Ask HN: How to create an awesome landing page?

[jcoffland]

I've see a lot of startups announced on HN. Many with really nice landing pages. It seems like the landing page is critically important to a startup's launch since it's the first thing prospective users see. It's like a clickable elevator pitch.

My business partner and I are getting closer to launching our own startup. I'm a software developer and my partner is an EE. I feel like between the two of us we have a long list of diverse talents but graphic design and marketing are not on that list.

We have sufficient capital but not enough that we can afford to blow it on an expensive marketing firm. We used 99-designs in the past and got a logo we are quite happy with but I'm hesitant about trusting a handful of random designers with a landing page as it is not only about graphic design but also marketing. I'm also hesitant about trusting it to a marketing firm which may or may not understand tech startups.

So, HN, how should we go about creating a landing page that will help us knock it out of the park, with out breaking the bank?

[sharemywin]

Your not going to get a landing page that's going to work on the first try. also, each marketing channel may need a new page. use something like unbounce or optimizly create basic landing page. find your best 1-3 keywords on google and see if you can get any one to click past the first page. I found a basic landing page template and paid someone on elance to integrate a wufoo form and istock images into it. I ran the unbounce page with a button saying "try it" pointing to the landing page with a wufoo lead form. if people click past it to the lead form you have a basic landing page that works. if not tweek it or start with a new idea. once they click past your landing page tweak the lead form page/minisite to get them to fill out a lead form. then, you have some people to contact you can get some basic feedback of your product. then test against different versions of your landing page etc. Once you have too many people contacting you can look into automating the sign up/onboarding process.

[jcoffland → sharemywin]

Thanks, I didn't know about unbounce or optimizly. I'll look into those.

[sharemywin → jcoffland]

email me(email in profile) if you want to see what I did for a landing page.