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What resources do you recommend for creating landing pages?

19 points by etagwerker ↗ HN
I am about to begin the process of testing a product idea. Before I schedule any meetings with potential customers, I would like to set up a landing page.

I am considering http://unbounce.com or building my own landing page.

Are they any other services that could be helpful for setting up a landing page? What resources would you recommend to create a good landing page?

Thanks!

- Ernesto

15 comments

[ 8.6 ms ] story [ 77.8 ms ] thread
nostromo
Are you're asking for a MVT testing platform, information on how to build a great landing page, or a simple host for the page?

For testing, I personally like Google Website Optimizer: http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer

etagwerker
I am asking for information on how to build a great landing page.

If there are services like http://unbounce.com that would make it easier to build a landing page, I would like to know any recommendations.

Also, if you know a good place to find templates for landing pages, that would be helpful.

I am a developer, so I could implement & deploy a landing page on a server. But I just want to know whether I should use a template, hire unbounce or read more before I build it.

Thanks!

OliGardner
Hey Ernesto, Thought I'd chime in here with some extra info. Unbounce has a selection of templates that you can use - but you can also build your own page from scratch if you already have any designs lying around.

It's all hosted for you and you can set it up to appear on your own domain (via a CNAME).

We have a free package which you can use if you are driving a small amount of traffic and free trials for bigger account plans.

There is super simple A/B testing built in if you need that.

If you want to do MVT - I'd suggest Visual Website Optmizer www.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com - which adds a nice layer of abstraction on top of Google Website optimizer.

Happy to answer any other questions you might have. Cheers Oli (from Unbounce)

etagwerker
Hey Oli,

I don't see the free package in your site. Could you help me with that?

I'm still considering my options. So far this thread has been super positive.

Thanks!

Reedge
You can just use a basic HTML landing page and use http://www.reedge.com to create variations in the product offer to test what gets the best conversion.
kranner
This is a popular WordPress theme for landing pages: http://themeshaper.com/wordpress-domain-parking-theme/

That said, I wish I'd known to use it when I needed to make mine. I just cobbled it up manually. The link is in my profile.

StavrosK
Thanks for that, it was exacly what I was looking for. I'm really impressed by the designer, even though I fouled his design up a bit:

http://www.stochastictechnologies.com/

Thanks again, now I don't have to have a textfile with "coming soon" on there!

etagwerker
Great, thanks! This is a very good start.

I'll tweak it a little and have a simple landing page with a call to action.

StavrosK
Can someone explain to me what a landing page is? I thought it was a page on your site that you pointed visitors to when they were coming from different sources, but the OP seems to mean holding page by it?

I'm confused...

petercooper
He's referring to a page on a site for a product or service that is not yet available to buy/use/sign up for but that might do one or many of these things: collect e-mail addresses for a mailing list, collect e-mail addresses for future invites to an app/site, show "sneak preview" images of the future app/site, merely say "coming soon."

Going back a few years, though, "landing page" almost always meant a page that people are directed to (usually through advertising) that then attempts to "convert" them into a customer or subscriber of some sort, though this is not necessarily (but can be) a goal of the modern startup-type landing page.

StavrosK
Thanks, the latter definition is what I knew, but I'm not aware of people creating dedicated landing pages for each of their ad campaigns, so I wasn't sure what the term meant. Thanks again!
etagwerker
Yes, it's exactly what petercooper describes.

In my case, I want to create a landing page for a product idea.

My goal is to drive traffic to this landing page in order to see if people are interested in such a product.

By adding a call to action in the landing page I can get an idea of the conversion rate.

Also, I'd like to add that I'm not just driving traffic using ads. I plan to have customer interviews in order to shape my product idea and see their reaction.

I hope that those activities 'outside the building' will also drive traffic to the landing page.