2-11-2017 An 8-Min Guide to App Landing Pages – The Startup – Medium

Josiah Humphrey Follow
Started Appster at 19y/o to $19m revenue. High-School Dropout. Forbes 30 Under 30. 400
employees across 3 continents.
Nov 1 · 9 min read

An 8-Min Guide to App Landing Pages
Understanding the core of your app marketing strategy

Originally published on http://www.appsterhq.com/

“App landing pages are an essential component of any mobile growth

strategy” — I’m sure you’ve heard this many times over.

S easoned “appreneurs” know the importance of app landing pages

so well that you often see them setting one up before even writing a
single line of code. They know that successful app marketing involves
building excitement and landing pages are essential to drive growth.

But what makes an app landing page e ective? And if you’ve already
created one — can you be sure that it’s working as well as it could be?

These are common questions from startups we work with at Appster. In

my post below, I’ll dive into the details to share how app landing pages
drive growth, along with tried-and-tested strategies you can
implement.

What are app landing pages?

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Simply put, an app landing page is a standalone web page that your
visitor can arrive at, and was designed for a single conversion goal.

You can use it to:

Validate app ideas
Got a new idea for an app? There are several ways to use a landing page
as a testing ground for your idea.

• Request for email addresses in return for an o er; the number of

subscribers can indicate the level of user interest.

• Or send out your landing page to gather feedback from potential

users — the comments you receive may o er valuable insight into
user objections and areas for improvement.

Drive app downloads
With a landing page, you’ll be able to build awareness and acquire
users through sharing the link with friends, social media followers and
in uencers — even before your app is published. And while there’s a lot
you can do with app store optimisation, a landing page provides greater
visibility, and lets you promote your app through ways that aren’t
possible on the stores.

Gather information about leads
You gain key information about the demographics of potential users
each time a visitor lls out a conversion form on your landing page.
With these insights, you’ll have a deeper understanding of the pro les
of visitors that are converting, and be better able to craft tailored
messages for these leads before you reach out for further engagement.

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Assess the e ectiveness of your marketing strategy
Through tracking and reviewing your landing page metrics, you’ll get a
clearer picture of your marketing performance — such as how visitors
are converting, how results across di erent campaigns and o ers
compare with each other or which messaging strategies work best for
your audience. Over time, the patterns and trends you gather from
these data will form valuable insights that’ll help boost your marketing
performance.

. . .

What your app landing page needs to do:

1. Convey a compelling value proposition:
The value proposition is the focal point of your marketing message, and
should succinctly highlight the following elements:

• How your app solves your users’ problems or improves their

situation

• The bene ts it delivers

• Why they should use your app as opposed to other apps in the
market

Slack’s product page is an example that checks o all the right boxes.

Team communication is a common problem at the workplace, and

Slack outlines how it addresses this problem through a concise header,
text, testimonial, as well as images of its messaging features.

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There’s also a link that leads visitors to a page with further details
about the feature, so that they aren’t bombarded with too much
information on the main product page.

Tips:

• Add a dash of humour: Where most landing pages display

information in a matter-of-fact manner, Muzzle stands out with its
humorous, “show, don’t tell” approach. Its home page, featuring
fuss-free, simple visuals, along with a series of NSFW noti cations
clearly spells out the app’s o ering: with Muzzle, you won’t have
to endure the embarrassment of having private messages pop up
while screen sharing at work.

• It’s not all about the copy: Don’t underestimate the role that
visual elements play in drawing attention to your value
proposition. Attensee is a case in point: a heatmap analysis
showed that site visitors were quickly losing interest as they
scrolled down the landing page. Without making changes to their
copy, Attensee added a yellow background behind their value
proposition to make it stand out. This simple change yielded
signi cant results, increasing conversion rates by 12 percent.

2. Display a clear call to action:
The call to action (CTA) refers to the action that you want your visitors
to perform. It could be a product purchase, xing a slot for a follow-up
call or signing up for a trial.

Whichever action it is, it’s essential that you state it clearly in your CTA,
using copy like “get started today”, “sign up for free” or “purchase
product”. Keep it simple, and avoid including additional requests — you
don’t want to distract or confuse your visitors with more than one CTA
on your landing page.

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Evernote nails it with its eye catching CTA button — the copy states the
next steps site visitors should take (sign up for a free account), and the
green colour stands out against the site’s minimalist design.

Here’s an example of what you should avoid — Paleo Leap’s homepage

features too many CTAs, such that it becomes hard for visitors to
immediately gure out what are the next steps they should take.

Tips:

• Test it out: Test out various aspects of your CTA, like the size,
colour and positioning. Try switching between di erent copy
styles too — “subscribe now” is a direct way of asking visitors to
sign up for your newsletter, while “become a growth expert”
conveys your message in an indirect manner by hinting at the
bene ts that your newsletter signup provides.

• Make it obvious: Draw attention to your CTA by positioning it at a

central, hard to miss spot, and use cues like arrows and eye

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catching colours. If you have additional CTAs on the page, make

these less prominent relative to your main CTA.

3. Feature top-notch visuals:
Distracting elements, indistinct copy, cheesy stock images — these are
the big no-nos when it comes to landing page design. ‘Less is more’ is a
good mantra to stick with; in keeping your design clean and simple,
you’ll avoid overwhelming your visitors with too much clutter.

Let’s take Breather as an example. The neutral colour scheme and

white space are easy on the eyes, and the CTA buttons are displayed in
stand out colours at central positions.

But there are exceptions to the norm. Instead of taking a minimalist

approach, Huemor uses playful animations and striking colours on its
site. Yet the elements work well together to communicate the
company’s vibrant brand image.

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Tips:

• Make it quick: Every second counts when it comes to page

loading time. According to surveys conducted by Akamai and
Gomez.com, 40 percent of users abandon a web page that takes
over three seconds to load — so make sure that your design
elements don’t wind up slowing down the load time.

• Test it out: Do animations and illustrations work better than

photographs? Which colours garner a positive response from your
audience? By testing out your visuals, you’ll arrive at a better
understand of factors and design elements that appeal to, and
resonate well with your visitors.

4. Tap the persuasive power of social proof:
How many times have you decided to order from a food stall or
restaurant just because you’ve seen a long queue forming outside? Or
went ahead with purchasing a product after reading glowing reviews
on Amazon?

The same principle applies when it comes to digital experiences.

Consumers want to feel that they aren’t the only ones buying a product
or using a service, and seek security in knowing that previous
customers are satis ed with their purchases. Social proof, in the form
of testimonials, customer pro les and press mentions adds validity to
your o ering.

Tips:

• Like attracts like: Apply the law of attraction In a Whiteboard

Friday episode on social proof, Rand Fishkin shares: “You don’t
need big numbers, just relevant testimonials. If your customers
have a fairly similar pro le, then 3–4 testimonials with photos and
brief descriptions of the people who love what you do should be
pretty e ective. The closer those individuals are to the people who
are seeing your landing pages, the better the social proof trigger is
likely to work.”

• Conduct regular updates: If you’re using your home or product

page (as opposed to a temporary landing page), keep it updated
with the latest press mentions, testimonials and statistics.

• Leverage social media: Twitter is a great platform to source for

short quotes and testimonials you can add to your landing page —

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even if it’s a quick “hey, I loved your new feature!” tweet. When
adding these quotes to your site, make sure to link it up to the
permalink of the tweet, instead of the main pro le page of the
person who posted the quote as comments will disappear down
the feed over time.

5. Follow a logical information hierarchy:
Information hierarchy refers to the order in which the information on a
page is structured. The goal here is to create an easy and e ortless
experience for your visitors: the copy should be structured such that
your visitors’ questions are addressed in a logical sequence, and the
right amount of information should be provided at the right time.

Let’s take a look at Zendesk’s home page — here’s where a little

tweaking could help provide greater clarity. The header states “We can
lend a hand”; yet, it’s the copy below (“Zendesk builds software for
better customer relationships”) that explains about their product. In
this case, switching the text around would enable visitors to
immediately understand what Zendesk o ers. Tips:

• Adopt a framework: A framework serves a handy guide you can

use during your research phase to organise the information you’ve
collected.

I’m tapping on the brains of Corey Dilley, Director of Campaign

Strategy at Unbounce for this tip. In a blog article, Dilley outlines his
go-to hierarchy for designing landing pages:

– State how the o er resolves a visitor’s pain point

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– Explain the bene t of your o er

– Explain why you’re uniquely positioned to provide the o er

– Address the most common objections users often have before they’re
willing to accept your o er

– State the CTA

– Provide social proof

As with other factors (like the CTA and visual elements), testing this
out is key. Dilley explains: “The above hierarchy is great as a jumping
o point, but depending on your unique audience, mileage may vary.
So don’t forget to test.”

• Use a variety of visual elements: Play around with colours,

di erent fonts, bullet points, headers and subheaders — these
elements indicate information hierarchy, and makes it easier for
visitors to identify key information at a glance.

In conclusion
With the right strategies and tactics in place, your app landing page can
be a key part of your growth strategy — whether you’re at the initial
stages of validating your app idea, or have arrived at the point where
you’re evaluating marketing and messaging strategies you’ve
implemented.

And while I’ve shared proven tips and go-to frameworks that startups
and businesses have used to create e ective landing pages, there isn’t a
one-size- ts-all approach — the key lies in continually testing out
strategies in order to nd out what works best for your audience.

. . .

Originally published at www.appsterhq.com.

//

Thanks for reading!

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