VIEWPOINT: Landing Pages 101: Devising a Strategy For Takeoff

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You’ve just spent weeks defining the social posts, the digital ads, and the copy for all the platforms for your latest campaign. The FizzBuzz 3000 (recently updated from the 2000, which is so 2000) is about to hit the market, and so is your campaign. Then your media coordinator asks: “Where are we going to […]

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Then it hits you: you need a landing page. You need to refresh the website. You need to make sure the tracking is set up. Oh no.

Yeah, you could just send them to your company home page. There will be a highlight carousel there, or a featured post or, well, something to tell the user why they just clicked on your ad, your email, your post. Right?

How about a landing page?

When your customers do decide they’re going to click the link, they want to end up on a page that has meaning and value to them. Because up until they spend money with you, the most valuable thing a prospect can give you is time and attention. We can’t squander that. Let’s think about a great user experience for our audience.

Content

The content of your site’s home page is often more about defining your brand, and helping users navigate to the content they’re seeking. Most businesses have multiple audiences they’re delivering content to — existing customers, prospective customers, employees, and job-seekers, just to name a few. There are likely segments within each of those broad categories that are all looking for something different. Unless your company is narrowly focused, your home page probably isn’t the best landing page for a specific campaign.

Instead, think about your campaign’s strategy and goals. Are you creating brand or product awareness? Are you educating on the problem that your offering solves? Or are you trying to get the potential customers that are about to buy clicking a “buy now” button?

Each of those phases of the buying cycle comes with its own content strategy. Knowing that your campaign is targeting a focused segment will help you realize conversions more efficiently, because you will be speaking to that segment, rather than trying to catch-all.

Call to (the best) action

Embedded in your content should be a relevant call-to-action. There are many actions that your prospect might take, and again, which you are looking for is highly dependent on what phase of the buying cycle they are in.

Brand awareness? Sign up for our newsletter. List-building is a great way to help early-stage prospects get to know you, start engaging with your brand, and be receptive to your message. The call-to-action is going to offer a simple (read: one box, one button) newsletter sign-up form. Consider that a conversion for the purposes of tracking as well. List-building might not have direct monetary value, but it does increase your company’s potential energy — a sign the campaign is working.

Getting them to buy now? Well, the call-to-action here is going to be an “Add to Cart” button, ideally. For a service, it might look more like signing up for that free trial.

It’s not going to make sense, though, for the brand-awareness campaign to land on a free-trial pitch. That customer isn’t ready, and actually, might just look at that as being pushy.

Similarly, the customers who ready to buy aren’t here to sign up for your newsletter (and if you want them to sign up, you can always add it to the checkout screen).

Nailing the call-to-action based on the group you’re targeting shows your prospects that you know what they’re looking for, and you’re putting it right in front of them.

Design for all the screens

Social media is predominantly experienced on a mobile device. If you’re posting on social or placing ads on social platforms, a mobile-friendly, responsive design is needed to accommodate those users.

The design methodology that works best is mobile-first. Starting from a narrow, phone-sized mobile design will really test your content and call-to-action regarding what’s most important. What message will users see first, and how far will they interact before they get to the call-to-action? How much content do you really need to place before users can move ahead?

As you expand to tablet and desktop sizes, you can always shift the content and layout to make use of all the space available. If you start with a desktop layout, you may find yourself making unsatisfying decisions on where to stash the content as the screen size shrinks.

It’s folly to design for an experience that less than a majority of your customers will have. Design for the phone first, and expand it to the desktop second.

Speed

You’ve got solid content, you have a great call-to-action, the design is beautiful — now let’s get just a little technical.

In public speaking, they say you have 7 minutes to get your audience’s attention. On the web, you’ve got more like 30 seconds. So, it’s critical that your page loads quickly to get your prospects content while they still have interest and before they swipe away to another site or app.

Google recommends 2.5 seconds to the Largest Contentful Paint — the time it takes the largest image, text block, or video to become visible before the user scrolls the page. It strongly correlates with the user’s perception that the site has loaded (even if it’s not yet fully loaded).

There are many ways to help your site load faster, with various caching solutions, content-delivery networks, and improved image or video compression to deliver the site’s contents more quickly. A tool like Google Lighthouse can assess your landing page load time. It will produce a report with technical recommendations for improving everything from server-response time to image optimization.

Ideally, you should set up a recurring scan using a tool like Lighthouse, so that as you make adjustments and changes to the landing page over time, you don’t accidentally introduce slowness. How fast your page is isn’t just about the speed of the server or the code; it’s also about how heavy the content itself is. Be judicious with the use of large assets like videos. They are certainly compelling, but keep them short and compress them well, or your audience will just move on before they get your story.

Step zero

Even before your landing page goes live, have a clearly defined campaign strategy and goals. A campaign strategy informs everything else in a campaign. Who are we targeting? What part of the buyer cycle are they in? Where are we going to find them? How are we going to reach them? And once we do reach them, what do we want them to do?

Starting with campaign strategy is the most important part of the process. Without it, you’ll waste time and money. You’ll end up with worse than expected results, and you won’t necessarily be able to build a plan of attack to make an improvement. Your goals aren’t well-defined to make an informed correction.

Paul DeLeeuw is a tech lead at ddm marketing + communications, a marketing agency for highly complex and highly regulated industries.

OPINION: Pump the Brakes on the Electric School Bus Mandate

Opinion, Subscriber Only

The disastrous New York Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which, so far, has amounted to little more than a list of unworkable mandates with an unlimited price tag, continues to stretch the laws of math and physics. As a result of the CLCPA, the 2023 state budget included a provision demanding that school

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As a result of the CLCPA, the 2023 state budget included a provision demanding that school districts begin purchasing zero-emission buses by 2027, and by 2035, districts will be expected to convert their entire fleet to electric vehicles. One analysis estimates the total cost of the mandate, excluding infrastructure and facility upgrades, ranges between $8 billion and $15.25 billion.

The idea that rural school districts outside New York City can even begin to find funding for these vehicles is laughable. Residents, taxpayers, and voters have expressed serious concerns about the idea, and school officials have indicated these purchases are unlikely to pass when residents vote on their school-district budgets; numerous school districts [including Onondaga Central School District] recently voted down new bus purchases outside this expensive mandate.

As such, the Assembly Minority Conference has consistently called for a repeal of this mandate and for a full financial analysis of the CLCPA. Last year, Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C–Corning) introduced bill A.8447 to delay the mandate until 2045 or until all state agencies have converted their own fleets. It raises the obvious question, why are the state’s school districts required to be the guinea pigs and undertake this transition before the state does?

Additionally, Assemblyman Robert Smullen (R,C–Mohawk Valley and the Adirondacks) introduced a separate piece of legislation alongside Sen. Joseph A. Griffo (A.2005/S.3328) allowing districts to submit an opt-out waiver to the New York State Education Department. Not every district will opt out, but this would be a huge help to those that cannot feasibly make this transition so soon. Both pieces of legislation speak to the same problem: the astronomical cost of this electrification is callous and entirely unreasonable.

Energy policy can be complicated, but there’s a budget reality that’s very clear: When school budgets increase, property tax hikes are never far behind. Forcing New York schools to pay $15 billion to subsidize the green dreams of left-wing policymakers will come at a steep price for every taxpayer.

We all want a better environment. This mandate, though, is asking far too much of our rural districts, especially considering there are major concerns about the safety, reliability, repair costs, and infrastructure needed to electrify the state’s bus fleet. One need only look at a recent bus fire in Massachusetts to see disaster on the horizon. And what about districts whose students live further than a given bus’s battery life? It is abundantly clear the CLCPA is not rooted in any real form of economics or common sense, and the sooner the law is repealed the less time, energy, and money will be wasted trying to satisfy its unrealistic demands.

William (Will) A. Barclay, 56, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.

OPINION: Our democracy isn’t perfect, but we can improve it

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Is the United States a model democracy? Not that long ago, I suspect, most Americans would have answered with a resounding yes. But times have changed. We’ve lost confidence in our own system of government. And it’s not just Americans who question our democracy. Both here and around the world, many people say U.S. democracy

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And it’s not just Americans who question our democracy. Both here and around the world, many people say U.S. democracy used to be a model but no longer is such.

The evidence comes from a recent Pew Research Center survey, which found that only one in five Americans think U.S. democracy is a good example for other countries. Fully 72 percent said it used to be a good example, but hasn’t been for several years.

Those are bleak findings. The survey doesn’t tell us why Americans have lost faith in our democracy as a model, but we can guess. For one thing, it has been through a difficult time. Some of its essential principles — respect for the rule of law and for others’ rights, confidence in free and fair elections, etc. — have been under attack.

Some of the survey results may reflect the extreme political polarization that our country is experiencing. With Joe Biden in the White House, Democrats were a little more likely than Republicans to say U.S. democracy was a good model. It won’t be surprising if the numbers flip with Donald Trump as president and Republicans in control of both houses of Congress.

But the fact remains that many Americans, regardless of party, don’t think the system is working for them. Income inequality, inflation, high housing costs and other factors have taken a toll. For the past decade or so, trust in government has been at its lowest point in generations. In 1964, when I was first elected to Congress, almost 80 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing. Now only about 20 percent do.

In 34 other countries where Pew conducted the same survey, a plurality of respondents agreed that that U.S. democracy used to be a good model, but it no longer is. In some of those countries, a significant number said U.S. democracy has never been a good example.

Other research produces similar findings. A Gallup poll from early 2024 found that only 28 percent of Americans were satisfied with how democracy was working, down from 61 percent in 1984. In another poll, more than half said the U.S. is a “poorly functioning democracy.” Even more worrisome, one survey found nearly one-third of Americans would prefer to have a strong leader who could act without interference from other branches of government.

There are plenty of reasons to critique our democracy. Some flaws are part of its design: for example, the lack of equal representation in the Senate. While our elections are generally free and fair, money has had a corrupting influence. Gerrymandering means that many elections are not competitive. The Electoral College concentrates presidential competition in a handful of battleground states. Trump has worsened matters by refusing to accept the result of the 2020 election, threatening to use his appointments to punish political adversaries, and ceding influence to Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.

It’s understandable that Americans are discouraged about our democracy, but I believe its fundamentals are sound. Our system of checks and balances, the balance of power between the three branches, and the concern for individual liberties embedded in the Bill of Rights have served us well for 250 years.

Winston Churchill famously said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other forms that have been tried. Yes, it can be disappointing, and ours has never been perfect. But our history has been a story of strengthening democracy, expanding rights and making government more responsive. If we’re disappointed with democracy, the answer is to reform it, not abandon it.

Lee Hamilton, 93, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.

Developer plans to start work on Onondaga Hotel this summer

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — The developer of the proposed 240-room Onondaga Hotel in downtown Suyracuse says the plan is to begin demolition work this summer and that construction work should take about two years to complete. “So let’s say mid-2027 for an opening date,” Suraj Patel, president of Sun Development and Management said in his remarks at

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“So let’s say mid-2027 for an opening date,” Suraj Patel, president of Sun Development and Management said in his remarks at the Jan. 24 project announcement.

The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) has selected Sun Development and Management Companies, one of the largest Hilton hotel developers in the nation, to build the upcoming hotel at the corner of East Fayette Street and South Warren Street. M. Lemp Park currently occupies the site, which is just north of the South Warren Street parking garage.

“We’ve had a lot of housing development, which we know we need, but with some of the housing development, we’ve seen some hotel rooms come offline and that’s presented us with some challenges,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said to open his remarks at the Jan. 24 project announcement. The mayor was among the officials who discussed project details in the City of Syracuse’s office space in One Park Place at 300 S. State St. in downtown Syracuse.

Sun Companies has applied to SIDA to support the project, including sales and use tax, mortgage-recording tax, and property taxes, according to the City of Syracuse announcement.

In total, the project will result in about 330 construction jobs, 52 permanent jobs, and $87 million in new investment for downtown Syracuse, according to the city’s announcement.

The newly constructed nine-story, Onondaga Hotel will be a part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, a high-end boutique brand that focuses on specialty, unique designs rooted in history and local culture. Hotel amenities, including the lobby lounge, restaurant, bar, ballroom, and break-out rooms for conferences and meetings will all be located on the top level, providing a roof-top view of the city and community space for residents and visitors.

Project origin

The City of Syracuse had partnered with SIDA, which issued a request for proposals for the site that it owns at the corner of East Fayette Street and South Warren Street

Crews will build the hotel property on both the SIDA property and additional land currently occupied by the “structurally compromised Warren Street Garage right next door,” Walsh said.

As a part of the project, Sun Companies will also acquire and demolish the privately-owned Warren Street Garage, per the city. To support the demolition of the parking garage, Syracuse will provide a $400,000 Restore New York grant, Walsh noted in his remarks.

“By repurposing this publicly owned land, working closely with our partners, we’re not only meeting the growing demand for hotel rooms and hospitality services in our city, but we’re activating a new, vibrant space in the heart of downtown,” the mayor said.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon used his remarks to announce a $500,000 grant from the county’s hotel initiative, representing the largest grant the county has awarded from the program.

“I want to congratulate the City, specifically, for having the vision to go out and look at your real estate and look at how that real estate can perform as we as a community strive to become the hub for memory-technology manufacturing in North America,” McMahon told the gathering in the Burnett Executive Conference Room at One Park Place.

Merike Treier, executive director of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, Inc., added, “The Onondaga Hotel will fulfill a critical need in the local tourism and convention sectors, support additional tourism activity, and create a new third space for our downtown residents and businesses.”

Utica native opens studio for creatives

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Mohawk Valley, Small Business, Subscriber Only

UTICA — A little over a year after opening his first business in Utica, Nazaria (Nazzy) Deloach has opened a second business, providing even more space for creatives to do their thing. 4K Creative Studios, LLC, located at 9898 River Road, expands upon what Deloach started when he opened Dreamer Studios, LLC in June 2023.

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UTICA — A little over a year after opening his first business in Utica, Nazaria (Nazzy) Deloach has opened a second business, providing even more space for creatives to do their thing.

4K Creative Studios, LLC, located at 9898 River Road, expands upon what Deloach started when he opened Dreamer Studios, LLC in June 2023.

“I wouldn’t say it was an evolution of Dreamers, but what I wanted Dreamers to be from the start,” he says of his new business venture. “What 4K really is, is a shared creative space. I want it to be the shared creative hub of Central New York.”

While Dreamer Studios focuses on sound recording, 4K Creative has something for every creative type, Deloach explains.

From sports media to photo shoots of all types, 4K offers it all — either with its own team of professionals or just as a space for lease where people do their own work.

4K Creative Studios has two photographers, a videographer, a graphic designer, and Deloach as creative director available to clients. The 1,500-square-foot space is divided into five bays that can be used for photography, podcasting, videography, and more. The studio even offers a green screen, RGB lights, an easel, and a variety of photo backdrops. Those renting the space can also bring in their own props and equipment.

“Even if you have your own photographer or videographer, you can still come in and use the space,” Deloach says. That even includes bouncing ideas off the staff.

It’s all part of Deloach’s vision of a space that gives creatives without a voice a space to have one and a place where creatives meet and form connections with other creatives. “It’s all about unity for me,” he says.

Deloach is hoping the studio will benefit small businesses in the greater Utica area that may have creative ideas but lacked a way to bring them to fruition before.

“I want to be that company for Utica that shows and sheds light on all the other companies,” he says.

Another area Deloach is hoping to really tap into is sports media with local school districts and athletes.

“I know how huge it is to have media days,” he says, adding he’d like to participate in such events with local schools. “In today’s world, sports and showing off your school is huge in social media.”

His studio can give schools or even individual athletes the media they need to show off with products like highlight reels and photos.

Deloach is working to get the word out about his new space through social media, an email campaign, attending Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce events, and more.

He thinks the space itself plus having a creative team on hand helps set his studio apart from the competition.

“We understand what people are coming for,” he says. “It’s a creative space built by creatives. Who wants to go to a baseball stadium built by soccer players?”

4K Creative Studios (www.4kcreativestudios.com) celebrated its grand opening on Jan. 17 via a ribbon-cutting event with the Greater Utica Chamber.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of CNY names new board officer, three new board members

Nonprofits, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central New York (RMHC of CNY) has announced the appointment of a new officer and three new members to its board of directors for 2025. Ron Tascarella, first VP and chief lending officer at Pathfinder Bank, has been named treasurer of the board of directors. The charitable organization

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Oneida County to contribute $150,000 to B-52 restoration project

Small Business, Construction, Design & Real Estate, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Mohawk Valley, New York News, Nonprofits, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Technology

ROME, N.Y. — The B-52 bomber displaced and damaged during last July’s tornado in Rome is one step closer to being put back into place.

Dominick Falcone Agency, Falcone Associates sold to Illinois firm

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Construction, Design & Real Estate, Insurance & Financial Services, Small Business, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Dominick Falcone Agency, Inc. and affiliate Falcone Associates, Inc., of Syracuse, have been acquired by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm headquartered near Chicago, Illinois, Gallagher announced this week. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed in Gallagher’s Feb. 3

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Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed in Gallagher’s Feb. 3 announcement.

Dominick Falcone Agency provides property/casualty insurance products to commercial and personal-lines clients primarily in Central New York, and its affiliate Falcone Associates provides employee-benefits services to businesses and individuals.

Michael Lavalle and David MacLachlan, partners in the Dominick Falcone Agency, and Renee Guariglia and Chris Marshall, partners in Falcone Associates, and their teams will remain in their current office location, Gallagher said. The firms, which had about 15 employees before the sale, according to the Falcone website, have an office at 507 Plum St. in the Franklin Square area of Syracuse.

The Falcone staff will now be under the direction of Brendan Gallagher, head of Gallagher’s Northeast region retail property/casualty brokerage operations, and Scott Sherman, head of Gallagher’s Northeast region employee benefits consulting and brokerage operations, the acquiring firm said.

“Dominick Falcone Agency and Falcone Associates have a strong market reputation and will further enhance our retail brokerage capabilities in Central New York,” J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “I am delighted to welcome Michael, David, Renee, Chris and their associates to Gallagher.”

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. — based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois (near Chicago) — provides insurance services in 130 countries around the world through its owned operations and a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. The company, which has about an $80 billion market capitalization, generated total revenue of more than $9.9 billion in 2024. It employs about 56,000 people across the globe.

Acquisitions are a key part of Gallagher’s growth strategy, as it completed 20 new mergers last quarter and 48 mergers for the full year, according to its latest earnings report.

Most CNY regions posted job gains in December

Subscriber Only

The Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Binghamton, and Elmira regions all gained jobs in December compared to December 2023. However, the Watertown–Fort Drum and Ithaca areas lost jobs in the same 12-month period. That’s according to the latest monthly employment report that the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) issued on Jan. 23. December jobs data The

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NYSTEC contributes $500,000 to business center project at SUNY Poly

Mohawk Valley, Construction, Design & Real Estate, Education & Training, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Featured, New York News, Nonprofits, Small Business, Technology

UTICA, N.Y. — New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation (NYSTEC) has pledged $500,000 to SUNY Polytechnic Institute to establish a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary business center, the

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