Copywriting can seem daunting to some; people believe they need to ‘be a writer’, but it can actually be pretty straightforward. When it comes to landing page copy in particular, it’s not really about the art of good writing as it is about knowing your audience.
Last year, I worked on 6 landing pages for six different products in a very short span of time. Ideally, you’d want tons of time to research, go through several iterations and perfect every detail, but the reality is that, that almost never happens and deadlines force you to work fast. In such a case (which in my experience, is usually the case), it helps to have an almost formulaic approach.
This post breaks down some concepts that make LP copywriting seem really simple and straight forward.
Start with information hierarchy
Before actually getting into writing the copy, take some time to set up a structure to the information you want to put on your landing page. An information hierarchy should answer the question ‘what information in most important’ and ‘how much information should I include’. To answer these questions, consider the following as it relates to your brand:
Awareness level of your audience.
Whom are you driving to your landing page? Is your audience ‘problem-aware’, ‘solution-aware’ or ‘brand aware’? In other words — where should you start telling your story? Categorize your audience into one of the awareness buckets to identify how much information you might need to provide.
Problem aware means your audience is aware of the problem you solve but not aware of the solution. For example, i worked on the LP for a banking software and most of our audience was problem aware (i.e they were unhappy with their current banking product because it was slow, had glitches and often required a lot of effort) but didn’t know that a solution exists.
Solution aware means that your audience knows that solutions exist but doesn’t know which solution is right for them. They are likely in the evaluation/ comparison stage of their journey. For example, during the pandemic, a lot of us resorted to working out at home using fitness apps. This audience was aware that a solution exists (fitness apps).
Brand aware means that the audience coming to your LP is aware of your brand. For example, your newsletter subscribers or previous customers. In this case, you don’t need to prime your audience about what your product is.
Conversion risk
Consider your product and how much risk is involved in conversion. What is the goal you want to achieve and what are you asking from your user in order to achieve it? For example, if you’re asking a visitor to download a free brochure, you may be able to convert with much less information than if you’re asking users to sign up for a $250 SaaS subscription.
Follow up on what you’re advertising
Don’t make the mistake of thinking of your ads and your LP independently. If your ad promises a demo video, make sure the demo video is front and centre on your landing page. This is called ‘Message matching’ & it is key to making sure you establish credibility, alleviate the opportunity for ambiguity or confusion. Imagine seeing a free trial advertised and no sign of a free trial mentioned on the landing page once a user clicks. The user feels frustrated and even cheated.
Design and copy have to go hand in hand
No, you shouldn’t have to ‘fit the copy’ in depending on the design. When you structure your page, sit together with a designer and content writer and flesh it out together.
Five important elements of copy
Headline:
The goal:
Message match with your ad.
Capture attention by directly addressing either the audience or the problem
Trigger dopamine by presenting the solution (i.e your product)
For example, Reduce time spent on expenses by automating expense reports
To be witty or not to be witty?
Headlines don’t have to be quirky, witty or creative. Witty headlines may elicit a laugh but not necessarily conversion. Witty headlines are great for brand recall but for conversion-driven LPs, clarity of communication matters much more than quirkiness.As someone with a background working at ad agencies, i know all about the importance of creating catchy phrases and headlines. But the goal of your landing page is conversion and clarity drives conversion better than quirkiness.
There are some headline formulas that can help draft clear, concise headlines that hit the all the key messages (addressing the pain point to establish relevance, introducing the solution to trigger dopamine). Of course, great headlines can come from anywhere, so you definitely don’t need to be bound by any formats; in fact, it’s probably better not to be (imagine if all landing pages had the same formulaic headline). But in the event of a content emergency (you’d be surprised…) where you are short on resources or time to brainstorm, these formats can be a handy way to draft effective content quickly.
Headline formulas:
Option 1: (Do something difficult) in (short amount of time) without (problem)
Example: Build a landing page in less than an hour without a developer
Option 2: (do something difficult) in (short amount of time) and get (value)
Build a landing page in less than an hour and acquire more paying customers.
Benefits / features:
The goal: Present important information. Trigger dopamine. Convey the value of your product.
Features and benefits are different but they do have some overlap. I can’t even count the times i’ve been in a ‘is this a feature or is this a benefit’ debate, but honestly, it’s not worth wasting time on. Communicate a list of the most important features & benefits of your product in a relatable, easily consumable format.
It’s also important to know which features / benefits to leave out. If your product solves ONE KEY problem (i.e a widely relatable problem) but also has 18 other features that no one can relate to, leave them out because they create negative relatability. Instead of the user thinking ‘oh wow, all these features’, the user is more likely to think ‘oh i don’t think this product is for me because i don’t need all this’. Stick to the highlights.
Credibility. Mitigate cortisol.
Credibility goes a long way on a landing page. Even your user knows that you created this landing page to sell him / her something, which leads them to view it with a little skepticism.
Social proof like reviews / testimonials, star ratings from third party sources such as trust pilot help establish credibility. As great as your feature set may be, a person is more inclined to believe your product is great if everyone else is saying so.
FAQs also establish credibility as they answer hesitations that a person might have.
Client logos are another way of achieving this by letting your users know who else trusts your product and brand.
Expectation manager
It’s important to have content that mitigates ambiguity about who, what where when how much and manages expectations. Unlike the headline, feature / benefit list, this is not necessarily a whole content piece by itself, and more of something you may sprinkle where needed.
For example, Robinhood states ‘Sign up and get your first stock for free. Certain limitations and fees apply.’ Another brand may have a ‘cancel anytime’ message below their subscription button.
If you have a form and are asking for details, a user should know what to expect from the form beforehand.
If you have a subscribe button, you may want to inform users whether subscription is free or they’ll have to pay.
This is critical in pushing the user toward conversion and the absence of these creates ambiguity which results in a user choosing to hold off, even though they may be fully convinced about your value proposition.
Call to action
Call to action or CTA is one that requires very little explanation. A CTA should be clear, specific, visible and attractive. A quick format for an effective CTA is this:
“What I click the button, I’d like to <Insert phrase> . This phrase may be
sign up
see plans and pricing
Download brochure
watch demo video
Get a free quote
An example of a bad CTA is something like ‘click here’ or ‘download’ which begs the question ‘download what?’
I just started CXL’s mini-degree on Growth Marketing and this is me reporting on it. Thanks to CXL’s generous scholarship program, I am able to take this course at no cost. In return, I get to document my learnings through short essays. It’s a win-win.