Best landing page builders

Any marketer will tell you that the first step to establishing an online presence is to have a killer website. But a website alone won’t turn visitors into known users, and known users into customers. For that, you need something a little more specific. 

Landing pages can supercharge your marketing efforts and are integral for lead capture and conversion. But building landing pages can be arduous and technical.

Landing page builders are tools that help marketers easily create landing pages that convert website visitors. All you have to do is find the best-fit tool for your business.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to optimize a landing page to maximize results, provide examples of good landing pages from SaaS, PLG, and ecommerce businesses, and tell you what the best landing page builders are.

What is a landing page?

If you’re not sure exactly what a landing page is, you’ve definitely seen a lot of them.

A landing page (aka lead capture page) is a specific page on a website where a visitor “lands” to buy a product/service or to receive a resource (e.g. ebook, webinar invitation) in exchange for their contact information (e.g. email address).

The purpose of a landing page is to incentivize a visitor to take a single action - typically to fill out a custom signup form. Landing pages will seldom include navigation buttons so visitors are less likely to click out of the page and more likely to take the desired action.

Landing page vs. home page

A landing page is different to a homepage (i.e. the front page of a website) because the latter typically includes more navigation buttons and links in the menu tab, footer, sidebar, etc. to give visitors multiple options. 

Also, call-to-action (CTA) prompts are more broad on homepages (e.g. “Find out more.”) compared to landing pages (e.g. “Download this ebook” or “Join our newsletter”), because the landing page has one goal: to convince the visitor to take the desired action.

Another differentiator is that landing pages are typically tailored to a specific audience/visitor based on their interests and behaviors. For example, a newsletter subscriber may read about an upcoming webinar in a company’s newsletter and click on the link. They would then be taken directly to a landing page designed to encourage the visitor to register to the webinar by leaving their details, such as their name, email, job title, industry, etc. The company can then use this data to target the user in the future.

How do landing pages actually work?

We’ve established that landing pages are a good idea…if you can drive traffic to them. So, how do you do that? There are a few different ways:

• Email marketing: You can put a link to a landing page in your emails, e.g. in your newsletter to convert subscribers.

• Social media: Post landing page links across your social network (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).

• Content marketing: You may embed landing page links within a blog post.

• SEO: You can (read: should) optimize your landing pages for SEO to boost their discoverability on search engines like Google. We’ll look at this a little more later.

• Paid advertising: Whether social, search, native content, or display, paid advertising is a great way to drive traffic and conversions. Just make sure to get specific with your targeting to avoid wastage. 

Landing page optimization tips

A typical landing page bounce rate benchmark in 60-90%. This means that if 10 people land on your landing page, six to nine of them will leave the page without taking the desired action.

Luckily, there are tricks to make your landing pages more appealing, more persuasive, and more likely to convert.

1. Keep it simple

The purpose of a landing page is to get a visitor to take one action. Therefore, copy, images, graphics, buttons, etc. that don’t contribute to that goal are just noise. Visual clutter will act as a distraction, so only include what you must.

2. Clear CTA

If a visitor lands on your landing page but is confused about what they should do next, they’ll simply click off it. Ensure your CTA is a clear instruction. The visitor should know, within seconds, what to do and what they will receive in return.

Note: Personalized CTAs convert 202% better than a normal CTA.

3. Strong headlines

There is a temptation to be uber creative with headlines, but headlines that are not straightforward and punchy will not convert visitors. 

4. A/B test copy and images

A/B testing different headlines, body copy, CTA copy, images and colours will enable you to identify which elements perform the best, so that you can ensure the page optimized for conversion. Indeed, 60% of companies believe A/B testing is highly valuable to CRO.

5. Add testimonials

Add customer testimonials to enhance credibility and persuasion. Seeing social proof of your products and services is often what gets undecided customers over the line.

6. Optimize for SEO

If your landing pages are SEO-optimized, people can find them organically. This is great for brand awareness and lead generation.

Ensure your landing page is optimized for the relevant industry-related search terms to appear high in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

A big tip for optimizing a landing page for SEO is to ensure relevant, industry-related keywords are used throughout the page, in your title tag, image tags, and in the meta data (description and title). Specifically, think of your meta title and description as a billboard for your website.

7. Experiment with exit-intent pop-ups

Vistors may abandon your landing pages for many reasons – maybe they simply weren’t interested in your content. An exit-intent pop-up can serve as the last attempt to keep them on the site and get them to convert.

Exit-intent pop-ups work by embedding a short script into a software that is triggered when a visitor’s cursor moves outside the browser’s upper page boundary on a desktop, or following a number of actions (e.g. pressing the back button, scroll percentage, etc.) on a mobile.

See how Zendesk utilizes an exit-intent pop-up to urge visitors to sign up for a demo. 

Landing page examples

Let’s look at a few landing page examples from SaaS, PLG and ecommerce businesses.

HelloFresh

Meal-kit company HelloFresh builds dedicated landing pages for its promotional offerings. The company Tweeted about their sponsorship of the streaming service Hulu’s show, How I Met Your Father. The Twitter link directs to a landing page with the show’s branding and imagery. There is a ‘Watch now’ button leading to Hulu, as well as a “Claim your meals” button for $120 off. The landing page is visually appealing with an amalgamation of both Hulu’s and HelloFresh’s brand identities, and the CTAs – one to serve each party – are clear. See below.

Dropbox

Dropbox built a landing page for its Dropbox Business plan which offers all the information a visitor needs to know. The heading is clear, the CTA button stands out, and there’s a toggle to see the price of different plans billed monthly vs. billed yearly. There is also a live chat bot to answer queries. Note: By 2022, 85% of companies are expected to adopt live chat support. See Dropbox’s landing page below.

Expensify

Expense management software company Expensify uses landing pages to capture visitors' contact information, namely their email addresses. Colours are bold, headings are strong, and the CTA is clear. See below.

Calendly

Scheduling platform Calendly built a landing page specifically to target enterprise businesses and marketers. The copy on this landing page is different to that of the homepage – the latter is broader, explaining what Calendly is, whereas the enterprise-tailored landing page tells the visitor what Calendly can do for their business. See below.

Disney Store

Disney Store has landing pages for popular product categories. For example, there is a landing page specifically for Minnie Mouse-themed products to convert visitors who are known to have an interest. See below.

What is a landing page builder?

A landing page builder is a tool that allows you to build custom landing pages, manage them and optimize them to improve performance. With the right landing page builder, you can capitalize on your marketing efforts by capturing leads and presenting targeted messages to specific audiences. The result: increased sales and conversions.

It is possible to build your own landing page through hand-coding, or by using a CMS like WordPress. But if you don’t have the technical know-how, this route is difficult.

Another major plus: landing page builders can drastically cut down the time it takes to build a landing page. In a SaaS world where things move fast, this is essential. We're talking about needing to build and publish landing pages in minutes, not hours or days. Landing page builders promise speed.

Landing page builder features

Leveraging a landing page builder is a quick and easy alternative. Some common functionalities of such software include:

• Landing page templates: Being able to choose from multiple basic templates means you don’t have to build a landing page from scratch. Having a template also means you can iterate landing pages at speed.

• CTA integration: You should be able to incorporate whatever CTA you wish, e.g. signup forms, contact detail collection, product offering, promotional code retrieval, etc.

• Easily customizable: Because the coding isn’t too advanced, it should be easy to customize your landing pages.

• Landing page analytics: A landing page builder should offer a degree of analytics so you can measure the performance of your landing pages.

The features listed above are standard practices for a landing page builder. In addition to the must-haves, below are what some of the more advanced softwares can offer:

• A/B testing: Some landing page builders allow you to create two versions of a landing page to see which performs better.

• CSS: Many landing page builders use simple code, but some offer the option to use CSS.

• Custom domain: Some landing page builders provide users with the opportunity to use custom domains, though this is usually a paid-for feature.

• AI: Some landing page builders leverage AI to help users build optimized landing pages, including generating conversion-driven copy.

• Specific templates: Basic templates are great to use when you’re getting started, but some tools offer industry-specifc and itention-specific landing pages. All you have to do is drag and drop your content.

• Payment processing: Some Pro plans offer users the option to add a checkout form to a landing page (e.g. Stripe)

• Integration with your tech stack: Some software offers integration with other marketing tools like email marketing software.

10 best landing page builders

Now that you know the basic, must-have features of a landing page builder, as well as the advance, nice-to-have features, you can start to compare tools to find the right fit for your business.

1. Leadpages

Known for: Creating landing pages that sell to users as well as educate them.

Leadpages is a digital lead generation software platform designed to enable marketers and entrepreneurs to scale their business by building websites and landing pages. Leadpages optimizes every page to ensure maximum lead collection and conversions. There isn’t a limit on the amount of pages users can publish, and tech skills are not required to do so.

Key features:

• Drag and drop

• Content library

• Templates

• Advanced customization

• A/B testing

• SEO

• Mobile responsive

• Web analytics

• Ecommerce/email marketing/domain integration 

2. Unbounce

Known for: Machine learning-powered, pre-optimized landing page templates.

The Unbounce Conversion Intelligence Platform helps marketers convert visitors into leads, customers, and sales through pre-optimized landing pages. Unbounce’s landing pages are machine learning-powered, and landing page copy is tailored to the user’s industry, audience, and campaign goals to maximize conversions.

Key features:

• No-code customization

• A/B testing

• CRM/email integrations

• Email marketing/domain integration

• Drag and drop

• Content library

• Templates 

• Advanced customization

• SEO

• Web analytics 

3. Instapage

Known for: High conversion rates across 100 countries.

Instapage is a landing page builder that aims to help digital marketers maximize their advertizing returns. Instapage users can execute scalable page creation, ad mapping, experimentation, personalization and run analytics, all in a unified environment. This makes it easy to create, optimize, manage and measure multiple landing pages.

Key features:

• Webpage element analysis

• Heat maps

• Templates

• Advanced customization

• Content library

• Drag-and-drop

• A/B testing

• SEO

• Email marketing integration

• Domain integration

4. Swipe Pages

Known for: Affordability and ease-of-use.

Swipe Pages is an affordable landing page builder where users can build Google AMP landing pages without writing any code. Swipe Pages offers over 40 landing page templates, which can be A/B tested and tracked using in-built analytics functionality. Swipe Pages can be integrated with CRM and email marketing software as well with as Zapier.

Key features:

• Drag and drop

• Content library

• Templates

• Advanced customization

• A/B testing

• SEO

• Mobile responsive

• Web analytics

• Ecommerce/email marketing/domain integration

5. Carrd

Known for: Highly customizable landing page templates.

Carrd is a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to build one-page landing pages, profiled, portfolios, forms or websites. Carrd offers pre-built themes and templates for free, but users can also create custom pages. Developers can publish sites to custom domains and subdomains, and can also embed custom HTML, JavaScript, and CSS codes.

Key features:

• Pre-built templates

• Domain name

• Content library

• Drag and drop

• Embed custom HTLM, JavaScript and CSS

• Password management

• Multimedia support

• Mobile optimization

• Custom fields/templates/fotms

6. Leadfox

Known for: All-in-one platform for SMBs and agencies.

Leadfox is a marketing automation software where users can deploy all marketing tactics including emails, landing pages, pop-ups, banners, A/B tests, advertising and more. The platform is suited to SMBs and agencies who are entering the world of digital marketing and need an easy-to-use solution.

 Key features:

• Build and personalize emails

• Sending outbound emails

• Manage email deliverability

• Automated email responses

• Landing pages and forms

• Dynamic content

• A/B testing 

• Mobile optimized

7. Convertkit

Known for: Landing pages for email newsletters.

Convertkit is a marketing automation tool that delivers a simple solution for creating drip email campaigns to automatically send emails to new subscribers. The tool is perfect for users looking to create a landing page to launch an email newsletter – and it’s easy to do so.

Key features:

• Email and mobile preview

• Manage email lists

• High-volume sending

• Building and personalizing emails

• Manage email deliverability

• Automated email responses

• Multi-user account

• Surveys

• A/B testing

• Basic reporting

8. KickoffLabs

Known for: Lead collection for newsletters, launches, events, discounts and more.

KickoffLabs offers lead generating landing pages, opt-in forms, and launch pages. It has in-built referral tracking and email marketing functionality to enable marketers to easily measure the performance of their marketing efforts.

Key features:

• A/B testing

• Drag and drop

• Form builder

• Landing page builder

• Referral generation

• Customizable templates

• Lead data and campaign analytics 

• Basic reporting

9. Wishpond

Known for: Landing pages, contests, and lead tracking.

Wishpond is a platform of tools for lead generation and marketing automation. It enables marketers to build landing pages, forms, and contests/promotions, and automates marketing processes.

Key features:

• Building and personalizing emails

• Sending outbound emails

• Automated email responses

• Manage email deliverability

• Landing pages and forms

• Mobile optimized

• Marketing lead database

• Marketing lead database

• Basic reporting

• Templates

10. Wix

Known for: Customizable templates.

Website development platform Wix enables users to build a website using cloud-based creation and management tools. Users have access to hundreds of customizable templates that are easy to use with a drag and drop tool.

Key features:

• Templates

• Domain name

• Drag and drop

• HTML input

• SEO

• Site analytics

• Marketing tools

• Ecommerce 

• Hosting 

• Email integrations

• Content management

• WordPress tool

11 steps to building a landing page

Once you’ve landed on your landing page builder of choice, it’s time to get creative. Below are 11 simple steps to building a landing page, from beginning to end:

1. Select a landing page template

2. Give your landing page a name

3. Add your content

4. Include visuals (images, videos)

5. Choose a domain name

6. Add links and CTA copy

7. Optimize it for SEO

8. Hit publish

9. Link to it from multiple sources/channels

10. Track performance

11. A/B test

Once you have a landing page builder that you like, the process of creating a landing page is incredibly easy.

Final word

Landing pages are a critical component of a strong marketing strategy, and a landing page builder can accelerate those all-important conversions.