Every sales page and landing page has one main goal.
To Sell.
If it doesn’t, then it flounders.
There are a lot of businesses out there that subscribe to the theory that if you build it, they will come.
If you are willing to invest time and money into driving traffic to your site,They will come, but what happens next is where most companies fall short.
They come, but they leave without buying.
Special Tools
Every great sales page that you’ve ever seen has been constructed with tools that can help your sales effort from behind the scenes.
For the first few years I didn’t have these tools, and the one I did have (Google Analytics), I didn’t know how to use.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started really exploring and leveraging these tools to help my business flourish, and I want to share with you the 5 tools that I now use.
1. Landing Page Software
Premise is my software of choice for Landing Page software. It’s easy to use, and there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube that explain how to take full advantage of this software.
Your sales pages need to be focused on the product and nothing else. Premise software strips away everything and gives you a clean slate to create compelling copy that earns people’s trust and money.
2. Website Tracking Software
The only way you are going to know if your sales page is working or not is to have software that keeps track of your conversion rate. I use Google Analytics to help me with this. It’s free and it does a great job.
If you want to take your tracking software up a notch, you can use CrazyEgg or Visual Website Optimizer. They allow you to track where your page is successful and where it falls flat. I like the “heatmap” that comes along with both software packages. You can see where people are giving up on your page and where you can improve your conversion rate.
3. Fonts that Fit Your Design
Many designers have talked about the importance of a good font to make a sales page easy to read. Too often people create sales pages with wonky fonts that make you want to click away.
You can create fonts specifically for each sales page. The key is to match the rest of your site so you develop branding congruency.
If you aren’t sure what font to use, I suggest Ariel because it’s the best performing font that most people have an easy time reading.
4. SEO optimization
If your product is an evergreen product (product without a time sensitive element like a physical product, book or e-course), you want as much free traffic as possible. That means your sales page should be optimized for SEO. Some people only have a sales page up for a few days or weeks. They drive traffic through email, social media and links. Optimizing a page that is only up for a few days isn’t necessary.
Most of you either have a services page or an e-product that is on sale all year long. If this is the case you need to understand what words attracts search traffic to your site.
If you don’t know a lot about SEO, I would suggest subscribing to Scribe for 6 months.
Learn what works for you, then cancel the subscription. You should be savvy enough after 6 months to optimize your future pages without Scribe.
5. Great Editor
Maybe the most important tool of all is having an editor that can help you engage your readers. I make a lot of mistakes in my copy because I know what I want to say, but I don’t always create a clear explanation. Every great writer will tell you that an editor that understands your needs is a must if you plan on being serious about making money from your sales page.
It helps to have someone who understands your industry and target market and how to create a compelling narrative.
This may be a web-savvy friend or a professional copywriter. Whoever you choose, make sure you have someone walk through your sales page with you and help point out any potential flaws that might reduce your chance of converting a visitor to your web site into a buyer.
Your Turn
What tools do you rely on when writing and designing your sales and landing pages?
Karl,
Do you recommend any editors?
Hi Lisa!
I work with two different editors. I use one or both depending on what my goal with the piece is. I think a good editor takes some time to find. You have to find someone that compliments your style. The best way to do this is to try an editor out and see how the relationship progresses. Don’t be afraid to keep testing out editors until you find someone or a small team of editors who fit your style and goals.
I should have used an editor on my email that went out this morning. I saw an obvious mistake that just slipped by me.
If you want I can ask my editors if they have space for another client. Just shoot me an email and I’ll send it to one or both.
Karl,
I am going to be building my services sales page so that it has capacity for people to press buy right then and there. Worpress I use. I have my copy wording written. Do you know of any DIY posts on how to do technical elements on integrating PayPal buy now or buy element?
Thank You, Luz
Hi Luz! Premise already has this feature built into it. It’s really easy to do. Go to the Premise website, the link is above, and see if that’s what you are looking for.