How long should a landing page be?

As long as it takes to answer the visitor's objections and no longer. A familiar, low-commitment offer like a newsletter needs a short page. A new product, a high price or a demo request needs more sections to explain and prove. Let the objections list in your brief decide length, rather than picking a length and filling it.

Should a landing page have navigation?

Usually not for paid traffic. A page built for one action converts better when visitors aren't offered a dozen exits. Keep the logo, perhaps a single link to pricing or security if those answer key objections, and the call to action. For organic or homepage-like pages, light navigation is fine because visitors are often still exploring.

Who should write the landing page brief?

The person closest to customers, often a founder, product marketer or head of sales, should write the first draft. They know the real objections and the proof. A designer or copywriter can then ask follow-up questions and tighten it. Briefs written only by the person managing the vendor tend to miss the customer language that makes copy work.

Can I reuse my homepage copy on a landing page?

You can borrow parts, but a landing page usually needs its own copy. A homepage speaks to many audiences at once, while a landing page speaks to one visitor arriving from one source with one intent. Rewrite the headline to match the ad or email they clicked, and reorder sections around that visitor's specific objections.

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Pricing & hiring

Landing Page Brief Template for Founders and Marketers

A copy-first landing page brief template: audience, offer, objections, proof, then layout. Questions, a filled-in example and what designers need from you.

By Mehdi HassanOct 29, 20266 min read

The short answer

A landing page brief template should cover, in this order: who the page is for and where they come from, the single offer and call to action, the objections visitors have, the proof that answers them, and only then layout, brand and technical needs. Writing the brief copy-first stops the design from deciding what the page says.

Key takeaways

Brief the words before the look: audience, offer, objections and proof come before layout.
One page, one audience, one action. A second goal belongs on a second page.
List real objections from sales calls and support, not the ones you wish customers had.
Proof you can actually show beats proof you'd like to have. Brief only what exists.
Designify's landing page is $6,000 fixed: copy, custom design and an animated Next.js build.

What should a landing page brief include?

A landing page brief should include the audience and traffic source, the single offer and call to action, the objections the page must answer, the proof available, and then the layout, brand and build requirements. That order matters. If you brief layout first, the design decides what gets said, and the page ends up pretty and vague.

This landing page brief template is copy-first because a landing page is a sales argument with a design around it. It's narrower than a full-site brief, which covers navigation, templates and CMS. For a multi-page site, use our web design brief template, and if you're inviting several agencies to bid, wrap either one in the website redesign RFP template.

Brief section	Key question	What it decides
1. Audience	Who lands here, from where, knowing what?	Headline and level of explanation
2. Offer	What exactly are they being asked to do?	CTA, form and page length
3. Objections	Why would a good-fit visitor not act?	Section order and FAQ
4. Proof	What evidence can we show?	Testimonials, logos, data, demos
5. Layout and brand	What must it look and feel like?	Visual design
6. Build and tracking	Where does it live, what do we measure?	Platform, analytics, integrations

The landing page brief template, section by section

Answer these in short, direct sentences. Where you have evidence, such as sales call notes or survey replies, paste the actual words customers used. Designers and copywriters work better from customer language than from internal jargon.

1. Audience and traffic source

Who is the visitor: role, company type, situation?
Where do they come from: a specific ad, an email, search, a partner?
What do they already know about you when they arrive?
What were they doing just before they clicked?

2. Offer and call to action

What is the one action you want: book a demo, start a trial, join a waitlist, download, buy?
What do they get, and what does it cost them in money, time or data?
What happens right after they act?

3. Objections

List the five most common reasons good-fit prospects hesitate. Pull them from sales calls, lost-deal notes and support tickets.
Which objection is the deal-breaker? That one gets answered highest on the page.

4. Proof

Which customer quotes, logos, case studies, ratings or numbers do you actually have permission to use?
Can you show the product: screenshots, a short demo, an interactive tour?

5 and 6. Layout, brand, build

Brand assets and any guidelines; pages you admire and why.
Platform, form tool, CRM, scheduler, analytics events and any A/B testing plans.

Why should a landing page brief start with copy?

A landing page brief should start with copy because the words carry the argument and the layout only presents it. When design comes first, sections get filled to fit boxes, headlines get shortened to fit a hero, and the objection that actually loses deals ends up in the footer.

Specific wording matters even on buttons. Practitioner sources consistently call Request a demo and Submit among the weakest CTA labels, and an Optimizely test reported Watch a Demo outperforming Get Started, 1.59% to 0.91%. One test isn't a law, but it shows why the brief should state what the visitor gets, not just the action. Our guide to how to write landing page copy goes further.

Filled-in example of a landing page brief

Here's a hypothetical, filled-in brief for an imaginary company. It's about 200 words, which is all a good team needs to start.

Hypothetical example: brief for an AI meeting-notes tool's paid search page

Audience: operations managers at 50 to 300 person companies, arriving from paid search for meeting notes software. They know the category and are comparing tools.

Offer: start a 14-day free trial, no card required. After signup they connect a calendar and get notes from their next meeting.

Objections, from sales calls: will it work with our video tool; is our data used to train models; will the team actually adopt it; what does it cost per seat. The deal-breaker is data use.

Proof we can show: three customer quotes with permission, a security page, a 60-second product demo, our integrations list.

Layout and brand: existing brand guidelines; we like pages that show the product above the fold.

Build and tracking: Next.js, HubSpot, trial-start event in analytics. No A/B testing yet, because traffic is low.

That last line is a good call. Most startup pages can't reach A/B sample sizes: Spotler's guidance puts it at roughly 15,000 to 20,000 visitors per variant to detect a 15% lift at a 2% baseline. A research-led brief like this one usually beats testing at low traffic.

How does a brief turn into a landing page?

A good brief turns into a landing page in a fixed sequence: message first, then structure, then design, then build. Each step is reviewed before the next, so changes stay cheap.

Message and outline
The headline, subhead, CTA and section order, written from the audience, offer and objections.
Full copy draft
Every section written, with proof placed where it answers each objection.
Design
Layout and visuals built around the approved copy, desktop and mobile.
Build and tracking
Development, animation, forms, analytics events and QA.
Launch and learn
Watch behavior and sales feedback, then refine the weakest section.

If you're choosing who to hire, our guide to hiring a landing page designer who can also write and build and our list of landing page design agencies will help. For budget context, see landing page design cost.

What does Designify do with a landing page brief?

At Designify, the brief goes straight to the person who writes the page, because the same team writes, designs and builds. We read it, then use the intro call to dig into the objections and the proof, which is where most briefs are thin. Our landing page is $6,000 fixed, and delivery is scoped on the call.

If you're not sure the problem is a single page, compare it with a homepage-only redesign, which can be the better fix when the homepage is doing the selling. If your brief starts listing several audiences, that's usually the sign you need more than one page.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a landing page be?: As long as it takes to answer the visitor's objections and no longer. A familiar, low-commitment offer like a newsletter needs a short page. A new product, a high price or a demo request needs more sections to explain and prove. Let the objections list in your brief decide length, rather than picking a length and filling it.
Should a landing page have navigation?: Usually not for paid traffic. A page built for one action converts better when visitors aren't offered a dozen exits. Keep the logo, perhaps a single link to pricing or security if those answer key objections, and the call to action. For organic or homepage-like pages, light navigation is fine because visitors are often still exploring.
Who should write the landing page brief?: The person closest to customers, often a founder, product marketer or head of sales, should write the first draft. They know the real objections and the proof. A designer or copywriter can then ask follow-up questions and tighten it. Briefs written only by the person managing the vendor tend to miss the customer language that makes copy work.
Can I reuse my homepage copy on a landing page?: You can borrow parts, but a landing page usually needs its own copy. A homepage speaks to many audiences at once, while a landing page speaks to one visitor arriving from one source with one intent. Rewrite the headline to match the ad or email they clicked, and reorder sections around that visitor's specific objections.

Mehdi Hassan · CEO & Design Director

Copywriter, designer and developer, and founder of Designify Studio. Over five years, 60+ projects across 14+ industries, for startups that have raised $300M+.

Want this done for you? Landing page, $6,000.

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