Is landing page software still relevant?

As we become clearer about how buyer intent works, we think landing page software is now an inhibitor rather than an enabler. What was once a strength might now be holding us back, it is because of how the clicks work.

Landing page software had two promises.

• The first was practical: publish a dedicated page for a topic or an audience without waiting on IT or wrestling with a rigid website.
• The second was philosophical: strip the navigation, keep the visitor focused, and conversion rates rise.

The first promise was real at the time. The second, arguable. There is now no difference in technology between landing page software and decent site tech.

And site tech will better serve modern marketing, is the conclusion up front. Even if your site is a single landing page, use site tech instead.

We can dig into why.

Navigational pseudo-argument

Landing pages run on subdomains because the technology can’t sit inside the main site. The main site has to be somewhere else.

The absence of navigation is a limitation, not a guarantee of conversion.

Depending on the website, of course! Some websites could well be anti-sales tools. But the no navigation rule was generalised into existence. It helped sell the idea of buying more software.

It plays on our desire to start fresh.

Funnel Software vs Site Hubs

Site hubs are the missing solution.

Done right, I believe mini hubs within websites ‘work’ way better than funnel software. The same focus for content, the same technology, actually.

What is missing in most websites is the visitor focus. Thats why they don’t perform.

And knowing what visitors want, plural, is the key to site hubs instead of page software.

It is understandably hard to see intent behind the clicks. The abstract nature makes it largely invisible to the naked eye. But once we help you diagnose what visitors are trying to do, you will start to see how to group your content much more effectively.

And organising content has a greater effect on conversion than any single page, no matter how good.

Buyer Intent Recognition

The difference now is external to the software. It’s the clicks that changed. They got all mixed up. And that’s what made intent more important to understand. We get a much lower level of intent, on average.

Low intent can be developed.

From where visitors are, the buyer journey kicks in as long as the pages stay ‘on topic’. It can be a long road, but the destination is the sales page. Just one step at a time.

In site sales pages

A sales page is a landing page for a specific type of product, and for people traversing your site.

• If you sell to people too early, they won’t like it.
• Conversely, failing to sell to someone who is very ready is worse. They don’t like that either.

It’s the same person! The difference is in the type of words they use. The content is different.

You want both early- and late-stage interest; they are connected and in the same head.

Email and remarketing clicks

With low intent, we need to cling to the initial interest and follow up.

Personalised messaging means two things

• Their market interest
• Who they are, aspects of identity, and an audience profile

If you can get both in focus, then the conversions rise.

• Search is market-focused, the foundation of intent.
• Social is better at audience and fanning the spark of intent into a flame.

The combination of social, remarketing, and email gives you the advantage over a single-channel approach. Social bakes the search cookie dough.

They compound, it isn’t 3+3, it is 3×3. That’s the flywheel.

And compounding is the conclusion:

• The initial premise of landing page software disappeared.
• If you use multiple platforms, you increase costs and dilute your skills and effort.
• The buyer journey is not well served in a single page.
• And, we can’t avoid low intent clicks – they are entirely natural, a brand-building opportunity in fact.

No single channel or piece of content pays off like it used to.

Brand works over time, and buyer intent is only an initial value. Pursuing it by maximising all channels is best served by a well-organised site that serves all clicks in unison, not a traditional click-and-done landing page.

We’ve written about this in more detail in Intent and Types of Click

Get an invite to our Buyer intent conversion pipeline site, workshops and inner circle.

And we’ll share more as we develop our process, software, and proofs of concept for this new type of word science.

Closing arguments

When they talk to you for a while, people come back to find the quality arguments you made.

Brand clicks

The first click is less likely to convert right away than it used to.

The return click becomes ever more important. The site has to perform twice. People need to get back to where they were.

When there is a dissonance between the experience in the first and second clicks, something feels off. If people stop and think, the momentum gets lost. It is the last thing you want. What you do want is for people to find what they need, when they need it. Whatever it is, wherever they are in their journey, and whoever they are.

The basis of that experience is understanding the wide variety in buyer intent.

It is the whole site, flywheel philosophy.

We can strip the navigation on any page you ask us to. The tech matches landing pages. We just don’t think it works as well when taking all into account — and the only place you could actually test that question properly might be on the website tech version.

Audience-based sites

Eventually, when you grow and have the resources, the audience-based site might become a viable option.

When audiences are so different and distinct, audience-based sites are the same as hubs. Better in fact. The same initial effort can produce better performance through personalisation of the whole site.

Twice the site, not twice the work.

But the conversion rate has to be worth it. The expertise is the qualifier. When you are highly audience-specific in what you do, there are benefits in consistency, specialisation, and a hidden compounding advantage.

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