A landing page is the first page a visitor sees when they click on a web link. Its purpose is to turn those visitors into customers, by way of a call-to-action. Your landing page could be a homepage or a single page created purposefully to generate conversion for a particular campaign. Whatever you want your customers to do when they arrive at your website, the landing page should generally consist of the following elements:
HEADLINE The purpose of a headline is to grab the reader’s attention and get them to stay on the page. An effective headline will trigger one or more of the following reactions in your potential customer, such as:
- Curiosity: “Find out how you can save £££s”
- Fear: “Help prepare your family for the worst”
- Pain: “Fed up with spending hours trying to create a website?”
- Convenience:: “An easy way to do your weekly shop”
- Greed: “Make money from the comfort of your own home”
- Pride, Power & Ego:: “Have the greenest lawn on your street”
- Assurance: “Results in 30 days or your money back”
- Anger: “You’re being cheated by your airline. We can help”
There are many ways to write a headline that triggers one of these outcomes, however there is a great formula you can use if you’re in need of inspiration: End Result + Time + Objections
Example: "A brand new organic bamboo toothbrush delivered to your door every month without fail, or a years supply for free.” OR "Incredible VR technology straight from your phone, without the high cost of a bulky headset."
FEATURES & BENEFITS (FABs) Features and benefits may sound similar, but on a landing page they have completely different effects on your potential customers. There’s a famous phrase in sales – ‘features tell, benefits sell.’ Your customers want to know how your product will solve their problem or give them the results they want – talking about benefits before features helps to target their emotions. Feature – something your product has, or is. The material it’s made from, a technical specification or an amount of something. Benefit – outcome or results your customers will experience as a result of the features. It helps to make them specific, real and tangible. Once you’ve pulled your customers in with the benefits your product or service can bring to them, you can then demonstrate how, by listing the features. Here are some examples:
| Feature |
Benefit |
| Integrated email app |
You can check your email anywhere |
| Open 24 hours |
You can shop whenever you need to |
| An artificial intelligence algorithm |
It learns to adapt to your needs |
| Leggings with shaping lycra panels |
Leggings that make you look good while you work out |
| Four wheel drive |
Suitable for all terrains |
CREDIBILITY & SOCIAL PROOF One of the most effective ways of proving your worth to customers is through the use of:
- Testimonials
- Ratings & Reviews
- Press Statements
- Endorsements
- Data & Statistics
Easy ways to do this include:
- Using a testimonial section on your landing page with quotes and reviews from satisfied customers
- Reserving a section of your landing page for a short quote from a recent newspaper article about your product
- Using a statistic to show the effectiveness of your service as a sub-heading
RISK REVERSAL Including risk reversal on your landing page basically means that the customer has a get-out clause. It takes away the risk of them giving your product a try. A risk reversal can be anything from offering free returns or a 30-day money-back guarantee, or even reassuring them that their time is not at risk by saying something like it ‘takes just 5 minutes to set-up.’ Including these elements in your landing page serves to take your potential customers on a journey from discovery to sale, starting with an attention-grabbing headline, reeling them in and eventually putting any last niggling doubts at ease.
