How to Write a Sales Page that Converts So You Can Make More Money

Blog posts and social media get a lot of attention in the world of content marketing, but what about your sales pages? How many views are they getting? Where are those views coming from? And, finally, are those leads taking the final step to become customers?

I talked about leading your prospects through the buyer journey in this blog post, but what if they get all the way to the end of the funnel only to decide not to buy?

That means there’s a problem with your sales page. Let’s go over some of the most common problems I tend to see with sales pages that aren’t converting high-quality leads into prospects.

What Is a Sales Page?

Before we get into the details of how to go about writing content that converts for your sales page, let’s start by defining what a sales page is.

A sales page is exactly what it sounds like: a page on your website whose only goal is to convince viewers to buy a particular product or service. Ideally, each product/service you offer should have its own web page devoted to it so you can focus on its benefits without distracting or confusing your viewers with other offers. If your sales page only has one goal (as it should), it will be easier to achieve that goal if you narrow the focus.

Sales Page vs Landing Page

Sales pages and landing pages are similar in that they are both static pages, unlike a blog page where new content is (hopefully) consistently getting published.

Sales pages and landing pages are also similar in that they only have one goal, but the goal of a landing page doesn’t necessarily have to be a sale. It could be a sale, or it could be to get the viewer to subscribe to your newsletter or sign up for your free webinar.

Now that we’re clear on what a sales page is, let’s talk about how to get the most out of it.

Define Your Target Audience

Hopefully you’ve already done this, but it’s always a good idea to revisit your marketing personas every time you create a new piece of content, especially when it comes to content for something as important as your sales page.

Writing a compelling sales page requires focusing on the pain point you’re solving for your customers. Remind them how bad it feels to be in that position, and how much worse it could get if they don’t take action now. Creating a sense of urgency is key to converting leads into sales. If they think they can come back later, they’ll leave and are unlikely to remember to come back.

Build Your Funnel and Optimize It

Remember that the sales page is just one part of your sales funnel, so make sure the rest of your funnel is working the way you need it to work. Does the content successfully lead prospects from one stage of the buyer journey to the next? Does the order make sense? Are all the links functioning properly? Is the content successfully convincing prospects to take the next step in the buyer journey?

The best sales page in the world still won’t be able to get results if your funnel isn’t guiding prospects there.

Define Your Offer

Not only do you need to define your offer, but, as mentioned above, you need to narrow it down as much as possible. Don’t try to get them to sign up for your course and buy your book. Have one goal and give them a good reason (give them several good reasons) why they should click that “buy” button.

The more clearly you can define your goals to yourself and your team, the more clearly you’ll be able to communicate it to your audience. The more clear and concise you can make it, the more likely they’ll be to take that final step in the buyer journey.

Use the Right Keywords

I talk a lot about optimizing your blog posts with the right keywords to get them to show up in searches when prospects are in the early stages of the buyer journey, but what about the later stages? What if they already know what they want and all they need now is to find the right brand to provide it for them?

That’s where optimizing your sales page for search engines comes in, and making sure you have the right keywords in place is an integral part of that process.

Long-tail keywords are search terms that are 3-5 words long, and they should already be an important component of your SEO strategy since they tend to have less competition than short-tail keywords. They also tend to have a lower search volume, but if you find the right keywords with a higher buyer intent, then it’s still worthwhile to target them because the people who do find your website by searching those keywords are more likely to buy when they find you.

So, focus on the long-tail keywords, but also make sure they’re long-tail keywords with high buyer intent. Someone searching “financial planning tips for divorced women” might be using a long-tail keyword, but they’re not necessarily ready to hire a financial planner.

On the other hand, someone searching “financial planner for divorced women” is ready to hire. With the right keywords, you can get those people to your website. And with the right content and call to action (CTA) you can convert those leads into customers.

Make Sure It’s Long Enough … But Not Too Long

Longer content always gives you a better chance of showing up in online searches because Google likes longer content. It also gives you more opportunities to insert relevant keywords into your content without resorting to keyword stuffing.

But how well does longer content perform when it comes to converting leads into customers?

In general, sales pages for low-cost items tend to have better conversion rates with shorter content, whereas high-cost items (particularly in a B2B industry) tend to perform better with longer content.

When people are shopping for something for their business, they’re going to spend more time doing their research and making sure the product/service they end up buying is going to be worth the investment. The same goes for people shopping for professional services – they’ll require a little more convincing before they’ll buy from you, so you’ll have to create more content for that sales page if you want it to convert leads into customers.

Use the Right Call to Action (CTA)

Not only does your call to action need to match where your prospect is in the buyer journey and what action they’re ready to take, but it also needs a sense of urgency.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, a sales page is a page on your website that is designed to do one thing: get people to buy a particular product or service. So there should be no question as to what the call to action needs to be, but you might be wondering about the best way to convince your prospects to take that action.

This goes back to my points above about focusing on your prospect’s pain point and creating a sense of urgency. Make them feel like there will be consequences if they don’t buy your product/service right away. How will their business or their life deteriorate without your help?

Test Your Design

It’s not always your content that’s the problem. Sometimes the culprit could be the design of your sales page.

Something as small as the color or placement of your “buy” button can have a significant impact on the likelihood users will click on it. Take the time to play around with the design of your sales page and do some A/B testing to see which design gets the highest conversion rate.

Perfect Your Headline

If your headline isn’t compelling, why should anyone keep reading?

Your headline is the first thing people see, and like it or not, people do judge based on first impressions, so make sure it’s a good one. The Digital Age has made it easier than ever for bored prospects to click away and forget all about you, and the headline is your first and most important chance to convince them to stick around. Don’t mess it up.

Your headline needs to speak to your audience’s pain point, but it also needs to leave them wanting more – otherwise they’ll never bother to keep reading.

Your headline also needs to make a promise about what your audience can expect from the rest of the content on the page – and, in this case, from the product/service you’re selling on this page. But don’t make any promises you can’t keep just for the sake of getting someone’s attention. Broken promises will leave a bad taste in their mouth, making them unlikely to become customers, much less recommend you to their friends and family.

Use Bullet Points

When people get to your sales page, they want to know what your product/service can do for them. How will it make their lives better? By focusing on the benefits your product/service provides (not the features), you’ll give them a concise list of clear benefits they can expect to gain if they click that “buy” button.

Google also likes lists, which means using them in your content gives you a better chance of showing up in search engines.

Make Sure It’s Mobile Friendly

Ideally, your website is already mobile friendly, but it never hurts to check. Make sure your website displays properly on mobile devices. You especially want to make sure all your sales pages display and function properly on mobile devices. That means checking it on both iOS and Android and clicking through all of the links on your sales page to make sure they work as well on mobile devices as they do on a laptop or desktop.

Use Images and Videos

We are very visual creatures, so images and videos continue to be the best way to engage viewers and show them what your product/service can do for them. If you’re selling a product, a video showing them how it works and the results they can get from it can increase conversions significantly.

Just make sure the videos aren’t too long and that you’re not including too many images and videos because that can cause the load time of your sales page to go up, which can lead to people clicking away before it’s finished loading. That can also have a negative impact on your SEO, so make sure your page loads in 2-3 seconds.

Social proof is proof that your product/service has achieved the desired results for other people in your audience’s situation. This is where testimonials and case studies come in – and if you can get your best customers on video talking about how happy they are with your product/service, you’ll be even better off!

You can talk yourself up all day long, but everyone will take that with a grain of salt, knowing your goal is to get them to buy from you. But a testimonial from someone in their position, who has no ulterior motive, can be very powerful if leveraged properly.

Test Your Results With and Without Links

Links might improve your SEO, but they can also lead people away from the sale, and if they get distracted, they might not necessarily return. So do some A/B testing to see if you get more conversions with or without links. If you do include links, make sure they open in another tab, rather than leading prospects away from your site.

Use Live Chat

There are several companies out there now that can manage live chat on your website for you, so you don’t have to be physically available 24/7 to live chat with every single visitor who comes to your website. The data shows that live chat can significantly boost engagement on your website and lead wary customers through the buyer journey, so it’s definitely an investment worth making.

Use Exit-Intent Popups

An exit-intent popup is a box that pops up onto the screen as soon as the cursor leaves the website and starts to hover over the browser, indicating the person is getting ready to leave. If they haven’t bought anything yet, an exit-intent button is a great way to give them one last chance to buy.

You can provide a special offer or discount to convince them to buy, or you can just use it to confirm that they really want to leave. It’s possible that they clicked on something by accident and had no intention of leaving the website, but if that’s not then case, then it means your content wasn’t convincing enough, and this is your last chance to tell them why they should buy from you.

Have an FAQ Section to Address Objections

You’ve probably heard all kinds of questions from customers and prospective customers. Your marketing persona should include a list of commmon objections you hear and you should be prepared to answer them.

Rather than waiting for your prospects to ask those common questions in the live chat or call customer service, why not address them right away? The more you can do to put your customers’ minds at ease, the more likely they are to buy.

Once your prospect has finally taken that last step and bought something from you, take advantage of the moment by encouraging them to share their purchase on social media. You can make it very easy for them by using share buttons and providing text for the socal media post so all they have to do is click the share button to spread the good word about your brand to all their followers.

Conclusion

We work so hard to carefully guide our prospects through every step of the buyer journey, but sometimes we forget the most important step: actually buying from us. Some prospects will get all the way through the funnel, only to falter at the end for one reason or another. That’s why it’s so important to make sure the content on your sales pages addresses all their objections, speaks to their pain points, and creates a sense of urgency so they feel the need to buy from you right now.

If your sales pages aren’t convincing prospects to buy from you (or at least reach out to learn more) it’s time to have a professional at least look at your sales page. I offer free consultations where I provide actionable tips and tricks you can use to improve your website right now. Just reach out to get started.

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