Use a lead page as your homepage
You’re probably familiar with the landing page vs. homepage debate and all the (many) reasons why you should never send cold-traffic to your homepage in the hopes that they convert to email leads or paying customers.
That being said, your homepage is not entirely off the hook when it comes to lead generation.
Why?
This single page is often the most highly trafficked webpage a business owns and, yes, it serves a number of different purposes, but it should (absolutely) be optimized to capture leads and collect your visitor’s email addresses.
Want to jump straight into your account and set this up? Here’s how.
Before we dig into the ways you can turn your homepage into a (backup) lead generation opportunity, let’s first agree on what your homepage must accomplish.
The 3-Part Purpose of Your Homepage
- Introduce your business
Often this is done in a headline and subheadline that touches upon the business’s core value proposition and evokes an emotion - Answer some basic (key) questions
- Who is this for?
- What is the offer (how can you help)?
- Why should I care?
- Direct the visitor to the next logical step in their customer journey
What’s next? Because the home page receives a smorgasbord of web traffic, it’s impossible to highly segment your traffic and offer content that caters to their specific needs.
Beyond these 3 key purposes, your homepage should also host at least one opt-in opportunity. After all, you’re not about to let thousands of leads slip through the crack—right? Right.
Because your homepage is located at the very top of the marketing funnel (where new traffic is becoming aware of your business for the first time), you’ll want to include a basic call to action, but not get too specific to any one segment of your audience.
Here’s what we recommend:
- Promote your newsletter
If you have a regular email newsletter, your homepage is an ideal place to pitch its value. Include a call to action to ‘get regular insights (that I only share via email)’ or ‘subscribe to updates’ or ‘be the first to know when I drop a new deal.’ Do this by using a Leadbox, or adding an opt-in form directly on the page (perhaps in the footer or righthand sidebar). Don’t have a newsletter? Promote a coupon, a free consultation, or your free trial.
- Offer your highest-performing lead magnet on a button-triggered pop-up (Leadbox) that’s located “below the fold”
Because your homepage receives a variety of traffic, you’ll want to use a lead magnet that caters to a wide audience. It’s also the most valuable real estate you have online when it comes to showcasing your brand—so it’s best reserved for content that’s already proven its value. - Offer your opt-in opportunity by embedding a user-triggered pop-up (Leadbox). Anytime a user clicks a link, image, or a call-to-action button, the Leadbox appears with an opt-in form.
- We recommend placing your lead magnet “below the fold” or towards the bottom of the page so as not to detract from your primary navigation.
- Catch your home page visitors with a timed pop-up (Leadbox)
Timed Leadboxes are excellent additions to your homepage because they give a new visitor time to familiarize themselves with who you are and what you do and then inviting them to opt into an offer.
When you set up your popup Leadbox, you can customize how much time has passed or how many times a visitor must view a page, before the Leadbox appears. You can even force the Leadbox to wait a number of days before it pops up again.
Keep in mind: Timed and Exit-Intent pop-ups do not work on mobile devices, but manually-triggered (clicks) lead magnets do.
Use a lead page as a 404 error page
Anytime someone clicks a link to a page that’s been deleted or moved or mistypes page URL, a 404 page appears. It’s the equivalent of taking a ‘wrong turn’ on the web and hitting a dead end.
Of course, you don’t want your web visitors to wind up here, but when they do, you want them to see a professional brand and a possibility to find what they're looking for or opt-in to an (unexpectedly awesome) offer.
Here at Leadpages, we’re firm believers that by optimizing your 404 page, you can easily turn lost visitors into highly loyal customers.
That’s why we use a lead page on our own website.
Ready to turn your 404 page into a lead generation machine? Here’s how to set it up
Sure, you can have some fun with your 404 page—just look at this example from Lego:
But you can do more than redirect traffic.
Your optimized 404 page should:
- Give people a chance to get back to your primary navigation (and get back on track)
- Give people a chance to not walk away empty-handed
We’ve also scoured the web to find some lead-magnetized 404 pages to illustrate what we mean and to inspire you when you go to create your own.
Here are some of our favorites:
With the flexibility to use your lead pages as homepage and 404 page and capture leads from two of the highest-trafficked places on your site, you’re setting yourself up for some serious business growth in the months and years to come.
Ready to create your own lead page homepage or 404 page?
There’s no time like the present! Log into your account or start your free trial.
