In my line of work as a launch strategist and coach, I see a lot of landing pages. Leadpages landing pages are some of the best out there. Here’s my review.
What is LeadPages, and What Does it Do?
Landing pages are the cornerstone to collecting email addresses and building a list. Leadpages is an online service that allows you to create and host your landing, sales, and thank you pages all in one place.
There is an art and science to creating landing pages that convert well. There are services and software dedicated to the creation of landing pages and Leadpages is one of the most popular.
There are other platforms and services that create landing pages. There are even some free options. But I’m sticking with Leadpages*, and here’s why…
Leadpages is the Original Landing Page Creator
Leadpages* has been around a long time. I started using it back in 2015 when it was one of the only landing page options around. Things were pretty basic back then, nothing fancy like what can be created now using its templates.
This is one of the first landing pages I ever created. Not terrible, but definitely not what’s available today…
One of my first landing pages created on Leadpages
Here’s what’s cool. Despite the fact they’ve been around for quite a while, Leadpages has managed to continue to add features and improve. They’ve also got years worth of conversion data behind them. They know what works.
When you log into your account on Leadpages, you can sort templates to see the highest converting templates first. And, I can tell you from experience, they stay on top of their data. The highest converting landing pages do change. Last year I had a favorite template I used. It was clean and simple. I got used to knowing exactly which customizations I would need to make each time I wanted to change something.
After a few months, however, I checked out the template catalog again. My favorite template had been bumped from the top spot. There were a new, better performing landing pages available. I didn’t change any existing landing pages, but did switch to a new template for new ones.
One of the other things I love about Leadpages is that you can duplicate existing landing pages. When you do so, all of your tracking data, your favicon, your integrations are duplicated as well. This makes it so easy to create new landing pages quickly. It won’t take long until you can create new landing pages as quickly as you come up with ideas.
Designing High Converting Landing Pages, Opt in Boxes, Pop ups and More
When I first started with Leadpages, I was just creating a simple opt in page so I could start to collect email addresses. Conversion and design were the furthest things from my mind.
Even then there were options for different types of opt in forms. When everyone else was trying to figure out how to put simple name and email forms on the home page of their websites, Leadpages was offering not only beautiful landing pages, but lots of other opt in options as well, like cool graphic boxes to place in the middle of a blog post that offered a freebie related to the topic I was discussing. Of course, the clickable boxes collected email addresses as well… this is how they looked.
Leadpages Features:
Today Leadpages not only continues to offer those graphic boxes, but a whole lot more. It has become a full featured piece of landing page software. It adds new features all of the time.
- Landing pages with built in opt in forms – all in one options for creating your landing page with an associated opt in form.
- Pop ups: easily add timed or exit pop-up opt-in forms to your website
- Alert Bars: graphic opt in boxes that you can place in the middle of a blog post to offer a freebie related to the blog post they are reading.
- Opt in text messages: Create text message opt in campaigns via SMS
- Websites: quick and easy websites hosted by Leadpages
- Accepts payment: eliminate the need for a separate shopping cart
Wondering what some of those less common things are? Here you go:
Pop ups
Pop up boxes are something that people like to try out now and again on their site, but don’t want to pay for with a separate service.
Leadpages gives you the ability to try out a pop up or two on your site to see how you like it. You can create pop ups when someone arrives to your site, after they’ve been on the site for a certain amount of time, or when they click away from your site. There are settings to control the how long they should be browsing before the popup appears, and how often it will show up.
Alert bars
Leadpages also allows you to create opt-in alert bars, which appear at the top of your website and look like this:
SMS (Text message) opt ins
And, it gives you the ability to have people opt in via text message, which is very appealing to some online business owners:
Optimizing Landing Pages with Leadpages
While creating a simple landing page is, well, simple. Leadpages also gives you the ability to create complex pages perfect for launching.
Customization options include the ability to…
- show multiple videos on one landing page
- add countdown timers to automatically close your cart and redirect latecomers to another url
- pay for your course or membership, right from the landing page
Leadpages’ Checkout Feature Means No Extra Shopping Cart Fees
When you first start out online, there are a lot of places to spend money: email service, landing page service for starters. And then, when you’re ready to start selling things, a shopping cart so people can buy the things you are trying to sell.
It used to be that you had to pay for a separate shopping cart service or, at the very least, install a plug in on your website so people had a place to “checkout.” It’s another step, another thing that needs to be done.
Leadpages solved that problem by offering the ability for people to checkout and pay right from your landing page. You’ll still need a payment processor, like Stripe, but you won’t need to find and set up yet another service just so people can give you their money.
LeadPages Integrations:
What Can you Connect LeadPages With?
When it comes to integrations with email automation services, Leadpages has it covered. Integrations are important because it means that the landing pages created there will directly add subscribers to your email list. And they offer a lot!
- ActiveCampaign
- Aweber
- BombBomb
- Campaign Monitor
- Constant Contact
- ConvertKit
- Drip
- Emma
- GetResponse
- Gmail
- iContact
- Infusionsoft
- Klavio
- Klick-Tipp
- Mad Mimi
- MailChimp
- Mailerlite
- Ontraport
- SendInBlue
Does LeadPages Have a Free Plan?
Leadpages does not have a free plan but they do have a free 14-day trial. At its base level, which is $25/month (2020 pricing) Leadpages offers:
- 1 Site (A Site is a Leadpages hosted website)
- Landing Pages, Pop-Ups, Alert Bars
- Unlimited Traffic & Leads
- Free Custom Domain with annual purchase
- Free Hosting
- Mobile-Responsive Templates
- Lead Notifications
- Tech Support (via Email)
- 40+ Standard Integrations
Can You Connect LeadPages to a Custom Domain?
Leadpages has its own plug-in to allow you to post your Leadpages landing pages on your own site. Updates are done in real time on Leadpages itself and it looks like all of your landing pages are hosted right on your own site.
When you are set to publish your first landing page, Leadpages explains how to set up the plug in right in the publishing options.
LeadPages Pricing 2020
Before we look at pricing, you should understand that Leadpages offers more than just landing pages. Not only can you use it to create a quick and professional website, but you can also use it to do simple checkouts for your paid products. That is going to save you a lot of money when you’re first starting out.
Why I Love and recommend Leadpages
There are quite a few options for creating landing pages. Some email services even offer the ability to create and integrate a landing page with your list. And, while that’s a convenient solution, if a landing page doesn’t convert well, you’ll never know if you have a solid offer or not.
I’ll admit, when I signed up for Leadpages four years ago, it was not only the new kid on the block, it was pretty much the only kid on the block. There weren’t a whole lot of choices out there for creating landing pages.
Today there are choices, and I’ve looked at and tried many of them. I get asked all the time while I’m still using Leadpages when there are cheaper, and even free options available. I even wrote a different blog post all about it: Myth: You Can Build a High Converting Landing Page without Special Software .
But with the design, ease of use, and features that Leadpages keeps adding, there’s no comparison on the market, free or paid. it will continue to be my landing page, beginning website creator, and checkout option of choice.
Want to know more about Leadpages Site builder for creating websites? Check out this blog post What You Need to Know About Your Website Before Launching Online.
