What is a sales page? A sales page is an internet page built with a single purpose: conversion.
Yes, its purpose is to convert visitors into customers.
By now, you’re doubtlessly recalling multiple times you’ve ended up on such a page, a few times even being successfully turned into a customer.
However, creating an effective sales page is far from easy. There is a lot of trial and error involved in the process of learning to create a page that effectively converts.
What Is A Sales Page Goal? Do You Need One?
A sales page will absolutely have a goal. For the most part, you want to focus on one specific goal… and usually, that is to get your visitors to buy something.
This can, of course, be accomplished in many different ways. And in this post, you are going to learn 11 important elements to include in your sales page.
You may build this page using dynamic headlines, awesome copywritin
g, video sales letters, written sales letters, bullet points of features, testimonials, creative storytelling… anything that will help to drive up the perceived value of this product above whatever is being charged for it.
Do you need a sales page?
You only need a sales page if you want to sell something.
But if you want to sell something, then yes… you really need to create a sales page for it.
You can create this page as a one time offer in your funnel, or even as a one click upsell. Or, you can create a true single-page funnel that functions as not only a sales page, but also as a landing page at the same time.
But yes… you really do need a sales page if you want to sell something. If you don’t, then your conversions and sales will really suffer.
What is the difference between a landing page and a sales page?
A landing page, also commonly referred to as an ‘opt-in page,’ is a page where your visitors land after clicking on a Facebook ad, popup, email link, etc.
It is the first page in a basic sales funnel.
The main difference between a landing page and a sales page is that, usually, landing pages or opt-in pages are built with a lead-magnet that is designed to get visitors to sign-up and give you their email address in exchange for a free thing.
This is different from a sales page. On an opt-in page, you aren’t looking for a credit card number… whereas, on a sales page, you are.
As a general rule, it is much easier to get people to opt-in than it is to get them to buy.
Benefit of a Customer List, Instead of a Leads List
A customer list is slightly different from a leads list.
But it really all comes down to narrowing down your client base.
A lead is someone who is interested in what you are talking about to a certain point, while a customer is someone who is so interested in what you have to offer that they have literally spent money on your products before.
As you can see, there can be overlap in these two groups. But they are also vastly different pools of people.
Building a customer list is far more powerful than building a leads list.
Why?
- Because a customer list is made up of people who have already spent money on your products, and who are likely to do so again in the future.
- A leads list is also important, but keep in mind that leads may or may not ever spend money on your products and become customers.
How long should a sales page be?
This varies, based on what you are trying to sell.
As a general rule, your sales page will be longer, and contain more content, if the product you are selling is more expensive.
If you have a $1 product, you may only need a headline, some awesome copy, and some bullet points to sell it.
But if you’re selling a $2,000 product, you will want to include a lot more copy than that.
Speaking of copy, let’s isolate 11 points of focus for your first sales page.
1. Good Sales Copy
In the world of sales, sales copy (also simply known as ‘copy’) is what your potential customers will read through to find out what you’re selling.
Copy is the most important, and the largest, body of text on your sales page, and its intentions are pretty straightforward — to persuade the reader to do something.
How To Craft Dynamic Sales Copy
Depending on the type of the sales page in question, your page copy can tell different stories and aim at persuading the reader to do different things.
Most importantly, however, your sales copy should always be in line with your sales page’s mission, especially if we’re talking about a long form sales page.
For instance, if the point of your sales page is to sell a bicycle, your copy is the vessel that you will use to communicate to the visitor why they should want the bicycle you’re selling.
It is vital and instrumental to the entire conversion process.
What Constitutes ‘Good’ Copy?
So, what is good sales copy?
This short question doesn’t come with a short answer attached to it.
In truth, no one can really tell you how to write a good copy; you’ll have to learn it through experience.
In terms of guidelines, good sales copy is credible, engaging, clear, persuasive, and concise.
In other words, it needs to cater to the modern internet user’s relatively short attention span, but not in an overly excited manner.
Want access to a free course that will show you how to crush it with dynamic sales copy? Check out John Carlton’s Simple Writing System.
2. A Good Story
Of course, your sales copy should also convey a story. This is very important, because your story is what gives your copy personality, and helps your audience to connect with it.
Think of it as a superhero origin tale. Sure, everyone wants to see Batman fight bad guys and use super-cool gadgets, all wrapped in some amazing visual effects and great camera work.
But what makes the whole thing compelling, what makes the reader truly relate to the hero, is their backstory.
Learn more about how to weave compelling storytelling into your content by checking out Andre Chaperon’s Story Powered Marketing Course.
What Role Does Storytelling Play On A Sales Page?
In other words, your story is the tool that will help make an emotional connection between your brand or product, and the visitor that you’re trying to convert.
The best part about your story is that it is honest. It may not seem like it, but it’s where you connect to your own brand, as well.
Being Honest Is Super Important
Nobody is a good enough writer to build a completely compelling fake story behind a brand or a product.
Telling lies is relatively easy, but building something fake and making it sustainable is borderline impossible.
Besides, the more honest and truthful you are about your passion on the sales page, the better.
Remember that the readers can always see through the lies and fake emotions.
3. A Perfect Headline
Yes, we all know that ‘attention span’ isn’t this generation’s strong suit.
With so much content available online, there is only so much available time to check stuff out.
And what you want your potential customers to do is check out your sales page.
So you’ve successfully landed them there, and yes… you’ve nailed the copy. But is there any guarantee that they will stay long enough to read through the copy and get the message that you’re trying to convey?
Sadly, there is no guarantee. There is little guarantee of anything in the world of sales, in general.
But what you can do is make sure that the target group reads past the headline. You want to make sure that they bite.
As the case is with writing good copy, there really isn’t one single tip that will make your headline writing skills great.
One idea is to start building a swipe file, using other successful headlines as examples.
[responsive_video type=’youtube’ hide_related=’1′ hide_logo=’0′ hide_controls=’0′ hide_title=’1′ hide_fullscreen=’0′ autoplay=’0′]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y38N_yEdLyc[/responsive_video]
It takes time and practice to develop this skill.
However, some guidelines would be to write concise, to-the-point, attention-grabbing headlines that will raise eyebrows.
Don’t be afraid to leap out of the internet’s general comfort zone.
Depending on what you’re selling, you can use bold, unconventional statements to proverbially light up your headline like the Hollywood sign.
Be careful not to take it too far, though.
4. Scroll-Stopping Subheadings
Have you ever visited a sales page that ended up just leaving you scrolling through it… and ultimately closing it?
Well, there are numerous reasons why a certain page may be unappealing to you — unengaging headlines, bad page design, unpleasant color schemes, weird fonts, etc.
On the other hand, you’ve probably visited pages that still managed to keep you engaged and reading, despite the horrible design that the creators went with.
Most likely, this was all thanks to a good choice of subheadings.
How To Make Subheadings Awesome
If they are strategically well-placed and properly highlight key points in the content, subheadings will keep the reader at least somewhat engaged in the content.
It will make the whole experience easier for them, and that means a lot in this day-and-age.
5. Credibility and Rapport
You may not have noticed it, but there are growing amounts of honesty among salespeople out there right now.
This is partly because, over the years, the visitors have learned when not to convert into customers.
Maybe you’ve noticed many sales pages with a “Why trust us?” section. Yes, this is a brilliant way to establish credibility and rapport with the visitor. However, in order to answer this question to your potential customers, you first need to answer it for yourself.
How To Build Credibility With Your Audience
Ask yourself what you’d be looking for in a sales page.
Credentials, experience, and previous successful projects are good telltale signs of a legitimate brand and a well-conducted business. Include as many of these into your copy as possible.
There are other ways to ensure credibility as well, though.
For the most part, you need to do this through well-written, well-planned content that will help to build trust and explain to your audience why you are doing what you are doing, why they should trust you, and why you are better than the competition.
Your customers need to know that you are the best choice… the best solution to their problem.
If you can get them to believe this through dynamic sales copy, headlines, bullets, and even video sales letters… then you’ll get the conversions you need to make money online.
6. Efficient Testimonials
If you’ve been in the sales business for long enough, you know the importance of testimonials.
Testimonials are, essentially, user stories that will help your future customers trust you.
Of course, you can simply ask one of your customers to write a good testimonial, but that will probably land you with something along the lines of: “Awesome product. Buy it, you won’t be disappointed.”
Why is this testimonial less desirable?
Because it doesn’t say anything, really.
You need to think about what your potential customers are wondering about.
What Do Customers Actually Want To Know?
Here are some things that your potential customers are actually probably wondering about:
- “Is this worth my time?”
- “Will this solve my problem or satisfy my needs?”
- “Why should I trust this person or business?”
- “Is this too hard to learn or to use?”
- “How long does it last? What’s the warranty on this thing?”
These are example questions that your testimonials should answer. This is why it is important to come up with good questions for your customers.
7. Good Web Design
Here’s the bit many online marketers dread — website design.
Yes, your product sales page needs to look and feel nice, despite what anyone might tell you.
Under no circumstance should it feel clunky, or look like it’s a throwback to 1997.
What makes a page look outdated and illegitimate? Signs of low effort put into making it.
(Need to make your WordPress website look awesome? Check out Thrive Themes!)
How To Make Your Page Look Awesome
You definitely don’t want your potential customer to squint at the screen or laugh at your poor webpage design, as this can do quite a number on your credibility and how you’re perceived as a professional.
So, what’s the solution? Quite simply, have a good web designer design your sales page.
(Or, buy a fantastic pre-built site from a company like Human Proof Designs.)
If you think that you can do it, give it a go. However, never underestimate the importance of a good-looking website.
If you aren’t skilled in web design, hire a good professional. It may set you back quite a bit in the financial department, but it will pay for itself over and over again down the road.
You need solid sales page design in your arsenal, whether it’s a regular or a video sales page.
(You can also design funnel pages, landing pages, and sales pages that crush it using LeadPages! Check them out!)
8. Risk Relievers
Even after so many years, and with services such as PayPal, people are still distrustful of the internet, especially when we’re talking about buying and paying for products online.
Even if you do everything by the book, and make your sales page credible, featuring fantastic content, gorgeous design, and strong storytelling… some people may remain skeptical.
Sure, you will still make conversions, but making sure that even the most skeptical of visitors are converted as well can easily be accomplished.
How? By offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Don’t Just Relieve Risk… Try To Eliminate It
Don’t just write the words. Elaborate. Make sure that you tell your customers that they can return the product within a certain time period and receive a 100% refund. Additionally, make the refund process as easy as possible.
Why would you offer this? Doesn’t this mean that a customer might abuse the policy by using your product or service, and then getting a full refund after they’ve done so?
Well, the whole point is to market a product that the customer will want to keep. If you didn’t do this, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
9. A Solid Close
It’s time to seal the deal.
Once you’ve made sure that you’ve covered every crucial aspect of a rock-solid sales page, you’ll need to make sure that you do everything that is in your power to close the deal.
A great call to action, or CTA, is what you need here.
What Makes A Good Call To Action?
A good CTA doesn’t just push the customer into clicking that button. No, it reminds the customer of all the benefits that they’ll be getting when they buy.
Additionally, a CTA isn’t complete without re-stating all the inconveniences and pain that the product or service in question will help to do away with.
It is very important, however, that you remain relaxed, calm, and professional here. You don’t have to do a hard sell. Use terms such as:
- “Join our community now”
- “Download here”
- “Get instant access here”
10. Present a Great Offer
Finally, it all boils down to how good your offer is. Remind your potential customers of what exactly they will get for their money.
Every single detail of your product matters here. If the product in question has multiple functionalities, make sure that you outline the main one first.
Here’s a list of features in the example of a car smartphone holder:
- “Provides a firm hold for your smartphone”
- “Works with iOS and Android devices”
- “Gives you an additional charging option”
- “Comes in custom colors”
Additionally, if you can, try making a one-time offer that will land the potential customer with a fantastic discount.
You can also go for a two-for-one option. This may not seem like it pays off, but people do tend to click on these offers a lot.
11. Solid Grammar
As someone who’s seen a myriad of sales pages over years of browsing, you’ve probably read through thousands of words of sales page copy content. The final piece that will keep people reading your sales page is solid grammar.
You don’t have to be a professional writer or someone with a knack for artistic expression to write a good sales page… but what you do need is good grammar.
This Is A Fairly Universal Requirement – Regardless Of Your Niche
This doesn’t have anything to do with your select target group.
Even if you don’t expect your customers to be native speakers, you still need to focus on grammar.
Making sure that the written content on your sales page is typo and error-free will make it look significantly more professional.
And the best part about it? Well, it takes little effort to do so, really.
If you are a native English speaker, take some time to carefully review the grammar on your sales page.
Read through it thoroughly, as many times as it takes. Keep in mind that, when it comes to writing online copy, grammar is your friend.
The Rules Aren’t That Strict
These 11 elements are crucial when it comes to creating a fantastic sales page, but they’re not set in stone. There is a lot of wiggle room for innovative and interesting ideas.
(Interested in creating a simple, effective 1-page funnel? Check out this webinar by Brian Moran on his amazing one page funnel design!)
Make sure to tell a good story, make a great offer, have a page that looks and reads great, and provide a guarantee for your potential conversions. These are the most important ingredients for a brilliant sales page.
In Conclusion
Have you recently created a sales page for your site?
If so, comment below and let us know how it went!
Or, are you just now getting ready to create your first one?
If so, do you have any further questions?
Feel free to comment and join the conversation!
We love to hear how you’re doing with your own projects!