How To Write a High-Converting Landing Page in 8 Steps (with examples)
Every killer ad needs a killer landing page
Leads need to follow a logical journey after clicking on an ad.
When they don’t land on a page that’s very obviously related to the ad they clicked on…
They bounce.
In our eBook, How To Write Ad Copy that Sells, we covered our method and step-by-step process for writing a killer ad that’ll get clicks and conversions out the wazoo.
But an ad is only as good as its landing page.
So, in this guide, we’re breaking down how we create consistent, conversion-optimized landing pages for our clients.
Let’s go!
What makes a good landing page?
There’s a concept in copywriting referred to as the ‘slippery slope.’
Meaning, every single bit and scrap of copy exists solely to get the prospect to read the next bit and scrap of copy.
Now, do we expect prospects to read every single word on our landing pages?
No. No, we do not.
BUT, do we wholeheartedly believe the words need to be there to convert prospects?
Absolutely.
💡 Tip: Every word on your landing page should serve a singular, vital purpose: to get the prospect to convert on your call to action.
That’s it. That should be your laser focus when constructing your LP.
Ditch the guesswork, and do some research
So how do you know what will make a prospect convert? That’s where having a good research strategy comes in.
📖 Recommended Reading: For those of you who’ve read our eBook How To Write Ad Copy That Sells, this research process will be familiar to you. For those who haven’t—snag a FREE copy here.
The key in the research phase is really to do more than you think you need.
This is when you’ll uncover all those irritating pain points and irresistible benefits that will drive clicks and conversions.
You want to immerse yourself in the product, competitor products, customer reviews (the good, the bad, and the meh), and anything else you can get your hands on that will be helpful to understanding the messaging that will resonate best with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
📖 Recommended Reading: Not sure who your ICP is? Check out our blog to learn How To Create an Ideal Customer Profile in 5 Steps.
Here is the 4-Step research process we recommend doing before writing any copy:
1. Get intimately familiar with your whatever you’re selling
You should know your product backward and forward prior to attempting any copy—landing page or otherwise.
Pour over any existing product copy, documentation, style guides, past marketing messaging (things that worked, things that didn’t), and refresh your memory on your website messaging overall.
Essentially, whatever’s written down about your product already—read it.
Note the benefits your product provides your ICP, key words and phrases, and anything else that pops out.
Now, this is all just a jumping off point. But sometimes you’ll find great copy ideas in this step.
To translate your product features into benefits, you have to understand how the product works and what sets it apart.
That said, the real insight and copy direction comes from your customers, which is why next you should…
2. Consider your product from your ICP’s perspective
As important as it is for you to know your product, it’s just as important to consider it from your ICP’s point of view.
They don’t know your product. And, they don’t care about it, either. Why the hell would they?
💡 Tip: It’s your landing page’s job to tell them what your product is in a way that will matter to them.
In this step, you’ll uncover what they do care about. And how to apply it to your landing page.
Scroll socials.
Figure out what popular influencers or thought leaders on social media are saying about products like yours or the problems it solves.
Your prospects are in the comments.
Stalk forums.
More and more, people are crowdsourcing problem solving using sites like reddit and Quora to access people who might be going through the same thing and have some insight.
These questions are a copy goldmine, and should give you a ton of insight into the unaware and problem-aware segments of your ICP.
3. Analyze customer feedback about your product… and competitor products
You’ll find tons of real-life customer insights in reviews of your product and products like it.
💡 Tip: Don’t focus exclusively on your 5-stars and your competitor’s 1-stars and ignore everything else.
The 5-stars tell you what people love, and the 1-stars what they hate—but 2-4 stars tell you pain points and alternatives.
Take notes.
You can get some great copy ideas for your landing pages just by doing this alone.
Turn negatives about your product into positives, and position positives about your competitors as negatives—just try not to get completely boxed in by their messaging.
You can even save entire reviews to mine for copy ideas later on.
Just remember, while it’s important to know what’s being said about competitive products, at the end of the day you should always focus your messaging around the benefits of your own product.
💡 Tip: Aside from a competitor campaign where you’re directly comparing your product to a competitor to poach their prospects, we wouldn’t recommend presenting an alternative product on your landing page.
It will only draw attention away from your product to theirs.
(The exception being a comparison chart section, which we’ll get deeper into later).
Instead, focus on the benefits of your product—especially those benefits that highlight the weaknesses of your competitors.
4. Spy on your competitors
Your competitors are after the same prospects you are—so it stands to reason their landing pages are a great source of inspiration.
Click on their ads to see how they approach their landing pages (plus cost them a bit of scratch 😏).
Don’t cop their words exactly.
But take note of the benefits and pain points they’re hitting on over and over.
💡 Tip: We do all of this research before writing any copy whatsoever.
Your process might be different, but I think you’ll find that when you start working on a new landing page, if you fill your head with every bit and scrap of information you can find…
Sitting down to write the copy is a whole heck of a lot easier than if you started from scratch.
The 8 must-have elements of a good landing page
If the purpose of any good landing page is to get prospects to convert on your CTA…
The copy and design have to be compelling enough to deserve a click.
We’ve refined our LP copywriting process over the years, and determined the 8 must-have elements of a good landing page.
This list represents both the core components of a good landing page, as well as the order we recommend compiling the sections.
Here’s a high-level overview of the 8 must-have components of a targeted, conversion-driven landing page:
The Hero
Arguably the most important section—the hero is home to your headline and main description. We also recommend including your top 3 value propositions and any awards or third-party ratings.
The Call To Action
The call to action copy should tell the prospect to complete your most desired action—e.g.: book a call. Your CTA button should appear in almost every section to give landing page visitors every opportunity to convert.
The Offer
Your offer tells prospects what they get when they convert right now. This is a great opportunity to use artificial scarcity to create ‘limited-time’ discounts and incentives that compel prospects to act immediately.
The Benefits
Highlight the top 3-4 benefits customers will get from your product. Use the headlines in this section to highlight the most compelling benefit statements you can make about your product.
Social Proof
You can talk about the product all you want, but it’s even more compelling to showcase social proof from real customers. Include testimonials and reviews from third-party sites like G2 and Capterra, as well as any awards you’ve won.
How It Works
Explain in the most concise way possible how the product delivers the benefits you’ve promised. Keep it to 3 steps to give prospects the feeling that getting started is the easiest thing they’ll do that day.
The Features
Highlight the top 3-4 features of the product—but frame them as benefits. You want prospects to know what the product can do… for them. Add a dropdown with the full features list for more complicated products.
The Footer
The footer is your last chance to get prospects to convert. Say what you do in a simple way, and ask them to convert with a headline like, “Are You Ready To {Get XYZ Benefit}?”
These 8 landing page sections will effectively sell any product or service.
💡 Tip: Depending on your product, market, competition, and your ICP’s awareness level you may need to adapt these 8 sections to suit your specific needs. Or even add a supplemental section to further make your case with prospects.
If your audience is largely unaware of what you do, how you do it, or if it applies to them…
Your landing page will require a bit more oomph to push prospects over the edge.
To that end, I’ve included a list of supplemental sections that you may want to sub in depending on your ICP’s education needs.
Here are 4 supplemental sections that help educate less aware prospects:
Comparison Table
If you have a lot of direct competitors going after your ICP, including a comparison table on your LP is a great way to set yourself apart from the crowd.
Use Cases
For products that have multiple applications, you may want to include a section highlighting your top 3-5 use cases. However, if the use cases apply to different ICPs, consider creating a targeted LP for each audience.
Education
Is your ICP particularly unaware of products like yours or how they work? You may need to devote some space on your landing page to providing more education on your product and how it can benefit them.
FAQ
Do you notice prospects have recurring questions about your product? A FAQ is a great way to both provide answers and help dispel objections before prospects even get to the demo.
You can add supplemental sections wherever it makes the most sense for the flow of your landing page, but we do have…
3 general rules of thumb for adding supplemental sections into your landing page:
- Prioritize your comparison chart section with other conversion-driven sections.
- Conversion-driven sections like the offer and benefits should always take precedence over informational sections like the education and FAQ.
- Break up information-dense sections with short, transitional, social proof sections, like customer logos, testimonials, awards, and third-party reviews.
Your ad strategy should cover educating your prospects from completely unaware of your product and how it could benefit them… to fully aware and ready to make a purchase.
But, prospects of all awareness levels will visit your landing page, so the copy should work to sway them all.
🎁 Free Giveaway: Don’t have a paid ads strategy? Get our entire Paid Advertising Playbook—built around the 5 Stages of Awareness—right here.
Now that you have an overview, let’s dive into some examples of real landing page sections we’ve written, designed, and developed for some of our clients.
What makes a good landing page hero?
Since the hero is the very first thing your prospects see after they click on an ad and land on your LP, it’s hands down the most important part of your landing page.
Depending how aware the prospect is and where they are in the funnel, your hero should have everything they need to convert on your CTA right now.
💡 Tip: Think of the hero as a microcosm for your entire landing page. Meaning, try to include the most persuasive elements from the whole page in your hero section in as concise a way as possible.
If prospects don’t convert on your hero, they’re significantly less likely to convert down the page.
Most would rather bounce than scroll.
Which is why it’s so important to cover as much ground in the hero as possible, and give prospects everything they need to convert.
So if all they see is your hero, at least you know you came out swinging.
That said, according to Gartner, the modern B2B buyer is doing more self-guided research before making any purchases than ever before.
So your landing page as a whole should cover everything they need to know to make an educated purchase decision.
This is a good example of a landing page hero because it includes…
- Branding
- Anchor links
- Imagery
- Headline
- Description
- Explainer video
- Form, email collector, or LIE
- Call to action
- Value propositions
- Social proof
We recommend every hero feature as many of these components as possible—let’s go over each in painstaking detail to help you understand why.
(Except for CTAs and social proof… I’ll talk more about those in the following sections.)
Branding
To maintain congruence between your ads and landing page(s) both should always include your brand logo.
💡 Tip: Congruence refers to all of your assets matching each other to avoid any confusion for your prospects.
The style may vary from one to the next…
But it should always be abundantly clear to prospects that your ad and landing page are from the same company.
3 simple ways to maintain congruence across all your assets:
- Stick to the same colors
- Use the same fonts
- Prominently display your brand logo
Anchor links
Unlike homepage navigation bars, that link to different pages in your sitemap (a big no-no for LPs)…
We like to include anchor links to the main sections of the landing page so prospects can see what’s there and hop around as they like.
💡 Tip:The biggest hurdle any landing page has to overcome is the pre-scroll bounce.
Including anchor links helps set the expectation of what’s included on the page—letting prospects jump to the exact information they’re looking for, right away.
That said, you should not include any outside links whatsoever on your LP, even to other pages on your site.
Remember, landing pages exist to educate, convince, and convert prospects.
To do that, prospects need to stay on the page.
Image
We won’t get too in the weeds here, because this eBook is about copywriting, not design (which could be an entire book unto itself).
But the hero image—and, really the design overall—are hugely important elements.
Whether you use stock images or creative graphics, your hero image should align with your brand guidelines to a T.
Headline
The headline is the most important component of your hero.
Period. Bar none.
There are thousands of different approaches to writing a good headline, far too many to cover here.
In this case, we went with a tried-and-true, benefit-focused headline.
If you’re struggling to decide on a headline, check out what your competitors are doing on their landing pages.
Don’t copy, but take inspiration.
You can also try headline formulas, or adapt from swipe files (there’s plenty out there if you don’t have your own).
💡 Tip: If a landing page isn’t performing as expected, the headline is the first thing we swap.
A/B test new headlines to see what works—just remember to maintain congruence with your ad copy.
If your headline is too “clever,” it could confuse your prospects and kill your conversions.
📖 Recommended Reading: More on ad and landing page congruence in our eBook How To Write Ad Copy That Sells.
Description
The description should expand on the headline and explain what exactly the product is, does, and promises to deliver in a very succinct way.
Use the least amount of copy you can to convey the information in as clear a way as possible.
Remember, the viewer might not scroll past the hero, so think of this as your one chance to make the case for your product to the vast majority of prospects.
💡 Tip: We like to keep our descriptions to 1-2 sentences, and around 20 words total.
This is a good place to call out your Ideal Customer Profile and expand on a big benefit you offer or pain point you solve.
Explainer video
If YouTube and TikTok are any indication—people love to consume video content.
A short explainer video can really boost your engagement, average time on page, and conversion rates.
We find that the conversion rate increases significantly on pages with a video versus pages without.
Even if your video gets the same exact message across as your copy…
Some prospects just find video more compelling than text, and a quality explainer video can push them over the edge.
Or, at the very least, stick in their mind while they continue their self-education buying journey.
Form, email collector, or LIE
You want to make it as easy as possible for your prospects to convert, so we like to keep it simple with a short form or an email collector.
The less friction, the better.
Remember, you can always have the CTA trigger a follow-up form to gather more information or link straight to a calendar where prospects can schedule a demo.
Someone who has already filled in their email is more likely to see their investment through and complete the form.
Another solution we often opt for when our clients need more information prior to a demo is a Lead Intake Experience (LIE).
In a LIE, you’ll ask the prospect up to 10 onboarding questions—one at a time.
LIEs tend to be less intimidating than a form, and help nudge the prospect across the finish line.
They might bounce from a sprawling 10-question form, but comfortably answer 10 short questions posed one at a time.
It’s the sunk cost fallacy in action.
If you’ve already filled in one text box, might as well keep going.
Just make it easy.
Value propositions
Just in case prospects don’t pick up on the benefits between the headline and description…
We like to really smack them over the head with it by including the top three value propositions the product offers as well.
💡 Tip: Keep it simple. Three short value props and coordinating icons. No fluff.
Lay out the expected results your prospects stand to gain by using your product very clearly.
Include numbers where you can—10X, 60%, 400,000+, $1M.
People love numbers.
If your product is too new to back up expected-result claims with data, lean on restating the exact benefits they get, pain points they avoid, or some combination.
Regardless of the approach, we find our client’s landing pages perform better with value props versus without.
What makes a successful call to action?
Your call to action is pretty straightforward… what do you want your prospects to do?
That’s your CTA.
For B2B, ‘Schedule a Call’ and ‘Book a Demo’ are going to be your bread and butter.
But, you could also choose a simpler CTA, like ‘Get Started,’ ‘Try It Free,’ or ‘Buy Now’ for freemium, free-trial, or self-guided purchases.
💡 Tip: Stay away from passive CTAs like ‘Learn More.’ If you’ve done your job properly, there shouldn’t be anything more to learn (at least not anything purchase-compelling).
You’ll want to sprinkle your Call-To-Action button throughout your entire page to give prospects every opportunity to convert.
How do you write a good product offer?
The offer section is all about creating the most compelling offer you can for your product.
It’s the bonus your prospect gets for converting.
The LIMITED-TIME trial… first 60 days FREE… 20% OFF if they sign up in the next 24 hours… $500 BONUS for the first 500 signups, FREE iPad when you sign a year-long contract… and so on.
However you phrase your offer, just make sure it’s something your prospects actually want—and who doesn’t want free shit?
💡 Tip: Generating FOMO and artificial scarcity with your offer, is almost as important as having a good offer.
Keep in mind, even if you offer every single person who signs up 1 month free… landing page visitors don’t need to know that.
You can make them feel like they’re getting an ultra-exclusive offer by phrasing the copy just right.
📖 Recommended Reading: If you need guidance on ‘How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No,’ check out Alex Hormozi’s $100M Offers.
This is a good example of an offer because it…
- Promises two big benefits—saving money and saving time
- Offers the first 60 days free
- Restates what the product is
Forget features. Focus on benefits.
One fatal mistake copywriters make is confusing features for benefits.
Features are boring.
99% of people do not buy features, they buy benefits. (Okay, I made that statistic up, but that doesn’t make it any less true).
So what’s the difference?
Think of it this way… National Geographic photographers aside, the vast majority of people buying cameras don’t care how the camera takes great pictures…
They just care that it does take great pictures.
So for your benefits section, you want to focus on the 3-5 biggest benefits your product provides your prospects—your gorgeous-wedding-photo, baby’s-first-bath, once-in-a-lifetime-trip-to-Osaka level benefits.
💡Tip: You want this section to communicate how your prospect stands to benefit from what your product does—not what it literally does.
Your top benefits will likely be similar or the same as the three value propositions in the header—and that’s okay.
In fact, the repetition can work to your benefit by really driving the point home.
Just make sure to rephrase, not copy-paste.
Focus your headline on the most compelling BIG benefit your product offers, while your subheadlines convey the more specific, nitty-gritty benefits.
Will it be repetitive? Yes. Does it matter? No.
💡 Tip: Remember, prospects skim. So, you have to think about how your entire landing page skims. This means making sure the headlines convey all the must-know information about your product.
This is a good example of a benefits section because it…
- Highlights all the top benefits: ease, simplicity, affordability, speed, and a hassle-free, all-inclusive, done-for-you process.
- The design enhances the copy and helps to modernize an infinitely old service
- Gives prospects the feeling that they can just click a button and get a room renovation
The easiest way to get more conversions on your landing page
You know whose opinion of your product prospects will always trust over yours?
Literally anyone else’s.
No, seriously—a real-life person making claims about your brand will always come off as more reliable than a brand making claims about their own product.
Regardless of if you have actual proof or not… social proof almost always reigns supreme.
Let’s face it: people don’t like being sold.
And, it doesn’t matter if your CTA is Buy Now’s less intimidating cousin Book a Demo… good landing pages are always selling.
💡 Tip: Social proof is absolutely essential to any good landing page, because it instantly—and effortlessly—adds legitimacy to your brand.
So along with all the benefits you say you provide and the pain points you say you solve… You need social proof to back it up.
And for B2B, the best place to get it is third-party review sites, like: G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, Software Advice, etc.
Even better than reviews? Awards.
Those same software review sites give out seasonal and yearly awards for everything from Fastest Integration and High Performer to Best Software and Users Most Likely To Recommend.
Reviews and awards automatically trigger a level of trust in your prospects’ minds—making converting them on your CTA that much easier.
The social proof we use the most (and see the best results from) are:
- Customer logos
- Testimonials
- Third-party reviews
- Third-party awards & badges
The more you have to include, the better—as each piece of social proof works to further disarm and convince prospects.
This is a good example of a social proof section because it features…
- Hard numbers
- Client headshots and logos
- Positive, candid messages about our work
- Scrolls, giving the illusion it goes on forever
How to convince your prospects using your product is easy
The goal of any good how-it-works section should be to explain how a product works… in the simplest way possible.
We recommend keeping it to 3-5 steps and using very little copy.
You want your ICP to read it and think, “that’s the easiest way to achieve XYZ benefit I’ve ever seen!”
Repeat your big benefit in the description, and show how customers realize that benefit in the steps.
Be specific, but don’t get lost in the weeds.
This is a good example of a how it works section because it…
- Highlights the main benefit of the product
- Conveys the simplicity of getting started
- Promises the long-term, beneficial vision of the product
Your features… but make it benefits
We like to include features toward the bottom of our landing pages.
If prospects scroll this far, it signifies higher intent—so we want to give them some more nuts-and-bolts information.
That said, it’s important to remember that prospects value how products perform insofar as how the product will benefit them…
So, think of this as your features—framed as benefits—section.
We recommend highlighting your top 3 product features, and, if you have a large list of additional features, placing them in a dropdown table at the bottom of the section.
This serves two purposes…
- Providing a comprehensive list of features to anyone interested in diving deeper
- Further legitimizing the product in the mind of your prospect
Because even if they don’t click to see more, seeing a wall of features triggers the feeling of ‘oh wow! it does everything I need and more.’
Just like a ton of positive reviews immediately inspires trust, a wall of features can help trigger more trust, too.
This is a good example of a features section because it…
- Highlights the top 3 features of the product
- Promises several benefits
- Features a comprehensive, drop down list of features
Your last chance for a conversion
The footer is your last chance to get prospects to convert on your CTA.
Your final say, as I like to call it.
We recommend just being straightforward here. Say what you do in a simple way, and ask them if they’re ready to convert.
Sprinkle in some social proof badges for extra credit.
For the headline, try posing a question, like: ‘Are You Ready To {Do XYZ Thing We Offer}?
Try to be aspirational, straightforward, maybe even a little cheeky—for example, I once wrote the footer headline ‘Ready To Make a Baby?’ for a men’s fertility product.
If the answer is an automatic ‘yes’ for your prospect, chances are higher they’ll convert.
As for the description, make the biggest, boldest, benefit statement you can to round out your benefit-ridden landing page copy.
This is a good example of a footer because it…
- Makes a big benefit promise
- Directly asks the prospect to convert
- Uses social proof to further convince
Now that we’ve covered the 8 must-have sections of any conversion-driven landing page, it’s time to move on to our 4 most-used supplemental sections.
The power of a comparison chart on a landing page
A comparison chart is a great way to set yourself apart in a crowded marketplace.
But, you can also use it with a unique, first-of-its-kind solution to set yourself apart from the status quo—which is what we did for our client SquareDash.
In their case, worse solutions existed. And we used the comparison chart to juxtapose the pain points of those ‘solutions’ with the benefits of our client’s product.
Buyers—especially B2B buyers—are researching purchases on their own more and more these days.
So, a comparison chart can be very compelling for a prospective buyer, jumpstarting, or even confirming their research.
💡 Tip: We recommend placing comparison charts higher on the page to take advantage of just that.
This is a good example of a comparison chart because it…
- Clearly illustrates the pain points of choosing a competitor
- Positions SquareDash as superior to the status quo
- Further educates the benefits of the product
How to highlight multiple product use cases on a landing page
Some products benefit several different groups… But oftentimes the people who would benefit most aren’t the people making the purchase.
This is especially true for B2B SaaS products, where an entire organization might benefit from a product in different ways.
So you need to walk a fine line in your messaging to convince prospective buyers—execs, managers, technology officers—that your product can benefit them… by benefiting everyone.
There’s a lot riding on choosing a B2B SaaS product for an entire org, so buyers need to know they’re making the right decision.
A great way to illustrate that on your landing page is with a use-cases section.
Simply name each user group and state how they benefit.
When considering placement, we’d recommend somewhere between the benefits and features.
This is a good example of a use cases section because it…
- Clearly states the high-level organizational benefits
- Breaks down the benefits by user type, starting with the most likely buyer
- Provides prospects with a breakdown of use cases they can use in group purchasing scenarios
What to do when prospects need more education on your product
Sometimes products or services are on the more complicated side, and they need a bit of extra explanation.
Or, maybe your ICP is on the unaware side of the awareness spectrum, and you really need more space to make the case that your product is right for them.
That’s where an education section comes in.
The trick with sections like this is to really make sure you include relevant information about the pain points you solve and the benefits you offer.
💡 Tip: Use education sections sparingly, and place them further down the page near features.
This example is from an employment law firm and makes crystal clear what qualifies as disability discrimination under the law.
This is a good example of an education section because it…
- Positions our client as experts in their field
- Helps qualify and potentially weed out prospects
- Validates the prospect’s experience and desire to take action and convert
How to answer questions and overcome objections before the demo
Prospects always have a lot of questions about your product?
Ask your sales team.
If they tell you prospects are asking the same questions over and over again in every demo—you need a FAQ.
This section is as simple as the headline ‘FAQ,’ and a click-to-expand list of your most recurring questions.
No need to reinvent the wheel here.
💡 Tip: It’s standard practice to place FAQs at the end of landing pages.
This is a good example of a FAQ because it…
- Keeps it simple with a straightforward design
- Answers the most commonly asked questions
- Helps overcome objections and increase conversions
And there you have it, the formula for writing a landing page that converts.
But a landing page can’t convert without traffic—that’s where a paid ads strategy comes in.
Don’t have one? Here, take ours:
🎁 Free Giveaway: Snag a FREE copy of our entire Paid Advertising Playbook—complete with an asset repository, project roadmap, and awareness ad storyboard— right here.
And while you’re at it…
🎁 BONUS Free Giveaway: Grab a copy of our complete ad copywriting methodology and step-by-step approach to writing killer ad copy: How To Write Ad Copy That Sells.
Rather just leave it to the experts? Hire us, and I’ll write your landing page for you.
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