Landing Page Copy Rules

A landing page has exactly one job: get the visitor to take one specific action. Every element that doesn't move the reader toward that action — a second CTA, a navigation menu, an unrelated feature callout — is actively working against the page's only purpose, no matter how good it looks.

One page, one goal

• Define the single action before writing a word of copy: sign up, book a demo, buy, download. Every headline, section, and CTA on the page serves that one action — a page trying to drive both a purchase and a newsletter signup does neither well.
• Remove the main site navigation from dedicated campaign landing pages where possible — every link off the page is an exit ramp from the one goal it exists to achieve.
• If a page genuinely needs to serve two different visitor intents, split it into two pages rather than one page with two competing CTAs — a visitor confronted with two calls to action takes neither more often than they take either.

Headline = value promise

• State the specific outcome the visitor gets, not the product category or a clever wordplay — "Cut your invoice processing time by 80%" beats "The invoicing platform teams love." A visitor decides whether to keep reading in the time it takes to read the headline.
• Lead with the reader's outcome, not the product's feature — "Get paid twice as fast" over "Automated payment reminders" — the feature is the mechanism, the outcome is the reason anyone cares.
• Keep the headline to one clear promise. A headline trying to communicate three benefits at once communicates none of them memorably — pick the single strongest promise and save the rest for the body.
• Match the headline to what drove the click (the ad, the search term, the referral) — a landing page headline that doesn't echo the promise that got someone there creates an immediate mismatch that increases bounce.

Page hierarchy

• Hero: value promise headline, one-sentence subhead expanding on it, primary CTA, above the fold with nothing else competing for attention.
• Proof: immediately after the hero — logos, a specific metric, a testimonial, or a screenshot proving the promise is real. Visitors are skeptical by default; proof needs to appear before they've decided to disbelieve and left.
• Objections: address the specific reasons a visitor hesitates — cost, effort to switch, whether it works for their specific case — as their own section, not buried in feature copy. Naming the objection directly ("Worried about migration? It takes 10 minutes.") builds more trust than avoiding it.
• CTA (repeated): repeat the primary call to action at the bottom of the page, and at any natural end-of-section point on a longer page — a visitor who scrolled the whole page and is convinced shouldn't have to scroll back up to act.

Specificity over adjectives

• Replace vague quality adjectives ("powerful," "easy," "seamless," "best-in-class") with a specific fact that proves the same claim — a number, a time saved, a named comparison. "Easy" is a claim; "set up in under 5 minutes" is evidence.
• Use exact numbers over rounded claims where the exact number is available and credible ("37% fewer support tickets" reads as more real than "significantly fewer support tickets") — precision itself signals the claim is measured, not invented.
• Cut any adjective that could be swapped for its opposite without a competitor objecting — "great," "innovative," "world-class" apply to every product in every category and therefore prove nothing about this one.

Social proof placement

• Place the strongest, most specific proof point closest to the hero — a customer logo bar or one sharp metric right below the fold does more than a wall of testimonials at the bottom nobody scrolls to.
• Match the proof to the objection it's answering — a testimonial about ease of setup near the "objections" section addressing setup friction, not randomly distributed.
• Prefer specific, attributed testimonials (name, role, company) with a concrete result over generic praise ("This tool changed how we work!") — specificity is what makes a testimonial read as real rather than staged.

CTA wording

• Use a verb-first, specific action instead of a generic "Submit" or "Learn More" — "Start my free trial," "Get my quote," "Book a demo" — the CTA should describe exactly what happens next, not just invite a click.
• Match CTA copy to the actual commitment level of the action — "Start free trial" is a low-friction promise; "Buy now" implies payment. Overstating or understating the commitment in the CTA text creates hesitation right at the moment of decision.
• Keep CTA button copy to 2-5 words — long button text reads as a sentence, not a button, and loses urgency.
• Use first-person CTA copy ("Start my trial") over second-person ("Start your trial") where it's been shown to lift conversion in the specific context — test it, don't assume it universally, but default to first-person as the starting hypothesis.