I talk a lot about bringing people to your website, but are you getting them to buy from you once they’re there? Selling online – even when you’re selling services – requires high-converting sales pages.
Unlike many of the pages on your website, a sales page attempts to convert someone from a mere visitor to actual revenue.
How do you take someone from voyeur to willing to hand over some of their cold-hard cash? You have to take them through a process that ends with them signing up to be your client.
That also means your sales pages need to convert and generate revenue.
Let’s break down the key elements you need in a sales page to make that a reality.
What is a Sales Page?
A sales page is simply a page on your existing website geared towards bringing in revenue. Maybe you have a digital product, course, or even a service that you can sell on autopilot. You can use a sales page to get traffic for this one specific item and allow people to purchase on the page directly.
Sales pages are great if you run ads to your website and want to get a solid return on investment.
But you can send organic – or free – traffic to your website and have people go to your sales pages, too.
Think of sales pages as a page written, designed, and created just to get that sale. It needs to answer objections, lay out the benefits, and provide a way for someone to make a purchase.
Easily.
The Keys to a Sales Page That Converts
What all goes into a sales page?
You need to answer objections and lay out the benefits, so do you need to throw everything you can think of into the page?
The answer – no. You do, however, need to include some key elements that help your potential customers feel comfortable working with you.
1. The Right Messaging
You can have an ugly sales page that still performs well because the copy is amazing.
The words on a page are your most important aspects. What you say and how you say it matters more than anything else.
Your sales page needs to address your potential customers’ concerns, show them the benefits of working with you, and the transformation they can achieve from your product or service.
I always recommend conversational copy. It makes your visitors feel like you’re talking just to them and helps them feel like the hero of your sales page.
The Customer is the Hero
Wait, the customer should feel like the hero? But aren’t you saving them?
No. In a great sales page (and throughout your marketing strategy), the customer should be the hero. They need to feel like they are in charge. What you as the business is doing is guiding them to the right solution.
You’re the Nick Fury to their Captain America. Gandalf to their Frodo. The Yoda to their Luke Skywalker.
When your customer is the hero of the story, they feel empowered to take action and are more easily led through your messaging to buy from you and trust you to be their guide.
Use Their Lingo
A great way to put your customer front and center? Write like they speak.
The biggest mistake I see with sales pages is a company using a bunch of their technical, industry jargon.
Let’s be real – no one talks like that except your competitors.
Instead, grab your customer’s attention by talking like them, including how they talk about their problems and pain points.
How do you do that?
Jump on a call with someone who fits your dream client persona, browse through Facebook groups where they’re hanging out, look at Instagram comments of your competitors, or drop a poll for them to choose topic titles.
My favorite place though? Head to the AHrefs Keyword Generator to get phrases that people are Googling. When you know what they’re searching for, you know how they’re talking about a problem or an issue.
Show Them What’s Possible
Want to hammer home that your product or service is right for them? Make that super clear by painting a picture of what’s possible when they work with you.
This is the transformation, the “I’ll take you from A to Z when you buy” statement.
You’re hitting on the pain they’re currently experiencing and demonstrating what’s possible when they sign up for your offer.
If you’re not sure what this is, write out a few examples of “Go from A to Z when you buy my product” and get on a call with a client, someone who fits your buyer persona, or a trusted friend. Make sure that they understand not only what they’re getting, but that they can communicate back to you the value of what they’re receiving, too.
2. Back Up with Third-Party Proof
It’s great to get your dream client’s attention and make them start to think that you can help them.
But have you done it for anyone else?
This is easier when you’re not brand new to the game, but you need to back up whatever you’re selling with some third-party proof. Or, social proof.
What does that mean?
Testimonials of Happy Customers
The best thing you can use on your sales page are testimonials of other clients you’ve helped with this product or service.
Have them describe what it was like to work with you, what results they got, and even why they chose your offer versus someone else’s.
If you don’t have testimonials for this specific product because it’s brand new, then you can use testimonials from other customers about what it’s like to work with you in general.
Include testimonials about the experience of working with you, what they like about you, and the results they got from choosing you.
Nothing sells better than a happy customer. And it shows in the data. Testimonials from customers can increase conversions on a sales page by 34%.
Use Industry Statistics
If you’re completely new to the game or just want to add a bit of oomph behind your claims, then do what I just did and use some industry statistics.
Showing your customers what’s possible when they work to solve this problem is much more powerful when there’s data behind it.
We believe in numbers, studies, and what everyone else is seeing, too. Leverage that to paint a concrete picture that your customers can believe in.
Leverage Press Proof
Have you been featured in any news or media outlets? Use that!
By showcasing logos of outlets that have featured you can add that extra boost to your sales page. This is especially important if you’re trying to build up your credibility as an expert in the service you’re providing.
It doesn’t have to be Forbes, either, for it to be impressive. Just be honest about your features and swap them out and around as you get more press mentions.
3. Make the Purchase Process Easy
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gone to buy something and couldn’t figure out how. Or worse – was made to do a lot of homework before I could do it.
No one wants to work to buy from you. When they’ve made up their mind to make a purchase, don’t discourage them from that purchase by making them put too much effort in.
Streamline your checkout process and offer and keep it short. Don’t ask for any unnecessary information they could give you later. Just get what you need to have them make the purchase and get started with working with you.
You’ll also want to ensure they can use a couple of credit card options and see all of their costs upfront. (Let’s not be TicketMaster shall we?)
Use Multiple Calls to Action in the Page
While you may only have one Purchase section in your sales page, someone might be ready to buy as soon as they land on it or while they’re reading a section of the page.
Allow them to head straight to the payment section by giving them a button that jumps them down to the purchase part of your page.
Think: a Buy Now button after you explain your offer that scrolls them down the page to the actual purchase piece.
You do this through something called an Anchor link and you target it to one section of the page.
Give Payment Options
Are you selling something a bit more expensive? Give your customers a few ways to pay.
Not everyone can or wants to drop $1,000 at once on a product or service. Instead, give them an option to pay in full and save some money, or pay just a bit more if they pay in two or three installments.
You’re removing cost objections when you provide your customers with a few different ways to pay and lowering your barrier to entry.
You can also create some recurring revenue in your business which is pretty great, too.
4. Use Stunning Visuals
Increase the performance of your sales page by making it look good.
This is true of any page on your website, but 48% of people say they trust a business based on the website design.
Your sales page should not only look and feel similar to the rest of your website, but it should use high-quality images to give it a polished look and buttons that stand out so they see the calls to action we mentioned before.
Make Mobile Look Great
A big thing I want you to keep in mind: your sales page needs to look great on mobile as well as desktop.
Many of your customers can view your pages on a mobile device first, especially if you’re running any kind of ads or social campaigns.
Ensure that they can see everything they need to see, scroll through the sales page, and check out easily no matter what device they’re using.
Boost It: Add Bonuses or Limited Time Offers
Want to sweeten the pot a bit?
Add some bonuses or limited-time offers to your sales page.
These don’t have to actually be limited time, but they can feel like that to someone who’s landing on your sales page.
Be careful that you don’t go overboard with any bonuses – these should be something you can create or give away easily without losing out on value.
The goal of a bonus is to make it feel like your customer is getting a steal.
After all – everyone likes a sale or something for free right?
Leverage that.
Sales Page Conversion Rates
Now that you understand what needs to go in a sales page, let’s talk about what you can realistically expect to see from your sales pages.
As I mentioned at the beginning, your sales page needs to bring in revenue or it’s not doing its job.
We calculate the revenue we receive with the number of visitors we’ve seen and get something called our conversion rate.
It’s a simple formula: Number of Sales / Number of Visitors.
The industry average for B2B? A shockingly low 5%.
That means for every 1,000 people that visit your sales page, 50 make a purchase.
My Client Tripled Averages
You don’t have to settle for 5% conversion rates, though.
When you’ve dialed in your messaging, have a beautiful design that leads them through that messaging, make sure your page loads quickly, is accessible, and makes the entire process of buying from you easy, you can crush those averages.
Just like my client did this last fall.
They tripled industry averages with a recent launch and saw an average conversion rate of 17.78%.
That means means for every 1,000 visitors, 180 people bought.
Amazing conversions are possible. You just need the right plan to get you there.
Level-Up Your Sales Pages
If you’re looking to get more leads – whether through sales pages or just across your entire marketing – then it’s time to plan.
Make this easy with my Leads Growth Strategy workshop.
With this workshop, you’ll get the roadmap to attracting new clients, building a loyal audience, and scaling your business.
Unique just for you.
It’s time to improve your sales pages and everything else in your marketing.
