“I want a landing page with a buy now button”
“Build a set of landing pages — one each for our products — so that we get sales”
I see this day in and day out. I get requests like this every time I get to work with a client looking to run Facebook ads or Google Ads. Maybe it’s something to do with the Human psyche?
Or is it pure greed? Or is it impatience?
How is it that you expect people to see your ad, click through, and then buy?
Why is it that we expect things to be different online when whatever it is that you expect never happens offline (say, if you had an actual physical store?).
How do you expect people to buy from you, off of your landing pages with e-commerce (especially if they don’t know you yet, they trust you enough, and they aren’t exactly sitting with a pile of credit cards waiting to swipe)?
If you ever hoped to create a landing page showcasing your product or service and expected that people will buy directly off of that page, it’s only going to cost you time, money, opportunity cost, and a big fat set of bills to pay while you have nothing to show for it all.
Promoting landing pages expecting people to buy right away is a lost cause.
That’s not how it works.
Here’s why:
Your website visitors arrive with mistrust
Given the way we are, we’ll first arrive at a website not knowing what to expect or at least with a big ball of mistrust.
The only way to ease your visitors’ lack of trust is to ensure that their experience (while they are on the site) be as smooth as possible while you do everything you can to gain their trust as soon as possible.
Everything from how well your website is designed, how easy is it to navigate your website (and find what they came to find), and how quickly you can establish trust will matter.
Of course, it goes without saying that your website should also load fast (because slow loading websites only go on to let customers know how sloppy you are)
Read: How to Increase WordPress Website Speed (10 Proven Platforms)
People don’t buy on the first date
Unless you are selling alcohol, emergency medication, cigarettes, or something else that people don’t think twice before buying, your potential customers are not going to buy from you the first time they visit your website or e-commerce store.
Your potential customers somehow found you online. They’ll arrive (with a tinge of doubt), they’ll browse, they’ll read a blog post or two.
They’ll visit your pricing pages, and they’ll let their experience dictate as to whether or not they should trust you (see above).
Whatever it is that they might do while they are on your site, chances are that they aren’t sitting there with their credit card in hand waiting to buy right off the mark.
They’ll choose to wait. They’ll want to check you out more. They want to compare. They’ll want to look for alternative solutions. They’ll want to just sit, reflect, think, and worry.
Stop expecting transactions with the Cha-ching sounds just as yet.
Landing Pages are for Generating Leads
If you have an e-commerce store or if you are building landing pages for marketing your products and services, the only allowed use case for your landing pages is to build landing pages for lead generation.
That’s it.
Here are a few popular ways to generate leads for e-commerce businesses:
- Send traffic to a landing page that gives out a coupon code. Deliver the coupon code using email marketing tools like MailChimp or Drip.
- Announce a contest or a giveaway on your landing page, generate leads, and then let nurture your leads by using full-fledged email marketing automation sequences.
- Give away a checklist, a PDF cheat sheet, an eBook, a handy guide (on how your potential customers can use your product) to generate leads (by using a landing page). Then, nurture leads with more insightful and helpful emails which will then lead to sales.
Read: 15 Ways To Create a High-value Lead Magnet In 30 Minutes or Less (No Tech Skills Required)
You can’t blame Landing page builders like Unbounce or LeadPages to make some “e-commerce landing page” templates available — they do it for popular demand.
But that exact popular demand for e-commerce landing pages is the reason why I am writing this to you — just because there are templates available with Unbounce or LeadPages doesn’t mean that you should use them.
If you are to use landing pages, use them for lead generation.
As you sign up leads, send emails to nurture them and then send them offers occasionally. This way, you have a more sustainable way to sell your products and services.