How to create a landing page in 10 easy steps

When you should use a landing page  

If you have a specific marketing goal, like increasing leads, sign-ups, or sales, or starting a Harry Potter book club, a landing page should be your go-to. Unlike a regular webpage, a landing page is designed to be focused, with minimal distractions and one clear call to action. It simplifies the visitor’s experience, directing ‘em straight to the action you want them to take. So, if you’re looking for a direct and efficient way to achieve your marketing objectives, a landing page is the practical choice. We don’t make the rules. Or do we? 

Want to learn more about the difference between a landing page and your website? Watch the video below.

Want to learn about all of the tools that can help you create more (high-converting) landing pages faster? You’re in luck (if you keep reading).

Step 2: Learn when to use a landing page

Every great landing page starts with a clear and measurable goal. This will help you figure out what elements you need on the page, how to write your copy, and what templates you should use. So—what do you want to accomplish with your landing page?

If you want to drive more e-commerce sales 

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on the quest to transform casual browsers into enthusiastic buyers, landing pages are like the retail equivalent of a shop window, beckoning customers with its charm. Think of it as your digital storefront where the magic happens. Start out by choosing one particular product you want to promote—or a group of related products. So, gear up for some e-commerce extravaganza because, with landing pages, you wanna turn browsers into bona fide buyers with a sprinkle of online retail magic. (Looking for inspiration? Check out 27 ecommerce landing page examples to maximize sales in 2023 or improve your conversion rates with this Ecommerce CRO guide.)

If you want to get more conversions for clients

For agency marketers, landing pages are a great multitool for boosting conversions. With the distraction-free nature of landing pages, turning clicks into conversions becomes almost guaranteed. Whether you’re showcasing your agency or crafting client-specific pages, think of creating landing pages is your tailored approach to getting more of those conversions. 

If you want to generate more SaaS leads 

For SaaS marketers (like the killer folks at Procurify), landing pages can help fuel growth. By designing landing pages with a clear vision in mind—like getting visitors to sign up for a free resource, product demo, free trial, or consultation with your sales team—can bring you the leads you need to impress the ol’ boss.

Step 3: Write your copy

Before you get ahead of yourself and search “How to design a landing page” on TikTok, you should know that landing page copy is twice as important to conversion rates as design. So crank up the lo-fi hip hop writing beats, open a fresh Google Doc, and flex those typin’ fingers. 

Landing pages are concise by design, so it’s important to nail every word. Here are some tips on how to write your lading page to the best of your ability: 

Nail the headline

You’ve got less than 15 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention on a landing page—which means the headline is probably the most important thing you will write. Make sure it’s memorable, clear, and solves the problem your visitors care about most. This is your 15 seconds of fame as a copywriter, so get in there and pump out some great headlines.

Focus on the benefits

Remember: your landing page visitors want to hear about how you’ll solve their problems—like how your product will help make their lives easier and why this will benefit them. Don’t just list a bunch of features and call it a day (snoozefest!), try to think about things from your ideal visitor’s perspective, and craft them some copy they can’t resist. Gotta say our guide to landing page copywriting is a great place to learn how to exactly pull that off. 

Keep it simple

In general, landing pages tend to convert better when they’re easy to read and not overly long. Avoid sounding like a business textbook, keep your sentences short ‘n sweet, and try to cut out any unnecessary copy that you don’t actually need on the page. (Long-winded founder stories can go, the benefits your service brings to folks can stay.)

Step 4: Craft your CTA

Your CTA (Call to Action) is the MVP on your landing page—put simply, it’s what you want visitors to do. Whether it’s filling out a form or hitting a button, take a moment to decide the action you want your visitors to take and figure out the best way to convince them. It’s like orchestrating the highlight of your landing page while putting on your best Lydia Tar hat—simple, effective, and all about getting your audience to make a move (and hopefully not get cancelled in the process.)

CTA buttons might be small, but they’re mighty, you see. Learning how to get your call to action right is pretty key, and can be a make-it-or-break-it moment for your landing page. Here are some tips on how to really get those CTAs right and stick the landing (page.)

Make your CTA specific

While CTA buttons like “Learn More” or “Get Started” can work—they’re also pretty vague (and not in a mysterious and cool way.) Visitors won’t know what to expect when they click a button like that. Try to be more specific and descriptive to get better results. (“See Pricing” or “Start Your Free Trial” might work better.)

Make your CTA simple for forms

Alright, let’s talk forms: If you’re including a form on the page, consider how you can make it shorter and easier for visitors to fill out. Longer forms with more fields tend to have lower conversion rates. They’re kind of feel like the equivelent of internet paperwork, and eesh, who wants that? The best-converting forms tend to just have one field—email address. We’re past the need for lengthy questionnaires as a society. (On that note, this is a great blog to check out if you’re lookin’ to avoid more rookie landing page mistakes.)

Make your CTA singular

A landing page works by cutting out the clutter found on regular websites. (More on differences between landing pages and websites here.) It gives visitors a single, clear path forward. You basically need to be Marie Kondo when you build a landing page, saying no to whatever doesn’t spark joy—in this case, that’s navigation links, headers, footers, or other calls to action. Keep it straightforward and focused, and guide visitors directly to where you want them to go. 

Step 5: Select your images 

Now that you’ve got your copy written like the wordsmith you are, it’s time to bring out that inner Picasso to work on the visuals of your landing page (but seriously, no pressure.) Before you get thrown into full design mode, you can start out by selecting what images you want to feature—whether those are product images, stock photos, or custom illustrations. Here are a few starting points to think about: 

Choose a hero image

You wanna come in hot. Most great landing pages start out with a big, beautiful image to show their visitors what the offer is all about. With Unbounce, you can choose from over 1,000,000 free, professional-grade images right inside our landing page builder. One of our customers, Jeff Taylor, has a pretty inspirational story on how he uses hero image variations to see results.

Go for people over product

People like seeing people. So wherever possible, try to include real photographs of people using or enjoying the product on your landing page (and hey, if you get AI to build some, we won’t judge.) People-focused imagery helps visitors connect with your offer on a more personal and emotional level—which will also make them more likely to convert. Not a coincidence.

Visualize the benefits

What does getting to enjoy your offer look like? Look for more images that convey that to support the rest of your landing page copy. Most visitors won’t actually read every word you write (we can blame our declining attention spans for that) so you may want to get creative with different product images or custom illustrations to help tell a visual story on the page as well.

Step 6: Design your landing page

Now that most of the content of your landing page is in order, you may be wondering: “How the heck do I actually design and build this thing now?” 

Not with old HTML and CSS coding books, that’s for sure. With Unbounce’s landing page builder, you’ll be able to put together a landing page as easily as a grilled cheese sandwich (no designer or developer required). Let’s show you how to get ‘er done. 

Start with a template

Save yourself the creative grind because designing a landing page doesn’t have to be a Herculean task. With every Unbounce account, you hit the jackpot with access to over 100 high-converting templates for free.Unleash your inner designer without the fuss—pick a template, and let the creative vibes flow.

Lay out your content

Next, you’ll want to drag and drop your text and visuals onto the landing page. This is a good time to see what it all looks like together and which sections you might need to trim. Remember the Marie Kondo method. 

Match your brand

It’s important to give your landing page the same look and feel as the rest of your brand. Bring in your business logo, update the fonts, and match your brand colors precisely. This way, your landing page becomes a visual extension of your brand, creating a cohesive and immersive experience that resonates with your audience and increases your brand awareness. So, don’t just build a landing page; craft an experience that screams your brand’s identity loud and clear.

Make it mobile-friendly

You’re almost there. But you can’t really get to the finish line without thinking of your visitors’ mobile experience. Finish up your landing page design by optimizing the layout of your landing page for mobile devices. You can do this with Unbounce’s landing page builder by enabling the mobile view and making any final adjustments.

Step 7: Connect your landing page 

A landing page all by itself won’t do ya much good. Now that it’s fresh out the kitchen, you’ll want to connect to your business domain, set up analytics, and integrate any other tools in your marketing stack. How, you ask? We’ve got you covered. 

Set your URL

Your URL is a reflection of your brand experience too. Connect your landing page to your domain and customize the URL. (You can do this in just a few minutes if you’re using Unbounce with WordPress—no DNS or CNAME required…phew.)

Add tracking and custom scripts

After putting in all this hard work on your landing page, you’ll wanna know who’s visiting your landing page and what actions they’re taking. Not in a creepy way. Embed tracking for scripts like Google Analytics (or any other analytics software) to gather data as you go.

Integrate your marketing tools

Supercharge your campaign by setting it up to effortlessly pass leads straight into your CRM (customer relationship management). It’s like having a direct pipeline from your landing page to your business brain. And here’s the magic: Unbounce spoils you with dozens of direct integrations for your favorite tools (like Salesforce, Mailchimp, Hubspot, and Hotjar) and lets you use Zapier to connect to thousands of others.

Step 8: Preview and publish

This right here is the moment you’ve been waiting for. But before you pop the champagne and hit publish on your landing page (ad hopefully not spilling any champagne on your laptop in the process), give it one more look-over to make sure you’re ready for a world debut. 

Check the copy

Do a quick spot-check to make sure there are no typos or grammar issues on your page. You wouldn’t want to make a bad first impression.

Check the SEO

Make sure you select whether or not you want your page to be visible to search engines and optimize it by writing a keyword-focused page title and meta description.

Check the forms

Is everything working the way you want it to? Did you set up a “Thank You” page after someone submits? Go through the page as a visitor would to see if there’s anything you missed. Do it right now, we’re watching.

Step 9: Drive traffic

And what do you know, the moment has arrived—your landing page is officially alive and kicking! The thing is alive, people. Now that your page is up and running, it’s time to start sending folks to check it out. Here are some of the best ways to drive traffic towards your landing page.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Can’t do all that hard work only not to end up at the top of the search engine, right? Use Google Ads to hit the top of search engine results. (You really got us dependent on ya there, Google.) You’ll be able to get a lower cost-per-click with your landing page by targeting relevant keywords that match your headline. Knowing how to write effective Google Ads copy comes in pretty handy here, too. Hit all the birds with all the stones.

Social ads

Be where the kids are, they say. Use major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (or X…) to direct targeted traffic to your landing page. You can leverage more granular targeting options to reach specific demographics and interests. For example, creating Facebook ads is a whole different ball game than TikTok. These platforms offer a dynamic stage in their own way to curate compelling narratives and foster meaningful connections, converting casual observers into folks who actually engage with your landing pages. 

Email marketing

Can’t forget about email. Turn your email subscribers into full-fledged customers by sending out promos that link to your landing page. You can also tailor new variants for different segments of your list. Don’t forget to make sure those email subject lines hit the spot.

Step 10: Finally, test and optimize

We know, that converting can feel addicting. You can boost your conversions even more by serving up the perfect landing page for each visitor. Don’t just set it and forget it—check back and keep your landing page in top form by regularly making improvements. Engage with your page’s performance, fine-tune, and optimize for ongoing brilliance. 🚀Here are a couple of ways to keep track of improvements. 

Duplicate your page

After creating your initial landing page, boost efficiency by duplicating it and crafting new variants. This helps you streamline production—refining each iteration of your landing page for optimal performance. With the heavy lifting of building your first landing page already done, it’s time to scale up. Onwards and upwards, baby.