Usefulness of Multiple Landing Pages?

The experts in Internet Marketing say that it's always best to send people to a landing page with an opt-in form. If you capture an e-mail address, you may be able to generate some business now and in the future. If you don't, there's a 99.999 percent chance you won't see them again.

Beck,

This is a tough one. If what you are doing is working, is there any real need to change it up? In general for a landing page, it helps to be as focused as possible but that being said, it depends on what drew people to the landing page in the first place. The ideal situation is to have them come to the landing page because they clicked on something (an ad or a link) that promised them something. If you have other competing elements on the page, you run the risk of not completing your goals.

My best suggestion to you would be to run some A/B tests and see which version of things works best. You may find over time that what you were doing in the first place works best or you may find that having a single topic page works better. This is one of those things that you really can’t get an answer until you test your hypothesis.
Here are some good tips on A/B/n tests,
The Ultimate Guide To A/B Testing | Smashing Magazine
hope that helps and good luck!
Shawn

Thanks to you both. For example, there's a popular forum I post on a lot for dentists and in my signature there's a link to the home page, and to the book's sales page/landing page. I give away the book's intro and toc but now I'm coming out with a second book and I don't know what to give away?

Should I just offer both samples? If I do it becomes too much to sell "signup for our newsletter and get a copy of this and this and this and this".

And why send them to an opt-in form when I'd rather? have them on my services page. If they are looking for SEO services, I'd much rather them be on my SEO page, as opposed to a landing page trying to get their email. On every page on my site there's a signup link, and at the bottom of every blog post I have the same link.

Thanks.

I would be interested to see your analytics report and see what it tells you. How many of your visitors are contacting you? If they are clicking on an ad or banner, definitely send them to a more customized landing page and try to capture the lead. Any other traffic may want to look around your website, but you still need a better lead capture on individual pages, or at least a find out more button to lead them to contact form.

I agree with you. In your market and with this price point, I wouldn't put up an "email gate" and stop them from spending time on your website. I would make it obvious, easier, and give them better incentives to get their contact information.

As far as your new book, I would try for a webinar or do a local live event at a hotel, if you have a list of people to pull from already. The local chamber of commerce or SBA Small Business Development Office might even help you spread the word. It doesn't have to be large to be effective. Give an overview of what they should be doing, and throw in a some of your best stuff. At the end, sell your book as a manual they can take back with them and share with their staff.

Get their information, check out their website. Send an evaluation letter of their website and what you would do to make it better, and follow up with a phone call or an in-person visit.

Okay, enough of me talking. Good luck.

I was an owner in a small web marketing firm for 7 years and we floundered because the head marketing would never target a specific niche. Hence is the reason why I'm no longer an owner in that company. They are still struggling. My point is, you are targeting a niche or 2 so you are heading in the correct direction.

You should try to connect with the audience your communicating with at the time. If you are posting in a dentists form, have your backlink go to a dentists specific landing page that uses their lingo. When you launch a physicians site, have the backlink go to a physicians specific landing page and have copy that addresses their problems. If the place where you are posting your link doesn't communicate with your audience, then it is fine if that audience just lands on a generic landing page or your home page.

getresponse has got a good landing page builder. They have just announced it, check it out, its awesome. You can build each landing page in 3 minutes.