Landing page brief template

A landing page is the simplest thing on the web to brief and the easiest to brief badly, because its simplicity tempts people into skipping the brief altogether. One page, one job. But the job is the part that gets left out, and a landing page without a stated job is a home page with fewer links.

One page, one verb

The whole page exists to make one kind of visitor do one thing. Buy. Book. Sign up. Download. Get in touch. If the brief cannot name the verb, the page cannot be designed, because every decision on it, from the headline to the position of the button, follows from the verb. If the brief names two verbs, the page has two jobs and will do neither well.

Who arrives, and from where

A landing page has a source: an ad, an email, a search result, a QR code on a pack. The visitor arrives with the expectation that source set up, and the page has to meet it in the first screen. The brief should say where the traffic comes from, because a page that follows an ad has to repeat the ad's promise, and a page that follows a search has to answer the query.

What has to exist before the page can

A landing page is mostly words and one or two images. If the copy is not written, the page cannot be finished, and on a three-week job that is the whole schedule. If the images do not exist, they have to be shot or bought. The list of what exists is short for a landing page, which is exactly why every gap in it matters.

Functionality is small and decisive

A form collects personal data and brings cookie consent and a privacy policy with it. Payments on a landing page imply a checkout that has to live somewhere. A booking widget is an integration with someone else's system. State the functionality and the estimate can include it; leave it out and it arrives as a surprise.

Measurement

A landing page is the one deliverable whose success is a number. The brief should say what the number is and where it is measured, so the designer knows the page will be judged on conversions rather than on taste. This is also the strongest argument for keeping the page to one verb.

Timeline

Three weeks is the usual floor for a landing page with written copy and existing imagery. It stretches quickly when copy has to be written or a platform has to be set up, and the template says so when the date does not fit.

The one thing that must not be got wrong

For a landing page it is usually the promise: the price that must match the ad, the claim that must match the legal text, the offer that must be visible before any scrolling. Put it at the top, in a box.