How Landing Pages Are Like Having Your Own NSA For B2B Marketing

Website landing pages can provide B2B marketers 24/7 information gathering to help increase leads, shorten the sales cycle and close more sales.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is the central manager of signal intelligence for the United States. (The CIA, in contrast, deals with human intelligence).

According to Wikipedia, “The NSA is primarily tasked with global monitoring, collection, decoding, translation and analysis of information and data….”

Just as the NSA collects information, so do landing pages.

A landing page is a website page specifically designed to convert visitors to leads. It collects and process information on website visitors who identify themselves in return for valuable content.

Landing pages are like your digital sales reps, gathering information for marketing and sales about your prospects that help move them through the process of purchasing a product or service.

That’s important, because 98% of all website visitors will never come back to your website.

Also, for the majority of B2B websites, studies have shown that less than 6% of website visitors will convert to a lead. And of those, Gleanster Research estimates that 50% of leads are not qualified to buy.

So while website traffic is important, what’s even more important is getting the right kind of visitors to RETURN to your website. That’s why landing pages play such a vital role in B2B marketing.

Here’s how landing pages work: When someone visits your site, goes to a landing page and fills in a form, landing page software automatically adds that information to a leads database.

Based on the landing page and the information provided, that lead is then segmented into a group of similar leads. And with landing page software, you can see which pages the lead visits, what they’re searching for and even how they got to your site in the first place.

Since all leads are not created equal, it’s important to synch up landing pages with buying cycle steps and timing, which vary by industry.

Performing Research

Studies show that 75-98% of B2B website visitors are performing research. They are looking for content or information to solve a problem or fulfill a need, but THEY ARE NOT READY TO BUY.

To convert those types of visitors into leads, content that appeals to researchers is offered behind a landing page. Examples of effective lead conversion content for the research stage include white papers, guides, tip sheets, eBooks, checklists, videos and kits.

Establishing Buying Criteria

Anywhere from 2-25% of visitors to a website already recognize a need for a product or solution like yours. In that instance content related to performing research will not be as relevant to them. Instead, the chance of conversion is higher with content that includes information about your company like webinars, case studies, samples, product spec sheets or catalogs.

Evaluating Vendors

The least likely type of visitor to a B2B website is ready to buy. That type of visitor could represent up to 10% of your traffic. In that case, the best content to put behind landing pages includes free trials, demos, free consultations, estimates or quotes. The specific content differs by product and industry.

So how should you balance your portfolio of landing pages between those that are performing research versus those looking to buy?

B2B marketers should have landing pages for visitors representing all three stages of buyer readiness and intent (i.e. performing research, establishing buying criteria, evaluating vendors). However, the most effort should be placed on capturing leads who are performing research, which represents the largest percentage of B2B website visitors (75-98%).

While it’s important to be ready to sell to buyers who are ready to buy immediately, statistically speaking, there aren’t going to be many of them. Instead, by focusing on converting leads who are performing research (a much larger group), you have a better opportunity to nurture them along their buyer journey until they are ready to buy.

So while landing pages collect information like the NSA, there are a couple of key differences that make them even better. Landing pages only collect information that people voluntarily provide. And landing pages don’t become disgruntled and leak your information.

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