Chapter 16 - Anatomy of a Great Sales PageIf you are selling a product or service on the Internet, your words are the most important factor in determining your success. High-tech websites with fancy graphics will not make sales. However, many Internet entrepreneurs spend much more time designing a professional looking website than writing effective sales copy. A professional looking website is a very important part of making sales. However, if your sales copy is weak, your website will be useless. The Headline The first thing needed in any sales page is a heart stopping attention riveting Headline. It has to be so powerful that the reader will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what follows is for them specifically. You only have a second or two to answer their two key questions. What is it? The direct sales page will fail before the visitor gets started if the headline is weak. Use power words. Action verbs that help paint a detailed picture in the mind of the reader. A compelling, vivid picture in the mind of the reader will create a highly charged emotional response. And it is the emotions that we must sell to. - Use as many impact words as possible. An impact word is a simple easy to understand word that quickly creates an emotional response. Key Point! There are seven possible strategies for a winning headline.
A Story with Linked Benefits Tell your story. A story gives the reader the full sensory experience of being there. They feel the good and the bad with you. Feelings and emotions are the language of selling. If you are not sure what to write, narrate your story into a tape deck. Describe what happened in the exact chronological order. What was the situation you found yourself in? What was the problem? What did it mean to you and what would happen if you were able to fix the problem? Spell it out in great detail. Next tell how you fixed the problem. Did you use a product or service? What happened? What did you look for and what were the real life experiences you found? Remember small business is about real people and real life. Not feeds and speeds and techno babble. Get expressive and let people really know what happened. They will respect you and pay you for your experience. Include a bulleted list in the story that answers the following questions for the reader. If you cannot come up with your own stories, use your clients . This process is identical to the Case Study we looked at earlier. The more real you make the case study, the more effective the results for your sales pages. The Bonus Pile On I watched a professional presenter at a local department store this spring. He was selling a product that normally was available only on TV infomercials. By the time he had finished his 20 minute presentation I really did not know what he was originally selling. Why? - Because, he very effectively used the bonus pile on technique. He used it so effectively that close to 20 well educated adults had bought a kitchen knife for $29.99. What they bought and what they took home were entirely different. They got a total of eight different knives, two juicers, a carrying case and knife sharpening stone. It started off as a traditional sales presentation; he presented the features, advantages and benefits of the knife. Yet everything changed after he told us the price. To remove any sticker shock over the price of a single knife he added 9 seemingly free bonuses. At the end of the presentation, he had changed the criteria for the sales. The customers were not deciding on whether or not they needed a knife. They were deciding on whether they could miss out on so many bonuses. The perceived value of the package was so high by the end of the presentation many were compelled to purchase. What does this have to do with your website? Key Point! Find additional products and services that you can use as a Bonus Pile On. Think of supplemental products you have that you can add as a free bonus . Add as many as you can to your sales copy. The greater the perceived value of your offering, the greater the chances the visitor will buy from you. If you are able to bring together a bundle of products and services that the visitor perceives as valuable, you will always move the decision scale in your favor. By giving them so much value, you can completely outweigh their costs. If you tie the bonus pile on with a better than risk free guarantee, you are sure to earn the visitors business on this visit to your website. Testimonials Testimonials provide another great way to reassure your visitors. Blend your testimonials in with your sales message. Avoid making your visitors have to click to another page to view your testimonial. Chances are they will not. By blending your testimonials in with your sales message, you can ensure they will be read. Guarantees You have to make it absolutely better than risk free in your offer before people will buy from you, the small business, online. In the mind of the prospect, you want to eliminate every shred of danger from the thought of buying online from you. As opposed to money back guarantees, you remove the risk and you make it less threatening for people to consider your offer. Your trust and credibility are the major barriers to people doing business with you online. You have no brand like the big guys. A better than risk free guarantee lowers the barrier that prevents visitors from doing business with you. You give them a compelling reason to buy today without fear of looking bad tomorrow. This increases your sales, word of mouth referrals and can make the difference in how many of your qualified visitors actually buy from your site. When a customer knows that they can buy from you, get their money back and still keep something that they value, that is a better than risk free guarantee. You should not be afraid of offering guarantees, you already are! What would you do if a customer complained? Tell them to take a hike? Of course not! Every business owner wants to make their customers happy. They know that if they did not they would not be in business. What would happen if some of your customers were not treated fairly? It would not take too long for word to travel that you were a risk to do business with. A risk-free guarantee works because it puts the customer in control of their buying process. The guarantee removes the natural barrier that buyers erect when they do not feel they are in control of what they are buying. The guarantee builds business rapport, which puts them at ease so that they can relax and be open to hearing your offer. Here are some steps to consider when you create your guarantee:
Key Point! In my mini-sites I include all the bonuses in the guarantee. Why? To remove the customer s risk. Even if they decide to cancel the order, they keep the bonuses. When this type of guarantee is included the customer can t lose by placing the order, even if they decide the product isn t what they want and need, they receive their investment back PLUS they keep something of value. The bonus pile-on and guarantee work for the seller as well. Unhappy customers are more likely to tell other people about their experience. Using this strategy stops the bad news from traveling to potential customers. Deadlines and Limited Availability If applicable, make sure to mention any order deadlines or limited availability of products or services. Scarcity is a powerful motivator that creates urgency in the mind of the customer. If you decide to inform the prospect that there is scarcity, be honest! There are many Internet marketers that use scripts on web pages that give pretend deadlines to offers. These scripts generate a date based on when the visitor goes to the site. For example if you visit the site today, it says the offer is only good for the next 3 days. If you return to the site at a later date, guess what? You still have 3 days. This is an easy way to loose any of the trust and credibility that you have already built. Call for Action Every mini-site sales page has to have multiple links to the order page. A Call to Action is a direct command to the reader TO DO SOMETHING. The purpose of the call to action is to move the buyer to the next step of the sales process. They need to get to the order page to complete the transaction. A call to action can take many forms and there should be multiple ways for the reader to know that it is time to buy. You do not have to wait for the call to action to be made. Give the reader a chance to order through two thirds of the letter. The bottom of the letter should contain different calls to act, all of them leading to the order page. Here are some examples from one of my sites. Act now -- there is absolutely no risk to you. (More on that in a minute) Or Since you are still reading this, I'm going to assume you answered YES. But saying YES is not quite enough. I have shown you how "SPEED Selling" can deliver on that promise; I ve shown you my first-rate credentials; I have shown you the rave reviews -- now is the time to act. Use a P.S. Key Point! When your visitor scans your sales message, chances are they will read your headline, sub headlines and your PostScript message. Place your most important benefits within your P.S. message. It will get read. Order Pages The order page should always be short and to the point. Restate the main benefit and confirm what the customer is going to receive. Next restate the better than risk free guarantee so that they are satisfied beyond a shadow of a doubt that they can trust you. Then tell them exactly what you need them to do. Do not confuse them with additional purchase options; start them into the order processing step. If you are using PayPal tell them to click on the PayPal button now. If you use another payment gateway tell them where to click to enter their payment details. Some advanced marketers will actually attempt to up-sell the customer at this point by giving them an alternate priced solution. I am not convinced that this approach will work for all the different price points and types of products and services so I do not recommend it. The Exit Pop-Up I almost forgot this one. The purpose of the mini-site is to close the sale right? What happens if you do not? What happens if someone has come to your mini-site from a PPC search engine and you do not have his or her e-mail address? Should you forget about them? On all your Direct Sales Mini Sites consider the on exit pop-up or pop-under. This is the small technique you used on your themed content site; however use this pop-up on exit only. You do not want to confuse the visitor with alternative options while they are on the mini-site. As an incentive for the e-mail address, consider using an e-book, mini-course or a time/features limited trial of one of your products or services. 
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