Sales Page Series: Part One

PART ONE: Questions To Ask Before You Begin

I have been listening to a lot of lectures and reading a lot of ebooks lately regarding advertising copy and creating the perfect sales page. There are tons of theories (some heavily tested) and a lot of techniques that work, but I don’t have time to try them all. So I started making a list of the elements I thought were the most important so I could put them into practice.

I am doing all this research because I need to get to work on my first squeeze page. I finally signed up for a good autoresponder service and I need a quality opt-in capture/sales page. My goal is to make it completely original. When I place it on traffic exchanges, I want people to think: “Hey, I’ve never seen this page before.” I surf the exchanges and I see the same tired splash pages over and over again. I am determined to make mine unique and eye-catching.

As per my usual M.O.: I’ve done the research so I’ll try to save my readers some time. I will assume that you’ve already chosen the product or service for which you’ll be creating the sales page. This article will begin at the brainstorming point. I will cover the steps I have identified as most crucial to successful sales page creation. This piece will run as a three-part series beginning with the questions you will need to answer before you start writing:

Questions About Yourself

1. When I am buying something I need, what makes me choose one product over another?
2. If I don’t need something, what triggers my impulse to purchase it anyway?
3. How much hype can I handle before I yell “Bull$h1t!” and close the page?
4. If I’ve never purchased from a particular marketer before, what makes me trust them enough to part with my money in exchange for their product or service?

These seemed like easy questions when I first wrote them out, but it actually took a few days of monitoring myself in real-life situations to get satisfactory answers. I’m sure your answers will be different from mine. For instance, my bull$h1t tolerance is about the size of a peanut. On the other hand, some people become wrapped up in the hype and are motivated to purchase. You’ll have to decide which approach is best suited for your target audience.

I’m an impulsive shopper, but I’m very specific about what I want…especially technologically. So, when it came to question four, I had to admit that it takes a lot to convince me to trust someone from whom I’ve never purchased, especially if I’m investing more than $20. On the other hand, if I have had good experiences in the past, it takes little or no convincing to get me to buy. For instance, I completely trust Ewen Chia. I love his writing style, his systems are easy to understand and implement and so I have no problem impulsively purchasing his products. As a marketer, you’ll need to build this kind of trust in order to build your business. People are quite wary of being scammed online. Because of this, honesty is always the best policy. If you lie about your credentials, you can bet someone will Google the truth and expose you for a fraud. Business over.

After you’ve asked some basic questions of yourself, you’ll need to answer the questions your potential customers may ask about your product. These questions will provide a foundation for your ad copy that will save you time and energy later on if you answer them thoroughly. Answer all the questions you find yourself asking when you’re deciding on a purchase.

Questions About Your Product

1. How much will you charge for your product or service?
2. Will there be any bonuses included with your product?
3. To whom am I advertising this product? Is it a specific age group, gender, class, profession? How will this affect my design and word choices?
4. Why do my customers need this product? Why is it worth the price being charged?

As you proceed, I’m sure you’ll think of more questions you need to ask and answer. These are meant as a starting point to get your brain rolling in the right direction. In the next part of this series, I will discuss the components included in your ad copy.

SALES PAGE SERIES PART TWO
SALES PAGE SERIES PART THREE