One of the most intimidating things to create for a copywriter to write is a sales page.
They’re big…
They’re long…
They’re intimidating…
…kind of like my p…..nevermind ;)
ANYHOW, sales pages usually have lots of sections that need to be written, have images created for, laid out properly, and tested. However it’s worth it, as a good sales page can often make-or-break a product.
I personally think sales pages are relatively simple when broken down step-by-step, so we’re going to try a little experiment….
We’re going to write a full sales page together!
Just me & you!
Tomorrow, we will start the first step of writing a sales page:
The Planning Phase.
Stay tuned, and seeya then!
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora – Sales Page Writer
Hi! Just a newbie question…I’m trying to use AIDA framework to start writing…and NOW i get confuse on how to incorporate AIDA frameworks with this Outline?Thanks!😅
Hi Neville. A friend sent me this. What would you recommend for someone who used to do some PR, is now a teacher, and is considering trying copywriting. I have no website but I’m a quick study!
Hey Rebecca, try reading (and watching) these :)
https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-become-a-copywriter/
https://copywritingcourse.com/consulting-as-a-side-job/
https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-make-100-dollars/
Haha I just read through all off the comments and answers. I guess if the copy is good the customer is going to read it to find all of the good nuggets.
Bonus Neville just had all of us write his long-er sales copy :)
Bahahaha, well why write alone when you can write with EVERYONE??
Jill Konrath says, to keep the 1st pitch maximum to 90 words.
All the story, pains, problems, solutions, products have to go into 90 words. That’s way more challenging than peaking the Everest Summit without the oxygen tanks.
More than 90 words and people get bored. Do you agree?
More than 90 words, we start running out of the candy fuel (the sweetness that keeps people glued to your sales letter) – how to go about it.
Your sales letters are huge. Jill’s are short. How to be an entertainer on a single-wheel circus bicycle?
Is there a limit to wordings somewhere.?
I’ve mentioned before that running long is fine, but being long-winded is bad.
I think people will say stuff like “limit it to 90 words” in order to give a specific number to a large audience.
However I don’t believe there is some 90-word rule that you should stick to. In general through, being brief is better, and being able to stuff your value prop into the shortest amount of words is always good :)
Just want to say not all sales pages are big, long and intimidating like your p… Never mind :)
….I have no idea what you’re, uhhh, talking about 😎
lol. I love your responses to trol…..nevermind. You are awesome!, Neville! Love your stuff!
Hi Neville,
very exciting stuff you´re sharing at this series.
At the end of the story what makes a good sales page?. Emotions or facts?
With some little experience I know that more “cold” the prospect, longer the sale page should be. Do a sales pages always need to relay on email marketing to get the buy button to be clicked?
Hey Manuel!
Well first of all if the product kicks ass, it makes the job of a sales page way easier.
As for length, it generally depends how expensive or how much explaining needs to be done on the product.
I will go over this extensively as that’s one of the top questions being asked!
If you’re ever looking over someone’s sales page, do things jump out at you? Are there any things you specifically think should NOT be in there?
(Any “Why do people Still do this??” sort of pet peeves)
Do you feel like you’ve changed your process over time? If you went back to the first successful copy for HouseofRave, are there things you would change today?
Artists will sometimes go back to their drawings from a decade ago and redraw them, just to show a side by side comparison of all they’ve learned; I’d love to see how you’d mix up the HouseofRave email with everything you’ve learned since.
Hey Noah!
Things DEFINITELY “jump out” on sales pages all the time. For example if someone is looking for a specific feature, it will “jump out” at them more prominently than someone not looking for that.
As for my process it’s ROUGHLY the same ever since I started studying copywriting. Before I even knew what copywriting was I didn’t know what I was doing and it was much tougher (having zero plan or structure is always a little tougher).
I probably won’t go re-writing any HouseOfRave emails anytime soon, but I definitely laugh when reading them!
How do you write a sales page on a product or service you know nothing about?
Well the #1 way is to write the copy WITH the owner of the product. That’s what I always prefer to do.
If you can’t do that, I’ll be showing my more in depth research method this week (hint: Amazon Reviews) ;-)
It’s worth looking on YouTube to see if you can find people who actually have (or had) the problem the product or service is solving and learn what they say, in their own words.
Bonus: What do they feel strongly about? Maybe that’s worth focusing on.
What are the elements of a sale page? and how long should a sale page?
Hey Paul!
I’ll definitely be covering the elements of a sales page, and also the length. Lots of other people had the same questions, they seem high in demand :)
Hey Neville,
I have a question that I couldn’t figure out by myself yet.
How do you check the decision factors of the buyer without assuming it’s a price, shipping, service, etc?
People are different, and their motives also very different, usually a good copy can address only one of those factors.
Hey Boris, not sure I totally understand the questions, however talking with customers a lot and just “being immersed” in an industry will often tell you what makes people buy.
A good sales page will cover MULTIPLE points so to cover everyone.
We’ll go through that in the coming weeks as the sales page we make comes together :)
Hi Neville,
Thanks for this. Hope to write a better sales page with you.
-> Why do sales pages have to be so long? Can short sales pages do the same work that long sales pages do?
-> What percentage of your visitors read the whole sales page? I’ve found myself scanning most long-form sales pages, though there have been some sales pages I read completely (Jon Morrow’s for instance).
–> Do long-form sales pages still work even when most people scan them instead of reading?
-> This isn’t directly related to sales pages, but are there free or inexpensive tools that can tell us how many visitors read the whole page?
-> If you want to write about something that you have no knowledge about, how long does it take to research about the niche/product, and how do you go about it? Will you be covering the research part in this series?
-> Do you have or made any templates to use when writing long-form sales pages? If yes, can you share some with us? :)
Hey Raspal, cool domain name, and great questions!
Why do sales pages have to be so long? Can short sales pages do the same work that long sales pages do?
Here’s my answer in another comment.
What percentage of your visitors read the whole sales page?
We’ll cover that in the section of the experiment about stats and readership!
Are there free or inexpensive tools that can tell us how many visitors read the whole page?
Use Google Analytics (it’s free), or an even better option that’s SUPER easy to use is CrazyEgg. That’s what I’ll be using for this experiment.
How long does it take to research about the niche/product, and how do you go about it?
Yes I will be covering this, as MOST people have asked this question also….so it must be a high in-demand question :)
Do you have or made any templates to use when writing long-form sales pages? If yes, can you share some with us? :)
Yes I’ll be sharing my outline templates :)
Great questions Raspal, possibly a shirt-worthy comment!
Hey timely stuff for me right now!
My Q: Being a slight contrarian, do I REALLY have to write a 17,549 word long-ass sales page that takes 8.9 seconds to scroll all the way to the buy button?
Snarky language, but a real question :)
Bahahaha, I totally get it Pete!
Generally longer form sales pages are not written JUST to be longer form, it just means there’s more than needs to be explained.
So if you sell a $3 light bulb on Amazon, you probably don’t need a crazy amount of copy to sell it….people already know what a light bulb is, and it’s cheap enough to buy without question!
However if you’re selling a brand new technology light bulb that costs $300 but lasts forever, uses less energy etc…..then you might need a longer form sales pitch to show why spending $300 upfront will actually SAVE them money in the long run.
That sales letter will naturally just be longer since it needs to explain more.
Looking forward to this! Bring it on Nev!
Thanks Aaron, looking forward to it also :)
How much of customer research goes into writing sales pages for you? For ex, do you take phrases word-for-word of how your customers describe their pain, what your product did for them, etc.?
What % of sales writing is art and how much is science? Is it all formulas, does cleverness play into it, etc.
How complex do drip sequences really need to before the law of diminishing returns makes it not worth getting any deeper? I’ve always been intimidated at just how deep some bloggers go.
I’m generally writing sales pages WITH someone in the company I’m writing for, so they usually know the customer language off the top of their heads.
But yes, using customer language is a super-great way to title sections and explain your product.
I’m pumped for this.
How do you tell when a sales page has “enough?” I’ve gotten feedback from customers and prospects that they “don’t like” or “don’t have time” to read. Obviously sprinkling in some images helps, but if you have a somewhat convoluted product that takes some explaining, where do you strike a balance between your customer’s time and making a strong and complete enough pitch to convert them?
Hey John, great question!
I will be addressing it, but the answer is often: SPICE IT UP WITH IMAGES!!
I love copy, but there’s also far superior ways of demonstrating a product that with a big wall of text.
I think images mixed with text is the optimal way of communicating a sales page.
We’ll also track our pages to see how they are doing, and the stats will show if your page is “too long.”
Hi Neville,
Will you be covering VSL as well?
Thanks and cheers
Bina
Hey Bina, I probably won’t go TOO deep into Video Sales Letters, but much of the concepts from a sales letter to a video sales letter are the exact same!
Hey Neville!
How do you write a sales page that doesn’t seem like a sales page to the person reading it?
Not to be sneaking, but to make a sales page that people enjoy!
Hey Matt, for that we use my 70% Content and 30% Sales ratio to keep people happy!
(This is also how you write an advertorial without pissing people off)!
My questions is about the structure for differents copys and persuasive words.
Hey Augusto, we’ll definitely be going over all this tomorrow :)
When you start from scratch on a sales page (first-timer here) what do you estimate the time needed to get it online and working?
Yikes, great question.
It super depends on the product, but I’d say maybe 12-24 hours of work time.
Often it’ll take people months to make a sales page, but in my experience it doesn’t take me that long.
HOWEVER, if you count iterations and such, a sales page is an ever-morphing organism.
Thanks for your reply.
I am providing only services at the moment. Do you see much difference in promoting products vs services?
Nope……both of them require explaining and showing uses!
Products will often have more images or videos as you are selling a THING vs an invisible service.
Not to knock the importance of the Copywriting (Kopywriting?) greats, but how much has the approach to direct response changed because of tech?
When people can research your product/reviews, what else do you need in place in addition to a solid sales page (besides a quality product)?
Well it’s certainly got WAY LESS AGGRESSIVE thankfully!
I love old school copy, but there’s definitely this “scummy-ness” about a lot of old school stuff (not all of it, but some of it).
Before the internet was in everyone’s pocket, direct mail often just flat-out scammed people.
They would make ridiculous claims without anyone being able to verify if it’s true or actually works.
The first step will answer the last part of your question….we’ll build a “Skeleton Outline” of our page, and then start filling it in.
Why can’t they be short and sweet? I always feel like I have to search for a price, when for me, that is one of the filters that allows me to make a decision. It is always sad when I get to the pricing, waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy down a page filled with all sorts of enticements only to find that no options fit my financial situation.
Thanks!
Hey Kate!
That’s actually one of the counterintuitive things about a long-ass sales page…..sometimes the price will be very high, and the whole sales page is justifying why it’s so high, and why it’s worth it.
However for small pages (such as selling a $3 light bulb on Amazon) you won’t need as much copy because the price is low, and the product is self explanatory.
We’ll address “length” of sales pages for sure!
Do you create the stick figure illustrations yourself?
I used to do them all, now I have some help.
…however in this specific post, yes I made both of the stick figures :)
I’m already eager to start.
my main concern is how can i come up with a system that will determine if any kind of a sales page is working well or not?
i know it depends on a lot of factors, but having some kind of general “rule of thumbs” element would be really great.
Hey Yair, great idea….I’ll make a section in this experiment where we talk about how to track things.
However ultimately “success” is determined by how many sales you make, and it’s a difficult problem without lots and lots of traffic, and lots and lots of sales to tell if your sales pitch is “optimal.”
I’ll try to formulate some hard rules for people just to gauge success though, good suggestion!
Hi Neville, I hear there are short- and long-page sales pages. Are there any general rules (or guides) on which to use at what times or for what products? Thanks. Love your emails – keep ’em coming!
Hey Mike!
Generally longer form sales pages are not written JUST to be longer form, it just means there’s more than needs to be explained.
So if you sell a $3 light bulb on Amazon, you probably don’t need a crazy amount of copy to sell it….people already know what a light bulb is, and it’s cheap enough to buy without question!
However if you’re selling a brand new technology light bulb that costs $300 but lasts forever, uses less energy etc…..then you might need a longer form sales pitch to show why spending $300 upfront will actually SAVE them money in the long run.
That sales letter will naturally just be longer since it needs to explain more.
Hi Neville,
As a freelance copywriter, I am wondering how you go about getting the brief from your client. How do you determine that a certain tone will be better? Also, is there necessary information the client must provide for you to get started?
Thanks.
Hey Nadine, great questions!
It seems a couple of people are interested in tone, I’ll make it a point to address that.
Your last question might be answered tomorrow as I “Skeleton Outline” the whole sales page.
There’s usually a few sections every sales page needs, and we’ll cover those!
When is the challenge starting?
Tomorrow I’ll do the first draft of the page, and you can follow along in the coming weeks!
OOOOH Boy! This is going to be fun. Will you be showing how break the three second attention barrier as well?
Abi oh.
Glad you’re excited too :)
I wasn’t specifically going to try to break any 3 second barrier, as I’m a big believer in doing some PRE WORK to get people interested in your sales page.
Watch along to see how I do it, feel free to ask questions along the way!
How important is defining the Objective or what you want them to do? Example: call the number to purchase, get free quote, go to website.
Thanks Neville!
Hey Carolyn!
I think it’s important you know RIGHT AWAY what the “action” of any article, post, or sales page should be.
I always assume the goal of the sales page is to get them to click a “buy” button somewhere.
To what extent do you work on using the customer’s language?
I’ve heard people like Ramit Sethi and the folks at Fizzle discuss the importance of customer conversations. From these conversations, copywriters can learn the exact, emotionally-charged language that the customers are using to discuss their hopes, dreams, fears, wants, needs, etc.
-Do you do these types of conversations when writing for clients?
-What good questions do you ask customers to elicit great answers?
-Are there particular instances where you would spend more time on customer surveys/research, and sometimes just go straight to the copy? It seems like you have a quick writing, get it done style, yet you still produce professional, high quality copy. How do you balance the two?
Missing those office hours! : (((
Gerard
Hey ((G))erard! :-P
I agree with all that. Generally when writing for a client, I am writing WITH them.
This means I have them on a video call with me, and can instantly ask what their customers respond best to. This is far better than me having to do all this research myself (only to come to the conclusion the owner probably already knows).
I often go straight into writing….BUT only after I’ve outlined a skeleton of the sales page. I’ll be demo’ing that part tomorrow :)
Great topic!
Few things that stump me….
1) How do you decide on an angle or lead type to go with?
2) Do you use any conventional formulas like AIDA?
3) Your process – outline, research, draft etc.
4) What do you write in? Recently heard about scrivener… Which comes highly recommended.
5) I’ve heard many pros say the ‘Big Idea’ is more important than the copy itself. What’s your take?
Thanks man!
Hey Zakaria, great questions!
I’m surprised by how many people are requesting info on the pre-research of a product.
As you’ll see in the coming days, I generally start off in Google Docs, then when that’s done, I start making it look pretty by putting it into LeadPages (or you can use whatever page making software you like).
Will show all these things soon, great questions!
Would love to see the whole thought process:
Is it research first, outline second?
Do you write the ending first?
How many times do you edit?
Do you do your own proofreading?
How do you know the copy will work – do you test it out on a small segment first?
Do you have some sort of KPIs to see if the copy performs good enough against those KPI?
Looking forward to those answers!
Oh wow, lots of good questions I hadn’t thought of before Dejan!
Possibly a shirt-worthy comment :)
Thanks a ton, Neville!
Looking forward to this. What groundwork/research do you do before starting work on the sales page itself?
Hmmm….couple of people have asked this already. Will make sure to address this.
(Hint: I have a list of “sections” a sales page should have, and I go through the skeleton outline of those and answer each one).
You’ll see the process in action this week ;)
great! exactly what i was looking for.
kan’t wait.
Kan’t wait to get started too!
Hi Neville
where do you go to first when you are doing the market research ?
Hey Paul, in Day 1 of the process I’ll show how I lay out a skeleton outline.
I show it here also:
https://copywritingcourse.com/effective-sales-letters/
….but I’ll be doing a live example which might be more useful for you to see!
Hi Neville ,
Thanks a lot , the post was really helpful. can I ask when you will be doing the live example ?
Hi Neville, this comes at the right moment! Last night I was awake thinking about setting up a sales page for one of our products.
Do you also tell us more about setting up a email automation / funnel behind the sales page?
Waiting for your input…
Regards from The Netherlands!
Hey Jan, good idea! I will mainly be focusing on the sales page content for this, but in the comments I’ll be answering any and all questions about ancillary sales page stuff like the autoresponder etc :)
Can you demonstrate how you begin the process? There seem to be so many sections in a sales page. Do you write them in order?
This will be the very first thing we cover! Thanks for asking Rina :)