Use Instapage to quickly create landers — How to
How I created a landing page and sign-up form in regarding 15 minutes.
This past weekend I needed to quickly create a sign up page for my wife’s fresh newsletter. I didn’t want to bother with creating a fresh hosting account, installing WordPress and using a plugin to connect the form to MailChimp.
The alternative and easier solution is a landing page generator that handles the design, hosting and form integration.
There are a number of popular solutions out there. The two that seemed like the best fit were Instapage and LeadPages. I decided to give Instapage a try for two reasons:
1. You can start a free 30-day trial without even entering a credit card. LeadPages is just a money-back guarantee.
2. LeadPages is a reverse domain name hijacker.
I found Instapage to be fairly simple to use, but I almost didn’t get past the first few minutes of using it. Instead of sending you to a page to select a template to edit, it sends you through a tutorial page that helps you create your first template. It’s not clear that it’s a tutorial and makes things more complicated than they need to be. I couldn’t find a way to exit out of it, so I had to go through the motions. Just let me pick a template and start editing!
It was easy once I got over this modest hurdle. I was able to create this landing page in regarding 15 minutes.
The template I edited had a lot more useful sections, such as testimonials. I deleted them since they just weren’t necessary for what I was doing. Here are some example templates:
I contacted support following running into a modest issue with resizing the background. Not only did the support person make the change for me, but they also sent a screen capture video of him making the change so I could learn how to do it.
Hosting the form was simple. I just created a CNAME record at GoDaddy to point to the form.
Instapage packages start at $29 per month (when paid annually). This seems like a good deal for people creating lots of landing pages and lead forms. But it probably doesn’t make sense for someone who just needs a simple one-page lander that links to MailChimp. At $348/year, it probably makes more sense to pay someone to set up a simple site on the domain and cut the monthly costs.
It would be nice if Instapage had some sort of “starter” package for $5 a month or so for people who have limited needs.
