Affiliates and Landing Pages

Ran across an interesting post yesterday from a person who had attended PubCon and raved about the session where panelists talked about landing pages. Her only point of contention, she said (and I can't find it now), was something to the effect of:

... but what these experts aren't considering when they tell us to perform SEO is that we sometimes have no control over what's on those landing page. I'm an affiliate for InPhonic and they have these terrible landing pages that don't provide any information about the product. They're nothing more than a form where you have to input a ZIP code.

Wow, those do sound like horrible landing pages.

Except it turns out that those zip code form pages aren't landing pages. Their purpose is not to convert potential customers researching the product... their purpose is to collect ZIP code information in order to show the customer if a particular product is available in their area. (InPhonic sells cell phones with service, so product availability depends on carrier coverage.)

My advice to affiliates in this type of position -- those trying to encourage buying behavior by customers who need some convincing: go do some marketing.

Since the ZIP entry box is a technical necessity before the customer gets dropped into the shopping cart, nothing more, the customer should find this great landing page (copy that the poster despairs InPhonic is not providing) on the affiliate's site. Successful affiliates need to do more than simply place an affiliate link on their site; they should prime the customers for conversion.

In a case where the affiliate link goes directly into a shopping cart, that requires creating the landing page yourself; once the customer clicks through, it should only be a matter of logistics. If the affiliate creates compelling, targeted copy, not only does that provide obvious SEO benefit, but it makes it all the more likely the customer won't abandon when they hit the form.

The message from the PubCon panel wasn't simply: good landing pages are important -- it was "it's important that you create good landing pages." So go build your own. Be creative, provide added value.

It's All About Content!

Labels: monetizing, search marketing

Posted by Melanie Phung