This Landing Page Formula Dropped Acquisition Cost by 50% for Fortune 500 Brands

Author
Josh Zhang
Published
December 21, 2023

It’s every marketer’s worst nightmare when your campaigns are driving traffic to your landing page but no one is converting.


Is your messaging wrong? Does the design miss completely? Is your funnel broken altogether? Time is running out as you scramble to diagnose the error and fix it.


In this post, I’ll outline a secret formula for landing page optimization. This is honestly one of my favorite things in the eCommerce DTC/CPG industry. This formula will focus on the key elements you need in order to create an effective landing page that drives traffic conversion.


Before we start, let’s cover some of the landing page basics to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

What is a landing page?

Simply put, landing pages are web pages placed in-between platforms that you use to drive traffic. This is where you are trying to lead a customer in your campaigns.


An example would be a product page or even a cart page for checking out.


Landing pages exist for different purposes. You might create one for a specific campaign to target a specific segment of your audience.


It’s important to know the core landing pages that DTC/CPG brands commonly create, so you can begin to build these and have them ready in your back pocket.

Types of DTC/CPG landing pages

With the different products/verticals/AOV/goals, there exist varying types of landing pages you could use.


Some of the popular ones you might need include:

  • Build Your Own Bundle Landing Page -This page invites consumers to select from various products to create their own bundle and check out.
  • Click-Through Landing Page - This page can be structured similarly to a collections page that shows your products grouped together by different use cases and heavily focused on the WHY behind your product and brand.
  • Hero Landing Page - This page would include a single product or offer with a call-to-action.
  • Listicle Landing Page - This page would include long-form content that is related to your product in the form of an article, resource, ebook, or a product ranking list.
  • Quiz Landing Page - This page would populate a specific product for the consumer to buy based on existing data you have already gathered from them in the form of an online quiz.


By understanding the different types of landing pages and their uses, you can begin to draft, design, and create effective landing pages for nearly any campaign.

The DNA of every landing page

When it comes to landing pages, the big idea you should be selling is the “why.”


Don’t focus on the product itself (the “what”). Instead, tell the consumer why they need to make the purchase at the very minute they open your landing page.


For you to know that your landing page is a success, you should be able to carry a person who’s never heard of whatever product or service you offer and take them through the entire process or “funnel” in a single step.

This should be achieved while simultaneously showing them:

  • Why they shouldn’t go another minute without the product
  • All the awesome features and benefits of your product
  • What they’ll gain from buying your product
  • How your product will make their lives at least 7X better
  • Why your product is the best compared to anything else on the market

Simply put, if you were to pitch your product to a curious 10-year-old who has a never-ending stream of “whys”, you should be able to answer all those questions as the customer scrolls through your landing page.

Now that you know the core focus of your landing pages, let’s take a look at the components needed to make an effective one.

How to make an effective landing page

Before jumping to the various sections of a landing page, allow me to share a small disclaimer: this is all from my own day-to-day experience. These are all tried and tested!

This post isn’t intended to be a digest of what the experts are saying. Instead, it’s the best approach to creating an effective landing page from what I’ve seen from the hundreds I’ve created in partnership with the brands I advise. These best practices can inform great landing page design and provide a template for you to use in your business.

Here’s the formula that I’ve found to be the best way to make an effective landing page.

1. Hero ​section

Your hero section is the primary section of your landing page. This is the first impression that the consumer will have of your site and brand.


Make sure that this includes a page headline that’s compelling and on-brand as well as a sub-heading that focuses on your product or offering.


The most memorable part of your hero is the photo that you use. Select a high-quality hero image that clearly showcases your product. However, make sure that you shrink the image before uploading it. You don’t want your landing page to suffer from slow load times and other page speed issues. By compressing the image, you’ll ensure that the page loads correctly and efficiently, positively impacting your SEO.


Next, incorporate some element of social proof into the hero, whether it’s the number of customer reviews, certifications, awards, or even a testimonial from a happy customer. This adds credibility to your business with your target audience.


Finally, make sure that the price (or discounted price) is featured. If it’s a promotion you’re running, you’ll want to make sure it will pop off the page and grab the visitors’ attention.


All of this should appear above the fold so the prospects can capture all the necessary information before they begin to scroll.

2. The WHY section

As I stated above, the focus of the entire landing page should be on why the visitor should purchase your product and the benefits they’ll get from it.

It’s so important that you should reinforce this idea with an entire section devoted to it.

Pretend you’re explaining your product to a twelve-year-old and break it down as far as you can. Don’t use any unnecessary industry jargon.

Keep it simple. Describe your offering and what they’ll gain from it.

3. How it works section

Don’t just assume your product is self-explanatory. Show how it works.

The best way to do this is to provide a video or step-by-step imagery that corresponds with your product’s primary use case.

You’ll benefit a great deal if you can demonstrate to your prospective customer exactly how your product works. Make use of things like minimal text and icons to make it understandable and easy to digest.

4. Brag bar

This is your one chance to win over someone who lands on your site — don’t blow it! You should brag about all the things your product can do and provide.

That’s why it’s important to add a brag bar underneath your product demonstration.

A brag bar is a section that includes all the accolades about your product. Think of it as a quick ad of what others are saying about your product. It can include customer testimonials, a quote, media logos, and anything else you have that can reinforce your credibility.

This is your chance to showcase your media wins and what your customers love about your company.

If you decide to include quotes, make sure that the specific quotes really push the value of your product. Don’t just publish the first quote you can get. This can result in empty, glossy quotes that don’t really serve as an inspiration for visitors who might be on the fence.

5. Shop section

At this point, the customer is a few sections into the page, and that’s your cue to really sell your product. You’ve already shared information on the product. Now it’s time to make sure your product’s value propositions are presented as well.

Don’t forget to place a high-quality image of the product to give the customer a glimpse of what they’ll be getting, as well as the quantity, any available coupon codes, and social proof as you did in the hero.

If you’re pushing one product only, make sure you include an “Add to Cart” call-to-action button that leads the customer straight to the cart with the specific product and the coupon automatically applied.

By having this feature built into your CTA button, you’ll make the check-out process as smooth as possible.

6. Comparison section

Your prospective customer should get a clear idea of why your product is better than anything offered by your competitors. In addition, you should highlight some of the competitors that your customer might be familiar with in order to

Outline them in a visual chart and show them something that makes it obvious your product is better. It’s important that you’re honest in this section—don’t lie to make one aspect of your product sound better than it really is just to beat a competitor.

7. Customer reviews

There’s no better social proof than actually showcasing customer reviews.

Similar to the press quotes, focus on highlighting customer quotes that evangelize the benefits that the customer got from the product or the value propositions you want to really push.

8. Ingredients (for food/beverage)

If you don’t show ingredients, and you’re a food/beverage product, you’re losing out on a ton of people who will have immediate questions.

Prospective buyers will appreciate your transparency, and this added information might be exactly what health-conscious shoppers need to convert. Always include this section.

9. Shop section

Include another shop section that is identical to the first one. This is the visitor’s second chance to add more products to their cart after learning more.

10. Footer

Wrap up your landing page with a simple footer that includes your social icons and even an email or text capture form to grow your SMS database or newsletter email list.

Building your landing page

Ecommerce landing pages might all have different designs, but this formula is a commonality in most of them. There are so many landing page builders (including a drag and drop builder like Unbounce) available for entrepreneurs and business owners, so there is no excuse to not have a polished, consumer-friendly design.


With this formula, you’ll be able to create an effective landing page that drives more conversions and ultimately looks great on your customers’ mobile device or desktop screen.