November 30, 2020
Landing pages are like fishing for bass without the yucky bait. You have an offer, the lure, and the conversion mechanism, the hook. If other people drop lines and bait nearby, what happens? The fish gets confused and, perhaps, suspicious and leaves. Pretty simple, huh? The problem is that landing pages get off track with teases on other products, piling on too much social proof, and irrelevant links, like navigation, that show up on other site pages.
The most important part of a landing page is not the code or the CGI effects. It's the brief, which outlines the objective of the work, message, and the coupe de gras, which you believe will snag a doctor or consumer to sign-up for a trial, take advantage of an offer, fill out a form and download content, or sign-up for a seminar or wet lab.
Fend off the last-minute suggestions from the grand poobah
Think of your brief as an electric fence that deters meddling, no matter how well-intentioned. Get sign-offs on it up-front; and ensure the stakeholders approve all aspects of your plan. Then, one-hour before launch, when you're fending off suggestions for 120-word quotes from a KOL, a plea for a clever headline*, or links to other assets on your site like videos, you can whip out the strategy and raise your eyebrows for effect. Uhmm, poobah, didn't you sign off on this two days ago?
On a more practical level, if you manage to keep wayward fingerprints off the brief, it's a tool for evaluating performance. You can confidently proceed with your strategic idea, modify it, or dump it all together.
And lastly, a work plan can keep you sane!