Landing Pages

What Is a Landing Page

A landing page is an individual web page. A landing page can contain static content, personalized content (if you link from an email), and AMPscript. Landing pages are available to link to from your website or email, or subscribers can type the URL into their browser bar to see the content.

When you create a landing page, you select the cration method to use:

• You can paste in landing page HTML that you created in an outside HTML program or you type in the HTML directly.
• You can select a Quick Layout to use. A Quick Layout acts like an email template, allowing you to drag-and-drop content into content areas on the layout.
• You can revise an existing page.

When you define a landing page, you enter a name and description that help you identify the landing page within the system. You also specify the following information:

• The character set of the content of the landing page
• The folder within the system where you store the landing page
• A personalization URL key, which allows you to create a shorter, more readable URL for the landing page, also known as pURL or personalized URL
• Whether you want the landing page content changes you make to be visible to subscribers as soon as you click save, or whether you would rather click a separate button to publish changes.
• Whether to redirect a visitor to a different page when this landing page is paused. If you decide to redirect, you must enter the URL of the page to redirect to or select another landing page.

You can link to a landing page within emails. You can post landing pages to the Internet through your account. You can create landing pages whose URLs include your company's private domain so that customers see your trusted brand in the URL.

When a subscriber clicks a link to a landing page from an email, ExactTarget renders the landing page with personalized information for the subscriber where applicable. The subscriber-specific view of the landing page is not persistent and may appear differently when a different subscriber links to the landing page.

Any information entered by the subscriber can be captured and saved to a database, such as for lead generation as used by Smart Capture. Smart Capture is tool  that allows you to capture lead information using landing pages.

You can also create landing pages for surveys. A survey landing page is the page a subscriber sees after they click the Submit button.

The following image shows how you can use landing pages.

Landing Page Actions

Access the landing page actions by clicking on the my landing pages folder in the Content tab and selecting a landing page from the folder.

• Create - This action creates a new landing page and sets its status to New.
• Delete - This action makes a previously published landing page permanently unavailable to customers, removes it from the system, and removes your access to the tracking information. 
• Pause - This action makes a previously published landing page temporarily unavailable to customers. If you defined a redirect page, customers who attempt to access the page via the URL will be redirected to that page. Collection of tracking information is suspended but will begin again if you restart the landing page. Previously collected tracking information is available to view.
• Restart - This action resumes a paused landing page.
• Publish - This action publishes changes to the landing page. You must re-publish a landing page to apply changes made in the content.
• Properties - This action allows you to view and make changes to landing page properties, such as name, title, description, content type, character set, security, publishing expiration, meta description, meta keywords, allow search engines to view this page, and allow search engines to follow links on this page. This action also provides a preview of the landing page.
• View Tracking - This action tracks landing page activity, email related activity, web related activity, and detailed link click activity. Once a landing page is deleted, all tracking information is also deleted.

Tracking Information

Email-related activity tracks page views and clicks that result from an link to a landing page that you included in an email. Web-related activity includes all other clicks and page views, such as a link from another web page or a subscriber typing a URL directly.

Except for email-related activity, where uniqueness is determined by subscriber ID, unique values are determined by the session ID. For example, if a subscriber clicks a link in your email to display your Welcome landing page, that is a unique page view, regardless of the number of times the subscriber reloads the page or navigates to the page from other pages in the web site. However, if the subscriber closes the browser window and clicks the link from the email again, that click is another unique page view.

Total values count a subscriber doing the same thing multiple times. In the previous example, the total number of page views would count each time the subscriber reloaded the Welcome page or navigated back to it.

You can see the following tracking information for a time range:

• Landing Page Activity - The number of unique and total page views for each landing page. These values include both email-related activity and web-related activity.
• Email Related Activity - The number of unique and total page views for each of the landing pages resulting from email sends. This tracking information is broken down by landing page and by send.
• Web Related Activity - The number of unique and total page views for each of the landing pages resulting from web related activity.
• Detailed Link Click Tracking - The number of unique and total link clicks that resulted in displaying each of the landing pages. If you use personalized links that point subscribers to individualized versions of a landing page, this tracking information is aggregated for the entire landing page. These values include both email-related activity and web-related activity. You can click the Link URL from the tracking. The LinkAlias is included for each link that was clicked, if available.

Why Use a Landing Page

Use a landing page to provide more information that your subscriber can link to from your emails, web sites, and hard-copy marketing pieces, and also track behavior. For example, you can use landing pages to direct your subscribers to coupons or to more information about your brand. 

Subscribers access the landing page by clicking a link or entering the URL directly into their browser address bar. Landing pages take advantage of your private domain so that subscribers see your trusted company identity in the landing pages. You can include subscriber information in your URLs, which increases your ability to track subscribers who view your landing pages.

Direct your subscribers to a landing page for referential information or transactional processing. 

• Lead/Prospect Capture (see SmartCapture)
• Referential landing pages typically display text, images, dynamic content, and links. An example referential landing page provides product or service information with a link to a coupon. Effectiveness of referential landing pages is measured through increased revenues.
• Transactional landing pages typically request a subscriber to interact with the page by providing information. A transactional page may require a visitor to provide information before proceeding. An example transactional landing page is one that captures a lead by requesting a name, email address, and possibly a telephone number before allowing the visitor to view a white paper. A completed subscriber transaction is referred to as a conversion. Effectiveness of transactional landing pages is measured by conversion rate. 
• Event Registration (See SmartCapture)

Landing pages simplify and manage your entire marketing effort. Landing pages:

• Provide More Information Quickly - Use a landing page to contain information beyond what you include in an email. For example, you might create a landing page to contain a lead-generation form, an opt-in subscriber form, or to direct subscribers to more information about a corporate initiative. Therefore, these sites are available to customers more quickly and responsively than by working through the process of updating your corporate website.

• Centralize Message Maintenance - Host your landing pages directly through your account. Therefore, you can manage the content and tracking of your landing pages in the same place as the content and tracking of messages that direct subscribers to the landing pages.
• Personalize the Web Experience - Include subscriber attributes in the URL to point subscribers to a landing page that contains personalization and dynamic content. Therefore, you can provide messages with superior customization, making your message more directed and relevant.

How to Create a Landing Page

Prerequisites - You might need the URL of a page to redirect to, if you redirect a paused landing page.

1. In the Content tab, click my landing pages.

The my landing pages workspace opens.

2. Click the Create menu item.

The create new landing page workspace opens.

3. Select one of the following creation methods:

• Build from HTML
• Build from Quick Layout
• Revise Existing Page

4. Define package details.

• Name (Required) - The name you use to identify the landing page within ExactTarget
• Description - Textual description for the landing page that you use within ExactTarget
• Page Title (Required) - An identifier that appears on the landing page
• Character Set - Standard set of characters used on the landing page
• Create in folder (Required) - Folder whLocation of landing page internal to the system
• Content Type - Type of content you are creating. Note: You can create only HTML using this interface.
• Personalized URL - Checkbox to determine whether to use personalized URL. If you check this, you must enter the key
• Key - Identifier used as personalized URL to follow URL on landing page

5. Define Publishing Options.

• Auto Publish - Determines when the changes you make to a published landing page are visible to subscribers on the Internet. If you select this checkbox, your changes are visible when you click the Save button. If you do not select this checkbox, your changes are not visible until you click the Publish button.
• Redirect requests for a paused Site - Checkbox to determine whether a paused site is redirected.

If the checkbox is checked, click the External URL or Landing Page radio button and enter the URL for the redirected landing page.

6. Click the Save button to save your landing page properties and advance to the edit landing page panel, or click the Cancel button to not save the landing page properties and return to the landing pages panel. If you click the Save button, the edit landing page workspace opens.

The URL location displays on the top of the panel with a slash followed by the personalized URL, if defined. From this panel you can access landing page properties, edit the landing page once you have entered content, and preview landing page subscribers.

Note: Make sure the HTML tab in the upper right corner of the panel is active when adding or changing landing page content. Use the Preview tab in the upper right corner of the panel when viewing the landing page.

7. Create landing page content.

How to Generate a Preview

1. Click the Preview tab to view the landing page. 

How to Create Landing Page Content

1. Click the landing page name in the landing pages workspace.
2. Click within a content box. 

An option box opens.

3. Select one of the following options:

• Retrieve Content - Opens the Retrieve Content dialog that allows you to browse for and select text or image content as well as preview the content
• Create Content - Opens the Content Creator dialog
• Create Dynamic Content - Opens the Dynamic Content dialog

How to Change Landing Page Properties

1. Create or open a landing page.
2. Click the landing page in the landing pages workspace.
3. Click the Properties menu item.

The Properties workspace opens.

4. Make changes as necessary
5. Click the Save button to save your landing page properties and advance to the edit landing page panel, or click the Cancel button to not save the landing page properties and return to the landing pages panel.

How to Edit Landing Pages

1. Open the my landing pages folder that contains the desired landing page.
2. Click the name of the landing page in the landing pages workspace.
3. The Edit Landing Page dialog opens.
4. Revise or add content as necessary.

How to Use Subscriber Lists for Preview with Landing Pages

1. Click the landing page in the landing pages workspace.
2. Click the Subscriber Preview menu item.

The subscriber workspace opens.

3. (Optional) To see the landing page as it would appear when accessed outside of the context of an email, check the Do not use subscriber data checkbox.
4. (Optional) Select an audience.
5. Select one or more subscribers.

How to Delete Landing Pages

Prerequisite - Previously created landing page

1. Click the check box in front of the landing page in the landing pages workspace.
2. Select the Delete menu item.

The landing page is permanently deleted from your account.

How to Publish Landing Pages

Prerequisite - Previously created landing page

1. Click the check box in front of the landing page in the landing pages workspace.
2. Click the Publish menu item.

The landing page is published.

How to Pause Landing Pages

Prerequisite - Previously published landing page

1. Click the check box in front of the landing page in the landing pages workspace.
2. Select the Pause menu item.

The landing page is unavailable until you restart it.

How to View Tracking for a Landing Pages

Prerequisite - Previously published landing page

1. Click the check box in front of the landing page in the landing pages workspace. 
2. Click the View Tracking menu item.