Our path to a converting landing page, in pictures

I thought it might be useful to others if I share the previous versions of our landing page that were not converting visitors into signups and the one that started converting at around 10% rate.

Feel free to skip to the last screenshot — the current version that works.

For context, the landing page is for a service that allows early stage startups to collect feedback from their users, act on it, and grow much faster as a result.

Version 1

(Before our designer joined the team, as you can probably tell)

Main idea: focus on the holy grail of any early stage startup — the product market fit. It's true that startups that actively solicit user feedback are more likely to win so we wanted to speak directly to that.

Ultimately discarded this version because it's too narrow a message for the main stage. Not a lot of traffic for these keywords, etc etc. We still use this messaging but on a dedicated landing page for the product-market fit survey (which is a great survey that everyone should run).

The visuals (in the grey squares) are irrevocably lost but honestly there wasn't much to look at in the first place.

Version 2

Main idea: focus on YC's mantra — "Make something people want". The first step in making something people want is finding out what is it that people want. We provide a pathway to that.

+ better visuals, more features, better feeling that this is a real product, not a landing page with a waiting list behind it (which was the case for the version above).

Discarded this version because it didn't resonate enough for people to convert.

Version 3

The main idea: differentiate ourselves from competition by using different language. The other guys™ typically focus on efficiency, managing large volumes of feedback, feedback portals, voting for features etc.

We wanted to focus on the stage before you need all that. The stage when no one wants to give you any feedback, yet. The very humble beginnings of a startup.

It's incredibly difficult to get feedback at that stage. A great way to cut through the indifference is by being very human, very approachable, present, proactive, etc etc.

We wanted our messaging to reflect that.

+ more refined visuals
+ more features
+ integrations
+ usecases
+ lower pricing

And yet, this landing page did not convert.

This messaging still describes really well how we're different but ultimately, it wasn't strong enough.

(there is an artefact on the screenshot: the sticky header didn't stick correctly)

Current version

This version sells. For high-quality traffic sources (like indiehackers and similar), it gives us about 10% conversion rate (visitor-to-successful-signup).

For this version, we spoke to a sales strategy consultant, and also a marketing person joined the team. I highly recommend talking to a professional if you're stuck.

Main idea: tie feedback to growth while still maintaining our human approach.

Everybody wants growth. It's also true that feedback leads to dramatic growth. In hindsight, it seems soooo obvious that this is the exactly correct framing.

+ beginning of templates
+ beginning of blog
+ better visuals
+ the whole page is more coherently connected with the messaging
+ everything is way more polished

Is this the best possible landing page? Absolutely not, but it was the difference between 0 and 1 (for us).

It can absolutely be better but it's no longer the bottleneck for the business.

Happy to answer any questions. Also feedback is very welcome.

Don't forget to like this post if you like it 😘