Landing page builders (and why your site needs one)

A landing page is a standalone web page made especially for a marketing or advertising campaign. It's the page that a visitor "lands" on after clicking a link in an email, paid ad, or social media post.

Landing pages have a single emphasis or purpose, known as a call to action (CTA). For example, to collect a visitor's contact information in exchange for something like a discount or downloadable resource. Web pages, on the other hand, often have multiple aims and will encourage users to explore the site further via secondary pages.

Yes — and no. If you aren’t experienced in web design and development, it can be pretty challenging to build a website from scratch. And that’s why so many people reach for third-party landing page builder apps. These apps offer some incredible features and make creating landing pages super easy. But there are downsides.

With basic third-party apps, your visitors can see through the gaps. More often than not, the landing pages turn out to be too far away from the design and branding on the main website. And inconsistencies like this not only make the user experience feel disjointed, it can lead to a lack of trust and reliability. In turn, this can impact your conversion rates.

A key part of a successful site is the fact you can manage and update the content yourself. And that’s where a landing page builder comes in.

A landing page builder is essentially a hidden page on your site that features a series of content modules. These modules can be shown, hidden or structured in any order to create pages for campaigns, products, competitions — or simply to expand on your sitemap. All the content is customisable, so not only can it be fully aligned to your goals, but it will fit seamlessly in with the rest of your website.

Being able to future-proof your site is something we consider long before it’s built. When we design a website, we ensure aspects of the design will function as standalone modules, so that they can be used for a landing page builder in the future. And if not, we make the necessary tweaks to adapt them.

But most importantly, when we’re designing a landing page builder, we take time to think about your marketing goals. It needs to include features that align with your digital strategy, whether that be complex submission forms, heroes that support different media, or basic text and image blocks. Because if you bombard your landing page with unnecessary widgets, you’ll only end up distracting users.

Here’s a round up of our must-have modules for a landing page builder.

A bold statement with supporting imagery or video that clearly describes what a visitor is going to get from your product or service.

These sections include supporting copy beyond the headline. The key here is to describe specific benefits along with features and strong supporting imagery.

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful sales tools. Provide real reviews and show names, profile pictures and what they bought whenever possible. The more information the better. Testimonials can take many different shapes:

• Direct quotes from customers
• Link to posts on social media
• Longer case studies
• Video interviews
• Logos of customer companies

When it comes to CTAs, it’s crucial to keep the text short, make the buttons and actions clearly visible, and support the section with eye-catching imagery or graphics.

Usually, most CTAs drive the users towards an embedded form. Its purpose has to be clear and concise and just require the essential fields for better conversion rates.