What is a landing page?
For painting contractors, a landing page is simply a webpage created to convert website traffic from a marketing or advertising campaign into a qualified painting lead.
Not to be confused with a page on your website, a landing page is made up of just a few personalized components that help guide the visitor into contacting you for your services.
Why are landing pages better than a homepage or webpage?
When you’re investing in an advertising campaign you want to make sure that every click counts. Why? Because clicks cost money.
Consider this real-world example:
You create an ad on Facebook for cabinet painting…
THAT’S 4 CLICKS!!! ????
Ok that might not seem like a lot, but what if I told you we could double your conversion rate just by reducing the number of clicks?
Now let’s look at another example, but with a landing page this time:
You create an ad on Google for cabinet painting (because Google is better than Facebook for advertising)…
THAT’S ONLY 2 CLICKS!!! ????
People are lazy. You need to make their life easy or they won’t waste their time on your business. Reducing the level of effort it takes to contact you increases the likelihood that they will contact you.
Remember, if you’re paying over $30/click you want to make those clicks can make the most impact.
Key Takeaways:
Now let’s dive into some examples of landing pages that convert.
Elements of an effective landing page
A good painting contractor landing page is made up of a few primary components:
Notice something missing from the list?
Answer: Your main menu
Why do we exclude navigational elements from a landing page? Because it creates a distraction.
In fact, the only CTAs on your landing page should be your phone number and contact form. Anything else creates a potential shiny object that can distract your visitor from providing you with their contact information.
Smaller contact forms convert better
Similar to the number of clicks, the number of questions you force your customer to answer drastically impacts conversion rates. We recommend sticking with a contact form with the four basic questions below:
After the form is submitted you can send the customer to a follow-up page that prompts them to book an estimate. Otherwise any additional information can be gathered over a brief phone call.
The best landing pages have videos
Images and videos can have a big impact on conversion rates. In fact, research suggests that adding a video to your landing page increases conversions by up to 86%.
Like all other content on your landing page, be sure the videos are relevant to your target keyword and landing page message.
Include reviews and social proof
Reviews are one element of a landing page that are easy to implement. Having as few as five reviews can increase your conversion rate by 270%. We recommend filtering your reviews by 4-5 stars to showcase the strengths of your painting business.
(Source: Search Engine Journal)
Driving traffic to your landing page
Landing pages are unique. They don’t rank well organically and they should have no inbound links from your website. Great, so you created an awesome landing page to promote your most profitable service, now we need to drive traffic there… what next?
“You have to spend money to make money”
You’ve heard it before. This age-old adage has stood the test of time, and rightfully so. A well-optimized advertising campaign can quickly scale your painting business, but it does require an investment.
When we pitch advertising campaigns to our clients a few questions typically arise:
I talk a lot about marketing strategies for painting contractors, and landing pages can contribute to your marketing efforts. With that said, landing pages are better paired with advertising campaigns as they produce a greater ROI.
So let’s address a basic question first…
What is the difference between marketing and advertising?
Simply, marketing identifies and addresses customer needs, think “problems and solutions.”
In contrast, advertising is the practice of promoting your painting business and its services through paid channels and ads.
So you built a landing page. Now how much is it going to cost to advertise and what kind of returns should you expect?
How much does it cost to advertise your painting business online?
The cost of advertising your painting business online can vary by target audience size. For instance, if you’re located in a small town of 30,000 residents your advertising investment will be less than that of a painting business located in a large metropolitan area of 1M+. In general, we recommend budgeting between $30-$60 a day for online advertising.
Where should you invest your advertising budget first?
Hint: It’s not social media. Buyer intent exists on Google, not Facebook or Instagram. Fortunately, we wrote an entire article to address this very question.
What ROI should you expect from advertising with a well-optimized landing page?
Yes, advertising online can get expensive, especially considering you may not see a return on that investment for 30-90 days, but the returns can be huge.
Conservatively, our clients see an average 5-10x return on investment after the first 90 days. This obviously varies by market and population size, but in general, advertising online is one of the best methods of producing qualified repaint leads at a consistent rate throughout the year.
Conclusion
If you’re running an advertising campaign without a landing page, you’re wasting money. Here at Base Coat Marketing we work with painting companies across the country and are constantly testing and updating our landing pages to ensure the best possible ROI. Interested in learning more?
