9 Strategies for Creating an Optimized Product Sales Page
Leslie Cason
Helping creatives turn their talent into profit through digital products and courses | Kajabi Expert | Education for DIYers
For the clients in our Studio, the sales page is one of the most intimidating parts of selling a digital product. They tend to be long, the messaging has to be on point and it’s just a lot of damn work to create one. In fact, most of our clients have never written a true sales page when they start their project with my Studio. Which is why they get our copy outline as part of their project.
Everything you do for your product marketing leads to the sales page. No matter how a potential customer comes into your orbit, they will eventually land there. So it’s worth spending the time and energy to get that page right. It will pay off in the long run because that page will do a lot of the selling work for you.
We have built quite a few sales pages, both for clients and for the Studio’s products. And we have developed a signature outline that guides clients through the process of crafting the message, writing each section of the page and understanding the narrative story you need to tell.
Basically, we’ve worked hard over the years to make it easy for clients to get a sales page that is conversion-focused and that presents their brand and product in the best light possible.
And these nine strategies will help you create your own sales page that’s optimized for conversions.
WRITE IT BEFORE YOU BUILD IT
Don’t even think about the design of your sales page before you actually write it. When you start thinking about where words will go and how they will fit into a particular space, you naturally limit yourself. You probably won’t even realize it, but you will write to fit the space and leave out important details because you can’t imagine how they will look.
Write the page without worrying about structure or formatting. Get everything out on paper and then go back and format it. The Sales Page Outline helps you do that - along with exercises to get you into the right headspace for writing marketing copy.
MAKE YOUR HEADLINE SUPER CLEAR
We all want a catchy, unique headline that grabs the attention of the reader. But the sales page is not the place for that, at least not totally. Clarity is key. When people hit your sales page from whatever path, they should instantly know where they are and whether it’s something they are interested in (or at least curious about).?
You can show personality, draw people in and give them context for what they are reading. Headlines need to compel people to stick around and read more.
This is also the place to put your first call to action. Give the quick decision makers what they need to buy your product.
PUT SOME EMOTION INTO YOUR COPY (BUT DON’T OVERSELL IT)
Your product exists because you’re solving a problem that plagues your target audience. There’s some inherent emotion in that - frustration, stress, avoidance. BUT - you don’t need to aggravate pain points or stoke fear in order to sell. Those kinds of manipulation tactics are unethical ways to trick people into buying something they may not actually want or need.
An example is using FOMO (fear of missing out). It tricks the brain into thinking there’s a rush and that they have to decide right now. That can override critical thinking and cause someone to buy something they don’t really want (which can lead to buyer’s remorse).
Emotion can enhance a story, but avoid using dire language or making it seem like buying your product is the thing that will cure all their problems. You won’t convert every single person who sees your sales page and that’s not really the goal. Instead, focus on using authentic language and being real about what your product does (and doesn’t do). Then let people buy in their own time.
It’s about being honest and ethical and letting people use their logical brains to make decisions about where they spend their money.
MAKE IT JUST AS LONG AS IT NEEDS TO BE
Long-form sales pages actually convert really well, especially if the price of the product is on the high side. You need to tell the full story of your product and that often requires writing a lot of copy. People won’t read every word, but they will take in the information that is most important to them.
Still, there’s no reason to have a miles long sales page if you don’t absolutely need one. Much of it ends up being filler or a million testimonials. The Sales Page Outline helps you focus on substance - not just writing words to fill a page.
The sales page needs to be long enough to tell the whole story of your product, but not so long that it becomes redundant. This is why the editing process is so important. You’ll catch those places where you have repeated yourself or droned on about something. When you’re writing, you tend not to realize how many times and ways you’ve said the same sentence.
MAKE YOUR CALLS TO ACTION STAND OUT
A confused mind doesn’t buy. Make things easy for your customers. That means having big buttons and calls to action that clearly state that this is the place to buy your product.
“Buy Now”
“Get Started Now”
“Enroll Now”
Use one stand-out color for the CTA buttons and avoid using that color too much on the rest of the sales page. You want those buttons to be very obvious. Also, add your CTAs after you have written the copy. It will be more clear where they should go once you see the flow of the page.
USE JUST ENOUGH HIGH QUALITY GRAPHICS
You want a pretty sales page. And you can have one. Just not with a million graphics cluttering up space and distracting from the words (and taking forever to load, especially on a phone).
The copy is the most important part of the page.
There’s no point in using graphics just to have something there. Other design elements like backgrounds and using color can serve the same purpose without becoming distracting or slowing down the page.
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Graphics should help the reader visualize what you’re saying. For example, you can give a peek inside a course by displaying your curriculum. Or showcase any downloads you’re giving them. Your graphics should serve a purpose other than being visually appealing.
Also, avoid overusing animation. Imagine scrolling down a page trying to take in everything it says and then some graphic or headline comes flying at you. Or worse, every paragraph is animated so you can’t easily read the words because you’re waiting for them to appear. It’s distracting and annoying to the user (and a little nauseating cue motion sickness).
Optimize your imagery for phones because that is likely where the majority of your audience will view the page, at least for the first time.
USE THE RULE OF ONE
One sales page, one product, one job. The path to purchase should be clear.
By giving buyers options for different products on one page, you’re basically inviting them to say no to everything. Because they were expecting to learn about one product and then suddenly they are being asked to choose among different products that might have different outcomes.?
Now they aren’t making a yes/no decision about whether to buy your product. They are comparison shopping. They have to decide whether they want this or that. All that deciding leads to decision fatigue and confusion and a big fat NO.
This is different from offering two versions of your product. For example, many of our clients will offer their course alone as one option or with group coaching as another. Their customers just have to choose the level of help they want. But no matter which option they choose, they are only getting one product.
Upsells and order bumps are where you can offer an additional product. This should be something that makes sense with the original product your customer is buying.
KEEP YOUR SALES PAGE UPDATED
Buyers can tell when a sales page is stale. It’s important to keep your testimonials fresh, change anything that is no longer true and just generally refresh your copy. As you learn more about your customers, you’ll be able to write in a way that speaks even more to what they want.
Put something in your task manager or calendar to revisit your sales page every three or six months. Use this time to make sure your page and checkout pages are still functioning properly. A sales page is not a “set it and forget it” kind of thing. You don’t want to lose sales because something malfunctions and you don’t know about it.
TEST IT, TEST IT, TEST IT
Can you imagine doing all this work only to discover that your sales page isn’t mobile responsive? Or that the checkout link is broken?
Test your sales page on all devices and browsers. It’s also a good idea to run through your own checkout process to make sure all parts are working properly.
Click every link. Play every video all the way through. Look at the page on your phone. Make sure every single part of it works. You don’t want to send this page out into the world and miss all the sales because of a single broken link.
Sales pages can be big, scary things that are hard to get just right. The truth is, you’ll never be able to gauge how well one will do until you get it out there.
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In this Studio, you’ll find a combination of strategic know-how, techie expertise and elegant design that elevates your online presence and makes selling your knowledge a breeze
1?? The Strategy Intensive: If you have a product or course idea, but not much else, this is the place to start. Intensives are your time to work with founder Leslie Cason on things like developing a plan for building or selling your product, finding your best idea or creating a content strategy.
2?? The Product Ecosystem: If you’re in the process of creating your product and are ready to explore the mechanics of running it, this is for you. Work with Leslie to build out the learning environment you’ll need on one of our preferred platforms.
3?? The Marketing Runway: If your product is done and ready to launch (or very close), this option will help you develop your marketing strategy and assets. Work with Leslie on your content strategy and create the pathways to your product.