What is a Sales Page?
Introduction:
Do you need more leads, are you getting too much bounce off, are your readers not engaging? Maybe it is time to consider a sales page?
What is a Sales Page?
[1]A sales page is a standalone page created with one specific purpose in mind, to secure sales for your product. The product or service you’re selling on your page can differ depending on your industry or niche. However, the purpose of your sales page remains constant – getting visitors to convert into customers.
Sales pages are another type of post-click landing page that is divided into two main types:
- Long-form sales pages
- Short-form sales pages
Both types of sales pages are designed very similarly. They contain a pitch of your product that your visitors go through and decide whether they want to click the call-to-action (CTA) or not.
The only difference between a long and a short sales page is the actual length of the page.
What is a short-form sales page?
The page has:
- A long headline explains why you need to download the “Dream Job Secrets.”
- A graphic that showcases the covers and titles of the guides
- Bullet points explaining what you’ll get once you convert on the form
- Rami Sethi’s claim of “$10,000 in 10 minutes” followed by a short about section that lets you know what his background is — enforcing the credibility
- Visual cues direct you to the CTA button, and images
- A short lead capture form that asks for your name and email address
- A colour-contrasting CTA button with a “100% privacy. No games, No B.S., No spam” disclaimer
- Logos of reputable publications where the author and his products have been featured
A short-form sales page is like a typical post-click landing page and should include the same page elements. To find out more about post-click landing pages and how to optimize them, go here.
What is a long-form sales page?
A long-form sales page is precisely what its name suggests — a lengthy page that explains what the product is in as much detail as necessary. It is also commonly referred to as a “sales letter.” The page relays all the information about the offer so the visitor can make an informed decision.
While a long-form sales page includes all the elements of a short-form sales page (i.e. a headline, form, CTA button and image), the “hero” of the page is the copy because that’s what matters. The amount of copy makes the long-form sales page long, which is why the copy should get the most attention.
Most long-form sales pages aren’t received well by audiences, and listed below are four main reasons why:
- Most pages have a horrible design
- They have low readability
- The copy is written in a hyped-up manner with many exclamation points and different coloured texts.
- Many products or services sold via long-form sales pages are scams, which is why their credibility is always somewhat of a question mark.
The Pythagorean Plan page is an excellent example of a sales page gone wrong.
[2]What is a sales page vs. a landing page or homepage?
So, is a sales page a landing page or a homepage?
In short, a sales page is a landing page but different from a homepage.
A sales page and a landing page are both explicitly crafted to encourage people to convert. However, while landing pages are virtually the same as short-form sales pages, long-form sales pages tend to be more detailed than a typical landing page.
However, homepages are entirely different from sales pages.
This is because the goal of a homepage is not just to drive conversions. Instead, they attract a much wider audience, and with navigational tabs and generic language, they are not tailored to converting a specific customer the way a sales page is.
How to create a sales page
Most people drive traffic to their sales pages from email, social media ads, Google ads, or a website to create a sales page. Therefore, you need post-click landing page software to host your sales page.
Fortunately, a few landing page software options are easy to use and don’t require coding knowledge.
Below is an overview of the three most popular ones, and while they have slight differences, they are easy to use and do essentially the same job.
Instapage
Instapage is a top choice for those obsessed with design, as it’s essentially the Apple of landing pages.
It has more than 200 beautiful templates to choose from, no traffic limitations, built-in analytics, and even allows dynamic text replacement for PPC campaigns.
The cons of Instapage are that it doesn’t allow for any A/B testing on the basic plan (which, as you’ll soon learn, is essential for any sales page), and it’s the most expensive tool on the market.
Therefore, Instapage is usually the best option for more prominent brands and advanced marketers.
Unbounce
Unbounce is a little more economical than Instapage at just $80 per month, and it offers an automated testing tool in all of its plans. It also has an analytics suite and offers more than 200 different templates that you can customize with its drag and drop editor.
The downside of Unbounce is that you can only publish a limited number of pages at once, and you can only put one lead capture form on their design. Its user interface also isn’t relatively as high quality as Instapage’s, though it’s still reasonably good.
Leadpages
Leadpages also offers a user-friendly drag and drop editor and unlimited pages, traffic, and leads on every plan.
They also offer a variety of additional elements, such as countdown timers and progress widgets, to help increase conversions. Another helpful feature unique to Leadpages is Leadlinks, which allows people to sign up for a webinar or event right from their inbox.
The biggest drawback with Leadpages is the user experience. Sometimes the editor doesn’t save work very well, and it can be buggy. However, the standard plan starts at just $25 per month, so it’s still a good deal.
[3]How to Create Sales Pages that Convert
Learning how to create sales pages that convert is a process. Not only do you need to familiarize yourself with best practices, but you also have to figure out what’s best for your audience.
Continually test your decisions. Figure out what works and what doesn’t with your target market by trying lots of different pages.
Until you have the results of those tests, follow these 20 tips to create a sales page that converts right out of the gate.
1. Define your target audience
Before you can convert people, you need to know them. What do they want? Need? Love? Hate? Struggle with?
The more you know about your audience, the stronger your sales pages become. Your prospects will feel like you’re inside their head. When you use the exact language, they’re already using, and they’ll desperately want your product.
2. Make your offer clear and concise
A complicated offer turns potential customers away. If they can’t understand what you’re offering, they won’t stick around to try to decipher your message.
Your sales page needs a headline. Make it an offer visitors can’t refuse. Lead with a benefit of the product or service, then mention what you’re selling.
Get it down to one crisp sentence.
For instance, let’s say I want to sell an email app. So I might use a headline like this: “Get to inbox zero within 15 minutes.”
The offer is straightforward: quickly and easily manage all your emails to clear out your inbox.
3. Build your conversion funnel and optimize it
The sales page should represent part of your overall conversion funnel. The funnel itself needs to be designed around your audience.
Funnels look different based on customer behaviour. For instance, there’s typically a shorter funnel when you’re selling running shoes than if you’re marketing a high-end racing bicycle.
Optimize every segment of your conversion funnel so that when visitors land on your sales page, they’re ready to convert. They already have all the information they need to make a split-second decision.
4. Create the perfect call to action (CTA): What do you want your users to do?
Think of the CTA as the answer to the headline. You’ve proposed something to your audience — what do you want them to do with it?
Let’s say you’ve written a headline like this for your sales page: “Create Your Custom Racing Bike From Scratch.
Now, you need your CTA button copy. For example, it could look like this: “Build Your Bike Now.”
You see these types of headlines and CTAs on car manufacturer sites all the time.
Test different CTAs to see which ones perform the best. The more you test, the more refined your CTA becomes.
5. Add several CTAs—but not too many
On a long-form sales page, there’s nothing wrong with multiple CTAs. However, they should all lead to the same conclusion.
The idea is to reinforce what you’re asking continually. Remind visitors why they’re on the sales page in the first place.
They can either keep reading down the page or convert immediately. So you get the best of both worlds.
You don’t want to cram 50 CTAs on a sales page, though. Instead, make sure you’re adding content between them to give visitors a reason to continue reading.
Conclusion:
I can almost guarantee that your first sales page may not be a hit! But, keep trying, keep improving, and you will eventually get a winner!
Article compiled by hughesagency.ca
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