Tip #3 - Find your person in the crowd. Talk to THEM!
So, I’ve spent the past two weeks looking at other people’s copy.
I hosted a Copy Makeover call a couple weeks ago, so I got the chance to see what different business owners are working on, and what they’re having a hard time with.
I had a couple takeaways that I wanted to share with you. First, so you know you’re not the only one wrestling with this. And two, to give a little peek into how I think about copywriting in a bigger context.
Specifically, in the field of what realistic expectations are for a sales page.
I’m noticing no small confusion around what a sales page can do.
It’s not magic.
The words aren’t magic.
It’s not “make a connection and POOF they buy.”
So, we need to clean that up. Let’s begin… Here are 8 reasons your sales page isn’t working:
(1) It’s not actually a sales page. We had about 40 people submit copy for the makeover call, and a lot of business owners sent in a “sales page” that wasn’t. Your homepage is not a sales page. Your services page isn’t a sales page. A web page where you list “3 coaching calls a month, a health assessment, and my cookbook” and put a PayPal button at the bottom is not a sales page. A sales page is a comprehensive case for “hey, you have this problem? I’ve created a program that solves it.” (Here’s an example of one of my sales pages)
(2) No one is looking at it. In the ocean of online life, sales pages are like sharks. If they are still, they die. (Is that true? Is there a marine biologist in the house?) A sales page alone won’t rake in the sales, because it needs some device to get people to actually come look at it. Typically, this is a campaign – a series of emails, a hosted call, and more emails.
(3) It’s talking to “everyone.” If I had a nickel for every sales page I see that lacks a clear target market, I could play the slots at Vegas for several weeks, and still have change left over to get all the candy bars I could eat. Ideal clients matter, because they talk about their problem using specific language. Tribal language. If you don’t speak that language, they will ignore you. Nuf said.
(4) It cops a feel before saying hello. Okay, yes, I’m being brash. But for the love of broccoli… STOP TALKING ABOUT HOW I NEED TO BUY YOUR THING BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY PROVE TO ME YOU UNDERSTAND WHO I AM AND WHAT I NEED. Yes, that is Caps Lock. (If you’re a longtime reader, you know how I feel about Caps Lock. This is just that important. I’m gonna get unreasonable and yell at people. Okay. I feel better now.)
(5) It will NEVER get buyers, no matter how good it is. Let’s call this one “wrong strategy.” For instance, if you want to fill a live retreat, it’s not going to be a sales page that does it. You need a more active strategy, like reaching out to people personally, or putting a call team together. Especially if you’re new to offering this. Live events aren’t for beginners, by the way, unless you have some unusual advantage. You have to build a following. But I digress.
(6) There’s no campaign. Like #2, this is about actually building a strategy to focus your list’s attention on what you’re offering. This lasts for a set period of time, anywhere from 3 weeks to 8 weeks. To pull this off, you need to have built a relationship with your mailing list over time, and trained them to click and interact with you. Training a list to buy takes time, and you want to be human and thoughtful about it, so you don’t burn out those relationships and they unsubscribe.
(7) There’s no clear promise – or it’s not one people pay for. When you get to the point of writing copy for your business, you sign up for a rapid-fire feedback loop. If you put something out there, and no one buys or clicks, 9 times out of 10, the writing isn’t the problem. It’s that your “promise” – the results you say you’ll help people get – isn’t clear, strong, or something people want to pay for.
(8) You didn’t talk about an urgent problem. Many rookie sales pages list 3-5 bullet point questions at the top, and then zoom right in to “now buy my program, sucka” (see #4). Once you figure out + decide on a clear target market for your program, you must, must, must, understand the problem your program solves for them. People pay to solve problems. Unless you write that into your page, it won’t work.
So, there you have it. Now, of course, there are more reasons your particular sales page may not be working, but these are the big ones. They are also the sorts of issues we’re tackling in the upcoming Fill Your Program Online production lab, which starts next week. Already got a copywriter or VA who does the writing for you? You can use this lab to have me train them personally, in your voice, message, and point of view.
Mighty thanks to Municipal Archives of Trondheim flickr photostream for the crowd.
