Designing a Facebook Landing Page- Does Your Business Have One?

2011 Internet Marketing Advent Calendar This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Welcoming people has been a sign of respect and politeness for a long time. Businesses can do the same and welcome users who arrive at their Facebook page. Your wall is a great place for your visitors to hang out and interact with your company, but it isn’t necessarily the first thing that you want to show your new visitors.

Having a great Facebook landing page can help to engage new users from the very first interaction. Landing pages let you display engaging content, calls-to-action, incentives, interactivity, and so on. You can also detect whether the user is already a fan of the page or not, allowing you to create custom pages for fans and non-fans. This allows you to give your non-fans exclusive offers for liking your page.

When it comes to designing your company landing page it is much like designing for any website page, but there are some important factors you should keep in mind.

  • Design your page with width restrictions in mind. Facebook pages must fit within a width of 520px. There are no constraints on the height of the page but you must keep in mind that people are most interactive above the fold. You don’t want to make the user have to scroll down the page to see the most important aspects of your page.
  • Use your fan page profile picture to include more than just your logo. The profile picture has to stay within the dimensions of 180px wide and can be up to 600px high! It depends on your design and logo, but use the height to display important information about your business. Your profile picture is displayed on every tab, so it should be engaging, clearly display your business name and logo, include contact information, and be sure to include your web address- since Facebook should drive traffic to your website.
  • Keep the design simple and engaging. You don’t want to have a design that is too busy or your main call to action will be lost. The headline should catch the visitor’s attention and let them know they are not a fan yet, and show them reasons why they should become one. This is a great way to display exclusive offers that only fans will receive, and that by becoming a fan you will continue to get important information and offers.
  • Make use of the liked parameter. Include a secondary welcome page that only fans see, this is a great way to show exclusivity of becoming a fan. A great example of this is for ecommerce businesses. By displaying on your non-fan welcome page an offer, ex.) “Like us and receive a coupon for 15% off on your next order” Your secondary welcome page can be displayed right after the visitor has liked your page- displaying the coupon code for the 15% off their next purchase. This kind of immediate gratification will show the visitor right off that liking your page has benefits.

    BMW’s Facebook page is a great example of this. Most features are hidden to non-fans, which encourages visitors to like the page to see more.

A great fan page will not only encourage people to like your page – it will also effectively promote your brand and connect with readers on a regular basis. This is another opportunity to advertise your business to millions of FB users, so why not take advantage of it?

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