In business (as in life), the words you choose in pivotal moments are everything. Whether it’s an elevator pitch that distills your entire brand story and mission into a compelling snapshot, or the copy on your website—especially on a landingpage, where first impressions matter most—the right phrasing can make all the difference.
This guide breaks down the essential elements of high-converting landing page copy, from compelling headlines to strategic calls to action, with real brand examples and actionable tips you can apply to your own pages.
What is landing page copy?
Landing pages are standalone web pages designed to convert potential customers into leads as they click through ad or marketing campaign links. While your homepage invites deeper exploration into your brand and offerings, landing pages narrow the focus, spotlighting a specific aspect of your brand or product. They encourage a specific action, like a purchase or a sign-up (for a free trial, wait list, or newsletter), and can also be used to tease a new launch—also known as a Coming Soon page.
Landing page copy is the written content that conveys your message, fosters trust, and prompts action. Visuals and design play an important role in creating high-converting landing pages, but strong copy (i.e., writing) is paramount. Effective landing page copy instantly tells readers who you are, what you offer, why they should care, and what to do next—often in just a few seconds of scrolling.
Looking to create your first landing page? Start with Shopify’s website builder to design professional pages without coding, or explore how to build a website that converts visitors into customers.
Elements of landing page copy
A few key components make an effective landing page. Each serves a distinct purpose in capturing attention, sustaining interest, and prompting action.
Here’s an overview of what to include, with real-life examples to inspire your own:
Headline
A compelling landing page headline draws your reader in with a hook: a clear statement that sets the tone for the entire landing page and reflects your brand’s personality and voice. The subscription portal from non-alcoholic aperitif brand Ghia distills the headline into three simple words that still manage to evoke the enjoyment of drinking the product (sip) and the incentives of subscribing (savings and access to repeat experiences). It’s catchy, in keeping with the rest of the fragmented copywriting style seen across the website, and memorable—reminiscent of the well-known phrase “rinse and repeat,” but with a twist that makes it applicable to a beverage subscription.
Ghia founder Melanie Masarin emphasizes the importance of building a brand personality that resonates. In an interview with Shopify Masters, she explains how Ghia’s playful, sophisticated tone—reflected in every touchpoint from packaging to landing page copy—helped the brand stand out in a crowded market and build a loyal community around their product.
Body copy
The body of your landingpage is where the most important and engaging information lives. If sustainability is central to your brand—and a key reason customers choose you—use this space to highlight how it’s embedded in your business and the impact you’ve made. If there’s a hero product you want to spotlight over others as a gateway to your full portfolio, you might devote the body of your landingpage to product details and deep dives.
Grind, a coffee company based in London, dedicates a page to its sustainability efforts, leaving no doubt about the credibility and integrity of its brand. Covering everything from compostable packaging and ethical producer relationships to its charitable foundation and company culture, the persuasive landing page copy highlights Grind’s unique selling proposition within its particular niche.
Grind’s approach to transparency extends beyond landing pages. In a Shopify Masters interview, the team discusses how they use detailed storytelling across their website to communicate their values. This helps customers understand not just what they’re buying, but why it matters. Such strategy has helped them build lasting customer relationships and stand out in the competitive coffee market.
Social proof
Social proof is a concept that describes how others’ opinions or actions inform our own. In marketing, social proof elements like customer reviews, client testimonials, or media mentions help distill the value proposition of your product and validate shoppers’ choices, making them feel that your offering is worth their time, money, or interest.
Australian gumboot brand Merry People uses images of its boots in various settings, followed by features in fashion publications. This social proof both informs and validates, highlighting the boots’ versatility and style to help potential customers feel more confident to purchase.
Call to action (CTA)
A call to action (CTA) is a prompt that encourages readers to take a desired action in line with the goals of your own landing page. It could invite a product purchase, subscription, waitlist sign-up, or build trust and deepen your brand’s relationship with potential customers.
For example, Dieux Skincare recently unveiled a new way to build brand trust with its Sun-Screener, a tool that analyzes and explains sunscreen ingredients. The Sun-Screener is a perfect example of the brand’s unifying commitment to transparency. While Dieux currently does not offer sunscreen, it has dedicated a page to scientific education—directly inspired by customer inquiries—pushing back against misinformation.
Dedicating a landing page to an ingredient checker tells a potential customer about the spirit of the company and builds trust, which may convince them to make a purchase from the brand’s current line-up.
Tips for writing landing page copy
- Define the goal
- Choose the right template
- Optimize for search engines
- Incorporate urgency
- Highlight brand personality
- Choose one call-to-action
- A/B test
Ready to write a landing page that converts new visitors into die-hard brand advocates? Here’s a collection of tips you can use to help you draft and deliver copy that performs.
Define your goal
Landing pages present your brand through a deliberate lens, so start by defining the page’s primary goal.
Are you hoping to incentivize purchases? Build a subscriber list for a new membership club? Empower readers to adopt a new habit or lifestyle (that aligns with your product)? The goal of your landingpage is the foundation for the copy you’ll write: Try to be as specific as you can about what the page is about, so you can narrow down the components you need to include, and it will be simpler to land on one main call to action.
Your landing page goal should align with your broader branding strategy and clearly communicate your unique selling proposition—the specific value that makes customers choose you over competitors.
Choose the right templates
Your landingpage’s focus should guide your choice of theme or template. Some templates will align better with your landing page copy goals and how the content will display on the page.
For example, if you’re showcasing your top-selling products with social proof, you may want to choose a clean grid layout with brief descriptions and most of the emphasis on a selection of positive reviews and pull quotes. For storytelling—like sharing your brand’s commitment to sustainability—a narrative-driven template with more space for detailed paragraphs might be a better fit.
Browse Shopify’s theme library to find customizable page templates with built-in landing page layouts. They offer drag-and-drop sections you can arrange to match your copy structure without coding.
Popular themes include:
- Dawn (free, minimalist, and highly flexible)
- Sense (free, clean, product-focused)
- Craft (storytelling-optimized with rich media support)
You can also generate original website designs using AI.
Optimize for search engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps improve the quality of traffic and overall visibility of your landing pages by optimizing your site’s content for organic search. The right keywords in headlines, descriptions, and body copy can help your website rank higher in search engine page results (SERPs); the better a search engine understands your landing page, the more likely it becomes that the right customers will discover it.
The trick is to find the right words for the job. Use keywords that reflect your brand’s unique offering and voice while aligning with the terms your audience actually searches for. For example, a furniture brand might target “office chairs” alongside more specific phrases like “best office chairs for home office.” Keyword research tools such as Moz, Ahrefs, or Semrush can help identify those opportunities.
Once your landing page is live, use free SEO tools to monitor your rankings and identify opportunities for improvement.
Incorporate urgency
One of the best ways to encourage immediate action on your landingpage is to create a sense of urgency, either around the problem your product solves or your reader’s ability to get their hands on it.
Achieve urgency through time pressure (using language like “end of season sale” or “only 1 left!”). Techniques like the sunk cost fallacy also work well. Leverage how much time your reader has already invested on the page to make completing the intended action feel like the smart and obvious choice (“You’ve come this far—don’t miss out now!”).
Highlight brand personality
Great landingpage copy should communicate your brand personality and bring your brand voice to life. You’re working with limited space, so strategically balance where you choose to show off your brand voice and where you’ll speak in more concrete terms.
Skip abstract phrasing in favor of clear, punchy language. Choose strong, specific words in simple sentences that are easy to grasp. For example, instead of saying “Better pants for those who crave adventure and style,” you might say, “Versatile pants for everyday exploration.”
Choose one call to action
Stick to a single call to action to avoid the paradox of choice: When a reader must choose between too many avenues, they’re less likely to pick one at all. Ideally, choose a simple CTA with a measurable outcome, whether that’s a purchase, a newsletter sign-up, a waitlist registration, or a quiz completion. You can also opt for a more intangible, lead-magnet-style CTA that builds brand affinity, like Dieux’s Sun-Screener, above. Whichever route you take, place it above the fold for best results.
A/B test
If you’re deciding between a few variations of copy, A/B test your landing pages to let your customers weigh in. Wait at least two weeks before analyzing performance or making any changes. A true A/B test requires a statistically significant result—the specific sample size you’ll need depends on your current conversion rate and the size of improvement you’re trying to detect, but most landing pages need several hundred to several thousand visitors per variation.
Use apps like Optimizely or VWO to design experiments and analyze the results within Shopify.
Landing page copy FAQ
What makes a bad landing page?
A bad landing page has no clear call to action. Even a minimal or Coming Soon landing page can provoke curiosity with a simple prompt to sign up for a waitlist; you just need to make it very clear to the reader how they should engage with your page.
What does a successful landing page look like?
A successful landing page features enough brand storytelling to build excitement for the product or service details that follow. It includes strong customer testimonials and reviews and a call to action that results in a desired action, like a purchase or subscription to a list.
Are landing pages effective?
Yes, landing pages can be effective, especially if they feature a clear purpose and informative and compelling product or value descriptions that build to a natural call to action.
