Business

Often I get questions about the tools I use to run my business and love answering them, especially when my answer can often be accompanied by a referral/affiliate link.

One of the questions I've been asked fairly often is ‘Why do you still use Leadpages when there are so many other page builders available that cost less?'

It's a good question. The page builder industry has grown by leaps and bounds, giving us lots of options.  The proliferation of providers has benefited everyone by driving innovation and constant improvements. The fact that all these competitors have created solutions at different price points is totally awesome.

I've seen the back end of several new page builder options, from WordPress plugins to shopping carts with built in page builders like Kartra. Some of them are cool and some are clunky, but all show a lot of promise.  Soon, the new Gutenberg update will provide a basic page builder right into every WordPress installation.  This is all great news.

So, why do I still use Leadpages?

#1. It's Not WordPress Dependent.

I love WordPress for everything but my landing and sales pages. Over the years, it hasn't always been a pretty situation where page builders are concerned.  I know the angst of the past isn't a window into the future, but I like knowing a WordPress update isn't going to quirk out all of my top money making web pages.

Leadpages being stand alone, hosted software means I don't have to fret with keeping anything updated.  It's all managed for me and this gives me peace of mind.

When you use a WordPress dependent solution, you have to have WordPress installed on any domain that you want to display a landing or sales page.  I don't. I create the Leadpage and upload the auto-updating file on the domain. No worrying about keeping a WordPress install updated long term.

#2. I Get Free Feedback & Coaching

Seriously. Leadpages has a Facebook Community I can tap into for feedback on a page anytime I like. And every single week Bob ‘The Teacher' Sparkins leads a coaching call available to all customers.  I can submit a landing or sales page for his feedback, jump on that call and get his expert advice.  You can't even hire him to do that – yet it's an included benefit for me as a customer.

#3. Their Extra Features Are Way Cool

First, I dig Leadboxes. I can not only create pop up optin forms on a landing or sales page easily, but I can create a Leadbox and drop the code for it into any of my website pages.  This is super handy.

Then There's Leadlinks – which I don't use since I get automation features from my Drip account – but if you're using an older tool like AWeber, it adds cool functionality.

Leaddigits allows me to set up a keyword you can text to me to get information. For example, text the word BEACHIE to 44422 and I'll tell you how to fill out an application for the next Beach House retreat.  This is a neat way to invite people to act when you're speaking in person or a guest on a podcast.

#4. They're Positively Geeky About Conversions

Leadpages was designed by people who get that it's as important to make a page convert as it is to make a page attractive. I can look at any one of my pages and know how well it's converting. I can easily split test, make adjustments and split test again. Some other tools have this functionality, but not all.

#5. They Are Always Improving

Leadpages is a respected industry leader. They have worked with giants like Facebook to create advertising integrations in the last year and I expect more interesting stuff from them in the future. They are always poking at ways to make their tools more useful.

They are highly responsive to customer feedback. They listen to us because we are subscription customers. If they stop listening, we'll stop paying – that keeps Leadpages motivated to be on the cutting edge.

I know it sounds great when you can buy some page builder software with a ‘lifetime license', but keep in mind, if they can't keep their business healthy in the long run, they have no reason to keep taking care of the tool you're building your business around.

#6. Chasing New Software Is A Time Suck

It's true. I could drop my Leadpages subscription and spend less on a WordPress plugin – but here's the thing – I'd have to move dozens of functioning landing and sales pages.  I'd have to recreate each one from scratch.  That's time consuming enough but I also have to LEARN the new software AND make sure my team learns the new software.

Frankly, there's a lot to be said for sticking with what you know and I know Leadpages really well.

Entrepreneurs with Bright Shiny Software Syndrome have found themselves learning one cool new tool after another.  Just when they get the hang of one – someone releases a competing solution with a great introductory price and off they go on another learning curve for the sake of saving a few bucks.

That doesn't make sense for me. It creates a lot of extra work, effort and stress for the sake of saving a few bucks. Another tool would have to offer me more than price savings to woo me away from where I am.

An aside: Truthfully, I suspect that they're not skipping from learning curve to learning curve just to save money, oftentimes it's more about procrastinating the real work of marketing themselves.

What If I Were Starting New?

It's easy to see, as established as I am, it makes smart sense to stay with what I have – but what if I were starting out from scratch? What if that's where you are right now?

I completely understand wanting to keep subscriptions to a minimum and start up costs down.  If I were beginning anew today and only planned to run projects on one single domain, I'd seriously consider going with Thrive Themes and jam with their Thrive Leads plugin.

If my long term game involved multiple projects on different domains, I'd still choose Leadpages. It's stable, forward thinking and scale-able for anything I want to do in the future.

When I took a Stand for St. Baldrick's and shaved my head live at Exposure & Profit 5, something super cool happened. One of my friends ALSO decided to be shaved.

That's how powerful it can be to Take a Stand.

When you take a stand, you become an Invitation to others.

You can't control whether they accept it – but it's there.

A whole lot of generous people stepped up to make a donation to St. Baldricks. (By the way, you still can!)

It blesses my socks off that Paul Taubman (Digital Maestro) took up the Invitation and took a Stand of his own.  His spontaneous bravery boosted the fundraiser and gave St. Baldrick's more attention than I could have attracted on my own.

I would love my Stand to be an Invitation to you as well.

I don't want you to shave your head – unless you want to ;)  I just want you to do SOMETHING!

Take a risk. Be ballsy.  Make a splash for something you care about!

If you don't, who will?

I talked about this on a livestream this week. Here's an embedded replay:

If you don't know what you'd like to take a Stand for – or if you do and want guidance in developing a Banner Message that jazzes up your content marketing, sign up for my brand new What's Your Stand Banner Message Training.