To achieve this, the landing page needs to tell visitors exactly what they want to know — quickly and clearly. 

When creating successful SaaS websites and landing pages, there is no finish line. You have to continuously optimize your page based on performance and feedback from testing.

Let’s take a look at the steps for creating an effective SaaS landing page.

Know your audience

Before you dive into design and content creation, ask yourself, “who am I creating this page for?” Understanding your target audience — their needs, desires, and pain points –— allows you to deliver more effective content, which, in turn, helps increase conversions. 

Think about who you’re talking to. The features and selling points you highlight for a user — the people who use your Saas product directly — may be different from those you showcase to the people who make the buying decision. The calls to action (CTAs) could vary as well. For instance, users might be interested in webinars or demos while buyers might prefer a free trial. 

The better you know your audience, the easier it will be to create content that speaks to them. When you use the same design and content for every persona, your conversion rates will suffer. 

Create your SaaS landing page

Once you know who you are creating the page for, what features you need to highlight, and what your CTA will be, it is time to lay out your page. Your landing page should include:

• A hero containing your call to action
• A section for product features
• A section to display social proof
• A repeat of your call to action
• A section containing things like FAQs to inspire confidence 
  

The hero

The hero is your first impression. It needs to capture the attention of your audience and be compelling enough for them to want to read further. Statistically, you only have a few seconds before visitors bounce, so keep the content in your hero clear, concise, and eye-catching. Include a value-driven headline, a feature-focused subheading, and a CTA that provides value or creates FOMO. 

For instance, let’s imagine we are creating a landing page for a fictional project management app: SuccessPM. We could use the following content in our hero section: 

Headline: Manage successful projects in one app

Subheading: With SuccessPM, all of your work is in one place. Manage tasks, timelines, chats, documents, and more, on one platform. 

CTA: Try SuccessPM for Free (No Credit Card Required)

In this example, the headline describes the solution that your product provides. The subheading then highlights the features of the app that support this outcome. The CTA offers a free trial, and goes one step further to reduce friction by letting the viewer know they can try the app without having to provide credit card information (which can hinder conversions).

When adding imagery to your header, try featuring a part of the product that demonstrates your unique selling point. Here’s some key things to consider:: 

• When possible, avoid using stock photos as they can come off as inauthentic. 
• Video can work great as well, but be sure to consider web accessibility when adding animations and video to your webpage. 
• Keeping animations subtle and providing static images alternatives is key. 
  

Pro tip: if you include people in your imagery, have them facing your CTA. This subliminally directs attention to the call to action.

Product features

Next, highlight product features that provide solutions to your audience’s pain points — and demonstrate how these features solve them. If you have a very complex product, focus on specific features with clear benefits for your current target audience. If you try to include everything, you could overwhelm your visitors with too much information. 

Consider our fictional app from above. The SuccessPM app is a robust product management tool, and therefore has too many features to explain with one landing page. Instead, we should focus on the features that solve our main pain point: combining the functionality of multiple apps into one. We could highlight features like the ability to integrate different chat platforms into the app, as well as different document editors, like Google Drive and Microsoft 365.

When using imagery, demonstrate your product in action as much as possible. Show your audience how your product works, how it will delight them, and how it solves their pain points.

Social proof

Social proof is used to instill trust in your audience. When visitors see positive outcomes and case studies it inspires confidence in the services and solutions your product (and company) provides. When pulling testimonials and success stories, target those that align with your intended audience. Visitors are more likely to convert when they feel represented in the testimonials. 

A testimonial that mentions statistics like “We saw a 20% increase in productivity across our entire team!” will hold much more weight than more basic testimonials like “This app is amazing!”

Other common forms of social proof can include client logos, awards, partnerships, ratings, and press coverage.

The call-to-action (CTA)

A landing page should only have one conversion goal — an action for the site visitor to complete. We include this call to action in the hero of the landing page, but it’s a good idea to repeat the CTA button below the fold as well, after visitors have spent time exploring your page and product. This gives your audience a second chance to convert without having to scroll to the top of the page, reducing friction for the site visitor. 

The wording of your CTA can vary slightly from the initial one, but the goal must be the same. Since we were offering a free trial in the hero of our SuccessPM landing page, we should repeat that offer below. However for this CTA we could change the button text from “Try SuccessPM today” to “Start your free trial.” 

Pro tip: For true A/B testing analytics, I would recommend keeping the CTA wording the same, at least for the initial launch of the page. This will give you better insight in the behaviors of your visitors. If you notice your visitors tend to click your CTA below the fold more, it indicates their action is more location based. From there you may want to do a second iteration where you change the language of the hero CTA (while still offering the same conversion goal), and see if that alters the click behavior of your users. 

Inspire confidence 

If a visitor has made it this far down the page, there’s a good chance they have some interest in your product. They may just need a little push. This final section of your landing page is your last chance to build your audience’s confidence and trust in your product. Two great things to include are FAQs for your target audience and competitor comparison charts highlighting the benefits of your product.

Continuously optimize

Saas landing pages are never truly “done.” Once you publish your page, it’s time to measure performance.  

Start by measuring metrics like:

• Conversion rate: percentage of visitors that click your CTA or fill out your signup form
• Bounce rate: percentage of visitors that landed on your page and left
• Time on page: how long the average visitor stays on your page
• Scroll depth: how far down the page the average user scrolls

I recommend checking your page analytics weekly. This will give you a good idea of how the page is performing and what needs to be refined. You can then use this information to make informed changes on design, layout, and content. 

For instance, if users seem to bounce at a certain scroll depth, rework that section to encourage people to keep scrolling. If your page has a high initial bounce rate, your hero and unique selling point likely need tweaks. Pick one area to focus on at a time and run A/B tests to see if these changes improve your page metrics. 

Remember — if your saas landing page isn’t converting, it’s not serving its purpose. Continuously measuring performance helps you stay on top of results and make more informed decisions about landing page changes. 

Focus on the benefits

Your voice and tone has a huge impact on the success of your page. In fact, studies show that using simple content and evoking positive emotions (like joy and anticipation instead of fear and pessimism) can actually increase conversion rates. While it’s important to target your audience’s pain points, your copy should focus on your product’s outcomes and solutions, rather than doubling down on their pain. 

Consider these two headlines:

1. “Stop wasting time managing multiple apps”
2. “Manage successful projects in one app”
   

The first headline reads like a reprimand. It evokes anger and frustration, and sets a negative tone for the rest of your page. In contrast, the second headline uses positive language and provides a future state for your audience to aspire to.

Building a successful SaaS landing page takes time, research, and continuous optimization. Focus on truly understanding your audience and building content that speaks to their needs, desires, and aspirations.