My most in-depth guide to formatting landing pages to increase your conversion rates
Your landing page has less than 3 seconds to hook visitors.
If they only read this text on your page, will they know exactly what you offer? Or even better, will it tempt them to learn more about your brand?
A weak message will make people instantly bounce.
Here's my go-to framework:
Main headline
The trick is to not talk actually talk about what you do, but instead what transformation you're helping with.
Example: a tax software for startups
Old headline: Have your taxes automated ---> New headline: Get $20k back from the IRS in 20 minutes
The old headline explains what they do, which is a helpful service. Saving time on manually doing taxes is great, but what people really want to hear is them either saving or making more money.
Your main headline explains the specific value people get that only your brand can offer. This is your promise to prospects, your big idea, and the reason your brand exists.
Coming up with angles
Without a good angle, you’re just promoting a product that doesn’t come off as a necessity. But an angle that shows you understand your audience’s problem, is clear about how you’re helping, and explains why you’re different from your competitors shows you have actual purpose in this niche and are actually trying to help people.
Don’t talk about features
You’ve probably seen this ad when the iPod was introduced. It says “1,000 songs in your pocket” instead of “10 GB of ram.”
Nobody cares what you do, they only care about what you can do for them.
In this case, it was not needing to carry a CD player that only let you listen to 20-25 songs from the same artist at a time.
They just want the results.
But most companies talk about their product features thinking that is what amazes people and gets them to buy.
Apple never talks about their iPhone technical specs. They talk about what you can do with them.
Nike doesn’t sell you on the material in their shoes. They talk about bringing out the great athlete within you when you have their shoes on.
So in your copy, use more verbs than nouns. Nouns are for features, action verbs get people excited about what they can do with your product.
Don’t sell skin masks, sell soft skin with no acne.
Don’t sell calcium supplements, sell strong bones even in old age.
Don’t sell low-sugar, high-fiber cookies, sell mouthwatering dessert without feeling guilty.
Subtitle
This is where you can give more detail about your offer. To show people how you give value while handling any objections they may have.
What you do + who you're helping + how you're helping.
Following our tax software example: We help SaaS startups claim tax credits that most accountants miss.
You can also add a guarantee to help with any uncertainties they have. "Pay $0 if we don't save you any money."
Main CTA
Drives excitement, fomo, and reduces friction. More of a call-to-value than call-to-action. Don’t add any pressure, let them take action on their terms.
learn more —> create your ___ now
sign up —> start your free trial, no CC required
get started —> start building
buy now —> get x% off today!
Even more detailed ones that start with an action verb and end with a noun.
AI paraphrasing tool has a CTA of “Paraphrase your content”
A discord to learn about stocks has a CTA of “Make money with [group name]”
AI video editor has a CTA of “Remove blank stares from your videos”
The “So what?” test
Anytime you write copy bragging about your product and think this is what’s going to get them to buy, imagine someone saying “so what?”
Then write out the answer to that question. Then imagine someone is being stubborn and still saying “so what?”
Keep breaking it down into more benefits for them. The further down the rabbit hole you go, the better your copy will become.
Here’s an example.
Imagine you own a company called MentorLab, which connects aspiring entrepreneurs with successful founders for mentorship in starting their business.
Usually the main landing page copy for a product like this says “Chat with successful entrepreneurs today!”
Reader: So what? Why would I want to talk to them?
You: So you can learn how they built their business
Reader: So what? I can learn from Google and Youtube for free
You: You’ll get one-on-one calls to ask them anything!
Reader: No thank you! I’ll learn for free from other places.
Here’s how to show benefits in your copy that aspiring entrepreneurs want to hear.
“Save time and money by learning from successful entrepreneurs so you can quit your 9-5 ASAP!”
This copy is more understanding of why people want to be entrepreneurs in the first place, and why they should even want to pay for a service that can help them on their journey.
Product video / image
Show off how your product is used in every day life. Make it a real-life scenario for your ideal customer.
Selling a kids toothbrush - Show them happily brushing with it before bed
Selling dog toys - Show how happy dogs are playing with it
Selling an app - Show a product walkthrough so people see how it easy it is
Social proof
The social proof you provide needs to let people know they don’t need to worry.
3 types of social proof:
Customer reviews
Praise from reputable companies / people
Photo / video content of your customers using the product
Customer generated content
Ways to implement social proof:
Show a big stat. It could say “100 5 star reviews” or “10,000 happy customers.”
You want to show a bigger number, even if it’s not purchases. It can be visitors, impressions, etc.
For skipit.ai, I wrote “Over 100,000 summarizations so far”
Quotes and reviews from your biggest customers, so you can attract other customers in the same niche who strive to be like them.
Have REAL customers that give an honest review of how the product helped them. The goal is to help website visitors reach the “aha” moment and understand the product’s value much faster from a trusted recommendation.
Show how many people have used your product. Claims like “Join 20,000 others” help build trust that if it worked for others, it could work for them too.
Why us section
This section is crucial for getting ahead of your competitors.
It’s where you’ll want to build trust and let them know they’ll be getting at least 10x the value of what their paying.
So handle customer’s biggest objections and reduce friction for buying.
A good strategy is to use their own words, which you can find from positive reviews of your product and negative reviews from competitors.
Your voice should remind them of theirs.
This section is where you’ll post your good reviews, testimonials, past clients, case studies, etc.
You can never have too much social proof. Because people trust recommendations more than any type of marketing or sales tactics.
Story section
Your story will make or break your brand.
Memorable brands have ambitious goals for their community and unconventional POV’s.
If you want brand loyalty:
Show why you started and your purpose beyond profit
Take a stand with your audience and show you understand their pain.
Show a better future for your community.
Few companies like Nike and Apple sell on brand and story. But a more relevant example that you can reference for your landing page is from email service hey.com.
I referenced this for my own project Find A Path. You can find the shortened version of hey’s example here, with the full version at hey.com