The Perfect SaaS Landing page

First impressions matter.

This concept applies to businesses every bit as much as it does to people.

So what’s the first thing a prospect sees in relation to your business?

In most cases, it’s the landing page.

Once a prospect has landed there, you only have a few moments to convince them that your service is right for them.

That does not mean flooding your audience with information about the product. In fact, the fewer words and images it takes to convey the essence of what you’re offering, the better.

In order to maximise sales, your landing page must provide key pieces of information quickly and effectively. 

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Areas of information

What should be on the main landing page?

Information on the perfect SaaS landing page breaks down into 5 core areas:

Each section above addresses two different perspectives: the SaaS business vs the prospects.

It’s important to represent both perspectives on your landing page.

Founders usually talk about their product based on what they themselves find important and interesting.

This perspective is invaluable because it gives the product life, shows the values represented by the company, and focuses on what makes the business unique. The founder’s voice gives that service time to shine.

This narrative, however, often fails to address any concerns a prospect may have.

This happens for various reasons. The founder isn’t in the same position of having to convert over from another service, needing to train team members in new software, or consider cross-compatibility with other tools. For that reason, they might not pre-empt certain types of problems, or could consider certain details too obvious to mention. 

Founders also tend to have a much more detail-oriented view having spent however long developing a tool, and focus on different aspects of the product that overall are less important to the prospect.

For that reason, it’s critical for a successful SaaS landing page to understand a prospect’s perspective, in order to head off any burning questions they may have.

Ambiguity is one of the key reasons for losing a sale: in the age of impatience, presenting well-structured information with absolute clarity is essential. If a common question can’t be answered without clicking away to another page, you will be losing a proportion of potential sales.

Are there cases in which information should be spread over multiple pages?

Yes. Some types of information call for additional pages.

Examples of where this is most effective include sections such as ‘meet the team’, ‘our mission’, ‘detailed FAQ’, ‘feature updates’ and so forth.

As a rule of thumb, if it doesn’t qualify as a ‘central concern to the prospect’, take it off the landing page and give it its own space. 

Not sure what questions a prospect might have?

Surveys and phone calls to customers are a great way to find out what matters to them.

You can also have yourself and your team participate in product questionnaires:

Next time you’re looking to buy something that requires some research, whether it’s a service or physical item, write down your own questions while browsing the product description, reviews, and competition.

As a next step, put yourself in the shoes of a consumer when you browse your own SaaS landing page in reference to the questions you noted down.

Is all the necessary information present?

How far do you need to browse to answer each question?

Are the answers clear and unambiguous?

Is there a better format in which to present this information?

Means of presenting information

Information can be presented in a multitude of ways.

Consider different formats, and their respective strengths (i.e., what type of information about your product they’re best suited to communicate):

• Text

• Images

• Graphs

• Charts 

• Videos

It’s best to create a balance between text and other formats in order to avoid information overload and create a dynamic, memorable page.

Be mindful as well of how to use static vs moving graphics.

Any key information must be static. Having make-or-break decision factors such as pricing or core features move around on screen is nothing short of a design sin, and will put off prospects sufficiently to go elsewhere.

When used correctly, moving graphics can, however, be a powerful way to convey a message. Information that is of less direct consequence, and suggests that ‘there’s plenty more like this’ can benefit from moving graphics, as long as it doesn’t distract from the central details.

A stream of positive testimonials wiping left off screen, or a looped video of browsing through a service dashboard are prime examples of information that works well in motion.

Check out the following section for more design ideas for a SaaS landing page.

Examples of effective SaaS landing pages

Let’s take it section by section, using Baremetrics features as a case study.

1. Outcome and usage

This section is your service’s calling card. What are you offering, and how does it work?

In a few lines, here we learn the purpose of Baremetrics’ Cancellation Insights feature, and are given easily comprehensible oversight into how the tool works.

The more specific the ‘how it works’ section is, the better. That doesn’t necessarily mean going into great detail: these annotated screengrabs tell the prospect all they need to know about cancellation insights.

2. Overcome resistance

One of the main goals here is to remind prospects of problems and irritations with their current service, and demonstrate to them why you’re better.

Baremetrics’s pricing page starts off by asking prospects about their current solution.

Whichever option is chosen, the next page explains all the ways in which Baremetrics’ tool is better. It then offers immediate access to the free trial. 

This approach is especially effective because it’s interactive, and the customized response conveys that the full software experience is also a tailor-made fit.

3. Best on the market

What do you offer that your competitors don’t?

In the case of this data augmentation tool, the description suggests that this feature offers something new that competitors don’t: tracking of external data.

4. Points of concern

Each prospect will have their own unique resistance points and concerns. You can head off some of the more common ones as you break down the features of your product.

Here’s an example from Baremetrics’s Analytics API feature, addressing the possible concern of cross-compatibility.

5. Save money pricing

The most effective way to convert a prospect is to show that their business is losing more money by not investing in your service.

This is the very first element you see on the landing page of the Baremetrics’s Recover feature.

This dunning solution is introduced as a means to recover failed payments and demonstrates that it essentially pays for itself.

Basecamp is another great example of proving your worth.

In one simple graph, the project management software lists its key tools, gives them clear $ value, and shows the much higher cost of equivalent tools offered by the competition.

Conclusion

What your SaaS landing page looks like exactly will of course depend on the type of product you offer.

The aesthetic should also be as unique as your team – don’t be afraid to inject some personality!

That said, what details should be conveyed is essentially the same across practically all SaaS services.

Make sure to address each of these 5 core areas, and make your landing page the calling card your business deserves!

Baremetrics is a business tool that tracks over 26 different metrics about your business, including gross and net revenue, income, life-time value and more. Baremetrics integrates with all your payment gateways. Up-to-date and detailed information about all your business dealings can be accessed easily on your personal dashboard. Try it out today by signing up to the Baremetrics free trial.

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