I was helping a marketer with his landing page the other day.

It was one of those start-up types of “join our waiting list cause it’s not out there yet” pages. (They were trying to release a new social platform).

And something that hit me was how immediately they pushed the lead to sign up. Because here’s the thing…

If the lead isn’t excited about your product yet, you can’t ask them for something.

I’m not going to show the page but just so you have an idea, it was a nice hero image with a vague USP headline.

And because of the complexity of the product (social platforms aren’t the easiest thing to explain in one sentence), it’s description only left me wondering “Hmm, okay tell me more”.

And then the page hit me with a chance to sign up.

That’s what we call friction.

This wasn’t a Harry’s splash page situation. (This is exclusive and we want you to join. Sign up)

This was a “We’re explaining this to you now, but before doing that, first sign up. We’re explaining it later down the page though” kind of situation.

Like you know what I mean?

The rest of the page was fine.

It introduced benefits and then even examples of posts, but it still left me with this weird feeling.

And a feeling that maybe that CTA should have gone at least after the benefits, and not before.

Long form sale pages know when to do the ask, shouldn’t landing pages as well?

Then again, you should always test this, right?

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