Introduction
Creating an effective landing page is crucial for any startup or SaaS business looking to drive conversions and grow their customer base. However, many founders struggle with designing and building landing pages, especially if they lack coding skills or design expertise. According to statistics from WordStream, the average landing page conversion rate in 2017 was only 2.35%. Fortunately, using a dedicated landing page creation platform can help startups easily create customized, high-converting pages that connect with their audience and achieve higher conversion rates.
In this post, we’ll explore some of the best free landing page builders optimized for startups and early-stage companies. We’ll compare their key features like templates, customization options, and integrations to help you determine the right solution for your business goals and use cases. Whether you need to create lead capture pages, launch pages, coming soon pages, or entire marketing funnels, these landing page creators make it simple to build professional pages without coding.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a standalone web page focused on a single goal or conversion, like getting visitors to sign up, make a purchase, or download content. Unlike normal website pages, landing pages use focused messaging and minimalist design to guide visitors to complete a desired action.
Elements of effective landing page design include:
- Clear headline and value proposition that speaks directly to the target audience
- Relevant visuals like images, graphics, and icons that reinforce the messaging
- Prominent and contrasting call-to-action buttons that lead visitors to convert
- Lead capture forms strategically placed in the conversion path
- Consistent branding, fonts, and colors
- Minimal distractions and clear visitor path
Tailoring your landing pages to resonate with your target audience and business goals is key to maximizing conversions. For example, a signup page, sales page, and webinar registration page would each have different designs and content tailored for their unique conversion goals.
Benefits of Using Landing Pages
Dedicated landing pages provide many advantages compared to sending traffic to your main website pages:
- Lead generation - Capture visitor information with lead forms and calls-to-action. According to HubSpot, optimized landing pages have over 200% more leads than home pages.
- Focused messaging - Communicate a specific offer or promotion with copy and visuals tailored to that goal. Avoid distracting site navigation and content.
- Testing - A/B test elements like headlines, copy, designs, and calls-to-action to optimize conversion rates.
- Analytics - Track visitor behavior, conversions, and ROI using analytics integrations. Identify drop-off points.
- Brand building - Introduce your business to new audiences and use branded design elements to build familiarity.
By guiding visitors through a desired conversion funnel, well-optimized landing pages can greatly improve marketing ROI and performance for specific campaigns and initiatives.
Top Free Landing Page Creators for Startups
Here are some top-rated free landing page builders specifically optimized for startups and small businesses:
Unicorn Platform
Unicorn Platform makes it easy to create conversion-focused landing pages with its intuitive drag and drop editor.
Key features:
- Mobile responsive pre-built templates and themes
- Library of sections and components to customize pages
- CRM, email, analytics and payment integrations
- No coding required
- AI-powered recommendations and optimization
Unicorn Platform is purpose-built for startups with features like configurable widgets, analytics, and lead capture forms. The customizable templates and seamless integrations enable creating targeted, high-converting landing pages tailored to your startup's audience and goals.
Landingi
Landingi offers simple landing page creation using pre-made templates.
Key features:
- 100+ mobile-friendly templates
- Easy drag and drop customization
- Email and analytics integrations
- Ideal for lead gen and coming soon pages
The template-based approach makes it fast and simple to create landing pages optimized for conversions.
Leadpages
Leadpages provides hundreds of customizable landing page templates.
Key features:
- Large template library with free options
- Intuitive drag and drop editor
- Limited free plan - 2 campaigns, 3 subdomains
- Suited for simple, single-purpose pages
The free plan works well for creating basic lead capture and squeeze pages.
Ucraft
Ucraft enables building high-converting landing pages through modern, customizable templates.
Key features:
- Conversion-focused templates
- Drag and drop editor and elements
- Limited free plan - 1 site, basic integrations
- Good for promoting trials, ebooks, etc.
The beautiful templates help create high-impact landing pages tailored to conversions.
KickoffLabs
KickoffLabs provides templates optimized for conversions and email list building.
Key features:
- Stunning pre-made templates
- Simple editor to customize design
- Only core features on free plan
- Ideal for list building and lead gen
The limited free plan is well-suited for basic email capture landing pages.
Key Criteria for Evaluating Landing Page Builders
When researching landing page platforms, keep these important criteria in mind:
Usability and Ease of Use
Look for an intuitive interface that allows building pages quickly without coding. Useful features include:
- Pre-designed templates and layouts to start from
- Drag and drop elements library for visual customization
- Ability to easily preview and publish pages
- Minimal learning curve so you can build pages quickly
Platforms requiring lots of training or effort add unnecessary friction. Prioritize options that are intuitive for non-technical users.
Customization Options
Customizable templates allow you to tailor the design to your brand identity and style guide. Ideal features include:
- Editable templates to modify colors, fonts, images
- Reusable sections and content blocks for consistency
- Media galleries with photos, illustrations, icons
- Ability to customize calls-to-action and forms
Limited customization restricts your ability to differentiate your landing pages. Seek flexible options to tailor pages to your needs.
Integrations and Apps
Relevant integrations help capture and manage leads:
- Email marketing to manage lists, automations and campaigns
- CRM to track and qualify leads
- Payment processing to accept payments and transactions
- Analytics to monitor performance and optimize
Lack of integrations creates extra work importing and exporting data. Prioritize options with integrations relevant to your stack.
Mobile Responsiveness
With growing mobile usage, responsive landing page templates are essential to provide a seamless experience across devices. According to Google, 53% of site traffic is from mobile users. Non-responsive sites lead to poor mobile conversions. Only use mobile-friendly page builders.
Optimizing Your Landing Pages for Success
Creating your initial landing pages is just the first step. You’ll also want to continually optimize your pages to improve conversions over time.
Clear Value Proposition
Focus your headline and copy on communicating your offer's value and relevance to visitors. Use bullets, stats, and visuals to highlight benefits. Speak directly to their needs and interests.
Prominent Call-to-Action
Strategically place clear call-to-action buttons in the visitor's path. Use action-oriented button text and contrasting colors. Make them visible through placement and styling.
Relevant Visuals
Include images, illustrations, data charts, and visuals that make emotional connections and reinforce your messaging. Ensure they align with your brand style.
Customer-Focused Messaging
Craft copy that speaks directly to your target audience’s needs and pain points. Include social proof and testimonials from real users when possible. Avoid generic corporate jargon.
A/B Testing
A/B test different headlines, copy, visuals, and calls-to-action to see which versions perform better. Analyze results to further optimize elements.
Continuous optimization using visitor data and user testing helps refine and improve your pages over time as your business evolves.
Conclusion
Using dedicated landing page tools provides a fast way for startups to create high-converting pages that drive growth. Evaluate options based on usability, customization, mobile responsiveness and relevance of integrations.
Platforms like Unicorn Platform make landing page creation intuitive through their templates and drag-and-drop editors. Focus on crafting customer-centric pages tailored to your target audience’s needs. Continually test and optimize your landing pages to improve performance over time. With the right platform, startups can quickly build landing pages that deliver impressive conversion rates and ROI.
