If you're planning to email schools in the Autumn Term then I'm sure you will see an avalanche of interested teachers clicking through to your website.

This is obviously great news! But have you considered what will happen next? Studies have shown that teachers will scan your landing page for just 5 seconds before deciding whether to read in full or exit.

Therefore it's critical that the web page they see after clicking on a link within your email passes this 5 second test and really engages them. Your whole marketing to schools strategy depends upon it!

As I alluded to in my previous post, I've come up with 11 ways in which you can optimise your landing pages' performance and help you convert that avalanche of interest into a mountain of sales. I've broken these down into 3 categories: Scent, Trust and Scan.

Today I'm going to take a look at the first of these: Scent.

#1 Ensure your landing page is an extension of your email

You know in advance that you will be receiving all this extra traffic to your website so you should be creating targeted landing pages that are a continuation of your email and elaborate on that same theme.

Teachers who click on a link are doing so in the belief that they will find out more about what you are offering in your email. If they do not get this impression within the first 5 seconds then you’ve lost them.

Human internet behaviour is similar to that of a bloodhound following a scent: We follow a trail, pursuing an idea, thought or offer and will turn back the moment the scent is lost. For this reason, your homepage is often a poor choice for a landing page as it will be cluttered with distractions that will only serve to lead your audience away from the scent.

#2 Remove website navigational buttons

Keep thinking along the lines of that bloodhound following a scent. Your email to teachers has given them a whiff of the scent and your landing page's job is to keep them following that scent long enough to get them to your chosen destination.

You need to consider removing some or all of the usual website navigational buttons from your landing page. The last thing you want to do is to allow teachers to wander around your website unchaperoned!

Don’t allow them to navigate to areas of your website that are unrelated to your email’s core message as they will quickly lose focus and you will be much less likely to get the response from them that you intended.

#3 Focus on the benefits to the teacher and the school

Most pages on your company website probably focus on your products and services. This is great for the casual web browser who wants to find out more about you, however your email landing page needs to be less about you and more about them.

Remember, you’ve attracted teachers to this page with the promise of potential benefits and you need to reward them with just that.

#4 Segment your landing pages as much as possible

We’ve spoken time and time again about the importance of segmenting your school mailing list so you’re not emailing the same message to everybody. It’s the same for your landing page: it should be tailored specifically for each teacher type.

To optimise success you should be using different landing pages for primary and secondary school teachers, purchase influencers and decision makers, and prospects, qualified leads and converted customers.

If your products are of interest to teachers of science, maths, English and PE then you need to ensure that each teacher clicks on a link that will take them to a landing page specific to their subject.

That's it for today. Next we'll take a look at the second of the three categories: Trust.

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Emailing Teachers Email Calls to Action Landing Pages

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