I've always hated the idea of selling.

In fact, I've never wanted to be associated with the door-to-door salesman, aggressive and unfair, sticking their foot in the door.

And I bet you already felt bothered by this image.

How awful.

Luckily, all these years in marketing taught me one thing.

Marketing is not about convincing anyone, using tricks, or being pushy.

Actually, marketing doesn't get much simpler than stating a pain most of us experience, explaining it, and offering a solution. That is.

It sounds counterintuitive, I know. Despite gurus telling you to use psychological levers, marketing can also be honest (as it should be).

Now—you might wonder what all this fuss is about.

Well, it came to me while working on Alohi's landing page.

What people struggle with and don't like about marketing is that it's not an exact science like coding, for example.

Creating a landing page is mainly about trial and error. And lots of "it depends."

But what if we turn it into a repeatable and predictable activity?

So here I am, sharing with you the process I developed over the years to create landing pages for SaaS tools.

Ready?

Let's jump into what I consider the easiest way to create a landing page.

Keep it simple, stupid.

I'm sure you've already heard that, but what does it mean, specifically?

To me, it means working on Google Docs.

During my first freelance job as a marketer, the urge to open the landing page editor and create sections and styles tickled my builder side so badly.

But then I had to change the structure over and over until it became a mess and wasn't good anymore.

Newbie mistake.

The first unwritten rule to create a good landing page the easy way is to sharpen the axe…ehm, the message, before anything else.

Writing it on a document helps focus on what matters: the copy.

Forget sections. Make the first draft look like a letter.

What does the app do?

Sad to say, but this is an overlooked step I also learned the hard way.

Refrain from jumping into the headline straight away. To sharpen the message, you need to understand what direction you want to take (before going anywhere).

Over the years, I found, saved, and templatized many marketing notes.

This is my favorite one to describe a product:

Fill in the blanks.

I'll give you a few examples:

• Alohi is a writing assistant app that helps newsletter owners turn articles into catchy short-form content for social media platforms.
• BlackTwist is a suite of tools that helps content creators build an audience on Threads.

It doesn't matter if it's not polished—we won't put this in front of anyone yet.

Soon, you'll understand why.

What's your value proposition?

Here's where most people fall.

The headline should give a glimpse into what the product is and how it can help.

Don't be clever. Rule-of-thumb is to sell a specific use-case and benefit, not "cool" headlines.

I recently looked at a landing page of a marketing AI product that says, "You don't need more features. You need marketing."

Do you think it conveys the message? If yes, sorry, but you're wrong.

This is a nice headline for another section, maybe a final call-to-action, but what is the value proposition here? What does the app do? And what is the benefit? It requires extra thinking.

I bet "Grow your SaaS with a 100% customized marketing plan" would work a hundred times better.

Now, let's get back to our process.

Take your product description from the previous step and start writing.

It might take you a few iterations to settle down on something, but it should be quick.

For Alohi, my current headline of choice is: "Turn your newsletter articles into tweets and threads."

Is it clear enough?

And if the message catches the reader, you have a second chance to strengthen the value proposition.

Reinforce it with the sub-headline

Describe the product. As simple as that.

​As Alex West said a while ago, "You have a couple of seconds at best. [...] explain the product in two sentences."

Two sentences on how the product will deliver the promised value.

Again, taking Alohi as the example here (I was working on the landing page, remember?), the description could be…

Headline: "Turn your newsletter articles into tweets and threads."

Sub-headline: "Meet your new writing assistant. Alohi helps you create catchy short-form content for social media platforms in a few clicks."

See? It's shaping up!

How do you like it?

Now, going down the page, we have a bunch of standard sections, and I won't tell you what you need to have as it's more of a preference than anything.

Yet, there might be a few tips and tricks worth noting (always being on the ethical side of things).

Here's what.

Talk to the user reading your page

Landing pages that don't convert usually stand from the maker's point of view.

Instead, I see it as a letter that speaks directly to the person sitting on the other side of the browser.

These are a few sections I'd include.

1) PAS (Problem–Agitate–Solution)

"Do you have this problem?" — Share what your ideal and target user hates and the negative consequences if they don't solve this problem. It acts like a filter: if you have this problem, keep reading; if not, goodbye.

"I had that problem, too." — Go into more detail about what they desire and the benefits they get by completing the transition. Here, you can heighten the tension from the point before. We are not creating anything; it's already there. (I'm not fond of the word leverage because it feels scammy.)

"I solved it with this." — Present your solution. Lead to the proposal and show them that a change is possible.

Power note: avoid walls of text.

If done right, you can even integrate this whole PAS framework in the first section.

2) How it works

Okay, okay. Everyone knows what I'm about to say, but it's still a hard one.

Focus on sharing 3/4 power features: 0% technical content and 100% benefits.

An example.

Is it better to say there is an "Email" feature that helps the user to "Create your product newsletter and send transactional emails," or would you prefer to read a "Connect with your leads and customers" benefit?

Also, "show, don't tell" is a great advice here. Simple images, low text, and high contrast between the image and the copy.

3) Who is this for

And even more important—who is this not for.

Be bold and show them the door.

See what I meant there talking about how marketing shouldn't be salesy?

It's better to be upfront and lose someone than convince a skeptical user who will churn one month later.

​And this tweet from a big marketer agrees with that.

A little side note—the page structure

Look. We didn't focus on the landing page structure for a simple reason.

Landing pages nowadays are very similar, and I'm sure you've already got plenty of inspiration. This step would've been a more of the same, so I didn't want to bother you.

Usually, there's a hero/above-the-fold section with a headline, sub-headline, and a CTA, followed by a how it works section, testimonials, pricing, etc.

If you wonder what to include, this landing page structure is a great starting point.

What to do next

Now that we covered almost everything, there's only one thing left.

Doing the actual work.

Open a new empty Google Document and write that letter.

The styles, colors, and graphics will come later.

Once you have the copy, it'll be very straightforward to rearrange sections on the fly and change things.

It might seem this will take longer, but it'll be much less overall.

Onwards!

Mattia

(oh, and if you want to send me your landing page, my inbox is always open!)

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