How to Create High Converting SaaS Landing Pages Like a Pro
When creating a landing page for your SaaS company, you'll want to make sure that you're not making any major marketing faux pas... gone are the days where you can get away with a blocky design or boring, cold copywriting with generic free stock photos...
To avoid making any of those mistakes, you need to understand what makes a good SaaS landing page, one with a high conversion rate and one that speaks to your target audience.
To do that, we're going to cover how you can create a high-converting SaaS landing page like a pro!
Let's get started.
Step 1: Define the goal of your landing page
Before you start creating your high-converting SaaS landing page, you need to take a step back and decide on the goal of your landing page.
What's the main objective of your landing page? Is it to capture leads for your email list? To invite people to book a call with you? Request a demo? Buy?
For most SaaS companies, the most important end goal for your company is to help lead your visitors to sign up for a free trial of your product. And if you're in the startup phase, maybe it's to get people to join your email list before you launch your new product.
Here's an example of a landing page with a goal of getting people to sign up for a free trial of their product... maybe you recognize it?
Whatever your goal is, before you design your landing page, be clear on what it is you're looking to achieve.
This will help influence the rest of the landing page creation process.
Step 2: Create a basic structure
Once you're clear on the goal of your SaaS landing page, the next step is to decide on the basic layout and structure of your page.
Remember, we're looking to avoid blocky design!
Start by figuring out what contents you're going to include on the page and in what order. Then you can add design elements later.
If you're looking to increase free trial sign-ups, then your content might look something like this:
* Header
* Hero
* Social proofs
* Product features (and benefits)
* Customer testimonials
* Bottom call to action
* Footer
When it comes to creating high converting SaaS landing pages, you'll want to follow a proven layout framework (one that we use a lot here at HookLead) that focuses on three main sections:
- Above the fold - this is the first content that someone sees when they visit your landing page. The most important information goes in this section.
- The body - this is the bulk of your landing page content.
- Final call to action - this is the last piece of content that a visitor often sees and should also include your main call to action.
Within each of those sections, you'll place your content.
Above the fold content
From the content you've listed, you'll want the header and hero image in this section and possibly a call to action button.
The content here needs to make an impact and encourage the visitor to keep scrolling.
The body content
The next section is where you'll include most of the content. This will be your social proofs and product features and benefits. This would be a good time to include a demo video of your product too.
You'd also include a call to action button within this section.
Final call to action content
The last section will include customer testimonials and your final call to action. This final call to action will be your last opportunity to capture the visitor, so make it count.
The footer content area is purposely left out of these sections as it's secondary information. You would not put any information in this area about your product. This is where your copyright and privacy/terms of use links would go.
Step 3: Write conversion-focused content
The next step, which is arguably the most important, is to write your content, aka your conversion-focused copy.
This needs to be copy that is geared towards your target audience and their goals, changes, pains, and how/why your product is the solution for them.
Let's look at each piece of content individually so you have a clear breakdown of what you'll need to create high-converting SaaS landing pages like a pro...
The header
This should include your product logo, any key navigation links (you don't need to include them all, just those relevant to helping your visitor make a decision based on your goal), and a call to action.
When deciding what navigation links to include (or not), it always comes back to the overall goal for your landing page. If the goal is to get people to sign up for a free trial of your product, then some suggested navigation links should include the pricing page, product features page, and reviews/testimonials. All other navigation links can be left for the footer area.
The hero area
This is going to be your headline, a sub-headling, a great image that relates to your target audience, and a VERY clear call to action.
This is the most important part of your landing page, and if you want a high converting landing page, this is where you should spend the most amount of time.
You'll need to have a strong value proposition... what value are you bringing to your customers?
To develop your strong value proposition, answer these three questions;
- Does your SaaS product solve an actual problem your visitor has?
- What are the benefits your visitor can expect once they buy?
- Why is your product better than your competitors?
This will be a one-sentence statement that features between your headline and sub-headline area or just after it.
When developing your headline, you'll want a clear, descriptive sentence that describes the purpose of your product or the problem you're solving.
Short and descriptive is best.
This is Dropbox's headline:
Keep life organized and work moving—all in one place
Remember, if your visitor can't understand what your SaaS product does from your headline, you're not likely to get a second chance at winning them over. They've already moved on.
The next part of the hero area is the sub-headline. This is where you'll describe how your SaaS product does what it says it does. You'll want to be specific and explain what you do/offer, who it's for and why it's useful.
Increase conversions by keeping your sub-headline within two lines of text.
Here's what Dropbox has:
Dropbox gives you secure access to all your files. Collaborate with friends, family, and coworkers from any device.
The images
This is where you have an opportunity to amp up your conversions. Remember, no stock images, at least none depicting some boring meeting!
Starting with the hero image, you'll want to use something that reinforces your value proposition (headline & sub-headline) and speaks directly to your target audience.
Using the Dropbox example, you can see how their hero image shows just how they envisage someone might use their product:
The images that will serve you best are high-resolution screenshots of your product vs. generic photos or illustrations.
When thinking about the images you use on your landing page, consider the goal you're trying to achieve and your target customer. Your images need to provide clarity and understanding about what you're doing and showcase your product in a visual and compelling way.
Call to actions
When placing your CTAs on your landing page, try and use words that reflect a benefit or is an action that your audience wants to do. Be descriptive about the action you want the visitor to take. The more descriptive you are, the more specific your CTAs are, the higher your chances are of converting the visitor into a possible customer.
Ask yourself - what does the user get if they click that button?
Dropbox does a great example of answering this below:
Both CTAs provide a clear statement of how the user will use Dropbox.
Social proofs
This is about utilizing the press coverage you've received and used their associated logos on your site. This is particularly important if you're in the early stages of your SaaS company.
Utilize social proof from sites like ProductHunt, where your product has been featured, or blogs you've written a guest post for or social media mentions. If your product has been positively referenced or mentioned on sites like Reddit or HackerNews, include their logos here too.
You can also take screenshots of positive mentions on social media and include those in this space too.
Many sites leverage social proof tools as well to boost conversion rates.
Product features
When creating this content, you'll want to include any relevant screenshots, videos, gifs, imagery, etc, that help your visitor reach your landing page goal.
This is the area where you can get things very wrong. Remember, we don't want boring or cold copy. We want copy that engages and draws the visitor in.
To do this, you'll want to focus heavily on how the product features help your potential customer. This is not about only talking about functionality; and it’s about providing only what is necessary for the visitor to make an informed decision.
To keep it simple, focus on no more than six key features.
If you're stuck on what to highlight, ask your customers what they love most about your product and generate your features list from there.
Product benefits
Similar to the features area, you'll want to include screenshots, videos, imagery, etc., anything that helps drive your visitor to the action you wish them to take.
And while you might be confused about separating the product features and benefits here, you'll combine them.
The easiest way to do this is to use this framework:
[Feature] offers [Advantage] that [generates Benefit]
Using this framework, you can easily develop your feature and benefit statements. Always develop these from the viewpoint of your target customer.
The way this framework brings your content to life is through explaining what the main advantage is of using the feature, and then you can demonstrate why that makes your customer happier, etc., as the benefit.
Let's look at an example from Dropbox:
[Feature]: Streamline remote work
[Benefit]: Dropbox centralizes your team’s content and tools—whether you’re working across the globe or from your couches.
The bolded parts are the feature and benefit, respectively.
Customer testimonials
This is your chance to showcase how much your existing customers love your product and are benefiting from it.
The first time someone lands on your SaaS landing page, they are going to be skeptical about your offer, especially if this is their first encounter with you. You need to earn their trust. What better way to do that than showing off how happy your customers are with your SaaS product?!
For your testimonials to be effective, they need to resonate with your potential audience. They need to see themselves in the testimonials, so make sure you get a good crosssection of testimonials that highlight the use-case examples of your SaaS product.
The number one question your testimonials should answer is: What's the biggest benefit you've received or achieved as a result of using our SaaS product?
Where possible, include the name and picture of your customer when they leave a testimonial. This provides further credibility and authenticity to your potential customers.
Final call to action
In this final section, you'll want to include your main call to action and a short paragraph.
This is the other most important part of your landing page. To increase conversions, you'll want this final call to action to cause an "aha" moment when they see the final piece of information that seals the deal for them.
Focus on the biggest benefit that your product offers and make it plain and simple. Add a supporting paragraph that helps your visitor remove any lingering doubts they might have.
Here's what Dropbox uses in their final call to action section:
Short and to the point.
Footer
The final part of your high-converting SaaS landing page is the footer area. This is where you'll include product logos, more navigation links, your social media icons, etc. This is all the secondary information, and it isn't necessary for someone to decide on your offer.