How to Create Landing Pages That Convert

With all the different tools and builders out there it’s easy to get caught up in the technical details of how to create landing pages that converts.

You can find tons of videos and blog posts about how to setup a page in “less than 10 minutes” and make it so “awesome” everyone opt-ins.

But when it building landing pages that convert and attract the right people, getting done as quickly as possible is probably the last thing you should be worried about. 

Two very important steps need to be taken before you want to get lost in all the technical stuff of setting up your landing page.

And the good news is you can do it all with just a piece of paper and a pen. Or a laptop. Your choice.

Here is a simple 3-step process to designing landing pages that will almost force your website visitors to download your free thing and join your mailing list.

1. Create an Amazing (and Relevant) Offer

This is the most important step when designing a lead magnet.

You have to make your offer hyper-relevant to your audience. And you have to make it so good they have no choice but to say yes.

On Relevant

In the words of the great Dan Kennedy: You have to “match the bait to the critter.”

If you want to attract affluent, professional working women to a high-ticket weight loss program, the best bait might not be a free download on how to get a great set of abs. That’s not the conversation that’s happening in their heads right now.

Now if it were a free training on “how you can lose those extra 10 pounds you gained with each baby 3 kids ago in the 30 spare minutes you have after work” that might attract the kind of clientele you’re looking for.

On Amazing

A great offer (aka “lead magnet” or “freebie”) can save a terrible landing page, but a great landing page will never make a bad lead magnet get the kinds of responses you are looking for.

No amount of wicked smart copy or beautiful design is going to get someone to take something they don’t want, don’t need and have no interest in.

Creating a great offer is an art and skill in itself that can take years to master, but here are some tips as to how you can create a great freebie lead magnet for your website.

• Be super specific! You don’t want to make an offer to join your newsletter. Make a super specific solution to a super specific market.
• Give them one big thing that they can take away from your freebie and apply immediately for a win.
• Make it fast! You don’t want your first free offer to be a 86 page eBook that takes 3 weeks to read. Give them a win today.
• Shift the relationship! You want to do more than just give your prospects a thing. You want them to see you as an expert. Begin creating a relationship with them to do business with you in the future.

If you can get these things down and convey the benefits that will take your prospects from where they are now to where they want to be, you will get more people to say yes to your free thing.

2. Write Fantastic Copy

Once you have something that people want to download, your copy will have the next biggest impact on how well your landing page will perform.

You need to be able to communicate a compelling reason for someone to take your freebie thing.

A major mistake I used to make was throwing up a landing page as quickly as possible, spending 10 minutes on the headline, then investing 2 hours designing the layout and images.

Today I take the opposite approach.

A minimalist designed landing page with great copy will convert like gangbusters. A beautiful landing page with terrible copy will not.

These are the three basic elements for great copy on a great landing page:

• The Headline: he most important part.
• The Subheadline: What is this awesome thing you are trying to give them?
• Bullet points: 3 – 5 bullet points for a landing page can really have an impact.

An Exercise for Writing Great Copy:

On tip someone gave me for a long time ago for writing great headlines and bullet points is….

write a lot of them

Write down 20 – 40 headlines. The first couple will probably be your worst. Once you get the juices flowing things will get better.  

Pull your best headline for the landing page. Then take from what’s left the best idea to make a congruent subheading.

Use the same process to write your bullet points. Write at least 20 bullet points—use your headlines for inspiration!

Write bullet points that show your prospects  how this will get them where they want to be. Tell them specifically what this has done for you—or others. Show them how easy they can take action and get results. Build desire and interest for your thing.

Now at this point you’ve got a great headline, strong subheadline, and 5 kickass bullet points.

Offer + Kickass Copy is 80% of work. It’s the hardest part.

3. Design Your Landing Page

Once you have a compelling offer and great copy, the last step is to design your landing page.

There are a ton of landing page builders out there, so you don’t need to know how to code or do any technical work. Just learn how to use drag-and-drop software.

I have used Clickfunnels, Leadpages, Unbounce, Thrive Architect, and a few others.

They all work. Just find one you are comfortable with.

Every one of these builders will have templates that you can use and even sort by which ones have the highest conversion rates.

Pick your template, add in your copy, and you’re ready to go!

If you need an image for your landing page, you can use something like Canva to make it happen.

If you’re really not into building landing pages, UpWork is a great place to hire someone to do it for you.

If you provide the copy and images, you can get someone to build a landing page for you for $50 – $100.

There are tons of Clickfunnels and Leadpages experts just waiting to help you get the job done.

Now Set it Live!

Now it time to get to testing. Start sending traffic to your landing page and see how well it converts.

In my experience a 30% conversion rate is a good baseline for a freebie landing page. I go for 40%.

If you’re getting less than 20%, you might want to try adjusting your landing page copy or offer, but it’s different for everyone.

Now you’ve got the process down!

When you learn to create great offers and write compelling copy, you’re in a great place to grow your business.

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