How to Create a Landing Page: The Simple Step-by-Step Guide

I recently read a blog post about usage Twitter for marketing. While reading the post, I noticed an offer for a free e-book about the same, and when I clicked it, I was redirected to a new page.

On this page I have learned what is included in the e-book, how it is downloaded and the advantages of this content. I also noticed some things that separated this particular website from others.

Example of an offer in a blog post.

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At first I noticed that this landing page was simple. There wasn’t much going on and the design seemed to directly support the e-book. Second, I noticed that the entire copy was well organized and the e-book sounded like a must. And finally I found out that I could get this e-book by entering my name and email address.

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It was a pretty sweet deal for me. I could access even more information about using Twitter for marketing – for free. I thought it was a pretty smart idea to devote a full page to this offer. In this way, it could focus solely on communicating the usefulness of a guide.

This is the glory of using a landing page, which we’ll cover in this post. We will also explain step by step how to create your own landing page. First, let’s talk about what a landing page is and how it can be useful for your business.

Landing pages are ideal for capturing and fit easily into your content strategy. When customers see a CTA on one of your web pages, ads, or emails, they should land on a page with an offer or service by clicking on it.

Example of a landing page.

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Landing pages generally come in two different forms: reference and transaction pages. Reference landing pages provide valuable information or a summary of your business. They are like a snapshot of your business, whereas on transaction landing pages, visitors typically have to make a purchase or fill out a form.

The types of valuable information that you can provide to viewers cover a wide range. Some examples of content include a mailing list offer, an online purchase, a free downloadable guide or a voucher for first-time buyers.

Landing pages are a useful function of marketing and sales strategies and give your sales team possible pointers.

For example, if your company is in the technology industry, you can use a landing page to receive email newsletter signups for your weekly summary of technical news. Your sales team can be sure that the viewer who filled out this form is a lead who has already shown interest in your company’s offerings.

Landing pages are separate from other pages on your website, such as B. an info page or a product page, since the specific purpose is the recording. With expressive, appealing content, landing pages convey the message that filling out a form or supporting your company offers the visitor the desired benefits.

So when designing your landing page, think about why this visitor wants to provide their name and email address.

What really motivates me as a consumer to interact with a landing page is an offer that seems too good to be missed and a form that makes it easy to get that offer.

Landing page designs don’t have a lot of frills that distract the visitor. This enables fast and easy surfing.

To ensure that your landing page is effective, you should prioritize the graphic content less unless it supports the benefits of your offering. Make a copy that appeals to the reader and is concise. Select a landing page template to support the successful design.

Now that you’ve learned some good practices, let’s explain how to create a landing page using a template.

How to create a landing page

We talked about how effective landing pages are simple and great for capturing. Now it’s time for the fun part: create your own.

I will guide you through the movements to create a unique, clean landing page. I use HubSpots CMSHowever, you can use any similar software that offers landing page templates, e.g. Mailchimp.

I love using templates because they reduce coding complications when designing, and I can focus on maximizing design to be successful.

Let’s start!

For this example, suppose I am a marketer of a fictional NASA-like space company, and I am tasked with creating a landing page for a space fantasy e-book to get children interested in aviation. The goal of this landing page is to increase the leads.

1. Choose a template that you can use to achieve your goal.

To create my page, I chose from a list of templates, keeping an eye on my ultimate goal.

Knowing that increasing leads and customer experience were top priorities, I decided to use a template that presented my e-book offer and provided a form. I also wanted a unique, eye-catching structure and simple design.

How to choose a landing page template.

What I like about this landing page template – in addition to the above criteria – is that it is marked as a “starter”. As a marketer with little to no design experience, a work template for beginners sounded right in my alley.

2. Name your landing page so you can find it later.

Next, it’s a good idea to name your landing page. If you plan to have multiple pages on the same system, you need to name something that differentiates a design from future pages. In this example, I decided to call it “Ebook Offer One”.

How to find an offer on the HubSpot dashboard.

This way I can easily find the performance of that particular landing page in my dashboard when I check it.

3. Design your page layout the way your target group should see it first.

Let’s start designing after labeling your landing page. For this step I could use a drag and drop editor. I decided that it was important for the leads to see the cover of the eBook, an appealing description and the form.

A drag and drop editor in a CMS.

As a visual learner, a drag-and-drop editor is a dream come true. I can spend less time learning code that fixes these elements and more time visualizing the experience for the lead. I can see how the copy of the header is presented and whether it effectively engages the audience.

4. Tell the website visitor the benefits of completing the landing page.

Somewhere on my landing page, I wanted to provide short, effective value added that would ultimately convince the reader to complete the process.

An example of a clean landing page with graphics

The three columns at the bottom of the form indicate the value of my e-book. Each of these columns had its own appealing symbol, which was colorful, professional and clean. I used the text to communicate a major benefit and then described it in a sentence below.

5. Personalize the page so that it fits the purpose and your brand.

The next step is a kind of “choose your own adventure”. Here I added elements that would fit the brand of my imaginary company. I uploaded a logo and made sure the colors were consistently consistent.

How the formatting affects a landing page.

I wanted to make sure that the black and white text matched my logo and that the images didn’t affect the usability of my website. This selection makes the site look professional and functional.

Once you are satisfied with the layout and design, you can continue with the final steps.

6. Test your landing page for dynamic content and user experience.

because The use of mobile phones is increasing from year to yearIt’s a good idea to test your site to make sure it’s dynamic. If your page is “dynamic”, it simply means that the content of your website automatically adapts to the type of screen used to access the content.

Here I tested my landing page for formatting on mobile devices. I wanted to make sure that the content is still displayed properly and professionally, even though it appears on a different type of screen than the one I used to create the page.

Testing a landing page for mobile usability.

If you’re using a CMS to create your landing page, check if the software offers dynamic content options. For example, if you find that the logo you are using is not displaying so nicely on a smaller screen, you can make the necessary adjustments.

7. If desired, run a test to analyze page performance before going live.

Finally, you should run a test on your side. Testing can show variations of your page to the audience and analyze which variations perform better. In this case, the winning side would have the most conversions.

With the software I use, I can choose between an A / B test and an adaptive test. Both achieve the same goal, with the only difference that two different versions are executed in the first and many in the second.

How to test a landing page in the HubSpot CMS.

These tests are carried out with a real target group. Make sure that your pages are ready for publication before you start. Make sure the form fields work and your copy is free of typos.

After completing these steps, your landing page will be complete. I bet it looks fabulous. Now let’s talk about how you can see your landing page.

How to get traffic through landing pages

Landing pages are only effective if they receive traffic. You can increase the traffic of your pages in different ways.

For example, you can create CTAs that point to your page and put them in related content. For example, if I created a CTA for my landing page, I would include a line of text linked to my landing page in a related blog post.

For example, see how this CTA, which points to a landing page, fits into this HubSpot post on product marketing:

Example of inserting a landing page CTA into a blog post.

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This CTA refers to the topic of product marketing and fits well with the introduction of the article. It doesn’t interrupt the flow of the piece, but it does offer the possibility of getting more downloads.

I would also add a similar CTA button to the bottom of my blog post (see below) or add it to email newsletters. In addition to blog posts and emails, you can also increase traffic to your landing page by promoting the offer on the page on social media. This increases visibility without spending extra money.

How to insert CTAs at the end of a blog post.

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Remember to optimize your landing page for SEO. Most CMS programs are really good at pointing out SEO opportunities for websites. Optimizing your site can generate more traffic from search engine queries.

For example, to optimize my space e-book for SEO, I would make sure that the e-book has an appealing but relevant title. I would also add relevant keywords to the post to improve visibility on search engine results pages.

How did you recently advertise a landing page? I’ve seen some scrolling through LinkedIn and in email newsletters. After looking through this Twitter business e-book, I’ll try to create another one. After all, you can never have too many opportunities to earn more leads.

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