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Lesson Info

Write a Compelling Sales Page: Part 1

All right, here we go. We're on page twenty two now and so this is in the workbook you've got not only an opportunity to take notes on how it's used, but you have an opportunity to start jotting down notes on how you're going to use it. Okay, so be writing those ideas that come to mind because I bet as I go through each part, you're going to get some little sparks of of ideas write those down in that third column there so that when you go home and write your cells page or over lunch when you go and write your sales page, you will have that your own plan right here and I bet you will, right fastest sales pitch of your life all right, so let's start off by talking about the headline and sub headline I've got these on two different blacks, but they're essentially it's essentially one piece of the puzzle. And like sasha said, this could be just a really killer part of the sales paige because we do obsess over that's a little bit it's super important let me give you the one thing that a hea...

dline is not the headline of your sales page is not the name of your product let me say that again the headline of your sales page is not the name of your product I would like to see a serious decrease in the number of sales pages with headlines that are the names of the products because of this course that is my personal goal today okay? It is not the name of your course it is not a giant graphic of your prop program or service that also has the name of your course in it it is a headline that is meant to grab the attention of your reader with where they're at today it is a message that matters to the people who matter most does that sound familiar? Yes, we have already started crafting your lead we've already started crafting your lead your headline is the lead into the lead all right it's the thing that's going to make people say wow this I got to keep reading this right or wow at least need to read the next paragraph that's the whole point just like when you're writing a story if your job the job of every sentence is to make the reader want to read the next sentence. If you heard that before you're the whole point of the headline is to make people want to keep reading in fact all throughout your sales page the same rule applies each section of your sales page is meant to keep people reading because we know through data and analysis that the more people read on a sales page, the more likely they are to make ah positive buying decision okay again that doesn't necessarily mean more words although there's research to back that up too but it does mean that the more people who keep reading the more people who actually are working through the argument that your making the case that you're stating the more likely they are to make a buying decision your headline and your sub headline are the key to doing just that so I'm going to start actually kind of jotting this out on the flip board as well so you can kind of see what this would look like so your headline ideally isn't a large font I mean we're talking thirty six point plus I'm gonna get a little specific here this morning is that okay? Okay good because this I am not a detail oriented person details I don't do that I hire people to do details right but the sales pages one place I am super super duper clear on details if you've ever heard me on a call with people where I'm doing a sales page review I get into such nitty gritty like change the background color the paragraph sizes too long the space between your paragraphs is too short all of these things okay so let me just one more one more message on that particular note look around the internet especially if you're writing a regular longform sales page look around the internet and look for sales page that you actually like the looks tough look for sales pages you actually like the looks of and steal the format, steal the details, okay, so if you like the way my sales pages, look, if you like the way my sales pages feel, look at what's actually going on there, look at the size of the headlines, look at the length of the paragraphs, look at how wide the page is. Look at where I placed graphics, look at where I place headers throughout the page, make a note of the details and copy them. This is one place where copying is totally fine, okay, you're not copying and copy your copying the little tiny design details that actually make a huge difference, because what happens when you get the design details right? And that doesn't mean that anna's details have to be the same as jessica's. Details have to be the same as sasha's details, but when they get each of their individual sets of details right, the reader is going to feel much more comfortable as they're reading the page and a comfortable reader keeps reading. If there's jarring things going on like this, or if there's formatting things that are weird or inconsistent, the reader gets subconsciously uncomfortable and we'll stop reading you'll have a much lower bounce rate, which is the percentage of people who pop on and hop off on a page with consistent formatting and details than you do on one that's all over the place it is worth getting this right people okay so your headline is going to be large all right it's going to be centered on the page nine times out of ten okay I also want to make a note that a sales page should not be a super wide page websites now are wider than they have ever been before and largely this is because of all the visual elements that were using that we've never used before on the net more than you know just the current design trends visually but its sales paige you want to narrow in on if at all possible if your template doesn't work for that or if you're not hiring a professional designer that can change change those kinds of things around on your website you can also use visual elements teo narrow the page but ideally it's like it's something like six hundred pixels wide of text is the ideal you know with for reading our eyes don't like to read super long lines people will keep reading longer if your lines are shorter does that make sense whitney do you agree? Okay good you're my expert here oh that's a really great way to put that okay twelve words across the line max I have a question and you can put a pin in it if I'm skipping ahead but so for because I'm coming from product and now offering a survey so I totally get how this apply when I'm when I'm doing my my sales page for like our new workshops and everything but then when I'm thinking about how to modify like my product descriptions which established are also sales pages right I'm thinking about like ok like the etc format or you know how I have my shopping cart would that then be like name of product is the headline because I'm coming from the space of like I need to say this is a black and white business time size you know yeah so there is a perfect example of this online homework for all the makers I want you to go toe lululemon's website l u l u lemon dot com look at the way their pages air set up and specifically look at the way their product descriptions are written their product descriptions follow the format that I'm giving you yes something's air reduced you know it's a little yeah it's a little reductive compared to this long form that I'm going to use this the example but that right there is how you take all of this information and you apply it to a product description okay? Like I kid you not like they're so perfect what I read them my little marketers heart just beats for joy seriously like the product description it's just it's itty bitty but it tells a story there's a before and an after sometimes that before is implied. There are fantastic details like I have a lululemon raincoat because I live in the pacific northwest and lululemon is based in the pacific northwest. And so these people no rain right on. We need raincoats that know that made by people who know rain. And one of the details that hooked me on this coat was because they said the pockets are so deep that you don't have to carry a purse because if you wear a purse over a raincoat, your potent purse gets soaked, right? So instead they build pockets that air I felt the flannel lined, so they're cozy that air deep enough that I can put a full wallet I can fit a kindle in the pocket of my raincoat. Okay, that's, what we're talking about here or even a buck like I could fit a real a real paper book in my raincoat pocket. Okay, that's, how great this raincoat is and it's also how great the description waas. So instead of spending one hundred dollars on a raincoat, I spent two hundred dollars on a rain code to get the super deep pockets accents? Yeah, so that's the kind of wonderful, beautiful thing that when you understand this kind of bigger template, you can reduce it all into into three four sentences so they lead off with that paragraph and I'm drawing a blank right now on whether the just the lead they're like whether the headline there is the product name or not I feel like it's a headline, but I could be wrong I feel like the product name is up here and there's actually a headline before the product description but the product description is always a little story it tells you what you're going to be doing with this product I definitely get that part about the body of it yeah, and then it just it's just like this after that lead, then the details are in there to the materials, the format, the technique, all of those things then there there at the bottom they also do a really good job of forcing the lead though too so they'll say such and such a material like in the case of a raincoat, this is a rain coat made out of this material because it's breathe herbal or flannel lined pockets to keep your hands warm. So not only are they listing the features of the product, but they're looping it back up to the lead okay, so they're just enhancing that story makes sense ok, cool yeah think that's homework for everybody every single product maker go check, check out lululemon's website really beautiful examples all right so your headline is big your column it's fairly narrow and then you've got a sub headline now sometimes I use the sub headline sometimes I don't it's this is kind of an optional put a little star there for optional optional part of yourselves page sometimes you can say everything you want say in the main headline you don't want a super long headline this is we're talking five six words tops like I wouldn't make a headline any longer than being independent doesn't have doesn't have to mean being alone that's about as long as I would go if you need to say more put it in the sub headline all right make the headlines short make the sub headline a little bit longer tiffany so could your headline be your key insight? Absolutely your key insight is also the key to writing a killer headline okay that's where we find the information it could be that it it's big it could be that you just straight up used the key insight like I did for the kickstart lab sales page but it could also be that you use a statement that sets people up for the key insight it could be a misconception so remember the challenge piece of content marketing we used a misconception that led people back to the key insight that that ah headline could also be a misconception it could be the same misconception is your content marketing which is a beautiful, beautiful thing, right? Because then you've made that path back to the sales page super duper clear okay, so yeah, so headline it can absolutely be should absolutely be something that is in some way related to your key insight either it is that or it's kind of the opposite of that because that's where you need to hook people that's the headline in the sub headline, all right, let's, keep going, then you've got the lead now we talked about kind of the lead being the overall story like this I'm gonna also break this down, but for now, let's think about the lead is being that first paragraph when you are starting to describe the situation and feelings of the person that you were talking teo, you are starting with a message that matters to the people who matter most you're describing their experience, you're telling there a story we also talked about how the lead could be your own personal story. We talked about how it could be a client's story or we talked about how it could be kind of more hypothetical either you tell the story of kind of like a names have been changed to protect the innocent kind of thing or it could be something that's a little bit further removed from her, he said she said then this happened kind of story makes sense with the whole idea here again is that you're opening with something that is truly attention grabbing to the person reading the sales page. Okay, uh, the other thing that I want toe, reem emphasize, is that this sales page is the message for the celts page is focused and singular. We talked about that in the first two session. One mistake that I see people making is that they try and hit to many different types of messages remember the overcompensating and it gets messy part that's what happens when you're overcompensating because you don't really know what you're talking about when you don't really know what the value is you're trying to communicate or what? You really don't know what piece of information you have is going to do the trick for the person reading it. You overcompensate and you make the mess you give multiple sales messages. All of this here should be focused and singular. One message, one idea, one message, one idea. Okay, next, the next piece is before I buy, followed by after I apply it is, of course, just the before and after that we've been talking about this whole time. Now you can do this a couple different ways you could do it just like kind of as a paragraph, but I know you've seen this a gazillion times there's a reason you can also be bullet points bullet points work great um some some ideas for bullet points starting with verbs makes your bullet points were stronger so when started instead of starting every bullet point with the word you you set it up and you say you here and then you start each bullet point with the verb you do this don't do this um I can't uh think this burbs make bullet points way stronger and also you want to always this's writing one o one with terror gentilly now you also want to make the structures of your bullet points parallel so if you if you start one bullet point with the verb start every bullet point with the verb okay that kind of thing or another way to do this is what's and wise and house that works as well same thing if you start one bullet point with the what make it another make it another one of those question words what why how where when okay so bullet points bullet points work great here too okay but if you're just telling a big old story paragraph by paragraph by paragraph totally fine totally fine if you're going to include images on your sales page and at this point in the world way world we are an internet marketing I would highly recommend including images on your sales page it goes right here okay it's floated to the right and it shortens this set of text because it makes it flow better and this image should in some way reflect the feelings or situation of your customer right now okay there's not a picture of you this is not a picture of this is not some course graphic or program graphic and it's not a picture of the product this is a picture that relates to where people are at now for makers that may not hold true that could actually be a picture of the product but that's really all you'd have on the page any house pictures of products summary here's christine excuse me zambrano says but what about photographers? We kind of don't have product description we do services and for those with allah cart instead of package and combos uh does this apply or is the same fantastic question thank you so much for asking so yes it absolutely applies if you have a work with me page a services page this still this is how it should be done you conform at it a little bit differently if you'd like if you want to keep it consistent with the rest of your website but this is still this is how you should be structuring your page I promise you it will make your offer your service infinitely more compelling it's not just about your experience and naming the kinds of people you've worked with in the past or where your pictures have been featured tell a story of what it's like to work with you of why people choose to work with you off what you can offer and transform for the customer if you're selling something alec art as opposed to a particular package first of all I highly recommend selling packages that's a there's a topic for another day but I highly recommend selling packages that you khun craft individual stories for but if you're selling allah card what you might find is that your sales pages actually fairly short that it's mostly just that lead story and then you've got your called action is really to go through and look at the ala carte menu and see what you might like to apply and then what you might like to buy and the second called toe action that's contact me for your consultation right so that's how this applies to that really truly everyone you khun take what I'm teaching here and apply it to what you're selling all right if you're a life coach and you sell individual you know one on one service is yes your life coach offer paige can look just like this this is not just for your offers its not just for your information products or your group coaching courses this is also for your work with me paige okay mike sons good cut so lied before I buy after I apply click hypothesis this hypothesis feels like the climax of the page okay, so remember we were talking about story arcs yesterday in terms of overall content marketing and email marketing if your sales page has a story arc this is actually the climax it's that sentence where people are like ho that sounds good remember when we were talking through the leads on in the first two session and I got to the every time I would read through the lead talk through the lead and got to the hypothesis people would go well that's why this is your climax okay, so sometimes I like to maybe put a different color here, okay? Or I might make this a header especially if it's a shorter sentence. So maybe this is like to use internet parlance maybe it's like an h three header so it's a little bit bigger than the rest of your text it stands apart. The line height is a little bit wider now I'm really geeking out on you, okay, but that's that's the hypothesis to draw attention to it in any way that you can okay, so that's that there could be some image associated with the hypothesis is well again to draw attention because if they read nothing else you want them to read this sentence because that sentence is a one sentence sales page essentially okay it's the hypothesis now this is a great place to put your first testimonial all right now test let's talk about testimonials testimonials you'll do you're doing it wrong you know what I see most often is people created a people putting testimonials on their page that are this long okay, they're gign norma's there's six seven eight nine ten sentences long they might be two hundred words long and they create a big giant stop side in the middle of your sales page also our people they're wonderful but most of them are not awesome writers they also don't know what some of the most important things are that you want them to say okay, so first of all I highly recommend giving your clients questions to answer instead of just saying hey, can you write me a testimonial so I I would say to a former client can you uh I would really like to get a testimonial for you to use for the next time I launched this program? Can I get your answers to these three questions? One how did you feel before you purchase the service or this program for this product uh what was one or two specific changes you made because of this course or product or programmer service how do you feel now? How are things different for you now? So how did you feel before what one or two specific changes did you make because of this product or service? How do you feel now what's different now how's your situation different now if you get the answers to those three questions you are well on your way to a way more effective testimonials and so what I will do very often is asked people to answer those questions in one or two sentences and then I will splay ce together a testimonial that was gonna work for me and then I'll just email it back and just say hey give me a yes or no on this is this does this sound good most of the time they say yes thank you so much for making me sound smart right it's actually a service that we're doing people of kind of massaging their testimonials into being okay so I like testimonials that are two to three sentences long not always there are exceptions to this but really ask yourself before you go and make an exception for yourself ask yourself really if your sales page or your audience or what you're selling is really that exceptional or whether a two to three sentence testimonial would actually serve you better another thing that I really like to dio is put a header at the top of the testimonial it's like the best four five words from the testimonial so that again people don't hit that stop sign they khun just read that header of a testimonial okay so that so I put it in quotes I give it like an h for h four header if that means anything tio and then I put you know the two or three lines in there ideally we talked about this summer in yesterday's session but ideally I put an image of the person and I put their full name and the business for me I put the business that they're associated with for you it might be their location or their profession or you know even like mother of two you know it could be something like that so this is ideal it doesn't have to be this way tiffany when you're doing a testimonial on a sales paige do you link back to the persons website great I do not um there might be other people that would tell you that that would be the nice thing to dio I do s o on other pages where I put testimonials where they're not action pages but they're you know like my about paige I have testimonials on my about paige right there's links there so I make an effort to link out whenever I can but on a sales page it normally doesn't make any it doesn't make sense you don't want any links on this page other than the link that is your by now button okay that is one of those conversion tactics that is actually really important yellow highlighter read text forget that but not putting links on a sales page is actually a really important tactic alright ideally this is a page that stands by its itself and doesn't let people go anywhere else. Okay, now you will see there are places even on my website where there's sales pages that's they still have my navigation bar at the top. That's a choice that you make sometimes I make that choice other times I do not. Okay, I'm building a new sales page this week. I'm so excited about you guys. You have no idea. This is what I'm looking forward to most this week, not so anyhow. That will be a sales page that has no links on it whatsoever. Shammari so central coast, not butter company says my products are also similar that it wouldn't make sense to have a separate story for either, but I do want to have a separate page for each product advice. Yeah, great. Really, really great question. So this is often what happens, even with coaches who may have numerous packages but just have one work with me. Page. So what I would suggest is kind of using this format to create almost a secondary home page for your shop. Um, where you're going to tell that story and probably it's not gonna last it's not gonna be very long, it's just gonna be a couple paragraphs. But you tell that story, and then you've got some different options. Maybe you've got featured products and then a link to click through to the full shop, but that way, you set people up with a little bit of a story, and you create a personal relationship before people are actively looking at your products. So that's, one way to solve that and again, just like I said, for coaches, that's, often the exact same thing, you've got three or four packages of different ways people can work with you. You don't need a different sales page for each of those packages. A lot of times, what you need is the top of the sales page once and then to click through to a page where it's specific about that package, but without just all the same story on it makes sense makes sense. Yes. Great. Uh oh, yes. What else I want to say about testimonials? Uh, these you want to be even shorter. You want the font to be smaller? Uh, and most of the time, I also make this a different color. You want to signal that this is a break in the page? You're also signalling that this is something you want to pay attention to, but the reason you make it narrower is because it creates vertical flow here so people's eyes keep reading even if they pause and read the testimonial there's the sense of vertical flow that's maintained by the testimonial being narrower does that make sense like a saturday to get real specific here meghan do you have any suggestions around what questions to ask for a book testimonials when for when you're speaking to colleagues who are reviewing it and going to share it with their audiences yes oh in that case that's a great question let me kind of repeat that what do you how do you ask questions of influencers who are reviewing the book? Who aren't that who aren't the readers? You're not reflecting the readers experience what I would do is get them ask the questions you need to ask them to get them to reflect on their own professional opinion and their experience working with your ideal reader so um you might get them to save our ask them something that would lead them to say something like I would recommend this book for my my patients who or for my clients who deal with this particular problem okay um you want to kind of relate their expertise to your expertise and does that make sense? Yeah, but um one of the benefits of doing that is that is the credibility that they're they're lending so getting them to essentially say in my professional experience or in my professional opinion or you know, some mix of that that lends to that credibility um which leads me to another point you want your testimonials to be really value focused and not testimonials that are terrorist until e is the most awesome business coach ever. She's just so great that's not really helpful. It may be true, but it's not helpful. Okay, um build test kind of testimonial certainly have their place that might be on the side bar of your block it might be on your about me, paige it could be later on down in the page, but this testimonial especially what do you think you wanted to relate back, tio? Your hypothesis, your key insight, the results that you're talking about in your hypothesis, you can use this testimonial to essentially say this hypothesis is absolutely one hundred percent true. It's a really strong technique. Okay, sasha, I think I know the answer to this spite. I mean, when the subject matter is sensitive and the client is not going to want to have their name on it and maybe even really wouldn't necessarily feel good about it being on the page, but they've said something that sort of captures and real language what the result is I mean, can you just put it there as a quote, absolutely no, just say a client yes, yes is that ideal maybe not, but I would much rather you have an anonymous testimonial on your sales page then no testimonials at all. Okay, so that's testimonials any other questions on testimonials? I think it seems like it's this really straightforward piece of the sales page but this is one way you can just totally supercharge what you're doing because then it becomes when you really rock your testimonials your testimonials essentially tell a secondary sales message story for you there's a secondary story going on that you're not saying that someone else is saying for you someone else who's been through it someone else who's bought the product someone else who wears your jewellery on a daily basis okay that's karen so how many do you put on your page? Is that the on ly space that you put them on your pager? Are you going to go into that? I will go into that a little bit but I'm happy to talk about it now. I know this is not the only space that I put them in and I would only put one maybe two here again for that vertical flow aspect you want people to keep reading you have just totally hooked them with the hypothesis don't stop now okay and your testimonials do there you want them to be yield signs not stop signs that's how I normally related but you you don't want to give them four yield signs in a row here, give them one yield sign and then let the merge onto the highway. Okay, all right. So, that's, what that's what's going on here and then throughout the sales page, and I'll talk about that. As I as I go, there are more and more op opportunities and other messages you, khun reinforce through testimonials.