CASE STUDY: Don’t Write A Sales Page When a Flier Will Do

“Stella, can you help me write my sales page?”

This question has been coming up a bunch lately, so let’s talk about it.

I just spoke with a new client yesterday whose business coach suggested that she talk with me about writing a sales page together.

I asked her a few questions, and it became clear to me that she didn’t actually need a sales page to get the job done.

Here’s the scenario. This woman is a big speaker and networker, so most of her clients come through her being out and about in her community. She’d led a group for the local chapter of a national women’s business organization, and had done such a great job, the people in the group wanted to continue. She put a program together and 5 people joined her for the year, in a mid-level group and mentorship program.

In other words: she uses an offline strategy to fill this group.

In 2016, she wants to offer the group again, and increase enrollment by 60%. Put another way, she wants eight people in the group this round.

“I’m having a heckuva time wrapping my mind around the language for what it is I am actually doing,” she said.

I hear that a lot.

So, I asked her point blank – why a sales page?

Are you going to do a preview call, where you invite the people on your list to a free training, and invite them to join a paid program?

Are you going to be doing a full-blow email campaign to sell this program?

Side bar: Sales pages are a lot of work. I’ve been writing them for myself and my clients for 6 years, and they still take a special level of focus and preparation. Writing a long form sales page is not for sissies.

That said, I recently updated an out of date sales page for a long-term client (read: I know her message, because she knows her message) in 90 minutes. But if I’m writing for a new program or a client who isn’t as clear on their message, it takes hours.

Put another way: don’t write a sales page unless you have a damn good plan in place to drive traffic to it, and a proven track record of your list buying from you online.

But back to our story. This business owner has a very clear point of view and knows her program. But she’s getting hung up with how to express it.

Again, this is totally normal. Most of us are idea people, and as such, part of our life’s work is to learn how to get those ideas into the hands of the people who need them most. We love our ideas. We believe in our ideas.

But sometimes, it’s hard to communicate those ideas so that other people get them (even though we know our ideas can help them).

It’s hard because it requires you to get quiet and listen to how your audience wants you to talk with them. It requires you to translate your ideas into a language they use.

It requires you to get into connection and relationship with other people, which is really, really tough these days in our culture.

Especially with all these guys on the internet telling you to “touch their pain” and use words like struggle and overwhelm to connect with people. Yuck.

Anyway. This business owner wasn’t planning on doing any sort of online promotion. Maybe she’d mention the offer to her list, but her opportunity – and her focus – was with the people in the room at her workshops, talks, and networking events.

All she wanted was enough clarity so that she could invite the right people into one-on-one conversations, so she could see if they were a fit. Then she would invite them to join her program.

What I suggested to this sharp woman was, hey, how about you just write a flier instead?

Why don’t we bullet out your message – who this is for, what they’ll get, why they’d want to do it – so that you are clear, and you can go talk to people with a fire in your belly, and a knowing that you know what you are talking about?

She loved the idea.

So instead of writing a full blown sales page that few people would ever see and no one would buy from, she’s going to get what she needs – message clarity and the right words to go out and talk to people.

Amen and hallelujah.