What is a landing page, definition, examples, and how to create one?

The standalone page is created to give audiences more context for the offer or information teased in the ad or email link they just clicked.

Contrary to websites and homepages, landing pages are independent pages that aren’t a part of your website’s navigation—they are created for the sole purpose of convincing a visitor to take an action. This action can range from signing up for a free trial, buying a product, or downloading a whitepaper.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about landing pages, how to optimize page elements, what makes the pages different from homepages, how to drive traffic to them, and examples of pages that are doing it right.

Let’s begin.

Your website includes multiple web pages available under one domain, the pages are created to provide visitors with detailed information about all your products and offers.

Landing pages, on the other hand, are created to convince a visitor to perform a conversion goal. The single page summarizes your offer, highlights its benefits, and convinces visitors to click the CTA button.

Here’s where your landing page fits into your marketing funnel:

Now, let’s look at the difference between a landing page and a homepage with a real-world landing page example.

The Asana homepage allows visitors to explore all its features, solutions, and resources. The page is full of navigation links and multiple CTAs.

The Asana landing page, on the other hand, focuses on just one conversion goal—to get visitors to “view the demo.” There are no navigation links or competing offers on the page.

Your landing page conversion rate is only as strong as the elements it includes. In this section, we’ll delve deep into the elements your pages must have and how to optimize them to increase the likelihood of conversions.

No navigation and exit links

Navigation links (or a navigation menu) take visitors to different sections of your website. These links are mostly accessible in your website's header or footer section and help visitors find particular pages.

For example, this is Asana’s website footer. The comprehensive page section includes links to all website pages, helping visitors reach their desired page faster.

Every link on a navigation menu represents an individual conversion goal, and each serves as an exit route or an excuse for the visitor to leave a page goal and arrive at another.

This is precisely why landing pages are no place for including individual navigation links or, worse, an entire header and footer filled with exit routes.

Keep your page focused on one conversion goal, as the Flaus landing page does by persuading people with mobility and coordination problems to order Flaus.

Headline and copy that explains your UVP

When writing headlines, it is important to understand the emotional triggers that resonate with your audience. Depending on your target market and the nature of your offer, your headline can evoke emotions such as curiosity, joy, fear of missing out (FOMO), or a desire for self-improvement.

Understand the emotional triggers that resonate with your audience and use them to write compelling headlines.

For example, the Chomps headline and subheadline describe how beef jerky helps you crush your fitness goals.

A compelling call-to-action button

The CTA button is where the last action happens on your landing page.

This is what Genius Litter does with their CTA button.

For CTA button design, it’s best to use contrasting colors—colors that pop against your page background. It also helps to use sticky bars with a CTA button on your pages so visitors don’t have to scroll to find it.

You also need to place your button strategically—make sure it’s easily noticeable and accessible without the need to scroll excessively. Consider putting it above the fold to ensure it’s one of the first elements users see.

For more CTA button tips, watch this video:

A relevant hero image and other media

Just as your headline and sub-headline serve as the first real intro to your brand and offer, your hero image is your first visual impression—you must make it count.

Depending on your industry and offer, your hero image can be a product shot, a screenshot of your dashboard, or a quick GIF that showcases how things are done on your platform.

Four Sigmatic’s hero image features a close-up of the packaging and the coffee to immerse the visitor in the transformative experience.

Sidekick’s hero image, on the other hand, is a gif of their dashboard, letting visitors know how easy it is to create emails with the platform.

The Nguyen Coffee landing page video does exactly that.

A short, offer appropriate form

Nearly every type of landing page features a form. And on all those landing pages, the longer the form, the bigger the source of friction. This is because the form is where you ask your visitors for their personal information—from name to credit card number and everything in between.

You learn more about your prospects with every field you add to your form. However, you also add an obstacle that stands in the way of what your visitor wants. Therefore, it is essential to present your form fields in a single-column layout to avoid interrupting the user's downward momentum unless the fields are related (like first name and last name or city, state, and zip code).

Apollo’s form is short and easy to fill out.

Add strong trust indicators on your marketing landing page

No matter your conversion goal—signups, downloads, sales, or demos—to convince your visitors to bite, you need to get them to trust you. This only happens if you include social proof, security badges, and more on your landing pages.

Each indicator communicates something different, so it’s essential to know when and where it’ll have the maximum impact on your landing page.

Customer testimonials

Testimonials from real customers and other user-generated content like videos add authenticity to your landing page. When potential customers see positive feedback from others who have used and benefited from your product or service, it instills confidence in your brand and builds trust.

Social proof is a powerful factor in persuading hesitant visitors to take action. Pre Lab Pro’s landing page features customer testimonials about how the pre-workout formula helps with their workout sessions.

The Plunge landing page uses UGC videos to showcase the many ways in which the Plunge has improved people’s lives.

Fluff Co. does the same with their UGC videos.

Security indicators

Before submitting their personal information on a landing page, visitors naturally look for signs that their information will be safe. Sure, the “https” in your URL helps, but that’s not enough.

The Salesforce webinar landing page has links to their Event Terms of Service and the Privacy Statement underneath their form.

Statistical proof

Numbers are almost always more persuasive than words. Statistical proof of ROAS from real customers beats even the most positive testimonials because the adage is true: Numbers don’t lie.

Squatty Potty’s “Over 8 Million Sold” section under the doctor endorsement signals to prospective customers that the product works.

Awards

Showcasing awards also helps you solidify your credibility. They convey an outside party’s acknowledgment of your excellence in a particular field or on a certain campaign.

We do this with Instapage.

Leading the way in building high-performing landing pages

Though adding landing pages to every marketing campaign is beneficial, it is vital that your paid promotions should absolutely have a page.

When you spend valuable chunks of your budget to generate traffic, outbound links and lack of message match can translate to lost dollars. The following are campaign types that help you drive traffic to your landing pages and your offer.

Paid search campaigns (PPC ads)

You can use Google Ads or Bing Ads to drive traffic to your landing page. This will help you get audience eyeballs on your pages and help your campaign reach its full potential, which is virtually impossible without a landing page.

In its advertising guidelines, Google has made it clear that landing page experience significantly impacts Quality Score.

Google Ads Quality Score is a critical metric in your Google Ads campaign that significantly impacts your ad performance and cost. The score estimates the effectiveness of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. The higher the Quality Score, the more relevant your ad and landing page are to the user, leading to lower prices and better ad placements.

Without a dedicated landing page relevant to your visitors’ search, your campaign will be penalized, resulting in lower ad visibility and, ultimately, less traffic to your website.

Paid social media advertising campaigns

Paid social media ads come with powerful targeting (and retargeting) capabilities. However, these targeting capabilities are wasted if you send traffic to your website with general and scattered information (like a homepage or an “our services” or “products” page, for example).

Those who click your ad do so because they’ve caught the scent of information that could help them solve a problem. That’s why you must deliver precisely what you promised in your ad.

Email campaigns

Email is still marketers’ most valuable channel, delivering $36 in ROI for every $1 spent. When combined with targeted landing pages, that revenue potential gets even higher.

When a subscriber clicks an offer in an email and is taken to a landing page, they are focused on one task and one task alone. That increases the likelihood of a subscriber following through with the action.

What happens without a specific landing page for an email offer? Most likely, the subscriber is taken to the homepage or a product page and has to figure out how to take action.

Of course, your homepage is also full of a dozen other links, tabs, and images. These things can distract the subscriber who just wants to follow through with the action outlined in the email.

That’s why email landing pages are so effective. They cut through the clutter. A subscriber is less likely to get sidetracked or confused because he or she arrives on a page that focuses on the offer from the email and allows him or her to take action.

Petcube’s email landing page features its emergency fund offer. The email highlights the offer’s benefits and asks subscribers to start their free trial. The email landing page details why the Emergency Fund is worth trying for users.

Which type of page you build will depend on your goal and where your prospect is in the buyer’s journey. A sales page at the top of your funnel will fail to convert its visitors nearly 100% of the time, while a squeeze page in its place will see much more success.

There are five main types of landing pages you can use, let’s find out how they fit into your marketing funnel and when to use each:

• Squeeze pages
• Splash pages
• Lead capture pages
• Click-through pages
• Sales pages

Squeeze page

The top of your marketing funnel is an unsure place for you and your prospects. At that point, they aren’t certain whether you have the solution to their problem, and you’re not sure that they’re seriously interested in your product or service.

Morning Brew’s landing page is a perfect example of what a squeeze page needs to be:

Splash page

Visitors land on a splash page after being redirected from a website for one of the following goals:

1. To earn a conversion
2. To make an announcement
3. To allow visitors to choose their preference for interacting with your site (language preference, for example):

Whatever the goal of your splash page, it needs the following to accomplish it:

• A good reason for redirecting your visitor. Earning attention is hard enough to do without an intermediary step between your ad and the landing page. If you don’t have value to add to your splash page, you shouldn’t use one.
• A clear route of the page. Unlike other landing pages, a splash page should draw attention to the exit.

For example, the Dollar Shave Club splash page asks visitors to fill out a quick quiz to personalize products for them:

A splash page can work throughout the funnel and beyond on first-time prospects and recurring customers as long as it has a clearly defined purpose that adds value.

Lead capture page

Remember: No matter where your leads are in the marketing funnel, they shouldn’t be frightened by the size of your form. Only request what is necessary. The fewer fields you feature, the less friction involved in converting, and the more likely visitors will claim your offer.

Click-through landing page

Click-through landing pages help warm up your leads for a particularly high-scrutiny offer. They can be used at all stages, but most come before the most friction-causing element known to marketers: the credit card form.

This landing page type allows visitors to read persuasive information about an offer without being distracted by the terrifying “buy” button. If and when they click through, they’re directed to a page where they can claim the offer via a form.

Sales page

Of all landing page types, the sales page is the most difficult to get right because it targets the most valuable conversion to marketers and the most intimidating to visitors: the sale.

The page’s primary goal is to drive conversions and generate sales for a particular product, service, or offer. Sales pages are an essential part of digital marketing and are commonly used in e-commerce, online courses, software sales, and other direct-response marketing campaigns.

The Freelancing School long-form sales page showcases why copywriters need the training courses to jumpstart their freelance careers.

Landing pages that offer free ebooks or tip sheets can get away with skimping on testimonials or authority badges. However, when credit card information and, ultimately, money are on the line, your visitors will look for any reason to distrust you. It’s your job to make sure they can’t find one.

We’ve covered everything you need to know about landing pages—from how they differ from your homepages to the types of landing pages you can add to your campaigns.

It’s now time to showcase how brands are doing right by their landing pages. All the elements on these landing pages are optimized for conversions.

Sweetkick landing page

The Sweetkick landing page headline showcases the primary benefit users get from using the Sweetkick: “Starting your day has never felt better.” While the headline focuses on the product benefits, the subheadline introduces visitors to what the product does. The page also includes plenty of trust indicators—customer testimonials, user reviews, a list of publications, and user videos.

The free shipping and 30-day risk-free money-back guarantee also persuade visitors to click the personalized and contrasting CTA button.

Nettie landing page

The Nettie landing page also includes all the elements that make a high-converting landing page. A fun headline that sets the stage for the Nettie retro-designed paddles. All the page elements revolve around the retro fun theme—from the headline to the images. The page also includes the founder’s story showcasing how much passion has gone into creating the paddles.

The comparison chart between Nettie paddles and competitors helps visitors see why they should choose the paddles to experience all the PickleBall fun.

Dollar Shave Club landing page

The Dollar Shave Club page is minimal and gets straight to the point. It tells users what the offer is, the discount they’re getting, and a bright CTA button that gets them the 85% discount.

Butcher Box landing page

The ButcherBox page headline describes the service’s UVP—high-quality meat delivered straight to your door. The hero shot shows pieces of scrumptious proteins, and the above-the-fold copy gives visitors ample reasons to click the CTA button.

Use these examples as inspiration for your next landing page campaign.

Creating a landing page from scratch is intimidating—there are wireframes to build, codes to write, and elements to optimize. The whole process can drag out for weeks if you decide to hire a developer and designer. Don’t want to put in this much time and effort?

You can create a landing page in minutes with Instapage.

With Instapage, you can pick from over 500+ fully customizable templates by industry and use cases. We’ve analyzed billions of conversions to build the world’s most advanced conversion design system.

You can also quickly scale multiple landing pages with Instablocks® + Global Blocks to save, reuse, and update globally.

You can click to fine-tune any element or section of your page to keep the design 100% on-brand, right down to the style of your typeface with pixel-precision design features and a library of global brand assets to ensure your pages are always on-brand.

Instapage makes creating a landing page, even if you don’t have any prior experience, super simple. This is all you need to do.

1. Sign up for an Instapage account
2. In your Dashboard, click Create Page > Select the page type.
   
3. Use the blank type option to create your page from scratch, or choose from hundreds of templates if you need a starting point.
   
4. Give your page a name, hit Edit Design, and customize the design and elements using a website builder. Add catchy graphics and text.
   
5. Design and add different forms for your objectives. Set up lead notifications, routing, and post-submission confirmations.
6. Set up and run A/B testing to identify the most effective design and win more leads. Improve page performance fast with an AI-powered experimentation tool. It tracks your ongoing experiments and directs traffic to top-performing page variations, no matter how many versions you have. Achieve faster optimization insights without sacrificing the quality of your results.
   
7. Preview the landing page for final checks. Publish it to your desired domain or platform for user access.

You can also watch this video to get started:

Excited to get started on your landing page and gather those leads, product orders, and signups?

Sign up for an Instapage 14-day Free Trial today.