Fix your landing page in an afternoon, Dooly's great feature descriptions, my contribution to the world's most boring debate

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Folks, it's Monday. TGIM. Let's start our week right with a tip, example and thought:

TIP: Find landing page quick wins by answering 10 questions, then comparing your answers to your page.
EXAMPLE: Check out Dooly's A+ feature descriptions.
THOUGHT: Weighing in on the punishing forever-debate about what should come first: the design or the copy.

Tip: do a gap analysis

Here’s a free way to improve your landing page in a single afternoon.

Head over to the form I get people to fill out when they book landing page reviews.
Answer the questions on that form (copy-paste them into a separate doc, or just fill them out in the form and let me know what you’re up to - I’ll send you a spready with your answers).
Compare your answers to your existing landing page.

I can pretty much 100% guarantee you that you’re going to find gaps between your responses and your existing landing page copy. Common ones that I’ve seen include:

The landing page is targeted at a large audience, but the majority of your users are a subset of that audience. For example, you might sell software that mostly plumbers purchase, but the landing page is pitched at tradies in general.
Your response to the question “Why is your product the best solution for your audience?” is a perfect pitch that nails your value proposition - yet that proposition is nowhere to be found on your landing page.
You list clear, specific differentiators but - you guessed it - no mention of them on the page.

I think this happens for a couple of reasons:

Overall messaging/positioning and landing pages can "drift" away from one another over time. Perhaps you started out as a general solution, but niched down as you grew, but never got around to adjusting your landing page to reflect this.
Landing pages - particularly home pages - are notorious for having everyone’s fingers in them. Once you’re 50 rounds of feedback deep from 25 stakeholders, you can’t see the forest for the trees anymore - you just want to be done.

Either way: fill out the form. Do a gap analysis. Fill the gaps. Free, easy and effective.

Example: Dooly is nailing their feature section

Now this is how you talk about a feature:

This is from the home page of sales enablement software Dooly.ai. Here’s what I love about it:

1: Smart screenshot! There’s a bit of an art to showcasing software via screenshots and soforth. People want to see what you’re asking them to buy, but a straight screenshot with no context quickly turns into white noise.

This screenshot, on the other hand, is showing an action (clicking on a template) to underscore the promise they’re making in the copy next to it.

2: Clear copy: There’s some talk of benefits, but it’s probably 70:30 to how the feature actually works. Benefits are great, but you don’t want to get too bogged down - people want to know what you’re offering!

3: Social proof. Lots of companies make you scroll through a whole bunch of content before you see testimonial quotes. Or they stick them at the top of the page, where they have no context.

Dooly’s approach is so much smarter - putting the relevant testimonial right there by the feature.

This, plus the screenshot, helps to really substantiate the story they’re telling in the feature description. All three elements reinforce each other and make each other that much more powerful.

Go check out the whole page - they've done this for a bunch of killer features.

(Also, I didn't find this example myself. Copywriter Adam Kirsch brought it to my attention. Go check out his Linkedin presentation on the matter, and make sure you follow him - he posts solid presentations that are packed with useful tips and insights.)

Thought: design first, copy first, who cares?

I see people having knock-down drag-out fights over this online every couple of days: what should come first, the design or the copy?

People will fight for hours, but the answer is pretty obvious to me, and any other non-deranged person: both of these options are (usually) terrible.

People on your landing page aren’t only consuming your beautifully-written copy and they’re not only consuming your high-art design. They’re there to get information, and the design + copy need to work together to deliver it. This means that (heaven forbid) designers and copywriters should be working together to create the page!

That Dooly example I mentioned above is such a good case study of this. If you look at it, you’ll see that the screenshot choice perfectly complements the feature description. The placement of the social proof creates a clear sense of hierarchy - what to read, and when.

I don’t know the specifics of how that page was put together but I bet you it was a collaboration between a designer and copywriter.

But even if you don’t have the time and inclination for the two to work together, I think there’s a lot of middle ground here.

For example, I often mock up landing pages in wireframing software. I’m obviously not a designer, but that at least gives a sense of the general vibe I’m going for - which messages are most important, and how they relate to each other.

For designers, there’s really nothing stopping them from just whipping up some copy. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it gives a closer sense of the end product than dumb old lorem ipsum.

As with most online forever-debates, the practical solutions tend to get covered up by very noisy people on the extremes - but the reality is actually a lot less dramatic. Just work together when you can, and if you can't, give some thought to what the other person's going to have to work with.

Not that hard.

That's all for today. Hope you enjoyed. As always, hit reply and tell me your thoughts.

Sam

PS: If you like this newsletter, the absolute best thing you can do is to forward it on. As you can tell, I try to keep this super-practical. Forward this on to anyone who wants to optimise their marketing without necessarily spending the time or money hiring someone to do it for them.

PPS: But if you do want to work with me, I am now only taking on landing page reviews. $799 for an in-depth review of your landing page copy. Top 3-5 highest-impact, lowest effort changes you can make, followed by line-by-line analysis of your landing page. Buy one here.

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