PureBlogging

PART TWO: COMPONENTS OF A SALES PAGE

Note: As bloggers, we often branch out into other forms of advertising in order to monetize our VRE (virtual real estate). The Pajama Professional Sales Page Series was written by Sara Christensen in an attempt to help facilitate this often natural extension of blogging. After you finish the article, you can follow the links to parts one and three of the series.

In the last installment of the Pajama Professional Sales Page Series, I discussed the questions you should ask yourself before you begin writing your ad copy. In this part of the series, I will outline some of the rules I will follow as I create my ad:

Start by writing the offer. Many copywriters will tell you to start with the headline and I’m not going to tell you that’s the wrong way to go. From my background in journalism, however, I know that if I write my copy first I’ll be better able to write a fitting headline. In my copy, I will include the answers to some of the product questions I asked in the last installment of the Sales Copy Series.

First, however, it is important to always keep in mind that people buy based on emotion. They justify with logic later on, but you must compel your visitors to purchase by targeting certain triggers. Here are the five primary triggers on which you should focus as you craft your letter:

1. Fear of Loss
2. Hope for Prosperity
3. Hope for Beauty
4. Hope for Health
5. Fear of Failure

The triggers are basic, but they are key to converting prospects into paying customers. you don’t need to use all of them in one sales page or address them directly. Just remember that you can list numbers all day long, but you won’t really start moving product until you make people feel. There are, of course, certain facts that cannot be overlooked in a sales letter; things like price, cost, etc. must be included.

One of the most important things to remember is: don’t save the best for last. If you start out listing minor features, you’re going to lose many sales. Start with the key deal-maker and work your way down. Your copy can be as long as you need it to be, but if you save your best feature for the grand finale, you can bet that very few people will sit through the entire show. Hook them with the headline and hold them there from the very start with your hottest points.

For instance, if I’m writing an ad for an iPod, I’m not going to say:

Choose from black or white!
Free ear buds included!
Pretty cases sold separately for easy customization!
Small enough to take on a jog!
Super-clear video screen makes it easy to create playlists and watch movies!
AND…
Put your entire CD collection in one place and carry it with you all the time!!!

Frankly, with that copy (I don’t suggest using the word “pretty” either – for any product) I’ve lost the visitor at ear buds. By the time they would have read “video screen,” my potential buyers have downloaded half a movie from a torrent site. If I flip the ad, people will stay tuned to see what’s next. In other words, don’t bury the lead.

After you’ve listed all the killer features, shared the price and let your customers know exactly why your product/service is worth what they are going to pay for it, you need to include three more elements to seal the deal: a time limit, testimonials and bonuses.

It is always a good sales tactic to put a time limit on any offer. This creates a sense of urgency and will increase your sales exponentially. If the offer is available for a finite amount of time, people are more likely to buy now rather than go off to consider other offers or wait for payday – never to return again. I know this because I myself have bookmarked a page and returned months later only to find that I’ve bought a similar product in the interim and no longer need the original find. Whether it’s 48 hours or 30 days, a limited-time offer will always spark motivation.

Testimonials bring us back to the subject of trust. Especially if you’re a new marketer and you haven’t yet released or promoted any products, it is vital that you have some testimonials. Testimonials are about building faith so, whatever you do, never make them up. It is better to have no testimonials than fake ones. Include pictures, full names and website addresses as often as possible so customers know that the testimonials are legit. As a newbie, it may sound impossible to collect testimonials, however, it’s not as hard as you might think. It will take some work, but that’s why you got into internet marketing, right? If you’re not sure where to start, here are some suggestions:

• Visit Forums: Check out forums related to the product or service that you are selling. Choose a good topic (or start a new one) and create a post asking for beta-testers. Offer your product at a free or – if it is very expensive – reduced rate to anyone who is willing to try it out and give you a testimonial. Make sure you ask them to be honest as this is also a good way to perform some quality assurance. If a bunch of bad reviews show up in your inbox, you know your product is not market ready. As frustrating as this may be, it’s certainly better to know it now than after launch. Those beta-testers may have saved your reputation.
• Email Other Marketers: It is important to have contact with other marketers or professionals in your niche. If you’re new and you’re not sure how or who to approach, try emailing some of the marketers from whom you receive newsletters. Yes, they’re busy, but it is worth a shot. You can either ask them personally to test out/read the product/service or you can ask them if they could include a line or two about it in their next newsletter. Some may say no and some may ignore you completely, but if you get just a few yeses that could be enough to gather the testimonials you need for your sales page.
• Advertise on Safelists: This might seem like kind of a long shot and is probably best if you’re willing to give your product away for free to anyone who will beta-test it and provide a publishable testimonial. Safelist subscribers get hundreds of safe list emails a day so you’ll have to make your subject line count. However, you have pretty good odds that if you’re offering a quality product as a freebie you’ll get the few responses you need.

That’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Basically, any venue in which you might advertise your product can be used to gather beta testers for testimonials. This includes: social network sites, traffic exchanges and even direct snail-mail postcards. Your creativity is the only thing that limits you when it comes to gathering testimonials. And it’s also a great opportunity to do some quality networking within your niche.

When selling a product, it’s always a good idea to throw in some bonuses, especially if your product is more than $20 or so. People love free stuff and sometimes they’re willing to pay for things just to get something for “free.” I know, it doesn’t make sense, but consider how many times you’ve walked into a store to buy one t-shirt and ended up with four because there was a buy-three get-one free sale? Yup, that’s what I thought. Bonuses can be anything from services to ebooks. The important things are: make sure they relate to the main product, don’t use some crap report that everyone is giving away and don’t include ten things and add them all up so that at the end you can say: BONUSES WORTH OVER $2000! That is straight up bull$h1t and you’ll lose trust and sales.

I’ve been a web/graphic designer for many years, so I’ll just mention a few things about design in this section of the series.

First of all, photographs sell more than illustration. This seems logical, but why? We’re back to the trust factor. If you have a photograph in your ad, then people trust its authenticity and, by extension, yours. This isn’t necessarily a conscious decision, but many people will believe in that photograph more readily than they would clip-art or a drawing.

Today, with the vast number of image-editing capabilities available, a photograph can certainly be altered almost beyond recognition. But that somehow hasn’t significantly changed the fact that most people still place more faith in a photo than in a drawing when it comes to advertising. If you don’t have access to photographs that relate to your product, there are sites online that offer royalty-free stock photos for free.

A little more about design before I end this installment: don’t overdesign. A sales page needs to be eye-catching, but linear. What I mean by this is, don’t create a page with eight photos, fifteen fonts and four different colors. You need one focal image (preferably a photograph) and that’s it. Don’t treat a sales page like a website, you don’t need columns or navigation, they’ll just distract your visitors. The struction should be more like a newspaper story layout: headline, photo underneath to the left or right with text wrapped around it.

Bullet points are always a good layout tool if you’re going to do any sort of list and try to keep fonts and colors to a minimum. If you overwhelm visitors, they’re not going to purchase from you. People who are annoyed and blinded by huge scripty fonts in bright pink are not inclined to buy. Perhaps the most important element of design is not to include any other links besides your order page. Don’t place ads, homepage links or any other clickable options that will allow potential customers to go elsewhere. The only place they should be going from your sales page is your order page.

Sales Page Series Part One
Sales Page Series Part Three

____________________
Sara Christensen is a 9 to 5 techie and internet entrepreneur. She is the webmaster of Pajama Professional and Choose A Niche.

Popularity: 12% [?]