A great marketing strategy is essential to your success, but it will only get you so far! There’s this big misconception that marketing is responsible for your sales, and the lines are a lot more blurred between the two departments than they used to be, but you still need to have a sales strategy to finish the job that marketing starts.
Marketing can (and should) warm your prospect up, but it’s up to your sales efforts to close the prospect and convert them to a customer. For that, you are going to need a few things, one of which is a well constructed sales page.
A well constructed sales page, designed to convert, should include the following elements:
- A compelling headline
You need a headline that is going to instantly grab the reader’s attention. It should clearly communicate the main benefit of your product or service. A really effective way of doing this is to ask a question that elicits an emotional response from your audience (which is why knowing them on a psychographic level is so important).
For example, if you are a personal trainer who is trying to increase the number of your online clients and your target audience is women who are just starting their fitness journey, and are feeling a little overwhelmed because they don’t know where to start, you may include a headline at the top of your sales page that says something like:
“Are you wanting to make changes to your fitness and wellbeing but feel overwhelmed, because you don’t know where to start? Every goal needs a good support system in place. Let me be yours!”
This is a powerful headline, because it makes your target audience feel seen, and understood. They now want to know more about how you are going to fix that problem for them.
- A subheading.
The subheading is going to give your prospect the extra details that they are now wanting. They want to know how you are going to fix their problem or meet their needs, the subheading is going to tell them in a really clear and concise way.
It should be an extension of the headline, supporting the original message and giving further insight as to what they expect from you.
If we stick with the personal trainer example from above, to expand on the headline above, you could add a subheading such as:
“I provide easy-to-follow fitness programs, aligned with your personal goals, to take away the overwhelm that you feel as you get started, with full support along the way, so you never feel alone on your new journey.”
This works well because it says exactly what they get from your service and how it is that you can add value to what they are trying to achieve.
- An eye catching visual.
A really strong visual element on your sales page is going to make it much more engaging than if you just had a long wall of text. By adding a video or image, you are going to grab your audience’s attention and communicate the value of your product or service further.
Its also a great opportunity to showcase your branding a bit more and start to build a relationship with your audience. We are such visual creatures and a high quality image of you, or a video of you talking directly to your audience, can be very powerful for building that initial connection. And when people feel a connection, they feel more comfortable and therefore trust you more.
And if you want people to buy from you, you need them to trust you.
- A value proposition.
Your sales page should clearly communicate what your value proposition is. What makes your service different? Why are you the option they should choose?
Even in saturated industries, or for services that are the same or similar to competitors (because that’s the nature of what you offer), there will still be something that you bring personally that sets you aside from the rest for that person.
It could be your results, your approach, your personality … there will be something about you that resonates with your ideal client more than your competitor. Thats why, even in saturated industries, there is room for everyone, because we all have our own secret sauce. Something that belongs to us, that can’t be copied or replicated.
You need to find what that is for you and communicate it on your sales page.
- Social Proof.
Social proof is another important trust indicator. You can use testimonials and/or case studies to further solidify that you are the right person to help your customer. They don’t just build trust, they build credibility too.
Think of case studies and testimonials as your social currency … the more proof you can give of your results, the more people you can get to legitimately vouch for you, the more other people are going to be confident in your abilities to get them the results they desire.
If you are just starting out in business, and don’t yet have social proof, then talk about your experience and why it is important, talk about your process in more detail, create lead magnets and share educational posts that will showcase your industry knowledge (also a great way to build your email list!). Until you are able to share proof of real life results, there are other ways to build that trust with your audience. Think outside the box.
- A Call-to-Action.
Lastly, you need to give your audience clear instructions on how they can take the next step with you, so your sales page should have a call-to-action (CTA). This will prompt your audience to either enquire about, or buy, your product or service.
Best practices for your CTA is to only include one per page, because you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too many options, or run the risk of giving them decision fatigue. You also don’t want to redirect them away from your page with one CTA and have them not return to the page to complete that actual action that you wanted them to take.
Keep the CTA short and sweet, and make sure that it’s visible – you don’t want your CTA to be a hyperlink hidden in with all the other text. It needs to stand out on the page. You can repeat the same CTA at several stages throughout the page – if it is relevant to do so, but don’t overdo this, otherwise it may have the opposite effect by coming across as pushy, putting people off in the process.
Add a sense of urgency to your CTA too – don’t go overboard or be too dramatic, people don’t respond to that anymore, but somehow try to communicate the impact of not taking that action in a timely manner.
Don’t make false promises or statements in your CTA, as you will create unachievable expectations. For example, if we go back to the example of the personal trainer, you could have the following CTA:
“Get your customer workout plan today, feel better tomorrow” …
But they won’t be getting their custom workout plan today, that’s not possible for you to provide in such a short space of time without having spoken to them about their goals at the very least. So be mindful that your CTA doesn’t make false promises, and can’t be misconstrued in any way.
If you include all these elements on your sales page, you’ll be off to a good start! There are many other factors to take into consideration, but as you get more data about how your sales page performs, you will be able to make informed decisions on what to test or change as part of your optimisation process.
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