What is a landing page, what is it for and how to create yours

A landing page is a page built with a single goal: to turn a visitor into a lead or a customer through one specific action, such as filling out a form or completing a purchase.

It has no menu, no sidebar and no exit links. Everything pushes toward the same decision, with no distractions.

For anyone selling digital products, the landing page is the direct link between the traffic you generate and the revenue that comes in. And with Hotmart Pages, the page builder from Hotmart, the all-in-one platform for creators, you can publish a page connected to the checkout without writing a single line of code.

What is a landing page for and how does it work?

A landing page turns traffic into results, and what “result” means changes with the goal of the campaign. The most common goals are:

• capturing contacts, trading a free resource for a name and an email;
• selling a product, presenting the offer and taking people straight to payment;
• signing people up for a live event, such as a class or a webinar;
• building a waitlist before a launch, to measure demand and warm up the audience;
• segmenting the audience, offering different resources on different pages.

Whatever the goal of the page, the flow of a landing page is always the same:

1. Source: the user clicks an ad, a link in a bio, an email or a search result.
2. Arrival: the person lands on the page and finds a promise that matches what brought them there.
3. Action: they fill out the form or click the buy button. There is no third option.
4. Destination: if it was a lead capture, the contact goes to the email tool and enters a message sequence. If it was a purchase, the person moves on to the checkout.

What is the difference between a landing page and a website?

A website has several pages, a navigation menu and many possible paths. A landing page is a single page with one goal and no exit. The difference is not about size or design, it’s about function.

One doesn’t replace the other. The website sustains your brand’s presence over time. The landing page works one specific offer, for one specific audience, in one specific period.

A landing page and a sales page are not the same thing

A sales page is a type of landing page whose conversion goal is the purchase. The relationship is category and subcategory, not synonym.

In practice, the difference shows up in length. A lead capture page is usually short because it asks for little: an email in exchange for a resource. A sales page has to be long because it asks for money, and asking for money means knocking down objections first.

Landing page, microsite and corporate page

The three are often confused, but they play different roles.

While a landing page is a single page with a single possible action, a microsite is a temporary mini website, with more than one page, created for a campaign or a specific date.

Corporate pages, in turn, present the company, the team or its values. They build trust, but they were not made to convert.

Types of landing pages and when to use each one

Not every landing page has the same goal. Choosing the right type for each moment of your strategy makes a difference in the result.

For anyone selling a course, an ebook or mentoring, two types concentrate almost all the work: the lead capture page, which builds an audience, and the sales page, which converts into revenue.

9 essential elements of a landing page that converts

A high-converting landing page follows a clear structure, with elements that can’t be missing. If you want the step-by-step of building one, see how to create a landing page:

1. headline;
2. subheadline;
3. clear offer;
4. CTA (call to action);
5. social proof;
6. image or video;
7. short form;
8. guarantee;
9. urgency elements.

A good-looking design helps, but it’s not what moves the needle. What moves it is the combination of these components, arranged in an order that makes sense to someone reading for the first time.

1. Headline

It’s the first element the visitor reads. It has to communicate, in one sentence, what you offer and why it matters. A headline with a specific number and a measurable promise usually performs better than a generic version.

Examples for digital products:

• “Learn to invest from scratch: the method used by 12,547 students”
• “Create your first online course in 7 days, even with no experience”
• “The financial spreadsheet 3,000 entrepreneurs use every month”

2. Subheadline

It complements the headline with more context or a secondary benefit. It works as reinforcement for people who are interested but still need information.

Examples of subheadlines for digital products:

• “A simple step-by-step guide to go from zero to investing safely.”
• “From planning to sale: everything you need to launch your online course in one week.”
• “Organize your cash flow and make more profitable decisions every month.”

3. Clear offer

Describe exactly what the person will receive. For digital products, that means the number of lessons, included materials, access period and bonuses.

Focus on the benefit (what changes in the student’s life), not just the feature (number of modules).

4. CTA (call to action)

The button that leads to the conversion. It has to be impossible to ignore:

• a color that contrasts with the rest of the page;
• action-oriented text, because “I want my spot” tends to perform better than “Submit”;
• repeated at more than one point on the page, including the top.

5. Social proof

Testimonials, reviews, number of students, partner logos. Social proof reduces the uncertainty of someone who just arrived.

Use testimonials with a name, a photo and a measurable result. “I made R$ 15,000 in my first month” is more convincing than “Excellent course”.

6. Image or video

A short video, 60 to 90 seconds long, showing who you are, what the product delivers and the expected result, usually removes the doubt of someone arriving cold on the page.

Without a video, use an authentic image of the product or your routine. Avoid generic stock photos: they signal that the page was put together in a hurry.

7. Short form

On a lead capture page, ask only for the essentials. In most cases, name and email are enough. Every extra field lowers conversion a little.

The rule is simple: the less friction, the more conversion.

8. Guarantee

Offering a money-back guarantee reduces the perceived risk for the person buying. For a digital product this weighs a lot, because the person feels they have nothing to lose by trying it.

The two most common periods are 7 days and 30 days.

In Brazil, the 7 days are not a courtesy on your part: they are a consumer right, set out in article 49 of the Consumer Protection Code, which guarantees withdrawal without justification for purchases made outside a physical store, counted in calendar days from receipt.

The 30 days, on the other hand, are a voluntary guarantee, which you offer because you choose to.

Making this clear on the page works in your favor. It shows that you know the rule and that you aren’t selling as a differentiator something that is already an obligation.

9. Urgency elements

A countdown timer, limited spots or bonuses for the first buyers create a legitimate sense of urgency.

But be careful: fake urgency, such as a timer that resets on its own, costs credibility, and the damage lasts longer than the sale it tries to force.

How to create a landing page on Hotmart: step by step

Hotmart Pages is the page builder integrated into the Hotmart ecosystem.

With a drag-and-drop visual editor, templates already optimized for conversion and AI page-generation features, it lets you create professional pages quickly and strategically, with no technical knowledge needed.

Step 1: access the page builder

Inside your Hotmart account, look for the Page Builder in the tools menu. That’s where all pages are created and managed.

Step 2: choose a ready-made template or create with AI

You have two paths. The first is to start from a ready-made template, organized by goal (capture, sales, webinar), and adjust what you need.

The second is to let artificial intelligence build the first version from a few details about your product, and customize it afterward.

If it’s your first page, start with a template. You learn the logic of the structure while you edit.

Step 3: customize the design

The editor works with blocks: drag and drop sections, texts, images and buttons. Change colors and fonts to match your brand identity.

Everything is visual, no code needed.

Step 4: set up the CTA and the checkout

Here lies one of the biggest differentiators: the native integration with the checkout. The editor already recognizes the products registered in your account, so all you do is connect the button to the product and the buyer goes straight to payment.

There is no integration step between tools, and no risk of the link breaking in the middle of the campaign, because the page and the checkout live in the same environment.

Step 5: add lead capture

If your landing page is a capture page, add a form with name and email. Contacts go automatically to Hotmart Send, the ecosystem’s email marketing tool, where you set up automations, segmentation and nurturing sequences.

Step 6: include social proof

Add student testimonials, number of sales, reviews and guarantee seals. The templates already come with ready-made blocks for this, so it’s just a matter of filling them in with your data.

Step 7: check the mobile version

Pages created in Hotmart Pages are already responsive, but it’s worth opening them on your phone before publishing.

According to the TIC Domicílios 2025 survey, by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, 65% of internet users in Brazil access the web exclusively through their phones. A broken layout there is not a detail, it’s a lost conversion.

Step 8: publish and track

The page goes live in a few clicks. You can set up a friendly URL and, on higher plans, connect your own domain. After publishing, use UTMs to track where your traffic comes from and find out which channel brings people who actually convert.

How do you calculate your landing page’s conversion rate?

The formula for the conversion rate is conversions divided by total visitors, multiplied by 100.

If the page received 800 visitors and 72 people filled out the form, the rate is 9%. It’s that simple.

Two precautions that change the result of the calculation:

• Use unique visitors, not visits: if the same person opened the page four times, they count as one visitor. Counting visits inflates the denominator and pushes your rate down for no real reason.
• Define beforehand what counts as a conversion on that page: filling out the form and completing the purchase are different events. A page can’t have two primary numbers.

Which metrics should you track besides the conversion rate?

The conversion rate tells you whether the page works, but not why. To understand that, four metrics help:

• Bounce rate: if many people leave without interacting, the problem is usually the promise at the top, not the form.
• Time on page: too short a time on a long sales page suggests the offer didn’t hold attention in the first seconds.
• CTA clicks: lots of clicks and few conversions point to friction in the form or the checkout, not the page.
• Cost per lead: if you use paid traffic, this is the metric that connects the page to your wallet. High conversion with a high cost per lead is still a loss.

How much does it cost to build a landing page?

The cost ranges from zero, if you build it yourself on a platform, to a few thousand reais, if you hire a custom project. What sets the price is not the page itself, but how much strategy, copywriting and integration work is built into it.

For someone who is just starting and hasn’t validated the offer yet, the platform path does the job. Making the first page expensive before knowing whether the product sells reverses the order of things.

Once the offer is validated and you invest in paid traffic consistently, that’s when it makes sense to pay for custom copy and design. In that scenario, each extra point of conversion pays for itself.

Why is Hotmart Pages different from other tools?

The main differentiator of Hotmart Pages is that it is part of an integrated ecosystem for selling digital products.

Instead of connecting several separate tools, you have checkout, email, members area, affiliates and landing page working in the same environment.

For those just starting, this means less to set up and fewer points of failure. For those already scaling, it means lower cost and less operational friction.

Create your landing page and start selling

The landing page is the bridge between your marketing and your revenue. Without it, you send traffic to pages that scatter attention. With it, every visitor is guided toward a single decision.

You now know what it is, which elements can’t be missing and how to measure whether it’s working. What’s left is to put the first one live and let the numbers talk to you. If you’re still building your product, see how to sell digital products.

On Hotmart Pages, basic use is free and the page is born connected to the checkout and to email sending. You can publish before making your first sale, test the offer and adjust whatever the visitor shows needs adjusting. Create your Hotmart account and build your first landing page.

References

• Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br). TIC Domicílios 2025 survey. Sample of 24,535 individuals and 27,177 households, collected between March and August 2025. Available at: cetic.br.
• IBGE. PNAD Contínua TIC 2025: internet and television access and personal mobile phone ownership. Available at: IBGE News Agency.
• Brazil. Law 8,078/1990 (Consumer Protection Code), art. 49, on the right of withdrawal for purchases made outside a physical store.