How do you write a sales page when you don’t know where to start?
Sales pages are a great way to share information and build confidence in your offer. You can use a sales page to sell a digital course, a one-on-one coaching program or even a higher end mastermind. In today’s post, I’ll share the most important elements of a sales page and why each one matters.
Why do you need to have a sales page?
A sales page is where you outline your final argument as to why somebody should actually buy your product or service. Sales pages are most commonly used in a couple of different situations – selling digital products like courses and selling high end investments like coaching programs.
Writing a proper sales page gives buyers confidence
A sales page is an essential part of getting clients to sign up with you.
This could be anything from finding you on social media to discovering you at a conference, speaking at an event or getting a referral from a friend.
Once they’ve discovered you and your offer, trying to book them on a sales call right away is a little too rushed. People need time to get to know your business and they need time to build trust with you.
A well thought-out sales page can really build trust between you and a potential buyer. When you are clear and you explain what the benefit is and what the features are, it really helps somebody to have confidence that if they buy from you, they’re actually going to achieve something.
What sections should you include on a sales page?
In terms of the format of a sales page itself, they can range anywhere from 1,000 – 10,000 words. 3,000 words is roughly the average.
At high-level there are some elements that you’ll definitely always want to include.
Step-by-Step: Elements of a Sales Page
The first thing you need is a headline that grabs their attention and is hyper relevant to the problem they’re experiencing right now.
Next, you’re going to need a list of bullet points or a short paragraph that describes in detail what their current situation is. This shows that you really understand all the nuances of the problem that they might be facing.
For example, if they’re an online business owner who isn’t getting clients, this might go something like, “You’ve tried networking in Facebook groups and you’re posting on Instagram every single day but something’s still not clicking for you.”
See how that’s a hyper relevant example compared to saying, “You’ve tried to start an online business and you’re just not getting online clients, so what will you do next?” It’s much more vague and high-level.
Choosing Your Testimonials
The next part of a sales page that’s important to include is testimonials. Social proof is one of the most powerful elements in copywriting. As humans, if we see something has worked for another person, we feel more confident that it could also work for us.
A caveat here is that you very carefully want to choose your testimonials. It’s quality over quantity.
One rule of thumb I always keep in mind for testimonials is try to keep them specific to that offer. Something I’ve seen often is somebody will have a program and a course and they’ll mix and match or duplicate the testimonials across both sales pages.
I think it’s really obvious and I think consumers are a lot more intelligent than that. So please choose the testimonials that are the most tailored to that offer. If you have multiple offers, I would recommend not duplicating the testimonials across those two different sales pages.
The Difference Between Features and Benefits
Features are a little bit less glamorous than benefits because benefits really get us excited on an emotional level but you need to list the features to build trust.
Features are things like:
How long is your program or how long is the course?
What is the breakdown of the curriculum and how much support will I get?
Will I have access to calls with the founder 1-on-1?
You get the idea. Sometimes we try to make things really complicated on a sales page. The first step is for your audience to understand what you’re selling and how they’ll be supported.
Should you list a price on your sales page?
Price can be a controversial subject for a sales page, especially when you’re looking at a higher end offer. A lot of people will say not to list the price. In my opinion and where I see marketing heading in general, consumers really appreciate transparency.
A way you can work around this, if you still want to list the price but your product or service is quite expensive is by breaking it down into payments.
You can say, “Secure your place in the program with an initial payment of $1,399,” and then have a sub-text that says plus two additional payments of $1,399. This makes the investment sound more achievable.
Call to Action: Tell them what to do next
One important thing you definitely don’t want to miss on your sales page is the call to action. I highly recommend not just having this at the very end of the page.
It’s a great idea to put it above the fold, which is the part of the website where you initially are reading before you have to scroll down. Include a call to action 2-3 times between the top and the bottom of your page as well.
You never know at which point somebody will have seen enough about your offer and the benefits of it to actually want to go ahead and enroll.
In addition to having multiple spaces for a call to action button on your sales page, it’s also a really nice touch to tailor the text on that button to the type of offer that you’re presenting.
Setting Up Your Sales Page
In terms of actually getting your sales page set up, you can get it custom coded by a web designer, which can be expensive. If you’re just starting off, I would highly recommend a landing page builder.
The one that I use and like is Leadpages because it’s simple and intuitive. This isn’t a sponsored video and I’m not an affiliate but have tried many different pieces of software and I find it’s just the most straightforward and easy to use.
Using a tool to set up your sales page can not only help it look more professional but can also help improve your conversion rates because companies like leadpages have data on hundreds of thousands of landing pages and they’ve created their templates in such a way that they really know what works.
What other questions do you have about sales pages?
If you need support with your next writing project, check out my work with me page to see how I can help!