How Landingi Evolved from a Web Agency into a Leading Landing Page Platform

Evolution of the Platform

I recently had the opportunity to speak with landing page expert Blazej Abel, CEO and Co-Founder of Landingi, for an exclusive interview. Landingi is a leading landing page builder trusted by thousands of businesses worldwide. In our conversation, Blazej provided unique insights into Landingi's origin story as a web design agency and its evolution into a robust SaaS platform.

We discussed critical milestones like launching at a Google Startup Weekend event in 2011 and securing early-stage funding in 2013 to focus entirely on product development. Blazej also outlined some of Landingi's differentiating features, like the drag-and-drop Pixel Perfect builder, flexible publishing options, and global infrastructure.

He shared his thoughts on major trends shaping the future of landing pages, including hyper-personalization, AI optimization, and platform ecosystems trying to own the customer experience. Throughout our discussion, Blazej highlighted real-world examples of Landingi powering marketing and lead generation for diverse businesses.

Blazej provided a transparent look behind the scenes at a pioneering landing page company from the early stages to the robust platform Landingi is today.

The Early Days as a Web Design Agency

Landingi started in 2005 as a web design agency in Poland focused on helping small and medium businesses build websites. In addition to web design services, they also provided search engine marketing through Google Ads campaigns.

As Blazej Abel, CEO and co-founder of Landingi, explained:

“We were doing a lot of web design and helping SMBs to go online. We built the websites, plus we prepared the campaigns for them. And mostly, it was the Google Ads at those times.”

The agency faced challenges with conversion rates and clients not wanting to pay extra for dedicated landing pages.

Idea for a Faster, Easier Website Builder

This led to the initial idea of creating a website builder that was faster and easier to use. The goal was to provide landing pages as an added bonus for clients running Google Ads campaigns without additional costs.

Increase conversions with tips in "How to Optimize Landing Pages for Higher Conversion Rates."

As an agency, Landingi faced challenges with conversion rates and clients not wanting to pay extra for dedicated landing pages. This led to the initial idea of creating a website builder that was faster and easier to use.

As Blazej explained:

“Our idea and first idea was not directly to landing pages, but how we can create websites easier and faster. So the customers can just get this as some kind of additional benefits from building Google ad campaigns with us.”

The goal was to streamline website creation so clients could get landing pages built quickly as an added bonus to their Google Ads campaigns. Landing pages were identified as needing to improve conversions, but clients were reluctant to pay extra when they already had high website and ad spend costs.

Many successful SaaS companies started out trying to solve an internal problem before realizing their solution could help others.

By making website building faster and more efficient, the hope was that landing pages could be provided at no additional cost. Clients could benefit from better conversion rates without increasing their budget.

This initial concept focused on speed and ease of use. The agency wanted to create websites in a fraction of the time compared to traditional development. With a fast and intuitive builder, clients could get bundled websites and landing pages.

The idea was that a simplified, drag-and-drop builder would allow the agency to crank out sites much more rapidly. This would open up time for building landing pages optimized for conversions.

So, while landing pages became the eventual focus, the original vision was for an easy-to-use website builder. This would enable delivering landing pages as a free add-on, solving clients' conversion challenges.

Pivoting to Focus on the Landingi Product

In 2011, Blazej pitched the landing page concept at a Google Startup Weekend event in Poland and received great feedback that it solved a real need for better conversion rates.

Building Landingi as a Side Project Initially

For almost two years after the initial idea, Landingi was worked on as a side project at the agency in between client work. As Blazej explained:

“For two years, almost two years, it was like some kind of site project in my agency. So between the projects, we were doing Lendingi.”

The team slowly made progress on a Landingi prototype, gaining more internal traction over time. But it was still not the primary focus.

See the future of landing pages in "10 Landing Page Design Trends to Watch in 2023 and Beyond."

Taking Investment and Shifting Focus to Landingi

A significant turning point came in 2013 when Blazej secured seed funding from a Polish VC fund. This allowed him to completely shift the agency's focus onto developing Landingi as a product.

“I decided to take the seed round with the Polish VC found and 100% focused on lending. And that's over 10 years now, how we are doing this as a regular company.”

With investment secured, Landingi transitioned from a side project into the company's central focus. The agency stopped taking on external client work and directed all resources into building Landingi's landing page builder and platform.

Launching Landingi as a Fully Fledged Product

After 2 years of part-time development, the Landingi product was ready for an official launch. No longer a prototype, Landingi was now a fully-fledged SaaS platform focused 100% on helping businesses optimize conversions through dedicated landing pages.

The initial traction and feedback Landingi received as a side project gave Blazej confidence that the product could succeed independently. The seed funding enabled the shift to focus the agency entirely on developing Landingi and bringing it to market.

This pivot ultimately laid the foundation for Landingi's growth into one of the leading landing page builders over the past 10+ years. But it originated as a side hustle and passion project before becoming the core focus.

Starting as One of the First Dedicated Landing Page Tools

As Blazej explained, Landingi was an early mover in the landing page space when first founded in 2005:

“We were one of the first companies doing landing pages. So we also helped to shape what features are really necessary when it comes to landing page builders.”

This allowed Landingi to help define the core functionality needed in dedicated landing page tools. Since the market was still new, they gained valuable insight into what customers wanted through being one of the first solutions available.

Starting as a pioneer in the industry allowed Landingi to innovate and experiment. They didn't have established competitors to follow or mimic. The team was able to take risks and try new approaches based directly on customer feedback.

Being an early player also helped Landingi build authority and trust. As more businesses recognized the value of landing pages, Landingi was already established as a proven option. Their expertise and maturity gave confidence to customers.

Overall, Landingi's longevity has been an advantage. Their decade-plus of experience optimizing landing page technology has created a robust, full-featured platform. Starting early allowed them to learn and perfect their offering over years of real-world use.

Continuing to Lead Innovation in the Market

As one of the early pioneers in landing pages, Landingi has maintained its leadership position through constant innovation and improvement.

As Blazej explained:

“We were one of the first companies doing landing pages. So we also helped to shape what features are really necessary when it comes to landing page builders.”

Starting early has given Landingi an advantage in understanding customer needs and staying on the cutting edge. Even after over ten years, they are still raising the bar for landing page platforms.

Some of the critical innovations Blazej highlighted include:

• The drag-and-drop Pixel Perfect builder – Gives complete design freedom instead of limiting options with templates or grids. As Blazej said, this is “something that differentiates us from this building or designing process perspective.”
• Flexible publishing options – Like the WordPress plugin to seamlessly connect landing pages to sites. Blazej explained this caters to WordPress' popularity for SEO.
• Robust infrastructure and integrations – Blazej noted the infrastructure is complex with integrations, speed optimization, security, etc. Their expertise solves these technical challenges.
• AI-powered features – Such as automated optimization using machine learning. As Blazej said, “A lot of optimization shortly will happen automatically by AI.”

Landingi seems to anticipate where the industry is headed and build for the future. Their technical expertise and customer focus enable them to lead innovation.

Turning an internal tool built for a specific need into a scalable SaaS platform requires extensive work on the product itself as well as the underlying technology.

Even with more competition today, Landingi has maintained differentiation through forward-looking development. Their commitment to pushing the boundaries ensures customers have access to cutting-edge features.

Supporting Thousands of Customers Worldwide

Over the past 10+ years, Landingi has built an impressive customer base across industries and company sizes. As Blazej explained:

“We have thousands of customers using our platform very actively. It's very diversified when it comes to the customer size, so we have freelancers building landing pages for other businesses. We have a lot of marketing agencies as our clients. But we also serve small and medium businesses directly. And also on enterprise level, we have clients in Fortune 500 using our platform.”

Landingi caters to a wide range of needs:

• Agencies – Building landing pages for their clients at scale
• Small Businesses – Creating landing pages for their own marketing needs
• Enterprises – Fortune 500 companies use Landingi for conversion optimization

Their customers span over 150 countries globally. Blazej noted:

“We have clients really in every corner of the world. Our platform supports over 30 languages. So it's really diversified.”

With millions of landing pages published through Landingi, they have established themselves as a trusted leader. Their broad customer base highlights the versatility of the platform.

Landingi offers value whether you're a freelancer, agency, small business, or large enterprise. The global customer footprint shows the universal appeal. Supporting thousands of diverse customers worldwide is a testament to Landingi's maturity as a robust product.

How Customers Use Landingi to Grow Their Businesses

Marketing Agencies Build Landing Pages at Scale

Marketing agencies leverage Landingi to create custom landing pages for their clients quickly. With the flexible drag-and-drop builder, templates, and publishing options, agencies can churn out tailored landing pages that match each client's brand and campaigns. This allows them to scale their services and hire more clients without engineering bottlenecks.

As Blazej Abel, CEO of Landingi, explained:

“We have a lot of marketing agencies as our clients.”

Real Estate Agents Optimize Property Listings

Real estate agents use Landingi to make dedicated landing pages for each property list. They generate more qualified buyer leads by customizing the pages with details on the home, neighborhood, open houses, etc. Integrations with CRMs also help agents convert leads faster by passing them into their sales workflow.

SaaS Companies Convert Free Trial Signups

SaaS companies leverage Landingi to convert free trial signups through tailored onboarding flows for each product tier. The landing page builder's A/B testing allows them to optimize trial conversion rates. Integrations seamlessly pass leads into the SaaS platform and trigger email nurturing sequences.

Ecommerce Retailers Promote Seasonal Offers

Ecommerce retailers use Landingi to create targeted landing pages for time-sensitive promotions like Black Friday, holiday sales, etc. Detailed product descriptions, countdown timers, and other conversion elements help drive more sales. Landing pages keep promotional clutter off their main website.

Financial Advisors Build Trust with Prospects

Financial advisors use Landingi to create tailored landing pages for free guides, webinars, and other lead magnets. This helps establish authority and trust with prospects before sales conversations. Integrated email sequences nurture leads over time.

Consultants and Coaches Sell High-Value Programs

Consultants and coaches leverage Landingi to sell their high-ticket coaching programs and online courses. Custom fonts, colors, and branding help establish credibility. Clear value propositions and calls-to-action drive conversions.

“Every industry where you need to build a lot of landing pages. You need to, that your offer is changing frequently and you need to advertise what you are selling. We also see, it depends of course, how we call the industry, but health and beauty or traveling, that's our industries where, you know, where you still have the new offer and that you change the offer compared to what's going on the market, what's the weather is and so on.”

The ability to quickly customize pages with listing details helps real estate agents generate and convert more buyer leads.

Overcoming Developer Bottlenecks with Landingi

Blazej discussed how landing pages often got deprioritized because developers were too busy:

“Many, many customers we have in the past, building landing pages take too much time because they need to wait for front-end developer, backend developer, and there was a lot of friction between those teams.”

This highlights how Landingi empowers marketers to build landing pages themselves without relying on dev resources. The drag-and-drop editor and templates enable marketing teams to iterate quickly.

Design Freedom with the Pixel Perfect Builder

The drag-and-drop Pixel Perfect builder was mentioned as a key differentiation for Landingi:

“You have the complete freedom how you position elements. And that's something that differentiates us from this building or designing process perspective.”

This design flexibility caters to marketers wanting complete control vs. being limited by templates. The Pixel Perfect builder provides more creative freedom than grid or section-based builders.

Infrastructure and Integrations

Blazej noted the complexity behind the scenes powering Landingi:

“There's a lot of technical issues behind landing pages that if you would like to solve this by yourself without the software dedicated to this, there's probably… two or three people to organize this.”

He highlights Landingi's expertise in solving technical challenges like integrations, speed optimization, infrastructure, etc. This robust infrastructure removes heavy lifting for customers.

Conclusion

Landingi's journey from a web agency to a leading landing page platform was driven by first-hand experience with clients needing better conversion rates. Their deep expertise shaped an innovative product that now powers landing pages for thousands of businesses worldwide. Ready to Create High-Converting Landing Pages? After reading about Landingi's powerful features and flexibility for diverse use cases, you may be eager to try it out for yourself. Luckily, Landingi offers a free trial so you can build landing pages at no cost to see if it's the right solution for your business. Sign up for your Free trial of Landingi today. (No Credit Card Required)

View our Software Spotlight podcast featuring Landingi: Landingi empowers marketers to boost conversions with its intuitive drag-and-drop landing page builder. Founded in 2011, the platform offers 400+ customizable templates, pixel-perfect design freedom, robust analytics, flexible publishing options, and infrastructure ensuring speedy global page loads. Top clients like media conglomerates in Poland have streamlined workflows while cutting costs by moving processes into Landingi.