Introduction: Why Landing Pages Matter for Startups
Landing pages are an essential part of any startup's digital strategy. A dedicated landing page allows you to capture leads, drive conversions, and explain your offering to potential customers in a focused, personalized way. Studies show that well-designed landing pages can increase conversion rates by up to 400% compared to generic website pages.
For early-stage startups, building an effective landing page yourself can be challenging. Many founders and marketers have limited design or coding skills. That's where a do-it-yourself landing page builder like Unicorn Platform comes in. With an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, customizable templates, and seamless integrations, Unicorn's landing page builder makes it easy for startups to create high-converting landing pages tailored to their business - no development skills required.
This guide will walk through tips and best practices for startups to build landing pages that capture more leads and drive growth. Whether you're launching a new SaaS app, e-commerce startup, or promoting a special offer, these strategies will help you maximize the impact of your landing pages. Let's dive in!
Choose the Right Template
The foundation of any high-converting landing page is an attractive, professional design. Instead of coding a page from scratch, start by selecting an industry-relevant pre-made template from a builder like Unicorn. Leveraging templates allows startups to quickly launch landing pages with polished layouts designed to convert.
When selecting a template, prioritize options that match your startup's industry and branding. For example, choose a modern, minimalist SaaS template if you are promoting a software app. Or pick a vibrant, image-focused template for showcasing an ecommerce product.
Unicorn Platform offers gorgeous templates tailored to different industries like SaaS, financial tech, digital marketing, and more. The templates are fully customizable - swap in your own colors, fonts, logos, and images to create a landing page that reflects your startup's unique look and feel. Just be sure to keep the template mobile-responsive and optimized for fast loading times.
Benefits of Templates
- Save time compared to coding a custom page from scratch
- Provides a polished, professional look designed to convert
- Easy to customize by swapping images, text, colors
- Maintains brand consistency when using your own templates
- Unicorn's templates are designed for startups and easy to edit
Tips for Customizing
- Change colors and fonts to match your startup's branding
- Swap stock photos for relevant images of your product or service
- Keep text clear, concise, and scannable
- Highlight your startup's value proposition prominently
- Add trust factors like testimonials, security badges, etc.
Craft an Attention-Grabbing Headline
Your headline is one of the first things visitors will see on your landing page - so make it count! An effective headline grabs attention in 6-12 words and clearly communicates what you offer. It should speak directly to your target customer and the value your startup provides.
For example, a startup that offers AI-powered chatbot software could use a headline like:
"Boost Sales Conversions 300% with Chatbots"
This headline packs a powerful promise, social proof, and explains the key benefit - all in just 7 words.
When writing your headline, focus on articulating your startup's unique value proposition and top differentiator. Use power words like "results," "easy," or "guaranteed" to convey authority. Test different headline variations and track conversion rates to optimize. A compelling, benefit-driven headline will capture attention and set the stage for visitors to learn more.
Write Strong Value Proposition Copy
Below the headline, include a short paragraph clearly explaining your startup's offering and how it solves your target customers' needs. Articulate the specific pain points you address and emphasize your competitive differentiators.
For example, an analytics startup could say:
"Aggie provides easy-to-implement analytics to help ecommerce companies understand customer behavior, optimize conversions, and boost sales. Unlike complex enterprise platforms, our software integrates in minutes and doesn't require data science expertise to uncover insights."
When writing your value proposition copy, use concise, scannable sentences to communicate benefits. Emphasize "you" and "your" to speak directly to the visitor. Back up key claims with social proof like customer logos, testimonials or impressive metrics. Your value proposition is crucial for demonstrating credibility and persuading visitors to convert.
Prominently Feature Your Call-to-Action
Once you've captured attention with your headline and clearly explained your offering, prominently feature a clickable call-to-action (CTA) button to prompt visitors to convert. Strategically place your CTA above the fold and make it stand out through contrasting colors, size, etc.
For most landing pages, an action-driven CTA like "Sign Up Now" or "Start Free Trial" works well. You can also tailor the CTA to your offer, such as "Download Whitepaper" or "Book Demo". Include a single, obvious primary CTA instead of distracting visitors with too many options.
Pro Tip: To boost conversions, experiment with adding secondary social proof elements near your CTA like a count of "Joined 500+ companies". However, make sure these don't overshadow your main CTA button.
Optimize Forms to Capture Leads
Once a visitor clicks your CTA button, they will be directed to a lead capture form. Reduce friction in this process by only requesting essential contact details like name, email, and phone number. You can optionally include a few key qualification questions as well.
Offering incentives like discounts, extended trials, or free tools can significantly boost conversion rates. Allow customers to sign up quickly using their LinkedIn, Google or Facebook profiles too.
Leverage Unicorn's seamless form integrations and lead capture tools to embed forms, collect info, and automatically sync leads with your startup's CRM and email marketing platforms. Send timely, automated welcome and nurture email sequences to build engagement post sign-up. Remove all friction from your landing page forms to turn interested visitors into high quality leads.
Include Social Proof and Trust Symbols
Visitors are more likely to convert when they trust your startup. Build credibility by displaying logos of notable clients, partners or publications who have endorsed you. Share relevant testimonials from satisfied customers.
If applicable, feature certifications like PCI compliance, Norton Secured badge, or a Trustpilot rating. Don't be afraid to subtly highlight press mentions, awards, or funding announcements to showcase your startup's traction and success.
Proactively addressing trust factors makes visitors more comfortable providing their contact information. Just be sure to only display credible logos, testimonials and certifications that authentically reinforce your legitimacy.
Optimize Page Speed and Mobile Experience
With 53% of site traffic now coming from mobile devices, optimizing your landing page for mobile responsiveness and speed is crucial. Slow load times will cause visitors to bounce before even seeing your value proposition.
Keep page elements concise, compress images, minify code, and defer non-essential scripts. Strive for page load speeds under 2 seconds and 90+ scores on Google PageSpeed Insights or WebPageTest. Unicorn Platform's built-in image optimization and global CDN make it easy to deliver lightning fast landing pages.
Be sure to check how your landing page looks across different devices. Eliminate annoying pinching and zooming by using responsive design. Creating an excellent experience on mobile will allow you to connect with customers anytime, anywhere.
Include Clear Calls-to-Action
Calls-to-action (CTAs) prompt visitors to take your desired actions, like signing up for a free trial or requesting a demo. Strategically include CTAs throughout your landing page to guide visitors in the right direction.
Use clear, action-oriented phrases like "Get Started" or "Sign Up Now" for your buttons and links. Make sure CTAs are visible above the fold and placed in areas that attract attention through size, color contrast, etc.
Craft your CTAs to focus on the value your customers will receive, rather than generic verbs like "Submit" or "Click Here". For example, "See Your Customers' Behavior" is more compelling than "Get Analytics". A/B test different CTA approaches to determine what resonates most.
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Crafting high-converting landing pages is crucial for startups to capture leads and drive growth. With Unicorn Platform's intuitive landing page builder, you can quickly build tailored pages that convert, even without coding expertise.
Key tips include:
- Choosing the right template and fully customizing it
- Writing compelling headlines and value proposition copy
- Making your CTA prominent and forms frictionless
- Optimizing for speed and mobile responsiveness
- Adding social proof and trust symbols
Leveraging these best practices will help your startup maximize the impact of your landing pages. Focus on clearly communicating your unique value proposition and you'll be on your way to startup success!
