Side Project

Landing pages are like YouTube Shorts
You watch for 2-3 seconds, if you like it, you stay and watch till the end,
else you move to the next one

Today, I will share with you my learnings from my research on: 'How to build a landing page that explains and converts'

Before that, a bit of backstory: I am currently building a product for developers,

It'll be a combination of a code boilerplate, a resource sheet, notion template & ai prompts to help devs build and launch instantly

Now, the problem: While the product was still under work, I built the website in the meantime,

And sent it to some friends, as well posted it on a few subreddits for reviews

And everyone had the same response - What are you selling? We're confused

I couldn't even explain what the product was, how could I sell?

In this age of information and opportunity, it would have been foolish to not look for a solution.

I studied, researched and observed for days to find the solution, the framework and the words!

Sorry for boring you, here it begins:

The landing page has 2 parts: above the fold and below the fold.

Above the fold: This is the part where the viewers will glance without scrolling
Below the fold: Everything after the first section and visible via scroll is covered here

With the average attention span nowadays, an average viewer will spend 2-3 seconds on your 'above the fold' section before considering to scroll or moving away

Hence, the above fold section should be created carefully as it will make or break your business

You can have the best product, the best copywriting, the best design under the fold, but if the customer goes back after looking at the above fold section, you lose

During my research, I found that the above fold section must contain 5 elements:

1. Title
2. Subtitle
3. Visual ( optional )
4. Proof
5. CTA

Visual is optional here because majority of traffic is mobile based, and to fit 5 elements above fold would create chaos

➝ Writing a Title that explains
This is the first thing your users will read, so you better put some time into writing it. Make sure you make it simple to explain clearly.

If your product is unique, your title can be simply what you do such as 'Energy bars for horses' and if its not unique, well write hooks, here's how:

Combine the customer's problem with the value ( feature ) that you provide

In my case, the problem of the customer is that they think that building and launching must be a ton of work that takes weeks

My value is that I can help them launch their product instantly

The title becomes: Launch your SaaS in the next 30 minutes ( countdown timer )

Another example:
Value: Ace the SAT
Objection: Sounds like a lot of time commitment daily
Title: Ace the SAT with just 10 minutes of studying per day

➝ Writing a Subtitle that explains, more
Introduce the product here. Explain in context with the title.

Pro tip: Do not care about how it looks or if it seems too long, its fine till 20 words, it should clearly explain what you offer

my subtitle: Code Boilerplate, resource sheet and templates to turn developers into founders and help them launch instantly

➝ Visual
Time to show your product, visuals are super powerful, and if you're able to show the product in action, you'll be winning son

Visual can be shown beside the text on a laptop screen and below the text on a mobile screen, but that's optional

➝ Social Proof
A small testimonial above fold can help establishing trust in your product. My social proof is a small ribbon with a person's picture his testimonial - "Turns projects into products"

➝ CTA
This is just a button text that tells the viewer to take some action. You can even battle out any doubts that you feel a user might have before scrolling

My CTA is "Launch your idea"

You can battle doubts with "Start Free! No CC required"

Well, that is everything above fold!
That should be enough to make the customer stay, but to make them buy, would demand a lot more effort

I will soon be posting the below fold guide too, with 2 more guides on landing page copywriting

You can check my profile to see what I'm building

In case you wish to see how my above fold looks like, you can check it here

Hope I can help you turn your side project into a product. Cheers.