This is a great question—and one that I hope I can help answer.

I run a content marketing company and often come across clients who either don’t see a distinction between landing pages and email content or assume they’re both the same thing. So, let me start by pointing out the fact that in most agencies, mine included, copy developed for landing pages and email may be written by the same writer. It’s more the style and purpose of each that’s going to be different. To that end, I would say there are different skill sets that you have to understand for each. Without knowing the correct guidelines and following the nuanced differences that each platform needs, your efforts will essentially be in vain.

I have to emphasize though that both are designed to encourage your audience to take action. However, take note of these differences when crafting material for each:

For landing pages:

• Think of landing pages as stepping stones your audience makes towards conversions. Therefore, you want to make this process as easy as possible for them. This includes giving them a clear gist of what your offer is, even if they’re just skimming through the pages. Be sure to keep it clean, brief, and easy to navigate. Break up text into easily digestible pieces using headlines, section headings, and bullet points.
  
• Use multimedia or visuals with purpose. Be strategic—use images that help explain a point or drive engagement or better yet, use videos. Videos are known to increase conversions by as much as 80% on landing pages. 

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• Make your call to actions (CTAs) compelling. Use action words that inspire action instead of the more common and generic phrases.
  
• Be sure to keep the messaging consistent. Remember that audiences will likely end up on your landing page after they click on an ad somewhere. You don’t want to confuse them by talking about one thing on your ad and another on your landing page. You want them to immediately know they landed on the right page.
  
• Emphasize the offer that you’re promoting—that is your goal. If you want them to sign up for your newsletter, or subscribe to your blog, be sure to focus on that.
  
• Stay above the fold—keep all important information at the top of the page, where you have most of your audience’s attention.  

For emails:

• Emails are your direct line to your audience and prospects. You can assume that you have a good amount of their attention, but that’s not to say that you can write and send them whatever you want and guarantee engagement. Whatever you send still has to be compelling and relevant.
  
• Write for your segments—you have the opportunity to tailor your communications here so you can send them something that’s actually important to them. This increases the possibility of engagement.
  
• Personalize your emails. Personalized emails have an open rate of 17.6 percent, versus 11.4 percent for non-personalized messages. Leverage on that to increase your open rate and deepen your lead nurturing.
  
• Be sure your subject line matches your email copy. This helps build trust in your messaging. 

There you have it. Let me know if you have any more questions. Reach out to me at Leadspanda.