Landing Pages — How They Differ From Websites and Shopping Carts

Key Takeaways

• A landing page carries one clear message and a focused CTA (Call-To-Action) that urges visitors to sign up or buy — it's the entry point of the funnel that guides the customer journey
• A landing page is lightweight and can be set up and launched in minutes
• A website is heavier, typically featuring a menu and a navigation bar
• A website takes technical skill and considerably more time to build

Everyone is talking about landing pages …

Why a landing page? Why not a website? Why not an online store?

From a funnel perspective, a landing page is a goal-driven, simple page with no distracting extra links — and it has one purpose only: to get visitors to fill in their details so you can meet the goal your business has set. In short, a funnel is lightweight, usually built around a single prominent Call-To-Action (CTA) button, and it deliberately discourages visitors from wandering off the page.

A website, on the other hand, can be as simple as a few pages introducing your company's background, or as complex as a full system handling CMS (content management), bookings, memberships, online courses, event management, e-commerce, and more. A website plays the role of your company's information hub.

Here's a quick rundown of the main differences between a landing page and a website:

How landing pages differ from websites

1. A landing page has no navigation menu; a website does, along with a site map
2. A landing page's traffic comes mainly from ads or targeted social-media shares; a website draws traffic from many sources
3. A landing page is standalone, separate from your company's main website; a website hosts your company information and a comprehensive range of products and services
4. A landing page has one single goal (using a CTA to drive sign-ups); a website lets customers explore your company from every angle, with no locked-in path toward a specific action

A shopping cart is an extension of a website

A website is any platform people can browse — somewhere customers can look around online and get to know your business. A website's features can vary enormously, and a shopping cart system is of course one of the most common. An online store can carry unlimited products across anywhere from a handful to dozens of categories. It records customer orders and can even come with a membership system, making it easy for customers to return and reorder later.

You've probably experienced online shopping yourself: the products are dazzling, and once you start browsing you can easily lose ten minutes or more — or you slip away mid-shop to research the same product on other sites, and in the end never come back to place the order.

The sales funnel

A sales funnel is a type of marketing funnel and an effective tool for guiding users toward a purchase. A landing page usually shows just 1–2 products (though you can, of course, strategically build in an upsell flow), so visitors see the flagship product you most want to promote at a single glance, with no unnecessary information. You present the most compelling part up front, the customer can order with one tap, they fill in the bare minimum of personal details (a "squeeze" to collect information) and complete the payment, and with a limited-time offer added on (creating a deal that's too good to miss) the whole journey from arrival to purchase can take less than 3 minutes — an automated marketing machine.

Because it doesn't display an overwhelming number of products the way a shopping cart does, users don't wander off in every direction, dazzled and unable to hit "Checkout" after half a day. In truth, a website's entire design tends to slow the user down before they buy.

A funnel landing page is designed to keep every visitor focused on the Call-To-Action you've set, turning them into real customers (Visitor to Customer). It also records the Customer Journey — tracking the trail they leave behind — so you can retarget them strategically afterward.

Sales funnel VS building a website / shopping cart system

Building a shopping site requires engineers to set it up and tune its performance. From a cost-benefit standpoint, unless you have so many products or so much information that only a larger website will do, a funnel is an excellent tool for converting customers. More precisely, even if you already have a complete website, a funnel is still your conduit for driving traffic and converting.

Any business that has built a website knows that from planning the site map, designing the layout, producing content, and writing code, through to smoothness testing, performance tuning, and launch, the whole process typically takes weeks to months. Building a funnel, by contrast, takes barely ten minutes or so to produce a ready-for-business marketing page. In terms of cost, building a funnel runs about 1/20 the price of building a website. Economically, a tiny outlay buys you a salesperson who tracks customers strategically — helping you communicate with customers automatically so you never lose touch (keeping awareness), delivering useful information to users (nurturing), and gradually converting them into paying customers who generate sales.

Beyond the sales funnel, funnels come in many varieties, for example:

• The Lead Funnel, for quickly squeezing out customer information
• The Event Funnel, for one-tap event sign-ups
• The Course Funnel, for creating passive cash flow
• The Survey Funnel, for gathering customer feedback
• The Appointment Funnel, for locking in prospects
• The Redemption Funnel, for driving O2O business
• The Competition Funnel, for engaging with your market