How to write a sales page that converts your next offer
The balance of creative storytelling and sales techniques
I’m a big believer that creative storytelling combined with traditional sales techniques is where the magic happens in copy. I’ve built my entire framework off this idea. The cool thing is that it’s working. It works for myself and my private clients and digital course students.
I thought I should preface this post by explaining my own background. If you’re new here (or even if you’re not) you probably don’t know what I studied. First, I studied English literature and philosophy. There were a few writing classes in the mix (and a lot of essays). I also studied psychology, but swapped out of that before getting all my credits for another minor (a story for another day). After freelancing for a while, I returned to university and studied marketing and public relations. See where this is going?
At the time, I chose subjects that interested me. I didn’t realize how this combination would pay off in helping me weave together storytelling techniques and sales strategies for creative businesses trying to connect with clients online. It’s cool how things work out, right?
What is a sales page?
This post is by no means a complete guide to sales pages. It’s only an outline of the first few steps to get you started because there’s literally years of knowledge that goes into writing an effective sales page.
I’m also going to distinguish between two different variations of pages that the internet sometimes confuses all for sales pages. When I talk about a sales page, I’m referring to those long-form pages that sell products, services, or programs with little involvement from the service provider. For example, a sales page for a group coaching program. Or the sales page for my online course, Client Attraction Academy.
Then there’s a services page, which is a high-level overview that sells the experience, benefits, and results of working with you, but often skips the nitty gritty details because those services require a sales call and custom proposal. Check out my services page as an example in action.
Now that I’ve clarified, it’s time for my SparkNotes version of how to write a sales page that converts for your next offer. Grab your coffees because there is a lot of information here!
How to write a good sales page
A good sales page begins with a strong understanding of your brand personality, positioning within the market, ideal client avatar, and ensuring that your offer is legitimate. If you’re new to copywriting, I encourage you to check out these other resources on the blog that focus on sales, storytelling, and writing website copy that converts.
Why bother? You need to know who you are selling to before you can start writing. You need to know what problem you solve for your dream clients. You need to know why you’re the best person for the job if you want to be able to write copy that converts. If you haven’t read those blog posts yet, I encourage you to backtrack a bit to at least scan them. Otherwise we won’t be starting from the same place!
Step 1: Position your offer
My process starts with a traditional marketing practice of separating features from benefits, then positioning those benefits within the larger market of your direct and indirect competitors. We need to know what makes you unique and why that uniqueness is so important.
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What are the features of your product/service? List everything you can think of.
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Next, pick the most important ones. Choose 3-4 features that make your product/service unique.
Now the problem is that most people stop here. They list the features of their product or service and leave it at that. This is a selfish way to think and it isn’t any good for your marketing strategy! I’ve said a few times in previous blog and social media posts that your copy isn’t about you when you are a brand or business. It’s about the details that make you the best person to solve your buyer’s problem.
How does your buyer benefit from your uniqueness?
Your copy should be about your customer, so start to think about each of the important features you noted. How does each of these features translate to a valuable benefit or result for your ideal clients. Strategic and unique benefits sell.
Think about how the features of your product/service will make their lives better? Get really detailed here! How does your service differ from your competitors? What about your uniqueness is so special that someone should choose you over another option. Sometimes you need to be really obvious with these things. Lay it out simple and sweet.
Step 2: Tell a story that sells
I don’t stop here though. I think that sales copy that stops here reads really tacky. You know the sales pages I’m thinking of, right? The ones that basically just list “Feature A is good because it gives you Benefit B” and so on until you’re so bored your eyes fall out? It’s sort of condescending in how salesy it is… and this is the style my clients like to avoid. So I add my creative twist to everything. When you’re really clear on how to position your offer, it’s time to weave a little storytelling throughout your sales copy.
When you tell stories, you give people glimpses into the transformation your offer provides. Sometimes that’s as simple as weaving facts that your audience might be familiar with (or even recognize you for) throughout the sales page, reminding them that they know, like, and trust you.
Depending on the business, you also probably want to weave similar themes with the word choices throughout your sales page. This is something you can do when writing any type of copy to make it feel cohesive and on brand.
For example, I wrote copy for a custom kitchen design company that wanted to serve families specifically. They wanted to be accessible to the average family, rather than reserved for only high-class (although they had experience there as well).
I strung together the themes of accessible quality and family. I carried the friendly language and the imagery of families around their kitchen tables through every page. Their homepage reads: “Your kitchen is the heart of your home… Come on over. Let’s work together.”
This continues through each page, including their products, services, and extra tidbits that make them special. Their about page mentioned that the owners were a family themselves. Their products are high quality, practices are sustainable, and they care about your family. They welcomed questions.
The goal is to elicit an emotional response through storytelling that inspires action in potential buyers. Something subtle. We feel connected to people and brands when we notice similarities to our own narratives. By playing up the warm, welcoming, family feel, this business connects with other families. See how this works?
When writing the services pages, I continued these themes. By combining the benefits of their products and services with the storytelling we began earlier on in their copy, the final product flows. Cohesive and concise storytelling creates connection. Buying is an emotional response. Tell a story and people will listen.
When writing your sales page, maybe you have a road trip theme going on to guide the reader through the high-level overview of the transformation they will experience when they work with you. You could use road trip references throughout the sales page, like: map, directions, routes, winding roads, etc. People resonate with this type of creative storytelling technique.
Step 3: Speak to your ideal client
If you want to write a good sales page, you need to write copy that speaks to your idea client. We do this in a few ways.
First, you want to develop a brand voice that is consistent, unique and resonates with your dream clients. This is something I teach, or private clients hire me to create for them. It’s such a collaborative and creative part of my process—I absolutely love it!
Next, you want to specifically reference your ideal client’s pain points within your sales page. Use their words to describe the problems they have and talk about what the results will look like if they choose to work with you. In order to write a good sales page, you need to think of this ideal client at all times while writing. They should be top of mind—you should know this fictional avatar inside and out.
A lot goes into developing a brand voice. There’s personality, style, and tone. I wrote a blog post a while ago about setting the tone with your copy. Basically, you need to use language that is appropriate for your reader. It needs to be accessible, interesting, and concise all at once. Keep this in mind when writing your features, benefits, unique selling points, and ultimately, your story!
Learn to write copy that converts
There is so much more to this that it’s impossible to summarize in a single blog post. We haven’t talked about the length of a good sales page, how to write effective headlines, formatting best practices for the web, strategic testimonials, calls to action—all that fun stuff that should be included in your sales pages.
It’s difficult to outline this in a single blog post, but I thought this top layer was a good place to start. If you want to keep learning how to write copy that converts, check out the 4 Steps to Profit course. It’s a 4-day mini course to help you gain copywriting confidence, attract dream leads, and grow your business online.
Please let me know if you have any questions, need more details or clarifications! Leave a comment below or send me an email. As always, I’m here to chat.
