Make sure your landing pages are long on exposure, like this photograph. (sorry)
As an inbound marketer, your campaign will go only as far as your landing pages take it. While crafting a landing page with compelling copy, an enticing offer and a clear call-to-action is important, it won't generate leads at an optimal level unless your campaign is driving as much traffic to it as possible.
Given how crucial driving landing page traffic is to converting prospects to leads, it amazes me how under-exposed many of our clients' landing pages are. In an effort to move prospects down the sales funnel, make sure you're using most or all of the tactics listed below to drive landing page traffic. I've divided the tactics by their prevalence of use.
Obvious tactics
Email marketing. If email marketing is a part of your campaign, it's essential you're directing your leads to a landing page relevant to the email content. Plenty of email marketers already do a great job of tying email blasts to a landing page, but there are other, more subtle ways to incorporate landing pages into email as well. Consider incorporating landing pages into your business email signature with a tool like Wisestamp.
PPC. The same principle holds true here. Pay-per-click advertising's role in inbound marketing is debatable, but what is not is the fact that any PPC campaign can be derailed by a poor landing page. Make sure your campaign is tied to a smart, effective landing page that drives conversions.
Still obvious, but underutilized tactics
Internal website pages. Almost every internal page on your business' website should include at least one call-to-action tied to a landing page, preferably one that features a premium offer. You can feature the call-to-action in the sidebar, footer, header or even the content itself. I'm puzzled by how many small businesses don't take advantage of this easy way to drive landing page traffic.
Social media. From what I've seen as a social media manager, B2C companies generally do a much better job of using social media marketing than do B2B companies. This is due largely to the fact B2C companies have the luxury to direct folks to an exciting coupon, discount or product. Still, there's not reason B2B companies can't use social media to encourage followers to download whitepapers, eBooks and other premium content offerings. But most don't.
Highly underutilized tactics
Offline integration. The QR code and the landing page are a match made in heaven, so put QR codes linking to landing pages on offline marketing collateral whenever possible. This includes (but is not limited to) direct mail, sales collateral, trade show collateral and business cards.
Blog posts. Part of the problem here is that not enough companies are blogging in the first place, but if yours is, make sure your writers are including plenty of links to landing pages and calls-to-action so readers have a clear next action to take if they so choose.
What other ways does your business utilize landing pages? Let me know in the comments section below.