Website – Part A
1. What is the difference between the two websites and what will you do different in regard to how you approach the content for each? (8 marks)
Based on my class knowledge and discussions the main difference between a landing page and a website is their overall purpose and goal.
WEBSITE
· A website is the home base for a business on the web in most cases and it is designed and meant to offer a broader experience on multiple different topics that are relevant to the site. That’s why they have so many different pages- where you can explore different things on the website. And in our case- we have a event details page, a home page, a blog, a FAQ page and more. All the pages are related to the cause/business but are overall not solely focused on a single thing. The website caters to more organic traffic as it gives people a deeper more diverse and less focused look- meaning there’s the opportunity to build long-term engagement and also get more on page time. Websites are “a collection of all the pages connected to a brand. Websites include lots of information, like products, services, and contact details, and help people explore and interact with the brand”[i] “A website lets people know what you offer, why they should care, and gets them to take action. It communicates your business’ mission, WHY you do what you do, and what makes your business different.”[ii]
LANDING PAGE
· However, on the other hand, a Landing page is a designated page that is focused on one single topic and is built around a call to action (such as signing up to get involved with something, to do something specific and in some cases to buy something or learn about something specific)- and in our case for Hoops For Homes- the landing page is all about getting people involved with the event to join the impact- weather they want to be a volunteer, sponsor or enroll a team to play- the CTA is to get them involved in some way- a single focused and specific CTA that will help us achieve the campaign goals.
Landing pages rather then websites are THE BEST AND ONLY PLACE WE SHOULD SEND PEOPLE TO IN OUR ADS, EMAILS & SOCIAL POSTS- because they are focused on the topic that you are sending them there for so they don’t have to go searching themselves, the landing page is typically optimized to get them to convert and it gives a more clear direction.
This can be backed up by Mailer Light who states, “Unlike a website, which encourages exploration, a landing page is focused on a single call to action (CTA) and is designed to convert visitors into leads or customers and increases the likelihood of a subscriber following through with the action.”[iii] Making a landing page very important to use to get people get involved.
BECAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCES, I’M APPROACHING THE CONTENT FOR EACH ONE VERY DIFFERENTLY- HERE’S HOW
When designing the website and landing page for Hoops for Homes I built both a full website and a dedicated landing page- but I wrote them in a complete way based on their purpose and how we learned to structure content in class!
For the main website is where I was writing about broad aspects of the actual cause itself like FAQ, who the sponsors are, about us etc- meaning I focused on storytelling, community-building & emotional connection.
This is where I explained what Hoops for Homes is + the impact it’s creating in Michigan, Derrick Coleman’s story and Whirlpool’s role as a sponsor because the actual website is the hub where everyone will go to learn a wide variety of things about the cause and also- will be used and act as a long-term campaign hub where we could keep adding updates, media mentions, work on SEO because there’s a blog for time to come after. The point of this site isn’t to make people do something right away but rather to paint a story, get them interested and to get them to care and connect. Additionally, “storytelling has the unique ability to connect with the people who care about your nonprofit’s mission on an emotional level, helping them understand the impact of their contributions and inspiring them to support your cause.” [iv]
So, my strategy for writing this was all about storytelling, speaking right to the reader directly, making the cause feel impact & inspirational and making the content based around storytelling, affinity and authority and also impactful. In addition, I made sure I used plain language, emotional headlines, short paragraphs with headings, I wrote in an F-pattern to help people skim and still get the core message without saying more than I needed and also paring everything I wrote with real, that was impactful and showed real kids playing basketball and also visuals of washers dryers from whirlpool to help make the emotional tie stronger and more memorable as talked about in class. Using visuals was important because as learned in class “Visuals on average get 94% more views than text-based information, visuals increase retention by 42% as Images convey what words can’t and our human minds are wired to respond to the image, he human brain processes visual information 60,000x faster than visual text, Content with visuals/ videos attracts 3x more inbound links” [v]
Now, on the other hand on the landing page/ the “Get Involved” page, I used a different approach – as this page is a landing page that is specifically meant to lead to conversion/ having them complete a single action and learn a single topic- and in this case, it was for them to get involved with Hoops For Homes in some way & to encourage them to do so I painted the picture to them on why they should/ how they could & gave them what they needed to do so.
This page only had one job- whether that’s signing up a basketball team, volunteering, donating or becoming a sponsor—this page makes it super easy to do that and to do this I made sure I made sure I used action-driven language, that I used urgency, I kept important info at the top, I used strong CTAs like “Sign Up Now” and “Play Your Part”! In addition to this, I used scarcity tactics like “Limited team spots” and emotional gain triggers as learned in class as doing this can cause people to be more included to act. “Landing pages have high conversion rates because they allow you to focus on a single action you want users to take” [vi] So, in conclusion, even though both of these sites are part of the same campaign- they work totally differently as the website draws people in/ informs them, tells a story, the values, the trust etc and the other one/ the landing page is where I push the what now/ push them to conversions and encouraging them to quick action- with no distractions.
