Landing page brief template

One page, eight fields. Fill it before design starts so the page repeats the promise that got the click.

One brief per page and per arrival source. If the ad and the email promise different things, they get different first screens.

Fill it with the person who owns the commercial outcome. One name signs it. If the promise line changes after sign-off, update this sheet first, then the page.

flowchart LR
    P["Positioning"] --> V["Visitor + trigger"]
    A["Arrival source"] --> M["Promise line"]
    V --> M
    M --> R["Proof"]
    R --> C["One CTA"]

1. Page and sign-off

  • Page name and URL (planned)
  • Signs the brief (one name) and date
  • The page exists so that ___ can ___ without ___

    The page exists so that a small-firm owner can request a scope call for a fixed-price cleanup without reading about every service we offer.

2. Visitor, trigger, and arrival

Use their words, not ours. Pull from intake notes, call recordings you have permission to use, or replies to past emails.

  • Who is reading (role, size, situation)
  • What just happened that made them look A deadline, a failed vendor, a new market. Not "they want growth."
  • Arrival source (ad, email, referral, search, direct)
  • Exact words they clicked (ad headline, email subject, or the referrer’s sentence)

3. Promise line and parity check

  • Promise line (first sentence of the first screen)
  • A stranger reads the click source and the promise line and says "same thing" If they hesitate, rewrite the line before you design around it.
  • One supporting sentence that names the deliverable or the outcome you can stand behind

4. Proof and permission

Claim on the pageProof we will showPermission / date checked
  • Any claim without proof is rewritten as what we do, or removed
  • Claims we will not make on this page (numbers we did not measure, logos we cannot show)

5. One call to action

  • CTA label (same words every time it appears)
  • Destination (form, calendar, email) and who replies
  • Reply time we can keep this month
  • Event name that counts a successful submit and who owns the report

6. Objections and cut list

Objection (their words)Where the page answers itSource
  • Cut list: requests we heard and decided not to put on this page Each one is marked: another page, a different offer, or not at all.
  • Change rule: edits to promise, proof, or CTA update this brief first

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