sales page

Episode 106: The Secrets of Effective Sales Pages (It’s NOT What You Think)

Have you ever considered that sales pages aren’t just for launching a product or selling something?

If you write a book, you can use a sales page. If you have an event coming up, you can use a sales page. If you want people to book a consultation, you can use a sales page.

Sales pages are really, really helpful in helping your audience decide whether or not something is right for them. 

A common mistake people make is that they're so worried about the headline formulas, getting all the boxes checked, and everything that they “need” to have on their sales page, that they forget that the sale actually happens long before anyone gets to your sales page.

And that’s the reason why you want to make sure that all your marketing is directing them towards one thing because talking about too many different things confuses your audience.

The sale happens from the first moment you attract somebody; you’re setting the stage so they can understand why you, why this offer, why now, and why they want to buy from you now. 

At the very beginning, you're not going to say a darn thing about your offer — you're just going to set the stage. Then, once you have that in your mind, creating sales pages is a lot easier.

To help you create the best sales page possible, I'm going to go through seven principles for creating sales pages that work. These aren't going to be a checklist for your headlines or anything like that; this is more for planning it out from your audience's perspective and trying to get into your audience's head and understand what the questions are that they're going to have, what it is that they want to see, and what would be really exciting to them.

 the marketing funnel show, marketing funnel, marketing funnels the marketing funnel show, marketing funnel, marketing funnels 

Biggest Show Takeaways:

#1. Know Your Audience

  • You cannot create a sales page that converts unless you know who you're talking to. 
    • You know what they've tried before. You know what stories they're telling themselves in their head about why what you're offering will or won't work. You know what they really want and what they're working hard to create.
  • I like to do something that I call audience reconnaissance. It's a process of diving into your audience's mind to really understand their perspective and what they're struggling with. 
    • One thing that you can do right now is to find somewhere that your audience hangs out, and scroll through and see what discussions they're having.
    • What questions are they asking? What advice are they giving? Who are they recommending for solutions? Who are they not recommending for solutions? This is the very beginning process of audience reconnaissance. 
    • Most people just want to skip over this because they’ve already decided that they know who their people are, and they just want to get to the selling piece. But if you get this right, everything about your sales cycle, everything about your sales page, everything about any sales calls or webinars or events or whatever you're doing to sell your thing, everything will be easier because you will set the stage from the very beginning for your audience about why you, why now, and why this offer.

#2. Create a Deliciously Believable Promise

  • There is nothing that drives me crazier than seeing a sales page that makes crazy-pie-in-the-sky promises. 
    • I’m sure you’ve seen a sales page that makes these promises, like you're going to 10x, 50x,  100x your business with this one specific trick that you can only get by signing up for my $1,997 program. 
    • Sometimes people fall for them (I certainly have), but after a while, we get really jaded to those kinds of outlandish promises, and we just cross our arms and shake our heads, and it’s the same old BS.
  • When you create a deliciously believable promise, this is a promise that speaks right to the heart of what your audience is looking for. 
    • You need to understand what it is that they're struggling with first. You’ve done your audience reconnaissance, so when you get in there, and you really know what they need to believe about themselves, you can make an offer that speaks to their needs. Build a deliciously believable promise that speaks to your audience, and your sales page will perform. 

#3. Make a Clear Offer They Can’t Refuse

  • If people aren't clear on what the offer is and what they need to do to be able to take advantage of this offer, it just brings up doubts. 
    • When someone has a lot of questions or doubts, they're just going to say no. It's just easier than trying to figure it out. Be really clear and be really upfront about what it is and what they need in order to take advantage of it.

#4. Make It Scannable (Write Compelling Headlines and Subheadlines)

  • I love to see sales pages where I can scan the headlines and the subheadings and maybe call out sections so I can get the gist of what it is that we're talking about. 
    • Then I can go back, and I can read the specifics of anything that I want to read. Really try to make sure that your sales page isn't just like a wall of text. 
    • Make sure that yours is scannable, that you're writing compelling headlines and subheadlines, and that a reader can visually go through it and get the gist of what you're talking about. And then they can come back and dive in deeper.

#5. Features Are Fine, Transformation Engages

  • It’s important to mention the features of your offer, but the transformation is what's going to engage your audience. 
    • When you're talking about, “Hey, you'll get X number of calls with me, or you'll get X number of virtual retreats,” those are features. 
    • But what are they going to get from that call or from that virtual retreat or whatever it is that you offer? What's the transformation? What's the benefit? 
    • It goes beyond benefits, so try to really bring that transformation in so that people can envision what their future self would look like after buying your offer.

#6. Show REAL Proof

  • One of the things that a lot of times will sink people's sales pages is that they don't have proof.
    • This can be a real catch 22 because when you're launching something new, people haven't gone through it. But if people haven't gone through it, then you don't have any proof.
    • What I've done in the past is that I've tested specific small pieces of my offer — like a video review of your marketing funnel. I've tested just that, and let people buy just that piece. Then, I’ve gotten a testimonial about how valuable that is. 
    • Maybe you have a handful of people that you ask to go through your program that you know this would be really valuable for. And the payment that they give you is either a seriously reduced price, 50/60/70/80% off the normal price, and/or they get a lot more one-on-one time with you so that you can understand where they're getting stuck.
  • If you're trying to sell something that literally has no backup proof, just know it’s a really hard hill to climb. Actually, like a mountain range to climb because people are really skeptical of these big promises and stuff — especially when it's not backed up by real proof. Try to focus on getting some real proof.

#7. Know Their Objections

  • Know what questions are going through your audience’s head. Know where they're maybe doubting themselves, you, this program's effectiveness, whether they have enough time, or if this will get them the transformation they want. 
    • Know what those objections are and work them into your copy. Have examples of how this is going to really help. And all of this is really only possible when you know your audience.
    • You can have a less than professionally written sales page that can perform really, really well when you know your audience. You could invest lots of time and money into a really fancy sales page, but none of that will work until you know your audience. 

Create Profit Without Worry – one system at a time. I’ll show you how to attract a steady flow of buyers without all the hustle with this free download →  5 Steps to Profit Without Worry.

Links mentioned in this episode: