The importance of updating your website for COVID-19
Whether you’re hosting a webinar, giving away a special report, selling a show, or hosting a video series, a landing page inspires your visitors to participate in some way.
Creating a crisis response landing page is a little different because you’re not trying to convert leads into sales, you’re trying to communicate serious messages to your customers.
Why should I put a separate page related to the crisis? Your visitors are looking for reassurance and resources, whether it’s around the health precautions you’re taking to prevent the spread of coronavirus or changes to your business hours. It’s important for your small business to have a crisis response plan, and a big part of that is messaging.
Like the coffee chain JJ Bean talking about its phased reopening.
What is a landing page?
It’s simply a website page, but it often looks different than your typical website. You have one main focus – a single “call to action” or focused goal that you want your visitors to pay attention to.
It’s all about keeping the visitor focused on that primary goal: your response to COVID-19.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Creating a COVID-19 Landing Page
Landing web pages are designed to convince the visitor to click on another page.
This is often done on an e-commerce site, where a marketing campaign will send people to clickable pages of a website providing compelling details about a specific program, product, or service. There will be a button that will lead people to buy what you sell.
If you have a call to action on your COVID-19 response landing page, make sure it’s sensitive and relevant. For example, if you provide consulting services or sell wellness-related items that consumers are looking for during this time, it’s okay to show people how to access your offerings.
For example, The Broken Whisk Restaurant has a COVID-19 landing page that informs people about its Heat and Serve dining program that is being offered while it is closed.
However, if your small business sells unrelated items, don’t clutter the pages of your informational website with them. The rest of your website can do that; Please save your COVID-19 home page for informational purposes. This communication is part of your pandemic response plan, not a sales pitch.
The same goes for lead generation. Marketers use lead generation website pages to capture name, email address, and perhaps other information (such as a phone number or occupation) to enter into a database listing, which is stored in a newsletter platform service.
That database list can then be used to track who signed up, whether through a series of autoresponders, a promotional campaign, or another newsletter send.
You’ll want to avoid having a signup form on your COVID-19 response landing page. Even if you have coronavirus-specific resources to share, now is not the time to try to get leads from a page like this.
The BC Chamber of Commerce has a resource page for businesses affected by COVID-19.
6 ways to create an optimal coronavirus landing page
It’s not as simple as placing a page on your website and waiting for the traffic to flow (just like the rest of your website)!
Here are five ways to design an experience that will resonate with your visitors:
Start with a clean design. This page of your website should be simple and focused. Website pages with balanced “white space” make it easy for visitors to focus on your coronavirus messages.
- Add a descriptive title. Simply putting “Resources” is not convincing. Something like “How we’re responding to the pandemic” or “COVID-19 resources for our customers” will grab people’s attention.
- Add images. Maybe not a close-up of the virus itself, which we tend to see on many news sites! Photos of your store or restaurant staff, an image of the outside if relevant to your small business… use your imagination.
- Be empathic. Be clear about why your visitor is on this page to begin with, and make sure you’re addressing their current needs, challenges, and even fears. Show that you empathize with those needs and show that they are in the right place.
- keep it simple In this case, less is more. Don’t add extra links, words or visual elements that distract your visitors. The goal of this separate page is to keep viewers focused on the message.
- format your text. This is especially true if you have many copies. Bold Headers, make certain text stand out in italics, and add color to make your page more dynamic.
This is a challenging time for both small businesses and customers. The more information and reassurance you can provide your website visitors, the better. By creating a pandemic response plan and a separate coronavirus landing page, you show that you are thinking about and care about your customers.
If you need to create a landing page specific to what your site visitors need from you right now, please contact us, we’re here to help.