When communicating with your digital marketer about your campaign’s expectations, it’s helpful to understand the right terminology. Landing pages and redirects are phrases spoken daily by digital marketers but it’s important for campaigners to understand what they mean and how they relate to your overall campaign strategy.
Here’s a rundown of some key terms you need to know and what they mean.
Hero Section – The hero section is the most prominent part of your homepage. It’s what a visitor sees immediately upon loading the site. This is where your campaign should have a compelling, obvious call to action that you update regularly. Use a bold photo of the candidate to drive action.
Carousel – A carousel is a special type of hero section that cycles through images and text. Despite being common on campaign websites, you should NOT use a carousel because they drive down the conversions to your call to action.
Call to Action (CTA) – The task you want a visitor to take when they land on your website is the call to action (CTA). It can be an email opt-in, petition sign up, donation, social media follow, etc. The CTA is the focus of your digital marketing effort.
Landing Page – Whether it’s the homepage, your issues page, or a WinRed form, the landing page is a visitor’s first point of arrival from somewhere else, like a Google Search, Facebook post, text message, or email. In general, landing pages should be focused around getting that visitor to complete a specific action.
Splash Page – A splash page (also called a modal, prestitial, or pop-up) is a page that interrupts a visitor from reaching the page they thought they were going to. The splash page usually has a call to action and must be addressed (or skipped) before proceeding. It’s effective at getting attention, but landing pages that follow a specified flow are better.
Redirect – When a visitor converts to a CTA on your site, you can redirect them to another page encouraging them to take another action. It’s important to show your supporter the next steps while they’re interested.
Exit Intent Popup – When a visitor moves their cursor to close out of your site, an exit intent popup gives you one last chance to convert the visitor. Pop-ups are annoying, but they were already planning on leaving, so you’re not disrupting their experience. It’s just a last-ditch effort to share a CTA.
Content Management System (CMS) – You’ll usually refer to the CMS as the “back end” of your website because it’s where you login to create posts and edit pages. WordPress is one of the most popular options for a CMS, but campaign-specific platforms like Ryvall use their own CMS.
Don’t get scared away by the jargon surrounding your campaign website. If you don’t understand a term or strategy, ask questions! Your digital marketer ought to be able to explain it to you. If they can’t, they don’t understand why they’re doing it.
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