Digital Marketing Tools | Landing Pages vs. Sales Funnels

Landing pages and sales funnels are not the same thing. A lot of people confuse one for the other, but there are key differences between these two tools. Landing pages and sales funnel are crucial in generating leads. However, they perform different purposes in a customer’s sales experience journey.

What is a landing page?

Simply put, a landing page is where a visitor ‘lands’ after they click on a link in Google ads, email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or similar places on the internet. It is a stand-alone page created for marketing and advertising purposes. A landing page is designed to convert visitors into leads and could be anything - it can be your home page, a blog post, a product page, etc.

Essential elements of a landing page

• Call-To-Action (CTA) - the most important element of a landing page is a “Buy now” or any other CTA buttons. The CTA button should be easily visible at first glance so a sales proposition can be made. The CTA button can also be a form that allows you to acquire a visitor’s information in exchange for an appealing offer.
• A unique selling position (USP) - a headline that captures the visitor, a supporting headline, a reinforcement statement, and a closing argument.

What is a sales funnel?

A landing page is a stand-alone web page with one CTA. On the other hand, a sales funnel is a series of web pages that funnels a buyer toward their buying decision. Every page in a sales funnel offers an opportunity to sell additional services or products (upselling). Thus, a sales funnel has several CTAs for different

aims.

A sales funnel has four stages; awareness, interest, decision, and action. To understand sales funnels better, let’s look at a traditional street-side store sales funnel.

People walking by the store are at the top of your sales funnel. Some of the passers-by will walk in, and that’s the next stage of the funnel. A customer notices some shirts on offer, and they thumb through the rack. That’s the next stage of the sales funnel. The customer selects five shirts and proceeds to the checkout. If everything goes well, they buy the five shirts, and that’s the final step of the sales funnel.

A sales funnel illustrates the path a potential customer takes. Understanding it better helps you to identify holes where potential buyers drop out and never convert.

So, which is right for your business: a sales funnel or landing pages?

Deciding between a sales funnel and landing pages depends on the type of business you run and the products/services you offer. A sales funnel works best if you sell complimentary services or products, and especially when you want to offer them in a single campaign. If you want your prospects to make a single decision, a landing page would be best suited. It provides quicker results. Check out leadpages or clickfunnels to learn how to build landing pages and sales funnels that convert.

Conclusion

Both landing pages and sales funnels can provide the right results, depending on your specific objectives. It all depends on how well you implement each strategy and how well you maximize the strengths of each marketing tool.