---
name: landing-copy
description: "Use when writing the words on a single conversion page — the hero headline and subhead, the offer, the proof/testimonials, and one primary CTA — or rescuing a page that gets traffic but does not convert (a copy diagnosis, not a layout one). Triggers: 'write the hero headline and subhead', 'write the landing copy', 'turn these features into benefits', 'what should the button say', 'make the page headline match the ad', 'people land on the page and bounce', 'my headline is clever but nobody clicks the button', 'escríbeme el copy de la landing', 'el titular del hero no convierte'. NOT the paid ad that drives the click (that is ads), NOT the visual layout the words sit in (that is design), NOT the experiment that picks the winning variant (that is ab-testing)."
tags: [landing-page, copywriting, conversion, hero-headline, cta, social-proof]
recommends: [ads, design, brand-voice, ab-testing, case-studies]
origin: risco
---

# Landing Copy — The Words That Convert on One Page

*Hook, offer, proof, CTA. You write the words a visitor reads top to bottom; you do not draw the layout, build the page, or write the ad that sent them.*

This skill owns **conversion copy for a single page**: a hero headline under ~8 words plus a benefit subhead, a top-to-bottom page skeleton, the offer stated as a benefit, proof slotted next to the ask, and one primary CTA repeated without competing. It is a copy job. The pixels are `design`'s, the React/Next build is `nextjs`'s, the ad that drives the click is `ads`'s.

## When to use

- Writing or rewriting a hero: H1 + subhead + button copy.
- Structuring a full landing/sales page (hook → problem → offer → proof → CTA → objections).
- Choosing and writing one primary CTA and its repeated instances.
- Turning features into benefits ("AES-256 encryption" → "your security team signs off in days").
- Slotting proof — testimonials, metrics, logos, a guarantee — next to the ask.
- Making the page headline *match* the ad/email that drove the click (message match).
- Rescuing a page that gets traffic but does not convert — when the failure is the words.

## When NOT to use (route to the sibling that owns it)

- Visual layout, hierarchy, spacing, component system → `design` (`../design/SKILL.md`).
- Building the page in code, form wiring, routing → `nextjs` (`../nextjs/SKILL.md`) / `react`.
- The paid Google/Meta ad copy that drives traffic *to* the page → `ads`.
- The brand's tone, voice rules, lexicon, do/don't word list → `brand-voice`.
- Ranking in organic search or getting cited by AI answer engines → `seo-geo`.
- Designing and running the experiment that picks the winning variant → `ab-testing`.
- Writing the standalone customer story as its own asset → `case-studies`.
- A multi-channel launch plan, nurture emails, or campaign strategy → `marketing` (`../marketing/SKILL.md`).

Boundary in one line: **you own the words that convert on one page; `ads` owns the click that arrives, `design` owns the layout they sit in, `ab-testing` owns the proof of which words win.**

## The conversion reality (calibrate, never promise)

These numbers set expectations. State them as a band; the moment you promise a flat conversion rate you are lying to the user.

- **Cross-industry median is ~6.6%; strong pages in any vertical reach 10–15%+.** Per-vertical the spread is wide: Events & Entertainment ~12.3%, Financial Services ~8.4%, SaaS/Tech ~3.8%, Ecommerce ~2.35%, B2B services ~1–3%. *Why:* a SaaS team told "you'll hit 12%" was quoted the events median; quote the band for *their* vertical so the goal is real. (Foundry CRO benchmarks 2026, citing Unbounce's analysis of 464M visits / 41k pages.)
- **Visitors decide whether to stay in ~5 seconds, and ~80% rarely scroll past the fold.** *Why:* the hero is the single highest-leverage copy on the page — if it does not answer "what is this and why should I care" before a scroll, the rest is unread. (Hero-section research / NN/g attention studies 2026.)

## The four blocks — the spine of the page

Every conversion page is these four jobs, top to bottom. Each has a distinct question, a home on the page, and a failure mode. Diagnose a dead page by finding which block is weak.

| Block | Must answer | Lives where | Failure mode if weak |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Hook** | "What is this and why should I care?" in <5s | Hero, above the fold | Visitor bounces before scrolling; ~80% never see the rest |
| **Offer** | "What exactly do I get, and what does it cost me?" | Right after the hook / problem | Feature dump; reader can't tell what they walk away with |
| **Proof** | "Why should I believe you?" | Adjacent to each CTA | Claims read as marketing; trust never forms |
| **CTA** | "What is the one thing to do next?" | Hero, repeated down the page | Competing asks → decision fatigue → no click |

## The hook

The H1 carries the *what*; the subhead carries the *benefit*; both must echo whatever the visitor clicked.

- **H1 under ~8 words / ~44 characters.** The constraint forces clarity, and a clear headline beats a clever one every time. If you can't say it in 8 words you don't understand the offer yet.
- **Subhead carries the benefit** — who it's for and the outcome they get, in one clause.
- **Message match:** the headline must echo the promise of the ad/email that drove the click. Aligning a single claim across ad + page has produced a 66% CVR lift in documented cases (and 212% from fixing message match alone). *You match the page to the ad; writing the ad is `ads`.*

```text
Bad  — "Reimagine The Future Of Financial Operations"   (clever, 6 words, says nothing)
Good — "Expense reports done in 30 seconds"             (clear, 5 words, names the outcome)
         Subhead: For finance teams drowning in receipts — snap, submit, approved.
```

## The offer

Name the thing, the outcome, and the cost in effort or money. Lead with the outcome the buyer gets, then the mechanism that delivers it. This feature→benefit transform is the highest-impact copy shift on most pages.

The scaffold is **FAB** — Feature → Advantage → Benefit — but you stop at the benefit the reader cares about and back it with the mechanism as proof, not the other way round.

```text
Bad  — "Our platform has advanced AES-256 encryption."
Good — "Protect customer data with AES-256 encryption, so your security team
         signs off in days, not months."
```

Rule: every feature line answers "so what?" with an outcome. If it can't, cut it.

## The proof

Belief is built next to the ask, not in a wall of quotes elsewhere.

- **3–5 specific, named testimonials, each with a concrete result.** "Great product!" persuades no one; "cut our close time from 9 days to 2 — Maria, CFO at Lumen" does. Specific beats superlative.
- **Place proof adjacent to the primary CTA.** Social proof next to the ask has lifted conversion ~68% in documented cases; reviews/testimonials are decisive for ~93% of buyers and ~88% trust them like a personal recommendation. *Why:* belief and the decision happen in the same moment — put the evidence where the click is.
- Numbers, recognizable logos, and a risk-reversal (money-back, no card required) are proof too. One hard number outweighs three adjectives.
- **Never fabricate proof.** If a metric, quote, or logo isn't real, mark `[[NEEDS PROOF]]` and ask the user — do not invent it.

```text
Bad  — "Loved by teams everywhere. World-class results!"
Good — "We cut expense-report time 82% in the first month."
         — Maria Ortiz, CFO, Lumen (47-person finance team)
```

## The CTA

One primary action, verb-led, repeated — not varied — down the page.

- **One primary CTA per page.** Competing asks cause decision fatigue and lower conversion. The same action appears in the hero and again at each decision point; secondary links may exist but must not compete visually or verbally with the primary.
- **Movement verbs, never "Submit".** "Start free trial", "Get my quote", "See plans" — the button states the value, not the form action.
- **First-person framing often lifts clicks:** "Start my free trial" reads as the visitor's own intent. Pair the button with one line of friction-reducing microcopy ("No credit card required").

```text
Bad  buttons — [Submit]            [Learn more]        [Contact sales]
Good buttons — [Start my free trial]  ...repeated...  [Start my free trial]
                under it: No credit card. Cancel anytime.
```

## Frameworks as scaffolds (fill with the reader's words)

These are skeletons to fill with the buyer's actual language, not fill-in templates:

- **PAS** — Problem → Agitate → Solution. Best for pain-aware traffic.
- **AIDA** — Attention → Interest → Desire → Action. Broad top-of-funnel.
- **BAB** — Before → After → Bridge. Transformation stories.
- **FAB** — Feature → Advantage → Benefit. The offer block.

Common stack: **PAS/AIDA hook → FAB offer → proof → CTA.** How much you agitate the problem before the offer depends on traffic temperature (cold needs more, warm goes straight to the offer). Full explanations with fresh examples and the awareness-stage note → `references/frameworks.md`.

## Anti-patterns → fix

| Rationalization | Reality / Fix |
| --- | --- |
| "A clever headline will stand out" | Clever is unclear. Name the outcome in <8 words; clear beats clever. |
| "More features = more value shown" | Feature dumps bury the benefit. Lead with the outcome, then the mechanism. |
| "Give them several CTAs to choose from" | Choice kills conversion. One primary action, repeated, not varied. |
| "Any testimonials will do" | Generic raves don't persuade. 3–5 named quotes with a hard result, near the CTA. |
| "World-class, cutting-edge, game-changing" | Hype words signal AI-template copy. Replace with a number or a named result. |
| "The page can say its own thing" | If the headline ignores the ad's promise, you lose the message-match lift. Echo the click. |
| "Promise them a 12% conversion rate" | Never promise a flat number. Quote the band for their vertical. |
| "I'll invent a plausible metric" | Never. Mark `[[NEEDS PROOF]]` and ask the user. |

## Page skeleton + worked example

The annotated top-to-bottom skeleton (hook → problem → offer → proof → CTA → objections/FAQ → final CTA), with one fully worked B2B SaaS example and the variable slots marked, lives in `references/page-skeleton.md`. Start there when you write a full page rather than a single block.

## Verify your copy

Run `scripts/verify.sh` over the file you wrote (or your project) before claiming done. It is a read-only, dependency-free static check: H1 length, exactly one primary CTA verb (flags competing asks), presence of a proof block and a benefit subhead, a banlist of hype/AI-tell phrases, and a "Submit" warning. It warns on soft issues and exits non-zero only on hard ones (no CTA, no proof). It is a backstop, not the judgement — the four-block table is.

## See also

- `../design/SKILL.md` — the pixels: layout, hierarchy, the visual system the words sit in.
- `../nextjs/SKILL.md` — the build: rendering the page in code.
- `../marketing/SKILL.md` — the broader campaign: email sequences, channels, launch arc.
- `ads` — the paid ad copy that drives the click (route here; you only match the page to it).
- `ab-testing` — the experiment that proves which headline/CTA wins.
- `case-studies` · `brand-voice` · `seo-geo` — the proof asset, the voice rules, the search layer.
- References: `references/frameworks.md`, `references/page-skeleton.md`.
