So, you’ve decided to launch a startup. Congrats: That’s a bold decision!
Now it’s time for prompt actions. You need to make the world know about it, claiming your place in the bottomless sea of online businesses struggling for a customer’s attention.
And while your ambitions may spread to designing a fully featured website with a blog and SEO strategy to promote it, that’s not the very first thing to do. The first thing you need to do for your startup’s online presence is a landing page.
In this post, you’ll learn what a landing page is, why consider creating it for your startup, and what elements you need to add there for this landing page to convert.
So, here we go!
What is a landing page?
First off, let’s determine what a landing page is not:
- It’s not the home page of your website.
- It’s not your About Us page.
- It’s not your Contact page.
A landing page is an independent page within your site or a standalone page you create as a marketing tool to attract traffic and convert visitors into leads.
For a startup just beginning its way on the market, such a standalone page is the best option to consider after your MVP is ready to go, as it allows speeding up its promotion and sales. A landing page is ultra-focused, with the only purpose to increase your conversion rates.
Why does your startup need a landing page?
Designing a fully featured website, creating its content strategy with proper SEO, and planning/implementing campaigns on its promotion take tons of time, energy, and money. As an emergent entrepreneur, you need to first focus on short-term solutions instead:
It will help check your startup validity with minimum spending and pivot your business model if necessary. A landing page is that very solution allowing you to test an MVP and get initial leads.
Here go some other benefits of a landing page for your startup:
- Creating a landing page, you focus on a particular marketing goal and ease the process of results tracking.
- A landing page is easier to optimize for SEO and start promoting via Google Ads.
- A landing page helps increase leads, specifying all the benefits of your offer and encouraging visitors to opt for it.
7 must-have elements for your landing page to convert
Now that you know how critical a landing page is for your startup, it’s time to learn how to craft it. When designing the page, make sure to include the following elements:
1) Eye-catching yet relevant headline and subhead
These two are the first things a visitor will notice on your startup landing page, and that’s why you need to write them the best way possible. For that, it would help to understand the tasks a headline and a subhead should perform:
- A headline grabs attention and tells users what they’ll find on this page.
- A subhead comes just below the headline and provides more details about your offer, persuading users to continue investigating.
You probably already know that people have a super short attention span today and are super picky about what content to consume. With that in mind, you need to write a concise yet compelling headline for your landing page to hook users and motivate them to stay.
Limit it to 10 words, get straight to the point and use active verbs for visitors to understand what’s in there for them.
As for a subhead, it also needs to be short yet descriptive, informative and punchy. Here you can use questions, beneficial adjectives, numbers and any other writing tricks to trigger a positive response from users. If you aren’t sure about your writing skills, you can always use writing apps for crafting, proofreading and editing headlines, short descriptions, and any other content types your startup website may need.
2) A beneficial hero image
A hero image is a primary banner image a visitor sees on your landing page. Together with a headline, it’s a core element that helps users decide whether they want to scroll and learn more about what you have for them.
Why is it important?
- Most people are visual learners, perceiving the information through images, not texts; your hero image may be the only factor they’ll consider.
- It takes a few seconds for a person to build their first impression about a page; your hero image helps them decide whether they are in the right place.
When choosing a hero image for your startup landing page, remember that it should be high quality and relevant. Say no to stock photos or pictures with general meaning that don’t bring any contexts or emotions.
Ensure that your hero image fits the overall design of your page, triggers positive emotions and demonstrates to visitors that they’ll benefit from your product/service.
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3) An offer with added value
For your startup landing page to convert, it needs to communicate a clear, benefit-oriented offer to your target audience. Please do your best to integrate it into your landing page’s headline and subhead so visitors can see if it answers their “What’s in there for me?” question.
Ensure that your offer meets their needs and expectations. Address their pain points, motivating them to choose you among others.
A few sales copywriting tactics can help here:
- Addressing FOMO (fear of missing out): Mention what they’ll lose if they ignore your offer.
- Creating a sense of urgency: Offer a time-sensitive discount or a freebie.
To stand out from the crowd of your competitors, you may also want to think of some added value your offer can bring to users. Lead magnets like a free e-book for a subscription or a gift card for ordering from you can be excellent options to try.
4) Trust signals
These are elements that help visitors feel more secure about working with you. It’s especially true for startups: You’re a business newbie, and you don’t have a loyal community or mighty brand name yet, so why do people need to trust you?
To build some trust and make users feel better about doing business with you, add trust signals to your landing page. It can be guarantees, customer reviews, testimonials, quotes from niche experts about your startup, the list of prominent clients you’ve already got, etc.
All are signals that your startup is trustworthy, encouraging people to take action while on your landing page.
5) A call to action
An excellent landing page can’t exist without a compelling call to action (CTA). While headlines, subheads, images and trust signals grab attention and reassure visitors that they need your offer, an exceptional CTA is what converts them into your customers.
Here are a few rules to follow on CTA design:
- One page = one call to action. Don’t place CTAs with different intentions on one landing page: It will confuse users and prevent them from acting.
- Make a CTA stand out from other elements of your page: Design it as a button with a different color and compelling text on it. Try something friendlier and more inviting than “Buy now” or “Click here.”
6) A form
Chances are you’ll need to accompany your CTA with a form with a few fields for a user to complete. That’s how they will contact you or order from you, but there’s a problem: Most people don’t like filling in online forms because they worry about their personal information’s security or are unwilling to spend time on it.
To deal with that, keep an online form on your landing page short and clear:
- Limit the number of fields for a visitor to fill: a name and an email address will be enough to start.
- Consider indicators like logos of well-known site security programs: Place them close to an online form for visitors to see they can trust you.
Many online form builder tools are available to provide a stellar user experience with your page. Corresponding plugins for contact form creation from your CMS (WordPress, Drupal, etc.) can help, too.
7) Contacts
For people and search engines to trust you, do your best to prove that you and your startup are real. While the above-discussed contact forms are must haves, they aren’t enough for trustworthiness.
Ensure your landing page shares several contact methods:
- your startup local address;
- a phone number;
- your email address;
- social media buttons.
The idea is to give users a choice and motivate them to contact your startup in a way that will be more comfortable for them, not you. Some don’t like phone calls, while others prefer messaging you on Facebook or Instagram. You don’t want to lose clients simply because they can’t find your direct contacts, do you?
Ready to craft a winning landing page for your startup?
Now that you know all the core elements of a high-converting landing page, it’s time to craft yours and make the world know about your startup! Just remember this page should be relevant to your offer and easy for your target audience to understand what’s in there for them.
