Hi! I am proficient in web fundamentals (HTML, CSS, JS, HTTP server interaction etc), and can use this to build websites or web applications, but... Building a marketing-friendly landing page seems like something else entirely!
I notice that even non-technical people build landing pages much nicer than any I've built. Are there popular tools? What do you recommend? Do they lock you into an ecosystem? How do they tie in to the rest of your application and/or domain? Can you have one just generate the HTML, CSS, and JS required as static files? Thank you!
I'm talking something where a normal person would see and think "This looks very professional and I want this". Photos of attractive people, reviews, lists of companies that use your service, just enough animations etc.
For a sample of what I'm talking about, see any of the Show HN pages.
However, I'm not sure all this design is good. Homogeneity is boring, and I think the shock value of something like https://pinboard.in can be just as, if not more valuable than all these fancy pages. It tells me "we know what we have is good, we aren't just compensating with looks". But if you want fancy pages, its not the tools in the end, just practice practice practice.