First up, stop thinking of your sales page as a sales page. Start thinking about your sales page as a celebrity. Imagine your sales page is Ryan Gosling. Not only is he a total fox but he’s also just an excellent guy as well. Gosling's got that thing. Have you ever seen him on the big screen and thought 'I want to please you... would you like a snack?'. There's no official data to support this claim, but most people (men included) feel that way about Ryan Gosling.

That’s what you want your sales page to be. Sparkly, fascinating and genuinely desirable.

So when you’re writing your copy, ask yourself… What does Ryan Gosling have that my sale page doesn’t?

1. Make your copy the queen bee

Let’s just be up front here. No likes writing copy. Especially entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, it’s the copy that’s going to make people whip out their credit cards, so you need to get over that hump and start showing your copy the love it deserves. All it wants is the occasional dinner out and for you to listen to it once in a while, is that too much to ask?

Here some examples of sales pages with excellent copy:

Write Your Own Sales Page

Go To Skin Care

Melyssa Griffin

As you can see, all of these businesses are very different, but the sales page copy is on point for all them. They know their target audience, and carefully crafted copy is aimed directly for their peepers. It’s all that lovely stuff that gets customers jabbing at the buy button like it’s half price Nutella.

2. Don’t make people work to find the opt-in fields

It’s already hard enough getting people to sign up to your newsletter without making them go an extra step to find the opt-in fields. It’s kind of like having a shop but not putting a sign out the front. Why would you do that? You wouldn’t, so don’t do it on your site.

Have your opt-in fields visible without making your potential customer click through to find it. If they have a dodgy internet connection, it could take a few seconds to load the next page, and they’ll probably get bored and click away. Humans have very short attention spans (SQUIRREL!!!), and it’s not worth testing that theory when they’re hovering over your opt it.

3. Seduce your customers with your call to action button

Can I share some really dull words with you?

‘Download’

‘Subscribe’

‘Golf’

Two of these words appear consistently on opt-in buttons, and they’re a total yawn fest. This is another time where copy becomes extremely important on your sales page. Don’t default to the words everyone else uses, be an independent thinker and come with your own breathtaking, must-click-that-button copy.

Above is one of my all-time favourite email sign up forms from StudioDIY. Mean Girls quote? Tick. Cute design on the pop-up? Tick. Avocado cameo? Tick. Visible opt-in field? Tick. I’m in.

4. Get yourself some testimonials

Most people buy things because their friends tell them to buy things. When a potential customer reaches your sale page through SEO search, they have no idea if you’re legit or not. If they’re interested in buying your product, they’ll want to do some sleuthing and testimonials are an excellent way to prove you’re not some weird dude sitting in his parent’s basement with his face buried in a gallon sized cup of soft drink, trying to scam people on the internet.

If you can get testimonials from influential people in your industry, that’s even better. If you’re looking for a graphic designer, you’re more likely to use one that’s worked with people you’ve heard of or at least a company where you can click on the link and check out their work.

5. Add some urgency

Have you ever been to Aldi when they have sales for coveted items like Dyson vacuum cleaners or wetsuits? It’s absolute mayhem. Buyers wait outside until the store opens and then they shove people out of the way trying to get to the XL Gortex snow jackets before someone else snags them.

Urgency creates panic and panic makes people lay down their plastic.

Timers add an extra incentive for people to join your course because they don’t want to miss out on it. Increasing the price after a certain amount of time is also a great tactic. For example when photographer Peter Lik releases a print, every time someone buys that edition it increases in price. The urgency causes people who want to buy it at a lower price to buy it quickly, but as this is happening it also increases the value of the print. Lik managed to auction a copy for $15,000 using this method.

Isn’t that genius? I mean he’s really not making himself too many friends in the photography world and his prints have almost zero resale value, but he’s busy counting his millions to care about it too much.

6. Take the time to make a demo video

Demo videos are a crazy easy way to give your sales page that professional polish that has customers screaming ‘Shut up and take my money!’.

One of my favourites is Emma Kate Co.

Don’t you just want to follow her around the world, write in beautiful journals and be a peaceful, serene human like her? Although Emma Kate’s copy is 100% perfect for her brand, there’s just something in that video that captures the true essence of the brand and the gal behind the brand It also makes me buy five greeting cards to send to all the people I love because her whimsical video made me. Sigh.

7. Consider adding a quiz

Hot tip: Everyone loves self-discovery. As much as people pretend to hate labels, we all secretly love them. That’s why star signs are so popular. We love to divide ourselves into little groups and feel like we relate and belong to those groups.

Think about Cosmo quizzes in magazines. Didn’t you just love finding out that your style is Modern Classic? Or that due to your artistic nature your should pursue a career in a creative industry? Or how cats are your ultimate pet because you’re independent and secretly hate everyone?

If you give your potential customers an insight into the type of person they are, it puts you in a position of authority and with that authority comes trust and loyalty. Did you know that Starbucks invented that incredibly detailed, complicated and customisable ordering system to make their consumers feel special? By the time you’ve nailed your Starbucks order, ‘I’ll have a small, venti, no-sugar, Vanilla latte with no lid.’ you pretty much can’t order coffee anywhere else. Mind. Blown. Quizzes will have the same effect on your customers; once you label them, they’ll be all over you like Kayne is all over himself.

Hot tip: You can use quizzes to funnel customers towards different offerings. For example, if you offer a fashion course you can use a questionnaire to funnel your customers into body shape, height or size categories for customised course content.

8. Get your potential customers excited

Think about the last time you got excited about a product? Why did it excite you?

Spoiler alert: It solved a problem you had.

Pinpoint the problems your potential customers have and solve it for them. Get them so excited they feel like they might pee on the floor. Good copy can make customers do this. Well, maybe not pee on the floor but who knows, perhaps it's happened before. If someone is looking for a singing course, they’ll Google ‘Online singing course’, and Google will serve them up with thousands of online singing course. One of them will have Christina Aguilera as the teacher. For real, it's a thing. As far as the customer is concerned, they’re all the same, so you need to use your copy to make the customer choose YOUR course over Christina Aguilera.

9. Tell a story

Customers love to get to know the people in whom they're investing. Why do you think the Kardashians are so famous? People have been watching them for years on their show, so they trust their recommendations. When you include your customers in your story, you’re inviting them to invest in you, not just your product. Stories give you an edge because most industries are pretty crowded and you need to stand out. Are you going to be the business owner with the stuffy, boring website or the sparkly entrepreneur that everyone loves and adores? It’s all in the story. You don’t even have to share personal details, just give away a few bits pieces about yourself, so you stick in your potential customer's minds long after they visit your site.

P.S. If you suspect that your online ‘digs’ need some TLC, check out our fancy-pants portfolio.

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