Validate your idea with a landing page before you validate your product
We all know the importance of validating a product before investing significant time and energy into it. MVPs get a lot of hype in this regard, because they're fast and they can validate products with a high degree of confidence. But it can be useful to validate the idea before even spending time on the MVP.
The tried-and-true way of validating an idea is with a landing page. I know indie hackers who swear by it, and non-indie-hackers do it too — Dropbox, Robinhood, and others started this way. So if you've got an idea that needs validating, here's the quick-and-dirty way to do it.
Validation as an iterative process
Simply put, validation is the process by which we figure out whether a product is worth working on. It's often looked at as an absolute concept — the product is either validated or it isn't. But these days, I tend to think of it as an iterative process.
It's like @csallen said:
…you can't actually be certain anything will work until it's out there working. But you can increase your confidence levels pre-launch…
Each step in the validation process tests whether the product should move to the next step. And while a landing page generally won't provide enough validation to justify spending months or years on a product, it often provides enough to justify building an MVP. Then, the MVP will tell you whether or not to continue building.
So with that in mind, I think validation via landing page is the only way to go… unless you're able to build an MVP in roughly the same amount of time as a landing page.
@Hamiltonian seems to agree:
I like Alexander Osterwalder's approach. He considers it a spectrum of evidence. So asking someone what they think is quick but provides weak evidence. That doesn't mean its a bad place to start. You then go up the spectrum to a landing page with a mock product that can be purchased is higher on the spectrum. It takes more time but your evidence is stronger…
A checklist for setting up a validation landing page
So when you've got an idea that you'd like to validate, here's how you do it.
- Document the product. You'll need to have a really solid idea of the product in your mind. Outline the features and keep it simple — this is about the core functionality. Complicating it with a ton of possible features will only muddy the waters and make validation more difficult.
- Nail the problem, solution, and value proposition.
- Identify your target market.
- Come up with a name and by the domain.
- Design a visual representation of the product. This may not be a need-to-have, but it's certainly a nice-to-have, as it'll provide more context to potential customers. A simple wireframe will often do the trick.
- Identify your goals and metrics for validation. What conversion rate would feel like validation to you? There's no hard-and-fast number here. Among other things, it will depend on where you're getting traffic from (ads will probably have lower conversion rates than organic, for example).
- Create a landing page. I'll include some best practices and tools below. Design-wise, lean heavily on templates to save you time and creative juice. Include the representation of the product that you created. If you need design inspo, check out One Page Love by @robhope. My post about design might help too.
- Write copy. Keep it concise. Include the pain point, solution, features, benefits, and social proof (if applicable).
- Add a signup form. Your CTA should ask people to provide their email address — something like "Join the waitlist for first access." After they provide their email, you can also ask a quick question. Usually, it's a question that will identify what customer segment they belong to. Keep it short, though — you don't want to add friction.
- Determine your ad strategy. What ad platform will you use, what's your budget, what keywords will you target, etc. Most folks use Google Adwords. Some use Facebook. And I've seen a few people recommend Bing, as it's cheaper. If you're using Google, check their keyword planner to decide on keywords. Keywords like "[competitor] alternatives" are often a good choice. But don't bother targeting a keyword with fewer than 100 searches per month.
- Create ads. If you're going with Google Adwords, which is what most indie hackers do, you'll just need to put some copy together. You'll want to create different ad groups for different types of keywords so that you can test different types of customers. Keep your copy similar to the copy on your landing page, but add a CTA.
- "Launch" the landing page on your socials, email list, etc.
- Begin your ad campaign.
- Reach out to people who sign up. This should not be an automated email. Be a human. And ask if they'd be open to jumping on a call so they can have a say in the product. I'd recommend reading The Mom Test by @robfitz before doing that.
- Analyze the metrics and adjust as necessary. If conversions are low, consider trying keywords that target other niches. If you're getting conversions with Adwords, it's worth noting that organic conversions will likely be higher (eventually). Remember that a low conversion rate doesn't mean that the product is a bust, it could also mean that your messaging, positioning, targeting, or something else is problematic. So tweak the experiment. If the conversion rate is good, though, then that's validation to move onto the MVP.
Landing page don'ts
Some folks will tell you to pretend that the product is already on the market. They say to add a fake "buy" button. I even saw a story about a guy who used a real "buy" button, took the money, then emailed the buyer asking if they wanted a refund. I would not recommend this. Yes, the validation that comes from a user trying to purchase your product is much stronger than that of an email signup. But bamboozling potential customers is not a very smart business tactic IMO. Seems like a good way to lose leads.
I'd also skip the lead magnet. I did see a few people recommending lead magnets related to your product, but I think it'll skew your data. You're trying to validate your product, not the magnet.
Landing page dos
Make sure to include an attention-grabbing title, product description (including who, what, and why), how it works, pricing tiers, contact, and transparency around the product not being available yet.
Keep the important stuff above the fold. And remove friction wherever possible, and only ask for what you need
Since you won't be using a fake buy button, per above, you'll want to create a place to collect emails. I'd suggest positioning it as a waitlist, and offering early access to the product when it's ready can be a solid motivator. Some landing page builders will have their own solution or integrations for capturing emails, but you can also do it with a Zapier webhook. Of course, you'll need to stay in touch with them about your progress (or lack thereof).
Connect your landing page to analytics so that you can track what's happening (and therefore validate). Some landing page builders have their own analytics solution, but I'm personally a fan of Plausible by @marcosaric since they're privacy-first.
And make sure it's responsive, obviously. Most builders will do this automatically, but you should test it anyway.
Landing page builders
Here are a few solid builders to get you started. Most have a free tier, but those tiers don't allow for custom domains, which is a problem, so I'll include the next price-tier up.
- Webflow is by far the most recommended landing page builder for indie hackers, from what I've seen. $14/mo
- Carrd is simple with free options, and it's only $19/year
- Unicorn Platform: Solid builder by @alexanderisora. $8/mo
- Mixo uses AI to build a landing page in seconds. $9/mo
- Launchrock is a solid one that's been around for a while. Super simple. $29/mo
- Versoly by @volkandkaya. $19/mo
- Bubble was mentioned a few times, but I think it's overkill for a landing page. $25/mo
- Weebly has been a big name in the space for a while. More general-use, rather than being specifically for indie hacker types. $10/mo
Since you don't even know whether the idea is a good one, I'd opt for a cheap one — it'll do the job just fine.
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Interesting to hear the opposite on the landing pages not having fake buys! I’ve been hearing so much of saying ppl should put their credit card in for it to count but this makes sense too. Out of the echo chamber finally
Haha, yeah to each their own, but it just wouldn't feel good to me as a potential customer.
I was actually just about to start working on my MVP, but this is a much better idea - thanks. 😅
I wish I had enough time to spare where I could just work on a product for fun and not care about whether it succeeds, but I don't so I've gotta use it wisely. Side-hustling is hard!
Hi James, good intro to landing page validation. I would also add a few points:
If the number of signups is your only metric, you might misinterpret results and, for example, abandon a project that has huge potential. People might watch the video (interested in problem you're solving) yet don't sign up (the solution might not resonate). They might read or click on specific features yet ignore others - this is all a goldmine of information to iterate on a product.
But how about eCommerce? Would you sign up for a waiting list for a random clothing brand? Buying is more of an impulsive decision. Here, you can create a page that looks like a fully functional store and trigger the signup pop-up every time one clicks a product name. Then you measure both clicks on products - genuine intent (and you know which generates the most traffic!), and consider those who signed up as super-costumers. In this case, we should offer some strong incentive (20$ OFF)
Also, I would add Wordpress+Elementor to the landing page builder list. :)
Great insights, could you please suggest some keywords to search and learn more about these points?
Nice, thanks for weighing in!
This is a great overview and guide.
I’ve found this only works when you have a really clear target audience and a way to reach them, which you should have anyways if you’re starting a company!
Yeah, great point!
Couldn't agree more! I used to always build the products before even seeing if there are any users that want it. I've learned from my mistakes, and currently working on a new startup of mine, SkinScout, no actual product yet, just a landing page with an email collector.
Tell me what you think.
That's more than a landing page, but looks great! I like the CTA. I have to make some guesses about what the product does, but that probably just means I'm not your target market 😀
Thank you for the post. I’m currently at that “validate through a landing page” fase and this reassures me that it’s a good approach…just need to find those users
Good luck! 🚀🚀
how do you promote a landing page without a product or MVP? I have a few projects i made landing pages for that cover basically what itll do, asking for email capture and pre-registering interest... but so far not a single sign up. However i know the project is crazy useful and defo has PMF.
Are you driving traffic to the landing page? If not, try to do so with ads, promotions, etc. If you already have traffic, the it could be an issue with your landing page or maybe you don’t have product-market-fit. I’d start by tweaking the landing page (copy, CTA, imagery, etc.) and testing it. Then I’d look into different niches and test those.
I know you said you have PMF but you never really know until it’s validated, so it’s worth testing.
You just try your best to imagine how it would look like, open up Figma and make some mockups. Then, use them in your landing page with some content. Here's an example of how I did it in my startup, SkinScout. (No product yet, just a landing page with an email collector)
Yeah adding mock-ups is a great suggestion
I don't know who are you but I love you. You are like a ChatGPT that was trained an all of the Indiehakcers articles.
Dang, you caught me... 🤖
🤣 Thanks! Really glad you're liking my posts.
Thanks for the advice, that's quite enlightening!
My pleasure!
Very True, I will keep it in mind while building @IndieJames
🚀
Thanks for adding Unicorn Platform to the list ✨
One interesting aspect to consider when validating a product idea with a landing page is the concept of 'false positives'. A false positive in this context refers to when a landing page receives a high level of interest and conversions, leading the creator to believe that the product is worth pursuing, when in reality it may not be. This can happen for various reasons, such as targeting the wrong audience or using particularly effective copywriting. It's important to keep this in mind and try to gather as much genuine feedback as possible to ensure that the validation process is as accurate as possible.
⤴ Via ChatGPT
Yeah that's a great point!
amazing, definitely gonna give it a read before starting something new!
Good luck!
I don't think a fake Buy button is a bad idea at all. It'll help you get stronger validation, and then you just ask for their email address instead of their payment info. Why not? I guess it might piss some people off, but not many. Seems worth it to me.
I think instead of a fake Buy Now button, a fake payment Picture of payment form can be added to see if users will take action, when they click on to enter their digits, a popup will just tell them, the site is not available now for payment, contact support
I think this idea will work better to validate any premium product.
Interesting take, thanks for weighing in!
Fun to find this article having just spent a couple months building https://ideasnap.co
It's a way to validate early... answer a few questions and let the AI draft an initial micro-site (then you can customize the content afterward).
Also a bit different than most site builders, this one includes unlimited sites (since they're very micro-ish starters) but it's handy because it's got list-building baked right in.
I'm not (yet) trying to compete with full site builders.. more of an outlet for domain hoarders to take some sort of step and start putting the idea out there with next to zero effort -- setting up a "Snapshot site" with IdeaSnap doesn't actually take much longer than buying a domain!
Thank you, this is an amazing insight! What are your other strategies besides ads?
Thanks a lot @IndieJames for this post - lots of very useful tips and links!
Just curious, would you consider the advice given here https://buffer.com/resources/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-weeks-how-we-did-it/ , with a pricing plan displayed and then a page that states that the product is still in development, to fall in the same category as the "fake" buy button that should be avoided?
I will identify my idea step by step as you say. Thanks!
Thank you for the input. I will apply these steps in future projects
@IndieJames very interesting and detailed article, thanks for this. I have one question though regarding the approach for the landing page.
I am currently working on screenshots and a landing page for a product that I have built for 20%. As part of the landing page, how much detail would you give away on the product? I know the product in detail and know what the final version of MVP 1.0 will look like, but how much info/details should I put on the landing page?
Framer.com should also be on this list of website builders, no affiliation but we used it to build https://maxtravel.app and it was fantastic!
My tool playgroundera.com aims at exactly this.
It lets you setup a landing page within seconds, where you can launch your business idea with a value proposition and a CTA to collect emails.
It provides you with conversion rate and the motivation to pursue the idea or maybe kill it.
Auto launch of ad-campaigns is in our roadmap and will soon be launched.
Not sure if this is still a running product, but I just see a blank white page.
Great post! I 100% agree with every single word 👏🏽
This is actually what I am trying to do with this landing page: https://tiledesk.com/chatbot-design-studio/
I launched it last Friday, while the product will be released on beta by the end of the month.
Anyway I already got hundreds of views, collected new leads and got some validation 😊
Here is a real product that was validated with a landing page and founder's blog post about it:
https://encharge.io/pre-launch-marketing/
This is a great article on something that I'd never considered doing before, I'm going to build a landing page as part of the market research stage of a SAAS product I'm working on, thanks!
Thanks for sharing James.
What are baseline metrics (ie. optin rate) you found to be a good indicator that you're product is on to something?
Very useful article, thank you!
Thanks for sharing this great post, James! Validating an idea before investing significant time and resources into it is crucial for any entrepreneur. Using a landing page is a smart and efficient way to test the viability of an idea, as it allows us to gather valuable feedback and data on our target market and their interest in the product. Your checklist for setting up a validation landing page is a useful guide for anyone looking to validate their product idea. I especially appreciate the emphasis on keeping it simple and focusing on the core functionality of the product, as well as the importance of identifying clear goals and metrics for validation. Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences!
Do you build your own landing page or hire a freelancer?
Use a landing page builder - check out the tools above. It's super easy, even if you don't know how to code.
Thanks for this rundown.
Idea validation can save so much time and money. I lost $1000s behind ideas without traction in the beginning. Now, I'm taking my time to study the market and ask what it wants.
Good plan! And sorry to hear that! 😅
I fail and fail fast so I can move on to what works.
I have a difficult product, and I just thought that it was almost impossible to validate my idea through landing page. To my opinion, thare are a lot of competitors in the market, it means the market fit and the value are already existed. But validating works better in my case, when I'm doing cold outreach in chats, forums, and other places with traces of activity.
I've been working on a couple ideas around creating simple landing pages, blogs and shorts to drive traffic. so this article really fits around what I've been thinking.
Cool, hope it work out for ya!
Great blog post. I did the same thing with Status Hive recently. It's been a really good way to get feedback from users as I've gone along as well. Should make launching that much smoother
Glad it worked for you!
Thanks ! Learnt a lot !!
Straight to building a landing page for my idea
Good luck!
Inspiring! Actually I'm building the product, but it is a good idea to build a landing page before launch to see if there are any users that interested in it.
Yeah could be a good idea 😀 I guess it depends how far into build it you are.
Creating ads for a non existing product might also be a huge waste of money - most people would scale with ads but not use ads to try and run a market validation exercise....
Could be. But not doing it could be a huge waste of time 🤷♂️
You can also send traffic to the landing page by promoting it in other ways - Twitter, Reddit, blog, etc - if that’s your preference. That’s actually probably the best place to start
I agree!
I landed here after running the gamut signing up for various SaaS "quick start guides" and this was the most informative one out there. I've read plenty of places to "spin up a landing page and validate" but nothing as detailed as this. Thanks a ton for taking the time to write it!
Thanks! Glad it helped :)
Great post! Thanks.
Any tips on choosing product name and domain name?
The shorter, the better for both. The name needs to be easy to pronounce. And ideally, the name will indicate what the product does. Other than that, it doesn't matter much IMO.
The domain needs to be easy to remember and spell. Bu most indie hackers aren't getting optimal/expensive domains, but they're making it work anyway.
If you're really having a hard time with it, there are actually free name generators out there. Here's one made by @bennychan. Maybe it'll give you some inspo!
What if your value proposition is doing something better than current solutions do? For example, if Figma wanted to validate their original idea with a landing page would their strategy be to make lofty claims about their softwares capabilities? I guess I am curious about how to use a landing page if your goal is to build something better than what exists, without making huge promises.
In that case, I would focus on your differentiators. What is it that you're doing that your notable competitors are not? Show that in your landing page. You could use ads to target "[your competitor] alternatives". Or if your product is cheaper, for example, target "cheaper [your competitor]". You could even create a comparison landing page, where you compare your product's features to your competitor's.
With that said, though, if you're pre-MVP and trying to validate via a landing page, you've likely got a long way to go before your company actually surpasses your established competitors. So if that's the case, I would cut back on your feature-set and focus on being the best at one small feature. Make a landing page about that. Target customers who don't need the other features. And niche down hard.
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