How to build a brilliant landing page
Landing pages are one-page websites that are very simple, yet super effective. They hook the viewer’s attention, capture information, and get them closer to the end goal – engaging (and purchasing) with you. You could use them to offer a free ebook for download, selling a beta version of your product, or just inviting people to sign up to find out more in the future. Best of all, they’re easy and quick to build. Here’s our guide to getting started.
Why landing pages are good
They act as a placeholder
If someone hears about you, googles your business idea and can’t find anything at all, they’re likely to lose interest and basically forget about you. Having something there for your audience to find and engage with helps you build an audience right from the beginning, so you don’t lose what could be potentially brilliant leads.
They collect information
Your landing page is the perfect opportunity to gather email addresses of people interested in your idea. When you have developments or announcements about your business, you can then contact the people who’ve signed up to find out more. Again, you’re building your audience and collecting valuable information that will be of huge use to you – even if you haven’t launched yet.
You don’t have to just collect an email address. What about trying a survey asking about what your audience wants to see? Offering a discount code? Encouraging people to get in touch if they want more information? You can also link them up to Google Analytics to analyse where your traffic is coming from, giving you valuable insight into what’s directing customers to you.
Quick sales
Because landing pages are so simple, your call to action has more impact. Selling through a landing page is easy and quick for your customer. It’s also good for figuring out if people actually will buy your product…which leads me to…
They validate your business idea
If you haven’t started developing your building properly yet, get a landing page up anyway. Why? Because they‘re fantastic at validating your business idea, ie proving that people actually want to buy your product, or that people want to find out more. This is great news for you, obviously – but it’s also great news if you’re considering investment, or loans, or anything else that requires you to prove that your business will work. By getting proof that people are willing to put their money where their mouth is (or that they’re already doing so), you’re demonstrating that there’s strong potential for your business to work out. And that’s what people like to see.
What makes a great landing page?
Your landing page needs to be:
Clear. When someone clicks on your page they need to know immediately what you’re offering, and why it’s good for them. Communicate the benefit right away. Why do they need to be on this page? What’s in it for them if they trust you with their email address or other information?
Enticing. You want people to sign up then and there – create a sense of urgency, and do your best to create snappy copy that leaves them dying to know more.
Easy. The simpler you can keep things, the better. Simple, simple, simple. Don’t make them wait for ages for images to download or a video to play. Don’t put the sign up bit right at the bottom of a long page in tiny writing. You have literally a second or two to get them to sign up, so make it as obvious as you can.
What should your landing page include?
Here are some ideas for what your landing page should include.
A bold, snappy tagline. Catch the attention of your potential customers with a tagline that makes them take notice. If you can start communicating the benefit of your product here (as we mentioned above), all the better.
Information about your business. Don’t provide your entire business story – again, keep it short (are we noticing a theme here?) and just outline what you do, who you are, and what you have to offer.
A clear call to action. Whether it’s to sign up for an ebook or event, to register for more information, to try a sample product or even to buy the product there and then, ensure your call to action is clear and compelling. Always keep in mind what you want this landing page to actually do. What outcome are you hoping for? What sort of leads do you want to see?
Tools to do it
There are lots of great, easy and – crucially – low-cost tools out there to help you create a landing page. Here are a few options.
One of the most popular options. Simple functionality, no knowledge of code needed, and an aesthetic that’s clean and modern. It even boasts a built-in ecommerce function if you want to get selling right away. And it’s free!
Landerapp creates pages with marketing goals in mind, so it’s perfect for this purpose. There are lots of good templates to choose from that are designed to help you fulfil specific lead generation goals. It’s $37 a month, but you do get a two week free trial to try it out.
Instapage boasts that you can build a landing page in 3 minutes, and their drop and place templates are an absolute doddle – again, no coding experience needed here. The pages integrate with your CRM and social channels, and again you can try it free, with prices afterwards starting at $29 a month.
Need more help? Try our guide on how to build a logo, landing page and point of sale in just 10 minutes.
