Landing pages are key to providing a connection between your source of web traffic and your service offerings to potential clients. A landing page is a web page where you give the visitor all the information they need to get them to complete a single specific goal - such as to submit an online enquiry or download a lead magnet.
Landing pages are usually created as standalone pages which aren't accessible via the main menu of your website. So people will only see your landing page if they are specifically sent there by clicking on an online advert or a link in an email.
If you are an IFA who is looking to use lead magnets to build an email list or who is running ads on Google, Facebook or LinkedIn to generate leads, then having an eye-catching and well-designed landing page will ensure you have an advantage over other financial advisers.
However, there's just one problem: you probably don’t have much web design experience.
In that case, a landing page builder is going to be your best bet for creating well designed landing pages that will convert visitors into leads.
But with so many page builders on the market, it can be hard to know which one to choose. So in this article I've rounded up the best landing page builders for financial advisers who want to get more leads.
Why You Need a Landing Page
You may be asking yourself why you need a dedicated landing page in the first place, especially if you've already got a half-decent website.
The simple answer is that your website is designed to give people a general overview of your business and all the services you provide. It's like a sales brochure. And, like a sales brochure, it's a great thing for people to refer to after they've already had an initial conversation with you or been referred to you by a friend or colleague.
But for cold traffic - people who have never heard of you or your business - landing pages work better because they can be focussed 100% on the specific need that the visitor has. And in the case of traffic from Google Ads or Facebook Ads you'll know what need they have, based on the content of the advert they clicked on.
You can have multiple landing pages - one for each of the specific offerings that you are promoting or for each of the niches that you are targeting.
As you can see from this case study, a well-designed landing page can really make a difference when it comes to providing you with those all-important qualified leads.
What Should Be On a Landing Page?
Landing pages should provide a clear and concise message, free from distractions. This way you can engage your potential clients in your offering quicker. Studies show you have 8 seconds to grab people’s attention with your landing page.
As far as content goes, according to the guys over at Crazy Egg there are nine essential components that every landing page should have:
A Headline
Pick something punchy that will stand out and grab people’s attention.
Interesting Subheadings
Choosing these carefully will ensure people read on further.
Images
Use images to create interest. Make sure they are relevant to your industry. You can include photos or colourful graphs and tables containing key data.
An Explanation
Your headline and subheadings should be short and catchy. The explanation should be where you get right down into the specifics and make your offering crystal clear.
Discuss a Problem
Highlight something that may be troubling your audience, such as concerns about whether they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement.
Address the Problem
Explain how what you are offering (e.g. a free pension review) can make the problem go away. Show your product or service in a positive way.
Contact Information
Be sure to display your key contact information in an obvious place so as it's easy for potential clients to get in touch. Offer multiple contact options - phone, email, enquiry form, text message, etc.
Guarantee
Try to include some form of guarantee. This always makes your offering seem much more believable and people will be more willing to put their trust in you.
Glaringly Obvious Call to Action
Putting it simply, this is the most important element on your landing page. Whatever it is you want people to do as a result of visiting your landing page, you need to spell this out with a clear call to action. It needs to be big, it needs to be bold, and it needs to be compelling.
The Best Landing Page Builders
Now we have got to grips with the basics, let’s take a look at our five landing page builders and see how they perform.
Up first, we are going to be reviewing Thrive Themes.
The first thing to point about Thrive Themes is it's actually a collection of WordPress plugins which you can buy individually or as a complete set.
The page builder plugin within the Thrive suite is called Thrive Architect. It's incredibly easy to use and features one of the best drag and drop systems I've come across. So to create your landing page you can simply choose from the many elements available and just drag and drop them onto the page. It’s a great example of a WYSIWYG platform (what you see is what you get).
You can choose to add basic elements such as text and images, right through to more dynamic elements such as social sharing and integration with comments on Facebook and Twitter. There are also a whole load of different lead generation forms that you can drop into your pages using the included Thrive Leads plugin.
You can build your perfect landing page from scratch or you can use one of the hundreds of built-in templates as a starting point.
Thrive Themes also has A/B testing built in so you can create multiple variations of the same landing page and see which one has the best conversion rate.
They also have really good learning resources in the form of their Thrive University, so it’s easy to search out and find the answers to anything you might be struggling with.
Pricing
Unlike many other platforms these days, each individual element of Thrive Themes can be purchased for a one-off payment, so you don't have to sign up to yet another monthly subscription. You can get Thrive Architect on its own for a single payment of $67 which includes lifetime updates. And you can add Thrive Leads for a further $67.
But your best bet is to take out a Thrive Themes membership. This gives you all of their plugins for $19 per month (paid annually) and you get unlimited support for as long as you remain a member, plus various other members-only extras. Whichever option you choose, you're going to be getting great value for money.
Next on the list is Instapage.
Again, this platform is really easy to use and enables you to create some attractive landing pages with minimal technical knowledge. And there's a good range of professional looking templates to choose from if you are stuck for inspiration.
Instapage seems to have put a lot of time and effort into their documentation. If you get stuck with something it’s pretty easy to find answers to any questions you might have.
If you like to crunch your stats, then there is a lot of reporting data available to you to help you increase performance.
There are benefits with Instapage if you have a team that you work with, as there's the ability to collaborate on a project with other team members.
Pricing
One of the downsides of Instapage is the price. Although it is feature rich, it is heavy on monthly costs and this probably makes it a poor choice for a lot of small business owners. The business package is a hefty $199 per month on a pay monthly plan, or $149 per month if paying for the year upfront.
A firm favourite with small business owners who want a simple way to build landing pages is Leadpages.
With the ability to sign up for a free trial, you can give it a test drive with no obligation to purchase. As with the other products tested, there is no technical knowledge required, and you can create some beautiful landing pages in just a few clicks.
If tracking your growth is a key factor for you, then there is a wide range of key stats available to keep abreast of what is working and what isn’t.
And if you ever find yourself wanting to integrate direct payments, then you can set up an online checkout which is powered by Stripe.
Pricing
Leadpages is pretty affordable, which is perhaps why it is so popular in the small business arena. The basic package is $37 per month, and this includes quite a few features. If you are looking for more integrations and the payment options mentioned earlier, then you'll need to look at the Pro package which costs $79 per month.
As with Leadpages, Unbounce is another popular platform with those just starting out as it offers a free trial period and an easy drag and drop interface.
Unbounce comes with a wide range of great looking templates, or you can of course start from scratch and create your own landing page designs.
As well as landing pages, Unbounce gives you the ability to add pop-ups to your web pages, so you can maximise the number of people who subscribe to your mailing list.
With the built-in A/B testing you can run different versions of your landing page to see what works best, and then tweak your pages where necessary. Unbounce also has a nifty AI optimisation tool called Smart Traffic, which uses an algorithm to show each visitor whichever version of the page is likely to get the best response from them.
Unbounce has a great support offering too, with good online resources and a dedicated customer success team.
Pricing
At the time of writing this article, you can sign up for a free month’s trial and receive a 20% discount on whichever annual package you choose (the discount does not apply to monthly packages). You need to choose your package before signing up for your trial, and as with other trials, if you don’t remember to cancel before the trial ends then you will start to be billed.
Annual packages start from $79 per month, which includes everything you need to get you started. If you prefer a monthly payment, then these start from $99 per month for the basic plan.
You've probably already heard of Clickfunnels. The company does a lot of marketing and has an army of resellers who also promote the product heavily. So the Clickfunnels name may be more familiar to you than the other platforms we've looked at so far. But does that mean it's better?
Clickfunnels differs from the other landing page builders reviewed here because it has a strong focus on building sales funnels rather than just landing pages. However, seeing as we are reviewing landing page builders here, let’s focus on how Clickfunnels does with that for now.
Clickfunnels is very similar to the other platforms, in terms of ease of use. It features a drag and drop system with all the basic lead page elements that you will need, as well as featuring slightly more exciting elements like a countdown clock. Compared to Thrive Architect, though, the Clickfunnels page builder is quite clunky, and it's definitely not as easy to use when it comes to making sure your page will look good on both desktops and mobile devices.
The basic Clickfunnels package allows you to create up to 100 different landing pages. You have to have your landing page(s) hosted on the Clickfunnels servers, and this means that if you stop paying your monthly subscription the pages will stop working.
You can perform A/B split testing with Clickfunnels to see which variation of your pages works best. There's also an email list building and autoresponder facility built in, so you don't need to worry about integrating your landing pages with a separate email marketing system.
When it comes to resources, Clickfunnels does have online documentation available in its basic package, but if you opt for one of the more expensive packages you'll also get access to have lots of online videos and courses.
Pricing
Clickfunnels has a 14 day trial period, and after that you'll need to choose from one of the monthly payment plan options. Plans start at $97 per month for the basic package, which puts it in the same league as Unbounce.
The basic package does have limitations on the number of funnels and packages that you can create: 20 funnels and 100 pages. If you upgrade to the platinum package, at $297, you can create unlimited funnels and pages, as well as having some extra features thrown in.
And the Winner Is...
If we look at the results from the review, Thrive Themes is the standout winner of the platforms that I tested.
Thrive Architect and the rest of the Thrive components are super easy to use. Not only do I use them myself (this whole website is built with Thrive), but I also recommend all the students on my courses to use Thrive Themes too.
Let’s face it, we are all so busy working on the key elements of our business, and so the quicker and easier a landing page builder is to use, the more time we can save to focus on what we do best.
Thrive Themes has so many key features, and I think the biggest plus is the one-off payment model. There is no need to get tied into a monthly subscription, unlike pretty much all the other platforms out there right now. Also, it runs on your own website so you you retain ownership and control of everything you create.
The only reason I can think of not to use Thrive Themes is if your website is not built on WordPress. If that's the case, I do have a very detailed article on how to build your own website using WordPress.
For me, both Leadpages and Unbounce follow closely behind Thrive. They are definitely strong on features and easy to use. And although they are only available on a recurring monthly subscription plan, the pricing is not nearly as high as some of the other options.
Instapages, I feel, is way too expensive. Its features are very much the same as the other landing page builders reviewed here, so why the extortionate monthly payment? It's out of reach for most small business owners and so the price is a definite turn off right from the start.
I have to put Clickfunnels at the bottom of the review list, because it seems expensive for what it offers and its user interface feels cumbersome and dated compared to the other products on test here.
You'll find a lot of glowing reviews of Clickfunnels online, but this is largely due to the fact that they run a very successful multi-level marketing plan where resellers earn commissions on every sale and on the sales made by other resellers that they recruit. I'm actually a reseller myself because you automatically become one when you sign up for a Clickfunnels trial, but I'd still rather give you my honest opinion of it!
So, there you have it: a comprehensive round up of the best landing page builders for financial advisers (and mortgage brokers) who want to get more leads. I hope that you have found this post useful. Get in touch via the comments box below if you have any questions.
Impressive stuff as expected. I personally use Leadpages and I have been impressed with the performance so far. Unbounce is also a pretty good shout. Great job once again!