When Dorothy was trapped in Oz, she thought: “There’s no place like home!” Thomas Wolfe, on the other hand, wrote You Can’t Go Home Again. So who’s right? Most marketing experts in the 21st Century would side with Thomas Wolfe. If you’re trying to get customers or prospects to your website for more information, or to buy something, the last place you want to send them is to your home page.
When people respond to direct response media (whether it’s direct mail, email, Twitter, or something else), they usually have something specific in mind. They are responding to an offer for specific information, or a special deal. Or they may have a specific question. Most home pages, however, are general in nature. Don’t make your customers work to find the information they’re looking for. Take them right to it.
Set up a landing page that is devoted exclusively to your offer. Make sure the copy on your landing page is tied in closely to your outbound message and that any visuals are also the same so that people know they’ve landed in the right place. Then, don’t ask for more information than you really need to fulfill the customer’s request (this is not the place to ask for someone’s annual income). Make it easy for your customers to find what they want. Once they do, you can always give them the option of visiting your home page for additional information. If you have questions about how to do this, we’d be happy to talk you through it.
Make sense?
