WELCOME
In this report, we’re going to take a closer
look at something that is absolutely basic and fundamental to success as an
Internet marketer. However, it’s also
the one thing that is most prone to mistakes and missteps that, in the end,
lead to lost sales and reduced profits.
You already know that the sales page is your
biggest Internet marketing asset. It is
where visitors land to find out more about your product, make their buying
decision, and then make their purchase right away. Sounds pretty easy, right?
Yes, it is pretty easy to construct an
effective sales page if you know the following:
•
What elements to include
•
In what order to include them
•
How to format them for maximum
impact
You can do a simple Google search and find
all sorts of people out there offering their advice and suggestions for
creating a high quality sales page. If
you were to buy all of their information products, read all of their articles,
and capture their overall main ideas, what you would most likely find is a
hodgepodge of ideas and descriptions.
What we’re going to do here is take this
hodgepodge of ideas and descriptions and put some order to it. You might be able to argue with the names and
titles we give to certain elements, but you certainly will not be able to argue
with the effectiveness and accuracy of what’s presented here.
If you’re reading this report, then you’re
already well on your way to creating a powerful sales page that generates huge
sales and profits. Why? Because you’re now armed with the valuable
information necessary to create that kind of success.
#1 – THE HEADLINE
Think about the last time you read through a
newspaper, magazine, or some other printed periodical. How do you decide which articles to read and
which articles to skip? The
headline. If the headline doesn’t grab
you right away, engaging your interest and curiosity, then you’ll most likely
move on without checking out the article at all.
The same concept holds true for your sales
page; a great headline is absolutely vital to getting visitors to stick around
and keep reading. Newspapers often use a
main headline and a sub-headline to enhance the likelihood that you’ll stop to
read an article. On an Internet sales
page, though, you need to use three different headlines:
•
The “Gotcha” Headline
The Main Headline
•
The “Still Gotcha” Headline.
Each of these has a very specific purpose and
must be used in a very specific way if you want to produce maximum results.
THE “GOTCHA” HEADLINE
This is the first headline the visitor reads,
located at the very top of the sales page.
It doesn’t need to be huge in size or long in length. What it does need to do, though, is grab the
attention of the specific prospects you’re going after. So, you’d write it one way if your main
prospects are teenagers, for example, but write it in a completely different
way if your main prospects are senior citizens.
THE MAIN HEADLINE
This is the most important headline on the
whole page because it is the largest, the most eye-catching, and the most
concise description of the product’s biggest benefit to the prospect. It needs to literally jump off the page at
the reader in a size that’s too big to ignore.
Most importantly, though, is the emotional reaction this headline
creates in your prospects. If you can
capture them emotionally, then you’re well on your way to converting them from
prospects to sales.
THE “STILL GOTCHA” HEADLINE
Lots of sales pages don’t use this third
headline and that’s a big mistake.
Why? Because this type of
headline serves to reinforce the message communicated in the main headline and
clarifies for the prospect exactly what benefit or advantage they can expect to
gain from making a purchase.
One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to
any of these headlines is to use too many words and make it too long. Remember, just a few really powerful words
will be exponentially more effective for you than a lot of words strung
together in a long, drawn-out explanation.
#2 – THE OPENING ACT
Playwrights use the opening act to introduce
their audience to the basic concept of their story, bringing in the setting,
the characters, and the like in a way that grabs the audience’s emotions and
attention. It is a vital part of the
play because without it, the audience would quickly get lost; they would have
no idea of who the characters are and what they are doing there.
The opening act of an Internet sales page is
just as vital. This is the section that
comes just after the headlines and is used for introducing prospects to your
product. The goal here is the same as
in a play; you want to grab the prospect’s interest with a fierce, icy grip on
their emotions. This is really
important, so it deserves to be emphasized again:
The opening act must grab the
prospect’s interest on a level that’s strongly emotional and it must hang on to
that interest intently.
One of the common mistakes we see on Internet
sales pages is when people launch into selling their product or service too
soon. While you, of course, want to sell
your prospects aggressively, if you do it too early or too quickly, you’re
likely to get the opposite effect of what you desire.
That’s why the opening act is so very
important. When you capture the
prospect’s emotional interests, they are suddenly much more interested in the
rest of the sales page because they feel a “personal” connection to you. Appealing to their emotions, then, is a
powerful sales tactic that isn’t a classic pushy sales approach.
But how can you best grab prospects in an
emotional way and with a high level of intensity? Take a look at these proven techniques:
•
Emphasize the benefits prospects
will enjoy once they get their hands on your product or service
•
Emphasize the positive ways their
life will change and improve once they get their hands on your product
•
Emphasize the positive feelings
they will experience once they get their hands on your product or service
•
Emphasize what they will have more of (time, energy, money, success, etc.)
once they get their hands on your product or service
•
Emphasize what they will have less of (stress, difficulty, debts, struggles,
etc.)
You don’t have to go into great detail about
each of these things during the opening act; this is just an introductory
opening - the full details will be discussed later on in the sales page.
#3 – HONESTY & AUTHORITY
Everybody who spends any time on the Internet
is aware of the huge number of scams, frauds, and other sleazy activities out
there and your prospects are no exception.
You’ve already succeeded in overcoming their initial skepticism because
they are looking at your sales page, but now you have to do a bit of extra work
to convince them to let go of any lingering doubts or worries.
Establishing your honesty and authority with
the prospect makes it easier for them to make the move from interested visitor
to satisfied customer. Times are tough
nowadays, so getting prospects to spend their increasingly scarce money
requires you to be even more creative and authentic about demonstrating your
credibility and trustworthiness.
How do you go about doing this? The best way to look at it is that you want
to promote your honesty and authority both early and often. Don’t bury this information deep into the
sales page where prospects have to really dig to find it. If you do, they are never going to find it
because they will have stopped reading a long time ago.
Here are some effective ways to go about
doing this:
•
Talk about specific results, not
just generalities
•
Use real numbers to describe a
benefit or an activity, not just estimates
•
Use testimonials that touch on key
features or benefits you want to emphasize; these are most effective when you
include the full name of the person whose experiences the testimonial describes
•
Be sure to mention any special
certifications, credentials, expertise, or experience associated with your
product
•
Highlight positive reviews,
quotes, and mentions of your product from reputable outside sources
•
Always, always include a real
contact address complete with address, email, and phone number; this reassures
prospects that you are indeed a real person and not just another scammer on the
Web
Unfortunately, true honesty, integrity, and
authoritative knowledge are quite rare on today’s Internet. For every one person like you who is focused
on making a legitimate business out of your efforts, there are dozens (or more)
of people out there focused on finding new and creative ways to scam
unsuspecting prospects out of their time and money.
When you firmly establish yourself as being
honest and authoritative regarding your product (beginning early in the sales
page and continuing throughout the sales page), you dramatically increase your
potential results.
#4 – INSPIRE WITH BENEFITS
Your prospects aren’t going to fall all over
themselves to make a purchase just because you have a great product or service;
no, you have to capture their emotions and inspire them to take action by
describing and emphasizing the most interesting and positive benefits they will
enjoy after they buy your product or service.
Benefits are quite different from features; a
feature is some attribute or function of a product or service, while a benefit
is some advantage, help, or aid that results from owning and using the product
or service. The key to presenting
benefits successfully is to identify which ones are most important to your
specific prospects and then emphasize them from highest priority to lowest
priority.
Research tells us that people reading
Internet sales pages do much more scanning than reading, so if you want to
capture attention and clearly communicate benefits of your product or service,
then you need to present them in a bullet point format. For instance, let’s say I want you to know my
product has many benefits, such as being easy to use, increasing your
vocabulary, and improving your writing skills.
Can you quickly and easily find the product
benefits written in the paragraph above?
No, of course not. Now let’s try
it in a better and more effective way.
My product has many benefits, such as:
•
It’s easy to use
•
It will increase your vocabulary
by at least 15%
•
It will improve your writing
skills by at least one full letter grade
See the difference? The bullet points make each benefit stand out
more clearly to the readers, making it easier to catch their attention and tap
into their emotions.
Don’t be afraid to include a long list of
benefits as part of your sales page; think of each and every thing you can,
right down to the smallest little positive outcome you can figure. Once you have your list, put the benefits in
order of priority with the highest priority coming first. This way, your prospects will read the most
powerful benefits first and also have an easy time scanning through the entire
list without taking too much time or effort.
#5 – INFORM WITH FEATURES
Think about the last time you went shopping
for a bicycle. You probably looked at a
number of different factors when comparing different models; most importantly,
the specific features offered by each model.
Items such as the number of gears, the type of brakes, and the type of
seat are all examples of important features you looked at and considered.
The same holds true for your product or
service; you have to include information about the features (and sometimes
specifications) offered so that the prospect will know exactly what they are
getting when making a purchase from you.
When you communicate the features well, your
prospects get the kind of details they need to make a buying decision. This is why you need to be as accurate and as
thorough as possible. You’ll gain two
advantages by doing this:
1.
You will increase the conversion
rate from prospects to paying customers because your sales page will provide
the detailed information needed to demonstrate the value of your product and
entice the prospect to make a purchase.
2.
You will receive fewer complaints
and/or requests for refunds because customers will know what they are getting
in advance and there will be no unpleasant surprises for them.
In most cases, you’ll want to list the
features in the same basic format (bullet points) as the benefits we talked
about in the last section, but with a few minor changes. Because the features represent the details of
your product or service, you’ll need to use more text to describe everything
clearly. You may need to use sub-bullets
to get all of the information in there without becoming too text-heavy and hard
to read.
Another approach that can be very effective
is to combine the major features and benefits together so they look something
like this:
•
Feature #1 o
Benefit of this feature #1 o
Benefit of this feature #2
•
Feature #2 o
Benefit of this feature #1 o
Benefit of this feature #2
This is more of a design and formatting
issue, which we will discuss a little bit later on in this report.
#6 – AN EXTRA BONUS!
Everybody likes to think they’re getting a
good deal when they buy something, but exactly what goes into a good deal can
vary a lot depending on the product, service, and situation. In most cases, though, the best way to
increase the value of something so that prospects see it as a good deal is to
add in some sort of extra bonus.
This strategy is used all over the
place. For instance, if you buy cable
television, chances are, your service provider has a number of different
“packages” available with various combinations of channels and services; each
package is offered at a price that’s lower than if you were to buy the
individual services separately. Another
example is when you purchase a combination meal at your favorite fast food
place; the cost of the meal is generally less than the cost of each individual
item purchased separately.
The same approach works very well when it
comes to Internet marketing and creating an Internet sales page. You want your prospects to be strongly
enticed to purchase the main product or service, so to sweeten the deal a bit,
you offer an extra bonus item. Maybe
it’s an ebook written on a similar subject or perhaps it’s a “special edition”
version of a poster, print, or the like.
Whatever it is, when you offer an extra bonus, you make it harder and
harder for the prospect to walk away without making a purchase.
The best bonuses are those things that
customers would very likely be willing to buy separately from your main
product; adding bonuses like these to your main products is what makes your
offer appear to be such a great deal to them.
Just as importantly, the best bonuses are those things that cost you as
little as possible to provide. By
keeping your costs down, but still adding value for the customer, you increase
customer satisfaction and increase your profits at the same time.
No matter how much (or how little) you pay to
get your hands on the bonus items, always include a specific value for the item
when you’re promoting it on your sales page.
Why? Take a look:
Buy my ebook today and get this special workbook for
free!
Buy my ebook today and get this special workbook (a $50
value) for free!
Which one of these is the most compelling
offer statement? The one with the value
attached, of course. It’s just one more
way to remind your prospects that making a purchase from you is not only an
excellent decision, but an excellent value for their money as well.
#7 – IT’S A GOOD DEAL
A common mistake made on Internet sales pages
is to put lots of emphasis on the value of any bonus items while not
emphasizing (or even mentioning) that the main product or service itself is a
really great deal. Bonuses alone are not
going to convert the vast majority of prospects into customers; it’s the main
product they came to find out about and it’s the value (or lack of value) of
that product that is most likely to drive their buying decision.
The idea here is to build up in the
prospect’s mind just how fantastic and valuable the product or service is to
them. You’ve already done a lot of this
by pushing the features and benefits, but you’ve also got to do this by
specifically pushing the price value of the product or service as well.
Here are a couple of examples to illustrate
this point:
•
Buy my ebook for $25 and start
enjoying its benefits right away.
•
When you buy my ebook for $25, you
not only get lots of information, but it’s also a great deal. Comparable ebooks sell for $50, $75, and even
$100 or more!
Can you see the difference? The second example is much stronger because
it clearly lets the prospect know they are getting a great deal on the ebook;
if they were to buy a similar ebook from someone else, they would end up paying
a lot more money!
There are other aspects of selling your
product or service that also help the prospect to see they are getting a good
deal. Some examples of this include:
•
Offer a “no questions asked”
satisfaction guarantee
•
Promote that you’re selling the
product or service at a low introductory price
•
Emphasize an urgent need for the
prospect to act right away due to a deadline, limited number of products
available, or something similar
Another way to communicate that your product
or service is a great deal is to offer information and details that deal
directly with the most common objections or concerns your prospect is likely to
have. This is a tactful way of
overcoming those objections at the same time, as you are promoting the great
value of your product or service.
#8 – ASK FOR THE SALE & TAKE THE ORDER
What’s the first thing every sales training
book or seminar hammers into your mind?
Ask for the sale. It’s as simple
as that. You can put all sorts of time
and energy into convincing a prospect that your product or service is of
superior quality and a great deal, but if you don’t finish things up by
literally asking them to make a purchase, then you’re leaving tons of potential
sales and profits sitting on the table.
Think about the last time you went shopping for a car; how many times
did the sales person say something to the effect of “what will it take to get
you into this car today?” Each time this
happened, they asked you for the sale.
Too often overlooked, though, is what happens
when the prospect says “yes” to the sale.
How is it that they get started on actually placing their order? This is an especially critical concern on
Internet sales pages because your prospects do not have the benefit of somebody
sitting right there with them and walking them through the entire process. Instead, they have to start the process and
go through the steps on their own; if they encounter even one little difficulty
or one direction that is confusing, chances are they’re going to give up and go
away.
And you’ve lost a sale.
So how can you go about asking for the sale
and taking the order? There are lots of
great ways to do it, such as:
•
Include lots of “order now” links
throughout the sales page, with each one taking the prospect directly to the
order page
•
Provide very simple, clear,
step-by-step directions for completing the order process
•
Provide several payment options,
such as credit card, PayPal, Google Checkout, and the like; promote these
options in several places on the sales page
•
Assume the buyer has never
purchased anything on the Web before, and structure the process/directions
accordingly; remember, the simpler and easier, the better!
•
Repetition is important; repeat
the ordering process and instructions multiple times and in multiple places
The Internet is unique in its ability to
connect you instantly with many tens of thousands of prospects; this same
connectedness and ease of navigation, though, also makes it more likely your
prospects will change their minds and go to another website in the blink of an
eye if they encounter even the smallest problem or issue during the sales and
ordering process. Make sure your sales
and ordering process is flawless!
#9 – THE CLOSING ACT
Just as the opening act of your sales page
introduced prospects to your product or service and captured their attention on
an emotional level, the closing act must also take your prospects and move them
through to a completed sale. You’ve
spent the entire sales page emphasizing the benefits, features, value, and so
forth; now it’s time to close things out with a really compelling summary and a
final request for the sale.
The best and most effective approach is to
use a summary-type tactic. Review the
sales page and pick out the most powerful information to put in the closing act
summary. Ask yourself the following
questions:
•
What are the two to four features
that are most likely to entice a prospect to make a purchase?
•
What are the two to four benefits
that are most likely to connect emotionally with a prospect and entice him/her
to make a purchase?
•
What is the value of this product
or service to the prospect?
•
What is it that makes this product
or service such a good deal?
Write down your answers to these questions
because they are the things to touch upon in the closing act. While some people find this part very easy
because they’re just taking existing material and tweaking it a little bit,
most people struggle with this because they find it really hard to pick out
just those pieces of information that are most important to include in this
section. The tendency is to include way
too much in this section, rather than emphasizing just the most important
things.
Remember too that an effective closing act,
of course, includes an effective request to the prospect that asks them to make
a purchase. It’s not about making them
feel guilty or forcing them into buying from you, but rather, it’s more about
reviewing the emotional highlights of the product or service and respectfully
asking them to take action.
Some Internet sales page developers tend to
pay the majority of their attention to the body of the sales page, then skim
over or put halfhearted efforts into creating the closing act. This is a mistake that can end up costing you
sales and profits. Of course, the body
of the sales page deserves the bulk of the attention since it is the real
“meat” of your Internet marketing, but that does not at all diminish the
importance of giving just as much attention to the closing section.
The closing act is the last thing your
prospects see and read, so do everything you can to create a favorable (and
lasting) last impression.
#10 – FORMAT FOR SUCCESS
The words and ideas you present on your
Internet sales page are important, but just as important are how they look to
the reader on the screen. In other
words, the way you format your content has as much (and maybe even more) to do
with your overall sales success as any other element we’ve discussed here.
Formatting your sales page for success is a
combination of creativity and structure.
The very best sales pages pay equal attention to these two items, making
sure they work together and balance each other out in combination.
Let’s start with creativity. This is the aspect of your sales page that
has to do with being imaginative and interesting with aspects such as the:
•
Font style, size, color
•
Bullet point styles
•
Regular, bold, italics, underline
•
Page alignment
•
Graphics
There are literally thousands of different
combinations you could create by combining these things in different ways. Take, for instance, your main headline. What font should you use? How big should it be? What color should it be? Where should it be positioned on the page? Where should a graphic, picture, or logo be
placed? Play around with different
colors and combinations, but don’t rush into a final decision. Come up with a couple of different options
and then put it aside for a day or two; when you come back to it, you’ll be
surprised at the perspective you have gained and the things you’ll notice about
the sales page.
Structure is also important to a successful
sales page. Once you have picked a set
of fonts, colors, graphics, and the like, be sure to use them in a consistent
structure throughout the page. For
instance, if you decide to use Arial Bold font in the color blue for a section
heading, then use that same combination for all of the section headings on the
page. This kind of consistency gives the
prospect a sense of continuity while they’re reading and also provides a visual
prompt or clue that they are beginning a new section of the page.
There is no such thing as the single perfect
format for an Internet sales page. It
will take some time and some effort on your part to figure out what works best
for your product or service. Once you
have done this, though, you will have a sales page template in hand that you
can use as a starting point for many other sales pages to come!
