When optimizing a landing page, one of the challenges webmasters and marketers face is whether to go with a single-page landing page, conversion path or microsite (also known as a minisite). The question we often get asked here at VigorFish is - which one converts higher? Which is better? The short answer is – They all work well. Any landing page approach have the potential to convert at a high rate as there are many factors that goes into the success of any landing page or online marketing campaign.

Before we get into the benefits of each, let’s define each one.

What is a Landing Page? (Single Page) – From Wikipedia, In online marketing a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. Ok, that’s pretty simple. Example of a basic landing page

What is a Conversion Path? – A conversion path is a sequence of pages that a user navigates through after reaching the page from a particular marketing ad or link, qualifying the user, narrowing their decision on a particular product or service before taking the final step in completing the web form. Simple Conversion Path Diagram

What is a Microsite or Minisite? - A microsite (also called a minisite) is a small website, normally containing a few pages and with a narrow focus. The microsite is often always a section of a larger site. For a good example of a microsite, you can look at almost any car dealership website and find one. Take Honda.com for instance, Honda.com isn’t a microsite as you’ll find information on their total product suite (all of their vehicles). But like many other car dealerships, Honda may build microsite’s to hightlight specific cars like with their new electric car, the Honda FCX Clarity.

Each of these different landing page experiences (single page, conversion path or microsite) can be linked to any online or offline marketing ad. They’re all used with the goal of getting the user to commit, sign-up, complete a web form, call and inquire on more information etc. Each of these experiences has been successful overtime and remains true today.

Let’s take a look at each landing page approach in more detail.

The Single Landing Page Approach
The standard single page approach has been used from the beginning of time (and it works). You can run a search on Google and find articles and blog posts saying otherwise, that single landing pages only convert in the single digits while other landing page approaches convert higher. But that is simply not true in all cases. It’s simply a matter of how well the landing page is designed and presented. I’ve personally managed many online and email marketing campaigns using single page landing pages and have had great results in many cases. One tactic is to add an incentive to your message, provide an incentive for the user to sign-up or complete a web form and watch your conversion rate jump. I’ll actually discuss the power of incentive in later article. But for now, my point is, don’t throw away your single landing pages just yet.

Single landing page experiences work well for items (PDF downloads, Reports, Brochures, White Papers etc.) that can be explained in a few words. For example, an ad that reads “FREE 40-Page Guide on Email Marketing” is fairly self explanatory. Meaning, as a user, there’s not much more you need to know to want to download the free guide. As the end user, knowing that it’s free, it’s 40 pages of information and it pertains to email marketing is really all you need to know. As the marketer, you only need to present a simple one-page well designed landing page, few bullet points, a cover shot of the PDF etc. All of this can be done using a single page.

The Conversion Path Experience
Conversion path experiences are great for segmenting and qualifying users. If you want to capture marketing intelligence, segment or qualify respondents before they complete a particular web form or inquire about your product/service, then using a conversion path experience is the best approach. For example, let’s say Microsoft runs an ad campaign for their Vista operating system. Upon clicking the ad and landing on the landing page, Microsoft may want to segment users between home base users and business users - leading each group down a path that better pertains to their needs. This is both helpful to Microsoft as well as the user.

The Microsite Experience
Microsites are great when there is an opportunity to present an abundance of information about a product or service in an engaging, user friendly manner. For example, Honda may run an ad campaign on a new electric car. In this case, Honda’s marketing team may want to direct users to a well designed microsite featuring the electric car. A microsite in this case could possibly have several pages featuring car specs and details, pricing options, photo gallery, consumer reviews, videos, brochures and wallpaper downloads etc.

In Conclusion
Each of the different landing pages has its benefit. My suggestion is to use the appropriate landing page experience based on what you want to accomplish with your campaign and the type of product/service you’re providing. Always remember that there is no right or wrong answer. There is no one secret – it’s all a process. Great success in any campaign is based on testing, measuring and evaluating. Also, gaining high conversions depends on many things such as landing page design, user incentive to follow through and target audience. Good luck with your next campaign. If you have any questions, shoot me an email.

Which approach you are using or have had success with?