For many businesses, leads are gold.

They rely on lead generation to initiate interest in their business, engage their ideal audience, and eventually convert those prospects into paying customers.

The problem?

Most websites struggle to convert their visitors into subscribers. In fact, in a study by Appsumo, they found that most sites convert less than 2 out of every 100 visitors, losing 98% of them!

Not great, right?

Well, in this guide, we’re going to show you how to fix that by creating your very own lead generation landing pages.

We’ll walk you through what they are, how they work, how to write and design them, and more.

You can use the following menu to navigate this guide:

So let’s get the marketing jargon out of the way.

A landing page is a web page that users are directed to after they click on a search result, ad, or digital marketing offer. The purpose of a landing page is to entice users to complete a specific goal or action, otherwise known as a conversion.

Landing pages can have many different types of goals, not limited to:

A lead generation landing page (otherwise known as a ‘squeeze page,’ ‘opt-in page,’ or ‘lead capture page’) is designed to convert the visitor into a lead or prospect.

Like SaaS companies or service providers, acquiring leads is essential for many businesses — after all, a healthy prospect list means a happy sales team. Seriously, don’t underestimate the value of a well-done lead generation landing page.

You’ve most likely seen and interacted with a lead generation landing page before.

It starts with some sort of impression (like the ad impression in the diagram below). When a viewer clicks on the ad or promotion, they’re redirected to a landing page.

When a reader ‘lands’ on the page, they are presented with a compelling offer in exchange for personal information, like their name or email address.

Where there’s a lead generation landing page, a form will also be.

By filling out a form with their personal information, the individual receives what the page promises, and the business gets a lead.

Businesses typically use landing pages ‘top of funnel’ to help convert new visitors, but you can also use them to help segment out your audience for new offers.

Let’s say that you sell a product with a longer sales cycle. Your audience may need many questions answered before they are ready to buy because of the price or commitment.

Alternatively, the product may only be relevant to a smaller section of your audience. You don’t want to make the offer to every visitor– just those to whom it’s relevant.

This is where a lead generation landing page would come in.

By getting people to give you additional information on a specific squeeze page for this expensive or niche product, you can start preparing them for your new offer.

The preparation could include retargeting them with additional promotional materials or sending them a customized email series to get them excited for the product release.

Here, you can see another lead gen page by the same company as before. I’m certain this will lead to them selling a Canva-based training or another product.

Niche offer to a segment of DigitalMarketer’s audience

Because this other squeeze page is relevant to a unique pain point, it only appeals to the audience who would want that new offer. People who aren’t interested will simply self-disqualify, improving the quality of the leads you do get.

And the good news?

The page design is quite simple–as long as you hit some key points…

Here’s an example of a basic page layout, along with the specific elements that you need to include.

Pretty simple right?

We’ll break down what it all means and how to use it as we go through the rest of this guide step-by-step.

It’s time to plan and research.

You need to come up with a unique idea that will get your visitor to become a subscriber.

A bonus or ‘lead magnet’ that appeals to visitors and makes them want to give you their email in exchange.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that this lead magnet’s primary purpose is to convert new visitors to your business’ website.

In this case, you should customize it for people who are newly interested in your business rather than those who are ready to buy.

B2B Marketing Funnel

In this example, users will be in the top or middle stage.

These audience members are probably several touchpoints away from becoming a customer. However, by getting their email now, you can nurture and move them through your funnel.

When you talk to your customers, you’ll notice patterns of similar conversations happening all the time, especially with new visitors. These conversations usually revolve around a central pain point that they need to solve to start moving towards becoming a customer.

Your lead magnet should be something that helps them solve that first pain point.

Better still, tie your lead magnet into what you offer as a paid product.

Try to think of it as a series of conversations.

That’s the basic sales sequence right there.

So why should you care?

Because if you can understand your audience and how they feel at that first moment, then you can convert them and bring them into your pipeline.

Not only that, but you can plan out a lead magnet that will appeal to people who will also want your paid offer later on.

For example…

Ampmycontent is a blog about content promotion.

Their product is an online training academy that focuses on teaching content marketers how to leverage their content more effectively (and see a higher ROI).

Now, in theory, they could just create a lead magnet around content promotion, right? This type of offer would appeal to decision-stage users and help convert them into customers.

But by working backward through the common conversations they have with customers, they can create lead magnets that appeal to a much wider audience.

After all, most people might not even know what content promotion is or why they need it.

This widens their pipeline, and it also helps to automate their sales process.

Remember how we said that most sites convert around 2% of visitors to leads?  Well, Amp’s squeeze page above converts at about 30% to a cold audience…

Why did Amp’s offer work? And How can you replicate it?

The very best lead magnets appeal to the audience’s current pain point and lead them to the offer over time.

Amp identified that ‘top of funnel’ issue: their core audience believed that creating lots of content would automatically make them money and were frustrated when it didn’t.

While new audience members may not recognize they could benefit from buying a content promotion course, they were all experiencing the pain of creating content without much to show for it.

Therefore, Amp created an offer for their lead generation landing page that educates a new audience on balancing content creation with marketing and leveraging those assets.

If you’re wondering how to decide on a lead generation offer, answer these questions first:

Use this info to produce a lead magnet that appeals to your audience and use that touchpoint as the first step in your sales funnel.

Salesforce (a CRM service) offers an industry-relevant eBook to hook leads in the B2B marketing space.

As a reference, here’s what the Amp lead generation landing page does for new visitors:

Notice how the magnet doesn’t take away from their paid offer, but it provides value equal to the personal information given? It also primes users for the primary offer (a paid course).

Can you see how that works?

Awesome, so now that you have an idea, it’s time to create your lead magnet offer.

Here’s what most people don’t realize:

Your lead magnet doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, small and simple magnets often convert better.

Why?

Because this is usually the audience’s first interaction with you, a 21-day email course is overwhelming.

But a PDF, a checklist, or a 5-minute video?

Something like that is both appealing AND doesn’t require much effort to take action on.

Note: the fewer barriers you create for someone to take action, the higher the chance they will take it. Likewise, more perceived effort (or friction) lowers conversion rates.

First, identify a problem that most of your customers need to overcome before they are ready to buy from you.

Think back to recent client calls, or interview them via Zoom to see what they’re struggling with.

We’re all ears.

Note the language they use to describe their pain points (you can later use this language to write your landing page headlines and offers).

Next, narrow down what the common first-step problems are and how to solve them.

Then it’s as simple as making the lead magnet and then planning out your squeeze pages design and copy.

You can record a screen capture video with tools like Camtasia or the built-in screen recorder on Mac.

Or you can design checklists or PDF’s in Canva.

You don’t need to create anything groundbreaking. Just something that will appeal to your audience and will help solve that first issue.

Once you’ve made your lead magnet, it’s time to start creating the page…

Before we jump into the design, we’re going to plan out the pages ‘copy,’ i.e., the words we will use to appeal, attract and convert the reader into a subscriber.

Why start with the copy first?

One, because it’s much easier. If you commit to a design without final copy, you’ll create formatting issues attempting to format the words on the page.

Two, because copy is the converter. Of course, the design and the image are crucial elements that grab and guide users, but it’s your language and offer that will ultimately decide if they act.

Make sense?

Let’s walk you through what to write and where it fits into the overall design template.

The headline is the core hook of your opt-in offer and should always be at the top of the page.

Don’t complicate it. Use the headline to hint at the problem and the solution or benefit you’ll provide.

Top tip: If you really want to connect, include words used by current clients to describe their past situation, problem, and goal.

Amp’s audience felt like they write too much with too little increase in traffic. The landing page uses language that directly appeals to their pain.

The subhead is just there to give more context to how they can get what the headline promises.

It should explain how they will get this benefit and the ‘medium’ of the offer. In other words, is it a video, a pdf, a checklist, or an article?.

Not sure if your headline and subhead are any good?

You can run it through the headline analyzer over at Sharethrough and see what score it gets.

You want to aim to get a 70 or higher for the headline and subhead combined.

The next step is to guide your audience to the next step – now that they want your offer, what should they do? A call-to-action (CTA) button succinctly describes what you want them to do.

You always need a button to click on and the benefit attached to it.

Whoever is in charge of your conversion rate optimization (CRO) will also test button colors’ impact on conversion rates. For example, on Linear’s site, a brighter button improved conversions by 5% compared to a neutral-colored one.

Depending on your page design, you will usually have the opt-in form next to the CTA button.

(This is the box where they enter their email.)

It seems simple, but the more precise you can be, the more the page will convert.

So be sure to give some further explanation and context to what they need to do.

For example, “Click Here” is not as compelling as “Grab Your Proposal;” “Download eBook” is blander than “Get More Traffic Today.”

Don’t stress too much, though; you’ll be running tests anyway.

So far, we’ve talked about a benefit in the headline and subhead, given users an action to take,  and asked them to enter their email address.

At this point, some of your audience might worry about being spammed or sold to, which can put them off entering their details.

And so, the best thing to do is address their concerns and put them at ease.

It can be as simple as:

“We won’t spam you, and your email is safe,” etc.

You can add this as text under the CTA and opt-in form, usually in a smaller font, as you don’t want to distract from the CTA.

The more people trust you, the more likely they are to opt into your offer (as long as it aligns with what they want.)

So how can we build trust quickly?

By adding social proof!

Examples of social proof include customer testimonials, industry quotes about your business, logos of sites or companies you worked with, or even stats on how many people already opted for your offer.

The goal is to help them trust you asap.

For now, just try and think of any relevant social proof that you can add in later on when you design the page.

Not all of your audience is the same.

Some are motivated by removing a pain point, and that’s all they need before they opt in.

So far, we’ve covered how to convert these people, but there are others that you might miss out on:

You don’t want to lose out on those potential leads, so you need to add a little more ‘oomph’ to your page.

The process is quite simple.

Just write a few paragraphs to support your offer and help those other segments convert, using something called a BEFORE, AFTER, BRIDGE (BAB) sequence.

Example of a BAB sequence

Describe the reader’s life Before your offer.

Talk about the readers’ problem that they currently have and then use their own language to describe the pain point to connect emotionally.

Illustrate what life could be like After your offer.

Now you want to talk about what life could be like with this problem solved and the pain point removed.

Bonus points if you can add some proof of your results when you solved this problem for yourself or someone else.

Finally, Bridge the gap.

Lastly, help them connect the dots of how to get there. It is easy to use the solution and stack the benefits of what they get when they opt in.

It seems simple, but a BAB sequence like this can help raise conversions with more of your audience.

Finally, we want to repeat the CTA that we used at the top of the page.

The repeat button gives readers at the bottom of the page an immediate action to take. It also means they don’t have to scroll back up to the top; the decreased friction here will lift conversions.

So now you have the page copy done and have a rough outline of where it all fits together, it’s time to design the page.

Now there is a whole heap of tools and options out there to help you design your squeeze page.

You can use landing page builders such as Unbounce, Leadpages, Instapage, and others.

The benefit of tools like this is that they usually come with custom templates and are hosted on their server.

Additionally, on-platform hosting means they load fast (a must-have for high-converting landing pages). However, they do usually have an ongoing monthly fee.

If you don’t want to pay each month and use WordPress, you can design your pages with a drag and drop page builder plugin instead.

I recommend either:

Drag and drop page builders are super simple to use. You drag the elements where you want them to be on the page.

You can even use them for creating other pages on your site.

They are usually a one-off fee, but they can be slightly slower to load due to how much additional code is going on behind the scenes on how intricate you make your page.

(You can get around this with good hosting and a few extra tweaks.)

Or you could create a custom page using HTML code and a site designer.

These pages tend to cost more as the designer will also have to design any changes you want to make.

Not only that, but unless you’re tech-savvy, you may need to hire someone to install it onto your site.

With that in mind, these pages are far more customizable and are generally faster than all other options. (Load speed is essential, but more on that in a second)

Once you’ve decided on an option to use, let’s go through some basic design tips…

Your landing page should feel like it’s just another page on your site.

Same color schemes and fonts etc.

Why?

Well, remember that this is a ‘landing page.’ That means that the website user is there because they clicked on one of your ads, a social media post, an email link, or another off-site source.

The biggest mistake we see from people who use landing page builders is that the custom templates don’t match their site’s style.

The colors and fonts are all over the place, and it ends up feeling like you are on a fake website.

This is very bad…

Something feels wrong, and the reader immediately worries that you’ve tricked them with a spammy or incorrect link and bounce away.

So when designing your page, keep your current site design in mind.

Remember that the goal of your squeeze page is to get them to take one single action.

To exchange their email and personal information with your offer..

But what happens when…

These are all issues we see when we audit the landing pages of new clients.

Unfortunately, the more options you have, the more distracted users become. The presence of any of these distractions will cause your audience to do something else or fail to accept your offer!

So make sure you remove anything that might stop them from converting—no header menu options and no competing CTA’s for other things.

Also?

Give the page some space to breathe!

No one enjoys reading walls of text, so make sure the page flows so they can stay focused.

An effective lead generation landing page aims to pull users to the CTA button and get them to click it.

By following our template, you already have a design that should pull them to it. Feel free to tweak it if you like, but make sure you’re not pulling them away from your goal and hit those key elements.

So let’s talk about imagery.

The Hero Shot is the primary image at the top of your lead gen landing page.

Its goal is to hook your audience and support the offer with context.

There are 5 simple hero shot ideas you can use:

Humans are attracted to faces. They can’t help but look for them when they appear on a page.

Also, we look where other faces are looking. So we can feature faces “looking” at the headline text, drawing the reader to it.

Any of these image ideas can work, and you can always test out different versions later on. The goal is just to help bring the eye to that text so it can do its job.

With that in mind, make sure the headline text doesn’t conflict with the background.

If you use white text for your headline, the hero shot should have a bold, single color. Failing that, you can add a single color filter across the image as an overlay or even use a thicker font size, so it stands out.

For example, the photo for the above lead gen landing page was originally in color, but it has had a grey filter added to it so that it darkens the image and the headline text stands out.

This is quite important.

The headline, subhead, CTA, Hero shot, and social proof should all be visible ‘above the fold,’

Essentially, the reader should see them all immediately when the page loads without having to scroll.

Why?

Because we have mere seconds to get the reader’s attention.

By having the offer and supporting information all in one place, you can get a significant lift in conversions. In contrast, a lower-performing page might only feature a CTA at the bottom of the page (that’s a long scroll away).

And I know what you might be thinking…

“But wait, didn’t we write the whole BAB sequence below the fold?”

That’s correct, but here’s the thing:

The people who have the immediate pain point and want it removed will almost always opt in on that first CTA button, as long as they can see it on that first screen load and it aligns with their goals.

And those who are skeptical or have doubts?

Well, they will almost always scroll down the page and read the BAB sequence and take the 2nd CTA that we created just for them.

Those people need more to convert, but by having that core detail above the fold, we can convert those looking for a solution ASAP.

So that’s it for the design, so let’s look at improving those conversions even more…

We’ve already covered many ways to improve a landing page in our Optimization Course and Guide to a Conversion-Friendly Landing Page Layout.

So if you’re ready for a deep-dive, I highly recommend you check them out.

Before that, let’s walk you through a few easy wins you can do right now to optimize your page.

It’s not a sexy topic, but website speed is so important right now.

Why?

According to a study by Pingdom, if your web page takes more than 5 seconds to load then around 38% of your audience will leave BEFORE they ever see it.

Page Load Time Impact on Bounce Rate – Image Source

Not great, right?

Especially when you start to consider other traffic channels and how they feel about their user experience.

Facebook and Google?

If they see that your page is slow to load, they’ll also negatively affect your traffic.

Google will start ranking you lower in search even if your content and offers are better than your competitors.

And if Facebook notices that people are bouncing off your page before it loads, then they start charging you more to advertise with them, until pretty soon your ad stops delivering altogether.

Directly improving your site speed affects how well your page converts.

You can run a quick speed check using Google’s free site speed tool here.

Check the desktop and mobile versions.

As a rule of thumb, you’re looking to be under 3 seconds to load.

Speaking of mobile, make sure your page is mobile optimized!

Not only should it load fast on mobile devices, but the headline, images, and CTA should all appear correctly and be able to be used!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked on a lead generation landing page to research a competitor, and then can’t even fill out my details as the opt-in box won’t work correctly on my phone…

Obviously, having your new lead generation landing page is just the beginning.

The more you can improve it, the better the ROI will be.

There is a whole heap of tests you can run, but just be sure to test them one at a time. Also, make sure that you’re getting enough traffic to the page to reach statistical significance, i.e., enough data to prove that the test results are accurate.

So what can you test?

Pretty much any of the elements we’ve talked about in this guide.

Headlines, subheads, CTA text, button color, fonts, hero shots, etc.

Always test them one at a time to see which creates the most lift in your results, and then try the next.

(A good agency will do this for you btw *wink wink*).

This kind of ties into what we talked about earlier about page design matching your site design.

More often than not, once you have a lead generation landing page that converts, you’ll probably start to run paid traffic to it, right?

And it makes sense because if the page and ads work well, you can get profitable leads and scale like crazy.

Here’s the thing, though:

There needs to be an aesthetic that flows from the ads to the page.

What do I mean?

Well, it can’t look like one thing in the ad and then be completely different on the page. Otherwise, the reader will think they are in the wrong place again and will bounce.

It’s not just imagery either. The messaging and design all need to tie in from that initial touchpoint to the page.

This interaction is why good PPC agencies not only run ads but also design the pages the ads navigate to. Your conversion rate, cost per conversion, and overall ad performance will depend on the combined effort of both.

So let’s get a little nerdy and talk psychology.

I mentioned before that the easier you can make it for someone to take action, the more likely they will take it. Likewise, the more effort it seems to take action, the lower your chances that they will act.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve passed on an enticing offer because of the sheer volume of information a business asks for.

But it’s not just multiple forms that are an issue. Believe it or not, but just having an opt-in form visible on your page can lower people’s chances of converting.

They see the opt-in box, and a small percentage of them will leave.

Have a page with multiple forms to fill out?

Well, then you will usually see a drop of around 10% for every box that you ask them to fill out.

Well, we can use the commitment and consistency principle.

You see, humans like to finish things that they start- especially if it aligns with how we see ourselves in our place in society or our mind.

So how can we use this with email opt-ins?

First, we can hide our opt-in form behind a pop-up.

Rather than have the form visible right away, it appears when someone clicks the CTA button. (Along with the text to enter their email to get x benefit)

The person aligns themselves with the benefit that they want.

Then when the opt-in form appears, by not entering their email, it’s like them saying, “Ah, I don’t want to get rid of this pain point.”

No one wants to stay in pain, and so the majority follow through and opt in.

Now, like most things, you need to test this.

It doesn’t work in every industry, but I saw a lift of around 15% or higher on my landing pages when I first tried this.

We can even use this same principle when we need to capture multiple pieces of information from a subscriber but don’t want them to bounce off our page…

Let’s say that you have a high ticket or complex offer and need as much detail from the subscriber as possible.

We already know that having all those forms up front can scare people off, so we can use this commitment principle again and create a multi-stage opt-in process.

You simply ask for the email first on its own, and once they’ve given that, you then ask for the next piece of information and so on.

For Example

Investor Carrot used to have these incredibly long lead capture forms with multiple boxes.

As you can probably guess, this didn’t convert that well, so they overhauled their process.

They introduced 2-step pop-ups that just asked for the email address first so they could get the email. Once the reader filled that out, they followed up with the remaining boxes.

The results?

Their conversion rate jumped up to 43 percent!

And I know what you might be thinking…

“Sure, they got the email, but I bet people didn’t carry on and fill out those forms!”

But according to their test results,  93% of the people who opted in via the email pop up then carried on and filled out the remaining forms…

Simple!

Now you understand how to improve your pages, let’s break down some examples of excellent lead generation landing pages out in the wild.

Want some inspiration for your page design?

In this section, we’re breaking down 7 squeeze pages from some of the big guns out there.

Some are fantastic, and others might need a few tweaks. (I’m not calling anyone out, I just want you to see how all of us can always be improving).

So take a look…

What does it do well?

How can it improve?

What does it do well?

How can it improve?

What does it do well?

How can it improve?

What does it do well?

How can it improve?

What does it do well?

How can it improve?

What does it do well?

How can it improve?

What does it do well?

How can it improve?

So there you have it! Our in-depth guide and template to creating your very own lead generation landing page.

Leave a comment below and let us know how it goes.

And if you have any questions or if you’re looking to outsource your page creation and testing, then flick us an email at [email protected], and we’ll be happy to help you out!