[No Web Production Company Needed?] How Small Businesses Can Make High-Quality LPs (Landing Pages) Cheaply [No Skills Required]

I want to make an LP (landing page), so I asked for a quote, and the estimate came back at 500,000 yen per page.

I've studied up and understand that LPs need frequent updates, so at this rate it would eat up our budget. Is there a good way?

This article introduces a method that should help people like that.

Use an LP creation tool

That's my conclusion: this solves it.

Back in the days before LPs were as widespread as they are now, there was production software such as Homepage Builder and Dreamweaver.

These let you build sites with a word-processor feel without hand-typing HTML, and played the role of "assisting website production," if anything (this role is now handled by WordPress, which has been upgraded along the way).

So you needed knowledge of website production, the results could be mediocre in ways peculiar to the production software, and in the end there was the futility of fixing the HTML by hand.

However, the LP creation tools I'll introduce this time let you make professional-level, high-quality pages with nearly "no skills."

What LP creation tools are there?

These are the main ones.

Let's look at each.

Peraichi

Peraichi boasts the top share among Japanese-made LP creation tools.

When I met Peraichi's president, Mr. Hashida, he told me it began as a way to help an acquaintance who "couldn't build websites well and couldn't get the hang of the tools."

Beyond page creation, the higher plans even provide form placement and newsletter delivery, so as you use it more, it can become the all-in-one tool you want.

Note that the Start plan is free, but you can make only one page, can't use your own domain, and an ad appears in the footer, so think of it purely as a trial.

Also, the 1,980-yen-per-month Regular plan is free for 30 days to try.
It's reassuring that even for a paid service, you can check it properly before signing up.

Colorful

Colorful, which I introduced in the following article, is also recommended.

No Need for a Production Company or Even Peraichi. "Colorful," the Ultimate Tool for Making Landing Pages That Sell "Quickly, Easily, and Cheaply" September 1, 2018

If you have WordPress installed, you can mass-produce LPs with the static page function.

With the WordPress plugin Duplicate Post and Google Optimize, you can get A/B tests ready right away.

The default templates feel geared toward information products and seminar businesses, but if you use asset sites, you can use it in any industry.

Above all, being able to use it as a WordPress theme with a "one-time purchase" rather than a monthly subscription is big.

Unbounce

It's no exaggeration to say that Unbounce is probably at the strongest level among LP creation tools.
It's impeccable in every respect.

You can use it intuitively, and since it's an overseas tool everything is in English, but that's no particular hardship.

It goes well with services that pursue marketing, and it's also famous for being used by Direct Publishing, Japan's top direct response marketing company.

In fact, even on the lowest plan you can publish up to 75 LP pages, and you can integrate with marketing automation such as HubSpot and Infusionsoft.

However, the high price hurdle stands out: the lowest plan is $79 a month on an annual contract and $99 a month on a monthly contract.

But for those who say "I'll master LPs and marketing and sell hard!", it will be a cheap investment.

*You can try it free for 30 days with no feature limits.

STUDIO

Known for its refined design and usability, STUDIO is something like a Japanese version of Unbounce or Instapage.

It's a newcomer yet feels like the favorite, and amazingly, the free plan has unlimited projects and pages, and you can use a subdomain.

However, the free plan includes a STUDIO credit banner, so if it seems worth continuing to use, it's best to switch to Publish ($9 a month).

Also, since the top plan, Grow ($27 a month), is listed as Coming Soon (in development), at this stage stability and usability are probably lacking.

That said, a free trial seems to be available, so it may be good for those whose stance is to use it while looking forward to improvements over time.

And Instapage and Unbounce are made overseas so their support is naturally in English, but STUDIO is Japanese-made so Japanese is OK. That might be a quietly important point.

The "things you should really work on" shown by the evolution of production tools

Besides these, there are tools such as Instapage, which has equivalent features and performance and splits popularity with Unbounce, and Universe, which amazingly lets you build a website with just a smartphone app. The speed at which production tools evolve knows no bounds. This trend can't be stopped.

And what does this show?

It shows this:

To go further, I think you can—and should—focus on core tasks such as growing your own business and marketing. In fact, from now on you won't survive unless you devote as much time and effort as possible to business growth and marketing.

I'd be glad if you try the tools introduced here and, while keeping an eye on the future of your business, focus on what you should really work on and use it to help your business succeed.