It will come with a cost, and there’s a chance it may not get used as you’d like. Nonetheless, a landing page requiring readers to put some “skin” in the game (a commitment to provide information) will help your email campaign succeed. Let’s start by answering an important question.

What is a landing page?

1.) It's a form

2.) It exists solely to capture a visitor's information through that form.

All landing pages are web pages but not all web pages are landing pages.

These web pages are accessible in several different ways:

• From a website - from a button or another URL you can click from the website to get to the landing page.
• From an email - that may be associated with a benefit to the reader (i.e., contests or filling out a survey that would reward him at the end).
• From a hard copy sell sheet or letter - in this case, you rely on your recipient to actually type in the URL for the landing page. (This is the least likely way somebody will respond to your request for information).

A landing page will always work for you to collect information. It will most likely be in the guise of a form and will collect pertinent and valuable information.

These forms might be:

• An R.S.V.P to a trade show or an event. This leads to a good reason to request information from a reader because he’s already buying in when he shows interest in an event.
• A request for information such as an address update or an email address. In this case you would to tie it into some other benefit (like sending out a newsletter or blog posts) to give the reader a reason to provide you that information. You might also want to add a $5 Starbucks gift card to encourage him to fill out the form.
• A survey or customer study. If the reader provides the information, and the company regards it as important enough, it may make a change that could benefit the reader down the road.
• A contest entry or other exchange for information. In the case of contests, they’re more drawn out with more pomp and glamour involved. They’re often conducted by email, but can also be accessed from a website.

A landing page provides an opportunity for a visitor to give you information about himself so you can give him something in return.

And, there's many ways to attract attention from the reader to provide you the information you need. But ultimately, the landing page will provide you the most valuable commodity in business--LEADS! And, leads drive revenue.

Your business depends on the value of the leads you get. If you’re an automobile manufacturer, a spring manufacturer, a plastic extruder, an online store, a software dealer or any other provider of a product, good, or service, you need to have customers. Everything you do should have the goal of finding and selling to new customers. So, the whole program is based on driving leads and converting those leads.

Building your landing page will take time, so expect to spend eight to 16 hours on it (maybe a little more or less depending on the form). Hourly rates can run as low as $40-$50 to as high as $200-$400, depending on your provider.

Look for some wireframes to help map the landing page out to your designer (it IS a web page after all, so it has to be mapped out to provide the result you want). Then, work closely with your provider on tracking the results from the landing page.

Done well, your landing page will do the job it was intended to do and bring you business by driving leads and driving revenue.