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The Landing Page Makeover Handbook

A landing page is single page website with one goal: to get people

to perform a specific action.

That action could be:

• Signing up for your mailing list

• Opting-in to a 5 week course

• Buying your product

Checklist: landing page elements

Who is this for?

What is their struggle?

What solution are you offering them? How will you make their

life better?

Why should they trust you?

What action do you want them to take? (CTA)

Who is this for?

The first question anyone asks when they visit a site: "is this for

me?"

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Often, it’s better to start with a really specific niche. For example:

"I help fashion bloggers promote their content on Facebook so

that they get more consistent traffic.”

You should identify your target audience right away, preferably in

the main heading (or subheading).

Example: testdrivenlaravel.com

Who it’s for: PHP developers who use the Laravel framework

What is their struggle?

Next, your landing page needs to describe a real struggle your

audience is experiencing.

You really need to dig into the pain. Why are they so frustrated?

How do they wish their life was different?

Example: testdrivenlaravel.com

The struggle: “Most examples make testing look pretty easy. But as

soon as I tried to test a real application, I was paralyzed.”

What solution are you offering them?

Now you need to show your target market how you’re going to

make their lives better.

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I'm a big fan of "show don't tell.” If your product is already built (or if

you have an MVP) show it!

If you don't have the MVP built yet, create a video that shows how

the product will work and how it makes the user's life better.

Example: testdrivenlaravel.com

Solution: “A comprehensive step-by-step video course on

designing robust Laravel applications with TDD.”

Why should they trust you?

If I’m going to give you my email address (or my credit card

number!), I’m going to need to know something about you.

A landing page should tell visitors why they can trust you! Here are

some good ways to do this:

• testimonials

• case studies

• social proof

• your bio (work experience, clients you've worked with)

Example: testdrivenlaravel.com

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Bio: “I'm @adamwathan, senior web application developer, host of

Full Stack Radio, creator of Nitpick CI, and author of Refactoring to

Collections.”

What action do you want them to take?

Your landing page should have one, primary, call-to-action:

“Now that I’ve shown you I understand the problem, here’s

what I want you to do next.”

This is usually a button (“Buy Now”) or a form (“Enter your email for

our PDF guide”).

Example: testdrivenlaravel.com

Solution: “Sign up to get four free preview lessons and details

about early access.”

Sections of a landing page

Headline + Sub-headline

The first thing people read is your main headline. Don't waste it! It's

your way to hook people's interest.

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The headline is not the place to introduce yourself. Instead, address

your audience directly by using (or implying) the word "you."

Here are a few examples of bad "we" focused headlines:

• "Corporate gifting by Sesame.” 1

• "We make interfaces.” 2

• "Lita Healthcare Group Limited is a diversified healthcare

company which markets and distributes products to the hospital

and retail healthcare environment."

On the flip-side, here are some good audience-focused headlines:

• "Accounting made for you, the non-accountant.” 3

• "You don't need to be an engineer. Build your startup by pointing

and clicking." 4

• "Guaranteed to increase your organic search traffic.” 5

Improve your headlines by using a strong verb.

sesamegifts.com1

metalab.co2

freshbooks.com3

bubble.is4

hittail.com5

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Without a primary action, headlines feel like generic descriptions:

• "Dead simple time tracking." 6

• "Real-time customer activity all in one place." 7

• "Meet the world's first visual CMS.” 8

Here are headlines that make good use of verbs:

• "Create professional client proposals in minutes." 9

• "Record bugs easily." 10

• "Send with confidence. Build, test, and monitor your emails with

Litmus.” 11

Landing page body

Now we get to the meat of the page. Follow this checklist while

crafting your content for the body:

ding.io6

woopra.com7

webflow.com8

bidsketch.com9

testfire.io10

litmus.com11

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• Put a visual near the top. An image or a video can help people

imagine themselves using the product. Images that create an

emotional response are particularly helpful.

• List the benefits. In what ways does your product help your

audience?

• Show social proof. Are notable people using it? What trusted

news sources have written about it?

• Describe some (not all) of your features. Remember to describe

the product itself! List a few features, and explain what makes

them unique.

• Call to action. What is the conversion event for your page? If it's

to get people signed up for your list, feature your sign-up form

prominently. If it's to get people to buy, focus on your pricing tiers

and "Buy Now" buttons.

Five Creative Lead Magnets

How do you get people to sign up for your email list?

You give them something they want!

Here are five creative ways to get more subscribers:

1. 5-day email course

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2. Beginner tools related to your product

3. Bonus content related to your article

4. Public challenge / lab

5. A physical gift

How to create a 5-day email course

My best conversion rates come from a 5-part email course. What's

an email course? It's an automated sequence of emails that you

drip out daily or weekly. The idea is that you give the reader an

easily digested lesson in each email.

Structure the content for your email course

Email courses work best if they're 5–7 days of content. Most email

courses are daily: you subscribe and get lesson 1, and then the

subsequent lessons come each day after that.

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You may already have content written that you can use for an

email course:

• Break up a long, tactical article or white paper into 5 lessons.

• If you've done a blog series on a topic, convert each post into a

lesson.

• Ask people for questions on Twitter or by email, and turn your

answers into email lessons.

• How do email courses help nurture your leads?

Each day, you're giving the subscriber something valuable. This

builds trust and rapport with the prospect. Your lessons should

also naturally lead to your product.

For example, in one lesson you might describe a DIY approach to

solving a problem. The email outlines all the steps they would need

to take to do it themselves. At the end of the email, you explain

that there's an easier way: your product. This is exactly the

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approach that Bidsketch's Reuben Gamez uses in his course:

Delivering an email course to subscribers

The user flow is going to look like this:

6. Someone visits your homepage, landing page or blog.

7. On the page, you have a call to action (similar to Design Lab's

above) that asks the visitor if they want to subscribe to get 5–7

lessons by email.

8. They enter their email address.

9. Your email system automatically sends them the first lesson in

your drip sequence. Every day following, the subscriber receives

an email.

There are a few different tools you can use to create email courses:

MailChimp

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For paying customers, MailChimp offers an automation feature

that allows you to easily create drip sequences. Their drag and drop

interface for arranging lessons is particularly helpful.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit has email courses baked right into their main service.

When you create a new course you're given an email sequence

template to edit:

Pricing for ConvertKit starts at $29 for up to 1,000 subscribers. You

can tag subscribers and trigger automations with link clicks,

purchase events, or subscription events.

Drip

Drip has the most robust automation, especially for SaaS products.

Conversion tracking is built in, allowing you to see if your course is

resulting in more customers.

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Drip also has my favorite subscription widget: it's a little tab that

sits on the bottom right-hand side of your website and pops open

after a timed delay.

For some of my SaaS clients, we've achieved 30% visit-to-trial

conversion rates using Drip's system.

How to create a tool for beginners

Reuben Gamez has a secret lead magnet that helps him attract

thousands of customers. His SaaS product, Bidsketch, gives away

downloadable templates.

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When you search for "web design proposal template" on Google,

the first result is a landing page on Bidsketch. It's filled with great

advice ("Demonstrate you understand their problems with a

Problem Statement"), and research bits like this:

Our research shows that online proposals are accepted 60%

faster than traditional proposals, and they’re 18% more likely

to be accepted overall.

Finally, at the bottom of the page, the reader has a chance to enter

their email and get free templates sent to their email address:

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Moments later, an email pops up in the prospect's inbox. It has a

download link to a zip file that contains two proposal templates (in

Word, Pages, and InDesign formats). The templates are high quality

and could easily save a freelancer hours of work. But if a freelancer

really wants an automated, online solution for creating proposals,

they know where to go: Bidsketch.

How to create bonus content related to your article

Offering a downloadable bonus is a great way to get folks to

subscribe.

In my annual “Year in Review” report, readers could download my

revenue stats

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Soon I was getting emails like this:

There are a few different ways you can set this up.

In the above example, when people subscribed, I sent them an

automated welcome email with the stats they requested.

Another method is to have your subscription form redirect to the

download once the form is submitted.

How to create a public challenge

Inspired by Crew's site launchthisyear.com, I launched the 2016

Maker Challenge. I recognized that many creative people were

making New Year's resolutions to "make more stuff.”

When someone signed up for the Maker Challenge, they got a

sequence of emails designed to inspire them and help them

organize their ideas.

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Again, I launched it the same way I'd launch any product. I put it on

Product Hunt, tweeted about it, and got my network to share it.

The response? 1,849 people subscribed in a matter of days.

Here is how I set it up:

• When people subscribed, they got a series of emails, with a task

they could complete each day.

• They could share their progress by submitting a form that

published to a live website.

• I also encouraged them to share their creations on Instagram,

Twitter, and Facebook.

How to create a physical gift for subscribers

Want to offer an unconventional incentive? When people subscribe

to your list, send them something in the mail.

When you're asking people to sign up for your email list, you give

them an incentive. The same tactic works for postal mail.

Here are some incentives you can offer:

• Stickers. People love stickers. They'll put them on their laptops,

on their cars, and on their notebooks.

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• Notebook. A small notebook is flat enough that it will fit in a

regular envelope. It has utility: people always need a place to jot

down notes.

• Tattoos. Fake tattoos are a nostalgic way to get people's

attention.

• Printed photographs. The game Firewatch allowed people to

take virtual photographs while playing. You could then have

these photos printed and mailed to you.

• Printed checklist. In this paperless age, many folks don't have

printers anymore. However, they may want a printed copy of a

checklist, or guide, that they can put up on their wall. Offer to

mail it to them!

• Posters. A bit bigger, but still fairly inexpensive to ship. The

advantage is that if your poster is awesome, it becomes a free

billboard for you in that person's office or home.

• Postcard. Getting a postcard feels personal. It could be a photo

of your team, your town, or somewhere you're traveling.

• Thank you card. The Product Hunt team sent handwritten thank

you cards to early community members. A truly memorable

gesture!

Tools

Technology can also help you scale your mailing operation. These

providers will ensure you don't have to do any of the heavy lifting

yourself.

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• Postal Methods (postalmethods.com). In the past, I've used this

service to print and mail simple letters, invoices, and receipts.

You can use their interface, or their API (if you're a programmer).

• Lob (lob.com). The best-known API for having letters and

postcards, printed, stuffed and mailed.

• Try Paper (trypaper.com). Another API for printing and mailing

letters, invoices, and postcards.

• Kite (www.kite.ly). An imprinting and shipping API built for

software developers. Allows you to create and ship over 250

types of items, including T-shirts, books, and other promotional

items.

• Peecho (peecho.com). Allows you to create magazines and books

on-demand. They print them and ship them for you.

• Pwinty (pwinty.com). Order and ship photo prints.

• Sticker Mule (stickermule.com). Create your own stickers,

magnets, and buttons.

• Straytats, Tattify, Tatyoo (straytats.com, tattify.com,

tattyoo.com). Create your own custom temporary tattoos.

• Printful (theprintful.com). An easy way to create posters, mugs,

T-shirts, pillows and more.

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