The landing page is arguably the most important part of any lead generation campaign.” Now, what are you waiting for?
2. 44% of clicks for B2B companies are directed to a home page, not a landing page. (via Marketing Sherpa) //
No matter where or how you’re advertising an offer, the clicks should be directed toward a landing page. According to lead generation expert Oli Gardner, directing first-time website visitors to your website will result in much-lower conversions due to the following factors:

• Poor Message Match. If there’s no clear connection in message between the offer and your home page, your visitors are bound to end up confused.
• Too Many Interaction Points. Effective landing pages gently funnel visitors toward conversion by removing distractions. There are too many places on your homepage that could catch a visitor’s eye.
• Buyers Need Seduction. According to Garner, people need to be wooed before they’ll commit to a purchase.
• Value-Driven Language Matters. The best landing pages serve a single purpose – to really emphasize the value of the offer. Your homepage can’t simultaneously serve as an introduction to your company and the offer.

3. 48% of marketers build a new landing page for each marketing campaign. (via Marketing Sherpa) //
How long did writing your last TOFU offer take? Even if you were just working on a checklist or video tutorial, it was probably at least several hours of your time. Taking the time to develop an offer but no landing page is about as valuable as throwing your cash into the garbage.
4. Of B2B companies that use landing pages, 62% have six or fewer total landing pages. (via Marketing Sherpa) //
Not only will having fewer landing pages hurt your company’s lead generation, it can also damage your SEO. The more landing pages you build, the more will be indexed in search. Every new page you build that’s indexed in search will result in more targeted, sales ready leads stumbling on your website from Google.
5. 48% of landing pages contain multiple offers. (via Marketing Sherpa) //
Your prospects need to be focused on evaluating your value proposition and deciding whether or not they’ll convert. Multiple offers will only distract them from their decision.
6. Companies with 30+ landing pages generate 7X more leads than those with fewer than 10. (via HubSpot)//
More offers equal more revenue in your company’s pipeline. HubSpot research has found that both B2B and B2C companies benefit from striving to have 40 active landing pages and content offers.
7. Only 52% of companies and agencies that use landing pages also test them to find ways to improve conversions. (via Marketing Sherpa) //
Do you hate actionable, scientifically sound information on how you could make more money? If that’s the case, then you’re probably fine being among the 48% who build landing pages with no plan to improve conversion rate. A/B testing is among the most effective ways to make measurable improvements to your online presence.
8. 16% of landing pages are free of navigation bars. (via Marketing Sherpa) //
This statistic might be the scariest of all. 84% of marketers allow landing page visitors to click over to their team’s biographies, company blogs and be distracted away from becoming a lead. You don’t want to give your leads any options aside from converting or hitting the “back” button. Research has indicated that streamlining design by removing the navigation bar can result in 100% higher conversion rates.
9. Companies with 40+ landing pages get 12 times more leads than those with 5 or less. (via HubSpot) //
Back in June, when Forbes magazine famously and controversially predicted that SEO was dead, author Ken Krogue wrote “But what does Google want? They want relevant, real content on the Internet.” Turns out, that’s what your prospects want, too. They don’t want general TOFU offers, they want information that’s tailored to their unique situation. The more you can fine-tune your offers and landing pages to your buyer personas, the more leads you’ll generate.

What are your landing page pet peeves?

image credit: Biz Chicks