Landing Page Formula
I’ve roasted 1,000+ landing pages. The goal of a landing page is for prospects to imagine ownership (and loving it).
Here’s the order of elements that makes your landing page replace a sales team (with examples) ↓
Landing Page Formula Checklist
[ ] 1. Identity (Logo + Name)
[ ] 2. Headline
[ ] 3. Sub-headline
[ ] 4. Hero Image / Magic Trick
[ ] 5. Call to Action (CTA) + Assurances
[ ] 6. Social Proof + Credibility
[ ] 7. 0-100 Demo / Onboarding / Portfolio
[ ] 8. Steps to Value
[ ] 9. Hero Features / Services
[ ] 10. Rest of The Features / SOPs
[ ] 11. Testimonials / Case Studies / Results
[ ] 12. Pricing
[ ] 13. Lead Capture for Nurturing / Invite to Community
[ ] 14. Use Cases
[ ] 15. FAQs
[ ] 16. Contact Info
[ ] 17. Resources / Legal
[ ] 18. Optional: Founder’s Letter
1. Identity (Logo + Name)
The most important part of your business is a name. The name is what you build trust with. The logo is secondary.
The goal for both the logo and name = Easy to remember
Logo = simple + low visual processing + striking
Name = easy to say + easy to read + easy to spell when you hear it + includes TLD when not .com
Examples: fly(dot)io, A Hundred Monkeys, jam(dot)dev
2. Headline
Make a BIG promise that relieves a big PAIN in a SPECIFIC target market. This is usually a BIIIG BENEFIT.
Goal = Create a ton of excitement and hope for your solution.
Examples:
- Build in a weekend, Scale to millions (Pain: time + scale)
- Own Your Email (Pain: security + recurring payment)
- Fire your photographer (Pain: high costs of real photographer)
3. Sub-headline
Tell your customer exactly HOW you’ll deliver the promise in the headline. Don’t be afraid to be technical for a technical customer.
Goal = Give the customer an idea of ownership and an overview of the top features they’ll enjoy.
Examples:
- Supabase is an open source Firebase alternative. Start your project with a Postgres database, Authentication, instant APIs, Edge Functions, Realtime subscriptions, Storage, and Vector embeddings.
- Over 3 million apps have launched on Fly .io, leveraging global Anycast load-balancing, zero-config private networking, hardware isolation, and instant WireGuard VPN connections, with push-button deployments scaling to thousands of instances.
- Need more than just a sign-in box? Clerk is a complete suite of embeddable UIs, flexible APIs, and admin dashboards to authenticate and manage your users.
4. Hero Image / Magic Trick
To seal the deal, SHOW the results / how easy it is to get the results your solution promises.
Goal = Make it super easy to IMAGINE ownership.
Examples:
- Magnific(dot)ai’s sliders
- AnimeJS animating hero
- Jam(dot)dev’s hero image
5. Call to Action (CTA) + Assurances
This is the main reason the landing page exists. So make it clear and stack all your assurances around the CTA.
It should be obvious what the next step will be before you click.
Assurances = guarantees, easiness, compatibility
Goal = Give customers the confidence that their pain relief is a click away.
Examples:
6• Social Proof and Credibility
Your customer should be sold by now and is looking for proof that your product is trustworthy.
Show them a snapshot of total usage / reviews / results.
Goal = Proof your solution works for your customers, their peers, and their role models (influencers, leaders, publications, etc.).
7. 0-100 Demo / Live Demo / Portfolio
The easiest way to show how easy it is for your customer to get value is to show them how to go from 0 → 100 in less than 100 seconds if possible. For service businesses show a portfolio of your work that link to case studies ideally.
Goal = Reduce / eliminate the time-to-value.
Examples:
- Click “watch demo” next to the main CTA Clerk(dot)com
- tldraw(dot)com
- For more elaborate demos, show the demo AFTER explaining the features
8. Steps to Value
How does a user get started? Show them at a glance the steps required to get rockin’ and rollin’ with your product or service. An overview of the time to full value.
Goal = Show the customers how easily it is to get started
Examples:
9. Hero Features / Services
Pick up to 3 of your top (most valuable) features / services and showcase them. Imagine each feature is its own product and follow the headline sub-headline combo like this:
- Feature-title
- Headline
- Sub-headline
- Hero-video
Remember to imply the benefit with the copy and explicitly show the feature working in the supporting visual.
Goal: Differentiate your product and excite the prospect
Examples: Almost every website you’ve bought from crushes this section.
10. All Features / Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Smaller showcases of the rest of the features. A masterful way of doing is to predict objections and address them with features or standard-operating-procedures if it’s a service.
Goal: Handle objections and show the full scope of the product or service
Examples:
This is tech specs, comparison charts, etc. Apple does a great job of this in their product pages.
11. Testimonials / Case Studies / Results
Make the excitement real. Show how others have loved these features / services you created. Focus on highlighting results.
Goal: Anchor the benefits of the features or services in real life examples.
12. Pricing
Ask. Show them your packages and make sure your pricing is competitive with the competition. Too high and you’re delusional. Too low and you’re desperate. Make your pricing fair for you and fair for your customers.
Goal: Give the customer options based on their needs.
13. Lead Capture for Nurturing / Invite to Community
If for any reason a customer doesn’t buy but is still interested, you want to give them an easy way to stay in touch. Invite them to your community platform or have them sign up to a nurturing sequence to raise their education level to the point they need the product.
Goal: Capture high-intent leads
14. Use Cases
No need to show the full use case. Just list a couple to get the imagination flowing. You can link out to the full use case. This can also be anchored in a case study to make it more real.
Goal: Convince the skeptical and capture the lead
15. FAQs
FAQs are not necessarily frequently asked questions. It’s a place to frame unanswered objections as questions. A successful FAQ anticipates objections the customer hasn’t thought of to give them a higher level of assurance.
Goal: Handle unanswered and high-level objections
Examples:
- bland(dot)com has not a single FAQ section but the objection handling in the security section is a masterclass
16. Contact Info
If for any reason the customer still has questions, make it easy to contact you.
Goal: Connect with customers with questions
17. Resources / Legal
This is your typical footer and to make it even more useful, turn into a directory of your educational (SEO) resources.
Goal: Give a complete curriculum that takes a prospect from noob to pro and ready for your product
Examples:
18. Optional: Founder’s Letter
Share your story from the perspective of “why would they care?”
Goal: Give them reasons to root for you + Show them you’re in it for the long-haul