In this tutorial, you will learn why you need a landing page and how to create one using WordPress. While there are many different ways to create landing pages, we will be using WordPress because it is still the most popular content management system on the web. If you would like us to create another tutorial on how to create a landing page using some other tool, send us a message on social media and signup for a notice on our newsletter.
Do you have a product to sell, an upcoming event you want to promote, a service you are trying to attract more clients for? If you are promoting any product or service, and have a website, and want to launch a marketing campaign to attract prospective customers (a.k.a. leads), then I recommend setting up a landing page.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a single web page that serves as a destination for a marketing or sales campaign. It’s a static page typically used to promote a single product or service, collect visitors contact information, and a destination for visitors that have been redirected from a digital advertisement.
Why would I need a landing page?
The primary goal of a landing page is to convert visitors into sales or leads. In marketing and sales theory, there is a concept known as the marketing funnel and sales funnel. Landing pages is one of many tools used in marketing and sales funnels that help capture leads, push them along the funnel, and hopefully by the time they reach the end of the funnel they either become customers or take the appropriate action that meets the goal of the funnel (e.g. fill out a survey, submit their name and contact information, etc.).
Here are a few landing page examples
Shopify Free-Trial Landing Page
Link: https://www.shopify.com/free-trial
This Shopify landing page is promoting a free-trial to use their app. Free-trials is a great sales strategy to increase leads and increase conversion rates by giving users a chance to try the app without a monetary commitment.
This landing page is well-constructed because it is hyper-focused in it’s message and intent. Immediately at the top, the headline message is clear and tells visitors that Shopify is a service that enables them to sell products online. The lede message conveys credibility by displaying a large number of current users (1,700,00) are satisfied with their app.
Every landing page should include a call-to-action (CTA) to direct the visitor to take an action that will satisfy the goal of the landing page. In this case, Shopify includes an email input form and a submission button that clearly tells the visitor what to do, “Start free trial”.
Notice that this landing page does not have a navigation bar. This is done to remove any distraction from visitors. Shopify does not want users navigating away from this page to explore the website. The sole purpose of this landing page is to collect as many emails as possible from leads. Anything element that does not serve this goal should be removed.
The remaining content on the landing page includes brief benefits of using Shopify: product features, price of service, and social proof.
Airbnb Host Recruiting Landing Page
Link: https://www.airbnb.com/host/homes
Airbnb is a two-sided marketplace that allows owner’s of living spaces to rent out homes, rooms, apartments, and other lodging arrangements to guests. These owners’ are referred to as hosts, and they supply Airbnb’s inventory. It is important for Airbnb to have the best private lodging arrangements sold in their marketplace and this is achieved by recruiting the best hosts.
The sole purpose of this landing page is to market to prospective hosts and convince them to sign up to Airbnb. Notice none of the content on this landing page is targeted towards guests. The headline, lede text, call-to-action button, and all subsequent text and images is meant to provide as much information to convince hosts to sign up.
Apple Landing Page for the MacBook Pro
Link: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-16/
As a company, Apple has always promoted high-quality aesthetic design in both its hardware and software products. From a visual perspective, this is one of my favorite landing pages.
The big bold headline, “The best for the brightest”, which sit closely in-between an image of the product they are promoting and the name of the product itself. This is one of the most detail-oriented landing pages I have ever seen. It is meant to highlight every intricate detail of the product, explain why it is the best on the market, and why this product is made for the best creators and tech enthusiasts who are their target audience.
All of their product landing pages take on this design style.
Like most good landing pages, it includes a good headline, product image, promotional text, and a call-to-action (blue “Buy” button).
Click on the link, and take a look at their landing page. It’s too long for me to break down every detail in this article, but I want you to see how creative you can get with landing pages.
Landing page setup tutorial with WordPress
We are going to create a very simple landing page today that promotes an example upcoming webinar event for teaching viewers how to bake a pizza. We are going to assume you already have an existing website built with WordPress. If not, follow our simple tutorial on how to setup a free WordPress website in under 10 minutes.
There are many different types of landing pages each having their own reasons to include certain elements on the page for conversion rate optimization; however, we will focus on the most basic features every landing page should include: headline, description, contact info collection form, and a call-to-action.
Step 1: Create the page
Login into your WordPress admin page.
Visit the “Pages” page on the dashboard
Create a new page by clicking the “Add New” button
Step 2: Create the headline
Add the headline: “Home-Cooked Pizza Webinar”
Step 3: Create the description
Next weekend we will host a free-to-attend live webinar teaching you how to bake a fresh pizza from scratch using your own home oven using ingredients you can find from your local grocery store.
If you want to attend, fill out the subscription form below.
Below we have a list of ingredients you will need if you want to follow along.
Ingredients
1 bag of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of yeast
4 teaspoons of salt
1 can of tomato sauce
4 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 teaspoons of oregano
1 stick of fresh mozzarella cheese (or your cheese of choice)
1 stick of fresh uncut pepperoni sausageEvent Details
Date: Saturday, May 8th
Time: 2pm – 5pm (3 hours)
Price: FreeWebinar Link: zoom.com/link/abc123!9sd#P5
Webinar Password: homepizzaparty
Step 4: Create a contact info form
You will need to download a form plugin that will allow attendees to enter their contact information. In this tutorial, I am using the WPForms plugin. You can use any form builder you want, so if you have one already, you don’t need to install WPForms.
Visit the “WPForms” page
Click the “Add New” button to create a new form
Title the form “Landing Page Form”
Click the “Create a Simple Contact Form” module below
Create the landing page form to collect attendees’ first name, last name, and email address, so we can contact them in the future if anything changes with the event.
Add the following form fields:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Email Address
- Submit Button
Delete the “Comment or Message” field. We don’t need it.
Save the form and close this window
Step 5: Create a call-to-action
Now, we need to add the form to the landing page. Go back to the landing page editing page again.
At the bottom of the page, enter a new text block: “Attendee Signup Form”
Below this, add a WPForm block by clicking the “plus” icon, type “WPForms” into the search popup box, and click the “WPForms” element button
Select the name of the form we just created: “Landing Page Form”
The Landing Page Form should appear.
That’s it! View the preview of your landing page or publish it. On your landing page, make sure you are able to submit the contact form.
Note, if your form does not work, make sure your form plugin settings are set up correctly. Visit the settings page of WPForms or whatever form plugin you are using. You can configure your form to collect entries in your WordPress database or email the entries to your email address.
