A Quick Way To Structure A Landing Page
Some days, I almost forget about doing my daily topic. Today is one of those days.
Sometimes, I’ll read a blog or a news article where I’ll think, “This person has clearly never done what it is they’re writing about.” Whether it’s a review for some shaving cream or a blog post about seducing three girls at a time, there are just loads of rubbish reads out there.
To counter this, I think every now and then writers should pull out a pretty specific post that just highlights that they do what they’re talking about. This is something I’m going to do today, by breaking down the exact structure a landing page I’ve just written uses.
I always start from one of many templates I’ve set up. I’ve got about a hundred different templates I use to structure a landing page at this point, and here’s one. It follows this process:
- Headline with key problem + solution. “Would you like to get rid of acne” is not as good as “When I got rid of my acne, girls started throwing themselves at me. Here’s how I did it.”
- Lead in: The problems that person is facing, and tell them how you’re not some sleazy marketing guy, you actually faced said problem yourself. Talk about the things that only a sufferer would know. “Hello fellow troubled souls. I’m guessing you’re feeling the fire of your problems and you don’t know how to solve them. It can feel like X, X and X.”
- Tell them your story. You used to suffer daily with the fact that you hated your reflection, you had to scavenge for food and your cat didn’t even love you. Again, this has to be heartfelt. Your cat doesn’t hate the fact that you are driving a car that needs a new battery.
- You tried absolutely everything. Give a list of competing ideologies and products and why they don’t work. Don’t worry about being scathing here. Business is war. Don’t be dishonest though; Nobody is going to believe the bicycle you’re selling is faster than a Harley-Davidson.
- Then, Hallelujah, you found a product that works. Or you created a product that works. Either way, now is the time to list your benefits (not features – though you can disguise them as features. If you’re aiming for introverted rationalists, then list the features sandwiched between the benefits.)
- You’re giving the product away because you love your reader. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling it for a thousand dollars or you’re giving away a free email list subscription with handy tips here. Re-iterate the struggle from above.
- Call to action. If you feel it’s necessary, add in some of the pain of delaying here. “I remember being scared about doing X to cure X, but I took that step. You should too.”
- You can’t just end with a call to action. Usually, you’ll have some other reason for people signing up for a free whatever or bonuses for buying your widget here. You don’t need that, but you do need a “What are you still doing here when you could be changing your life?” I don’t really know why it works yet, but it works better than leaving just a button with “buy now” on it.
That’s the basic gist of a landing page. This will work whether you’re selling a high-ticket item or you’re trying to get people onto a free mailing list. All we’re doing is walking a person through the psychological hoops needed to build rapport, and giving them a solution to their problems.
There are some caveats though.
Honesty Is The Best Policy
The more in-depth you are, the easier it is to bring someone around to trying your solution. It’s hard to be in-depth and honest when you have no idea about the struggles that a person faces. Does this mean you can’t sell acne medication if you’ve never had acne? No. But it does mean you’re going to have to go and do some research and really drill down to get those true-life anecdotes.
Your Product Matters
Some of you will read this and think, “what if my product doesn’t solve the problem?”
Or, “What if the competitors can do everything my product does?”
The fact is product quality matters. You can sell bridges on the moon, you can sell cheap plastic stuff that’s broken before it arrives from China, and you can sell Lamborghini’s. One of them helps you by selling itself. It’s the same with products.
If you’re selling a product that’s not so great, you’re going to have to work to find the great points. They’ll be there. You’ll just have to work at it.
“This is sleazy, salesy and I don’t like it.”
Some readers will think this. They’ll also think that the above way to structure a landing page will give you a used car salesman type monologue that nobody would ever fall for.
There’s nothing in the above structure that will do that. There’s one reason that I can say that with 100% accuracy: I have not talked about vocabulary or style once in this article.
You could follow that structure above and only write a hundred words. One sentence for each point. Or you could write a whole book using that structure. You could write it in pure, honest and brutal bullet point form.
The structure isn’t the message, and the structure isn’t the content.
Anyhow, that’s a wrap for today. I hope you use this to structure a landing page, and let me know how it goes!