from Hacker News

Can your landing page do this? (Convert)

by qrlawified on 4/23/12, 10:52 AM with 35 comments

• by davejafari on 4/23/12, 11:25 AM

  Building a solid landing page seems so easy until you have tried one and failed to sell. The formula really isn't too difficult, but it does work if you get yourself out of the way: 1) outline a clear value proposition, 2) provide a call to action (+ a cost if there aren't multiple pricings), and 3) build trust. #1 and #2 should always be above the fold and the most visually prominent. Anything else on the page that doesn't build trust should be ruthlessly cut if you want to focus on pure conversion.

  It's easy to forget that YAGNI also applies to landing pages. Don't waste your time giving secondary information. They can get to it later. If they don't convert, they ain't gonna need it.

• by acoyfellow on 4/23/12, 12:23 PM

  Unbounce looks great- I've been sitting on the fence about these types of service for a while now.

  What is HN's opinion on using a free version of a Unbounce (or other service)? (Coming from a student creating a start-up, no savings what so ever right now)

  Does it distract from the purpose of the landing page heavily? Does it add credibility? My quick and unprofessional opinion is that I would rather have the paid version, but since I have to really value what little money I have, I'm unsure if paying for a landing page service is wise or not.

• by nickler on 4/23/12, 5:42 PM

  I'm a huge believer in unbounce, for one simple reason. Once development barriers diminish all of this process will return once again to the control of marketers.

  I think they see this and are pushing this as a tool for the masses of people who can't code, but love to sell, and want to do it better.

• by nextstep on 4/23/12, 4:17 PM

  Has anyone used Manpacks? I'd never heard of it until now, but I'm considering signing up.

• by dazbradbury on 4/23/12, 11:55 AM

  Great article, thanks! As we're discussing landing page effectiveness and I've just put together our landing page, I would love some constructive feedback:

  https://www.openrent.co.uk/home/index

  We're a week or two from launching, hence the slightly masked url. But any feedback before we put it in front of customers would be greatly appreciated.

  I hope this is an appropriate place to ask!

• by wheaties on 4/23/12, 2:08 PM

  Maybe it's just me but thanks for linking some of those. One of them is a service I've been looking for. I think some of those sites just got some free advertising :p

• by oli_gardner on 4/24/12, 10:45 AM

  Awesome to see this discussion going on - and thanks to qrlawified for submitting the post to kick this off.

  For anyone interested in trying out Unbounce, I wanna give you a coupon code (somewhat sheepishly as this isn't the usual forum). But if you do wanna check us out, use "hn503" to get 50% off for 3 months.

  If you flame me I'll either kiss you or hug you... #JustSayin

• by chris_wot on 4/23/12, 12:34 PM

  I can't believe that Crikey.com.au have forgotten to add their privacy statement. In Australia, that is a huge no-no. Even a link to it would have been good - they can't just state that they won't share the information gathered.

• by AnthonyJoseph on 4/23/12, 1:38 PM

  Would also love some constructive feedback: picdazzler.com

  Note: still waiting for the before/afters and copy to get here, disregard that please.

• by ardillamorris on 4/23/12, 11:50 AM

  Great resource and like the pros and cons although with stats would've been better.

• by diminish on 4/23/12, 11:16 AM

  very good collection and summary for landing page optimization. i hope another version of this had conversion rate comparison, though i am not sure how you could do this..