How to Create a Sales Page that Converts [2022 Guide]

Writing a sales page that converts is hard.?

In fact,?B2B marketers admit?that creating and testing sales pages is among the top five challenges they face. That is why, according to?Marketing Experiments, only 48% of marketers have the guts to create a new sales page for every marketing campaign they run.?

Most sales pages fail at the only task they are created for; driving sales.

If they cannot do that, creating them would have been a huge waste of time and resources.?

So, how do you craft a sales page that actually gets people to buy your products or services??

That is exactly what I am going to show you today.?

In this guide, I will be taking you through the exact process I use to write compelling sales pages that drive crazy sales.?

I will show you how to take new prospects and turn them into customers in a matter of minutes. But first, let’s cover the basics.?

What is a Sales Page?

This is a page on your website that you use to persuade people to buy your product or service.?

Nothing else.?

Unlike regular blog posts, sales pages are written and designed in a way that they capture the customers’ attention and get them to make a purchase as quickly as possible.?

Most people use the sales page and landing page interchangeably. But they are different.?

While sales pages are solely created to drive sales landing pages are usually used to get people to take such action as registering for a webinar or signing up for an email newsletter.?

Sales pages drive sales, landing pages collect information.?

Landing pages convert prospects into leads, sales pages convert leads into customers.?

Well, with that clarification out of the way, let’s now dive into the step-by-step process of crafting a highly effective sales page.?

1. Identify and Understand Your Customer – Who is interested in your product?

Before creating your product, you already know whom it’s meant for. So you probably have the ideal customer in mind.?

That is the person you should be talking to when writing a sales copy. It sounds simple but it’s not. With a deep desire to sell comes the temptation to provide more information that is relevant.?

You stray away from your ideal customer and start addressing everyone who cares to read in the hope of making an extra sale.?

Stop right there. That is not how this stuff works.?

You must clearly understand your audience and what motivates them to buy your product. You need to know their challenges and pain points. Without this clarity, it is hard to communicate with them and get them to buy.?

But how do you know who your ideal customer is? By creating a buyer persona. This is simply a fictional character that represents your ideal customer.?

The best way to create a buyer persona is by doing:

• Analytics- Both social media and web analytics?
• Customer surveys?
• Online research?

A buyer persona will help you write a sales copy that is addressed to exactly the people who are interested in buying your product or service. This will tremendously increase your conversion rates.?

2. Create a Value Proposition – What exactly are you selling and what are its benefits??

This is basically your elevator pitch. A short and concise statement of the benefit your product provides and how it will help the customer solve their problems. This usually comprises the headline and subheading at the top of your sales page.?

A value proposition answers such questions as:?

• What benefits does your product offer?
• How will it help customers deal with their current challenges??
• Why are you the best person to provide that product? Or, why should people buy from you?

Here is a simple template I use to create powerful value propositions for businesses:

[Heading]

We/I help [target customers] to [problems solved/goals achieved] by [how you solve the problems]

For example, if you are selling an eCommerce course, your value proposition will be something like this:?

Sale More, Do Less?

I/We help eCommerce businesses to make more sales by providing actionable tips and results-based marketing tools.?

Take a look at Upwork’s value proposition. It is not only witty but points out exactly what the site has to offer.

3. Determine the Right Length – Long or Short Copy?

Spoiler alert! There is nothing like the perfect sales page length.?

It all comes down to the kind of product you are selling. For complex products like software programs or online courses, you will need a longer copy compared to low-end eCommerce products.?

?According to Marketing Experiments, longer landing pages can drive up to 220% more leads than short ones.?

But that doesn’t mean the long-form approach works for every product. Only those that need detailed explanations and illustrations.?

Both approaches have their own pros and cons.?

Long-form sales pages give you more time to persuade the buyer and avoid any objections. They allow for the use of many CTAs and are also good for SEO. However, this type of content is usually boring and may present more information that is relevant.?

On the other hand, short sales pages are simple, concise and tend to drive conversions faster. The problem is, the copy might not answer customers’ questions in their entirety or leave out info that could potentially help to increase conversions. It is also not good for SEO since search engines hate thin content.?

So, what is the best approach? I recommend that you use both long and short sales copies for a single product. The short copy is for people who are ready to buy and only need basic product info while the long one is for those who need more convincing.?

4. Create a Powerful Headline and Subheadings

You only have?8 seconds?to convince a prospective customer to read past the headline of your sales copy.?

If the headline is unclear, long, or generally dull, most people will have no reason to keep reading. That is why you need to spend enough time crafting attention-grabbing headlines.?

Here is some good news:?

Interactive Marketing Inc, estimates that 90% of people who love your headline will read the CTA copy.

See how Neil Patel uses a headline that is just hard to resist;

The secret is to test multiple headlines and see how they perform until you find the ‘perfect’ one. But that is sadly something that most marketers hate doing.?

In fact:

According to Marketing Sherpa, only about 77% of marketers test sales copy headlines.?

Keep your headlines short and straight to the point. If you have more information, you can provide it in the subheading section.?

5. Describe Your Product – What, why, who?

Your value proposition doesn’t make people want to buy your product. It makes them curious to keep reading.?

That is why describing your product in detail is very important.?

Look at how MonsterInsights clearly describes what you get when you use their marketing software:

The primary reason for having a sales page is to convince people who have never heard about your product that it’s worth their money.?

Show them how the product is going to solve their problems and why it’s better than any other out there. Be as descriptive as possible. Don’t leave out even the tiniest of detail.?

Some copywriting skills will come in handy here. You not only need to be highly descriptive but also persuasive. Make the description as simple and as clear as possible. It’s not your customers’ job to try and understand what you are talking about.?

Spoon-feed every detail to them.?

Also, don’t forget the most important ingredient of a well-converting copy; focusing on benefits and not just features.?

As much as you want to show off all the cool features your product has, they would be useless if customers don’t understand what they do.?

You know what they say?

Don’t sell a mattress, sell a good night’s sleep.?

6. Handle Objections – Erase doubts from the customer’s mind?

Buyers are unconsciously looking for reasons not to buy more than reasons to buy. While others would have already made up their minds when they come to your sales page, some still need to be convinced.?

So, how do you handle objections??

By giving them something that they cannot resist.?

Here are some smart ways to do exactly that:

• Offer a time-limited discount.?Why spend more in the future when I can spend less now??
• Show them that your product is a good investment. For example, if it’s an online course on affiliate marketing, you can convince them that if they implement everything on the course, the rewards will be tremendous compared to what they spend on the course.?
• Offer different pricing packages. Not all of your customers are the same.?
• Provide social proof in case they don’t trust you to be the right person to provide that product.?

More on social proof in the following section.?

7. Social Proof – the first-timers’ nightmare??

You might have a great product but if people don’t know about you or don’t trust you yet, it will be hard for them to buy from you.?

You need to show them that you are credible and can be trusted to provide a solution to their problem. How do you do that??

Social proof.?

In other words, proof that you can be trusted.?

Here is why this is important;

90% of companies?will only do business with other companies they trust! What is more,?78% of consumers?consider brands they trust The FIRST PRIORITY when shopping.?

And here is a study showing how online reviews affect purchasing decisions.

The big question;

How do you build trust with your customers?

Do the following:?

• Include testimonials on your sales page?– This is the most common way of showing social proof. Surprisingly, according to Nifty Marketing, only about 37% of major landing pages have testimonials. This shows that you have a huge opportunity to stay ahead of your competition.?

Brian Dean of Backlinko uses testimonials from authority figures in his niche to build trust.

Source: Backlinko

• Back your claims with proof?– For example, if you say your course helped someone increase their blog traffic or make more money, you can show proof using screenshots.
• Include any expert endorsement?
• Social media mentions by experts or happy customers are also great?
• Offer a money-back guarantee?

8. Incorporate Images and Video

Xerox estimates that people are 80% more likely to read sales pages that have high-quality images. Additionally, videos can increase conversions?by 86%?when used on sales pages.?

But that is not all;

According to research by the?State of Video Marketing, 81% of businesses who capitalized on video marketing saw a tremendous increase in sales.?

And then there is this study by Smart Insights which shows that 72% of people prefer videos over text when learning about a new product or service.

This goes to show how powerful images and videos are in creating high-converting sales pages.?

In fact,?OptinMonter?reports that 84% of consumers buy something after watching a video.?

Visuals are powerful marketing tools. If you are not already using them on your sales pages, you are missing out on huge opportunities to make profits.?

9. Designing a Sales Page?

Here are some tips on designing a powerful sales page;?

A. Make Your Copy Scannable/ Simple?

The best sales pages are really simple. Period.?

If you think having walls of texts will get you any conversions, you are in for a nasty surprise.?

Your copy needs to be neat and easy to read with a lot of white space. Break it into sections that can easily be skimmed through and digested.?

Here are the best practices to follow when writing your copy:

• Use short sentences?
• Your paragraphs should have no more than four sentences. The fewer the better.?
• Use bullet points to highlight important features?
• Include lots of subheadings?
• Throw in a few quotes?
• Use a font that is easy to read
• Don’t forget images, graphics, and other visual tools.??

B. Eliminate Distractions

Readers are easily distracted.?

It’s your job to make it as easy as possible for them to learn about your product and possibly make a purchase.?

Distractions such as navigation bars, ads, unnecessary pop-ups, sidebars, and outbound links will keep them from the main goal.?

The sales page should have nothing else except elements that are focused on inspiring the reader to make a purchase.?

You would think that this is an easy design practice but only?16% of sales pages?don’t have navigation bars.?

To help you eliminate distractions, you can use predesigned sale page templates. If you are using such CMS as WordPress you will find many amazing options.?

C. Use Responsive Design

Nowadays, everyone is shopping on their mobile.?

If your sales page is not mobile-responsive, you are missing out on a lot of sales.?

Think about this;

During the holidays,?60% of traffic?searching for products online come from mobile devices. This accounts for 42% of holiday purchases.?

Those are not the kind of stats to be ignored!

But marketers do ignore them. In fact, according to Adobe, only?50% of sales pages are mobile responsive.?

Sales pages that are not optimized for mobile devices may be slow. That is bad news for your conversion opportunities.?

Why?

If your site delays loading even for a second, it could lower conversions by 7% according to?Kissmetrics.?

Don’t give customers a reason to abandon your site. Make your sales page responsive.?

D. Use Multiple Calls to Action

If you are writing a long-form sales page, using as many calls to action as necessary is a great idea.?

Just don’t overdo it. Ensure that there is sufficient persuasive content between the CTAs.?

Using multiple CTAs makes it easy for the reader to buy whenever they are ready. You are continually reinforcing your offer and reminding the reader why buying is the best thing to do.?

?Readers don’t have to scroll to the top or bottom of the page to find the CTA button.?

Depending on the length of your copy, you should use at least 3 CTA buttons, preferably at the top, middle, and bottom of the page. Insert it in any other areas that you think you have provided compelling or persuasive reasons to buy.?

The CTAs should be very clear on the offer and easy to see.?

Make sure that it:

• Points out the benefits of clicking the button?
• Use powerful actions words?
• Attention-grabbing

10. Leverage on Urgency – Do it now or do it never!

People hate ticking clocks.?

But that’s good news for you.?

Here is why;

When you create a time-limited offer you are telling your customers that this is only available NOW. If you don’t buy immediately you may miss out on your favorite product or pay more in the future.?

This creates a sense of urgency which compels the customer to make decisions quickly.?

You can create a sense of urgency and significantly boost your conversions in one of several ways:?

• Offer a time-limited discount. Using a countdown, in this case, is very effective
• Mention that the product is almost out of stock
• Create a strong desire to achieve something immediately. For example, lose weight or whiten teeth.

11. Include a FAQs Section?

If you have any other questions that you feel were not adequately answered in the sales copy, this is the best place to cover them.

The point is to ensure that you don’t leave anything out that might positively inform the customer’s decision.?

Include a few questions and provide straight-to-the-point answers. Don’t keep this long.?

Conclusion?

Writing a sales page that converts is not easy but doable. If you put in enough thought and time, you can create a masterpiece that will see your conversions skyrocket.?

If you are not confident that you can write and design a sales page that converts strangers into loyal customers, free to hire a professional. This will give you time to focus on other aspects of your business that will add to its overall growth.?