Sutherland Black Finance Landing Page | CRO Breakdown

Why We Built This Finance Lead Generation

When Sutherland Black needed a lead generation that converts B2B visitors, the brief came down to one question: what does this specific audience need to see before they’ll take action?

We started by identifying the conversion barriers. In the finance space, B2B buyers evaluate multiple options, involve colleagues, and need evidence at every stage. They don’t impulse-buy. Every design decision that followed was a direct response to those barriers.

Waseem Bashir CEO, Apexure

"The hero has one job: confirm the visitor is in the right place within three seconds. If they have to think about what you do, they're gone. We strip everything from the hero that doesn't serve that single purpose — no secondary CTAs, no feature lists, no animations competing for attention."

Design Decisions

Custom icons break up content sections and create visual rhythm. Without them, a landing page becomes a wall of text that no one reads. Each icon reinforces its section’s message through dual-channel communication — visitors absorb the meaning from both the visual and the text simultaneously. We invested in consistent icon styling (same weight, same colour palette, same grid) because inconsistent iconography signals carelessness.

The clean, solid background was a deliberate decision to let the content sell. When in doubt, we double the padding rather than add visual elements. Whitespace isn’t empty space — it’s breathing room for the visitor. Digestible content improves focus and clarifies the offering. If a page feels overwhelming, the solution is almost always removing elements, not adding them.

The sticky header keeps the CTA accessible at every scroll depth. For long landing pages, this is critical — a visitor who’s been convinced by section four shouldn’t have to scroll back to the top to convert. The sticky header also provides navigation anchors for visitors who want to jump between sections, reducing the friction of a long scroll.

Trust Architecture

We built trust in three layers. Layer one — instant credibility: client logos and credentials near the headline, because visitors who recognise even one name experience an immediate trust transfer. Layer two — evidence: case studies or metrics in the mid-section that prove capability, not just satisfaction. Layer three — reassurance: testimonials and guarantees near the form to overcome last-second hesitation.

Waseem Bashir CEO, Apexure

"B2B buyers don't convert on the first visit. They evaluate, compare, and share internally. That's why we design every B2B page to be shareable and scannable — the VP who discovers it and the technical lead who evaluates it should both get what they need at their preferred depth."

Read more about how we approach trust signals in our guide to B2B Landing Page Examples.

Conversion Strategy

The lead form sits after enough trust-building content that visitors feel confident sharing their information, but before content fatigue sets in. We limited fields to the bare essentials — name, email, and one qualifying question. Every additional field we removed during testing increased completion rate. The submit button uses action-specific copy rather than a generic ‘Submit’ because visitors need to know exactly what happens when they click.

Waseem Bashir CEO, Apexure

"When clients say the page feels empty, we know we're getting close. Whitespace isn't wasted space — it's breathing room for theirs attention. If the page feels overwhelming, the answer is almost always doubling the padding, not adding more content."

Platform: Unbounce

We chose Unbounce for this project because it gives us the right balance of design flexibility and conversion tooling. The platform handles A/B testing natively, so we can iterate on headlines, CTAs, and layouts without developer involvement.

Mobile Experience

Over 40% of Sutherland Black’s visitors arrive on mobile. We didn’t just make the page responsive — we loaded it on a phone, read the text aloud, tried the navigation, and attempted to convert with our thumbs. That process exposed friction points that analytics would never reveal. The CTA is accessible at every scroll depth, touch targets are sized for thumbs (not mouse pointers), and the form works without zooming.

What the Client Said

What We’d Improve Today

No landing page is finished — every page is a hypothesis that data validates or disproves. With today’s data, we’d make three changes:

• CTA copy: Replace generic text with action-specific language. ‘Book a 15-Minute Strategy Call’ tells the visitor exactly what happens next and lowers the perceived commitment
• Above-the-fold proof: Surface a single compelling metric near the headline to anchor perceived value before the visitor starts scrolling
• Replace, don’t add: If we added a new testimonial, we’d remove the weakest existing one. The goal is to persuade with as little as possible, not to pile on more content

Waseem Bashir CEO, Apexure

"Every page we launch is a hypothesis. We set a single objective, measure against it, and then replace the weakest element rather than adding more. The goal is to persuade with as little as possible — not to dump everything onto one page and hope something sticks."

Key Takeaway

This Sutherland Black lead generation demonstrates that effective landing page design is about strategic restraint, not visual complexity. Every element earns its place by moving visitors one step closer to conversion — and anything that doesn’t serve that purpose gets cut.

Browse our full collection of landing page examples to see how we apply these principles across industries. For methodology, read our guide to Ways To Increase Landing Page Social Proof.