Sales page writing is an art, but before you write your sales page you need to know the three steps to successful online marketing:
1. Getting people to your blog or website.
2. Keeping them there.
3. Converting them into subscribers or paying clients on your sales page.
You're probably familiar with those steps but do you actually focus on them, check your site statistics and make changes to increase your conversion rates and improve your sales pages?
Maybe not. It's human nature to want to rush straight to step three and sell stuff on a sales page but you have to take care of steps one and two first.
Even if you have a million unique visitors to your blog each month, it's no use unless they stick around. If visitors leave too soon they'll never see your sales page.
And if people don't stick around and then subscribe to your mailing list or buy your products, your blog or website is failing.
I'd prefer to have less visitors and a higher conversion rate on my sales page than millions of site visitors who never come back or buy anything.
Keeping Site Visitors On Your Blog
Let's assume that you have people visiting your website. So far so good. But now your challenge it to keep them there and build their trust so they subscribe or buy your products whether they visit your sales page or not.
If you want people to stick around you have to have a professional, user-friendly website, not just a long, carefully worded sales page.
No one has time to trawl through endless text to find out what they're looking for.
So you need to know exactly who your ideal client is and what they're looking for, then show them straight away that you have the solution to their problems and you're a trustworthy provider.
If you're confident you're doing that then you're ready to move on to step three.
Converting Blog Visitors into Customers Doesn't Just Happen on a Sales Page
To increase blog or website conversion rates you need to know:
1. Which pages on your website or blog are the most popular – and that they probably aren't your sales page.
2. What information people are looking for.
These two things are linked because once you know which pages are the most visited pages on your website you can tweak those pages to let new visitors instantly know they're in the right place. Then you can turn them into sales pages.
Which Page on Your Blog is Most Visited?
Apart from the home page, the about page is one of the most popular pages on both my blogs, not the sales pages for my blogging book or blog design packages.
It makes sense. Anyone who gets to your website and thinks you have the information they need will want to check your credentials. They want to know that you're a true expert, an established business owner and a trustworthy person before they think about buying your products and check out the sales page.
Of course your about page can reassure your readers that you're credible but don't just use your about page to talk about yourself. Use it to talk about your readers and to create a sales page they'll enjoy reading.
How to Turn Your About Page into a Sales Page
Optimise your about page for conversions by rewriting it to show new readers:
1. Who you help – So they know they're in the right place.
2. What benefits you offer them – So they want to stick around to get those benefits.
3. What they need to do next – So they take action and change from being casual visitors into active subscribers or customers.
Here are some examples to give you an idea of what you need to write.
1. Who you help
For example, if you know busy parents visit your website because they want insurance advice make that clear on your about page.
Speak to your audience directly and appeal to their needs with an opening line on your about page like:
We help busy parents get the best insurance advice for their home, car and family.
2. What benefits you offer
Follow up with the benefits you offer them:
We'll give you:
- Weekly tips on the dos and don't of choosing an insurance company and policy.
- Clear advice on how to pick the right policy for you.
- Case-studies of other families like yours.
3. What they need to do next
This is where you quietly create a sales page.
End with a call to action telling your readers exactly what you want them to do such as:
“To save money and make sure you've got the right protection get our free weekly newsletter.
Click here to sign up now.”
You can even embed the sign up form into your about page.
Give them reasons why they should act now such as:
“We'll send you a 10 point check list to help you get started and answer all your questions.”
And use social proof such as testimonials like the one below to convince them to join the crowd.
“Your advice saved me hundreds of dollars. Thank you so much!”
Annabel Candy, Australia
That's how you can turn your about page into your most powerful sales page yet.
So when is a sales page not a sales page?
A sales page not a sales page when it's an about page.
No one likes to be sold to so people will avoid your sales page unless they're already on the verge of buying.
Use your about page as your secret weapon to sell your business and your products to new visitors.
It's one of the most visited pages on your blog so use it wisely. Make your about page your best selling sales page ever.
Take Action to Improve Your About Page and Make it a Sales Page Too
Have a careful look at your about page and experiment with changing the images and words to improve the conversion rate and turn it into a successful sales page.
Now have a look at your site statisitics to see which are the other most popular pages on your blog. Usually it will be those pages that rank well with the search engines and the main sections of your blog linked to from the top navigation bar. Make sure those pages are also optimised for conversion and act as soft sales pages.
Which pages on your blog can you turn into sales pages?
Actually, I’ve no worries about sales page because, I don’t have any thing that I wanted to sale currently. Will try out your tips when I’ll need them.
BTW, I’ve never been to your blog ‘Successful Blogging’, and extremely willing to check that out. But, unfortunately it is running here (I’m from Pakistan). I don’t know the problem, but getting an error when trying to visit it. Hope you’ll do something for me to let me check out the best stuff your blog contains. Waiting for your help.. And eagerly waiting to read and check out your blog.
Thanks!
Totally agree – Converting Blog Visitors into Customers Doesn’t Just Happen on a Sales Page
You should setup separate opt-ins and use a tracking metric so you can see which performs the best.
@Mairaj: You tried using a proxy?
Hi Mairaj,
Have just woken up so not sure why the blog was down. Hopefully you can see it now:)
If you don’t have anything to sell remember you are still selling your blog and should be aiming to build that email list and get people to subscribe.
@Simmeon: I actually don’t know the use of Proxy! So…
And Ms. Really, was your blog down for everyone? Or, I had just that bad luck?
I’m now able to access it and exploring more interesting stuff.. But let me know the answer of question that I’ve asked above.
I am moving my host from a shared to dedicated server to meet demand but it’s causing a lot of problems and would have to happen when all you lovely BBT readers are trying to check me out.
It’s fine now but it is up and down. My husband and tech hero is working on it, please bear with me:)
Sorry to say, but I’ve not been having access to it since, I got to check out the list where you’re there in top 10 list! More than 3 months! 😉 🙁
Totally agree with this. By putting blog readers first, you will undestand what is it they really want and what problems are needed to be solved. This willl give new ideas and maybe even better ideas that we can come up with.
Hey Anabell!
Cool to see you here! I also find that my about page is really popular and it’s also a solid source of subscribers. I have two forms on there, but I can definitely improve the flow of the page.
It’s nothing fancy right now but I am working to keep my new subscriber conversions above 10% for each of my blog pages which is about where I am at right now.
My main goal is to have visitors subscribe to my blog and it’s going well. It’s all about testing and tracking everything! I use Google Analytics to see where subscribers come from.
Thanks,
-Gabe
Hi Gabe,
Great to see you here too. It sounds as if you’re doing all the right things by setting goals and tracking results. Well done.
Pretty smart:-) Its time i take action and do something with my own about page… actually i dont even have one! I guess it’s possible to take this advice and turn some of the other “permanent pages” like the disclaimer and terms into a sales page as well.
Hi Rick,
No about page?! Yes, you need to set one up including your photo. The disclaimer and terms page probably don’t get much traffic but it does make sense to try to convert people there too.
Thank you for the tips, must work on that about me page more. You gave me some good ideas.
Hi Lisa,
That’s excellent:)
I guess my issue would be getting them to the page before I can even get them to possibly buy anything. But thanks to this post I have some really good ideas on what to do once my visitor count is up.
Thanks!
Hi Joe,
If people arrive on your blog, like what they see and read and are thinking of subscribing they will check out your about page first. If they’re not looking at it that maybe because the design or content isn’t what they wanted.
Great post…
Another good place to sell people is a “Start Here” page… I get quite a bit of traffic to this page…
Thanks!!
Hi Ryan,
That’s a great addition and very smart thank you for adding it:)
being social will sky rocket your sales as your friends will help you get you more sales by recommending it to your friends and another thing is adding too much stuff which will drive their attention away from reading about the product which you are trying to sell.
Great post annabell , great tips to be noticed here.
Hi Saad,
Great point. Being social and networking always helps. Those people will be reading your about page too so even if they don’t need the product themselves it helps them to know you have it so they can recommend it to others.
Work on sale page must be in such a way that your visitor become a customer for ever and this be returning customer.
Hi Azam,
That is true:)
Hi Azam.
That is so true:)
Great steps to take when creating your action pages. And a great idea regarding the about page too – thanks.
Hi Annabel,
Thanks for the tips. I started promoting affiliate products a month ago and these tips are sure to help me. I have a question: Can we list more than one product on a sales page? I mean promoting more than one product of the same niche…..For example, ‘Mobile’ sales page will have trending mobiles.
Hi Nasser,
It’s normally best to focus on selling one thing at a time. I’d tend to link to other pages if you want to sell more specific things. For example, you could say don’t forget to check out my resources page and that page will have all your recommended affiliate products.
Thanks for the tip Annabel. Usually I create a review post about that product and link to my affiliate link of that product. I don’t have a separate page for the products. Do you think I should create one?
Hi Candy!
Great post and certainly all these things one can get after experimenting lots of different strategies and you have shared great advice.
Wow……… what else to say.
” Converting Blog Visitors into Customers Doesn’t Just Happen on a Sales Page ” is my favorite. I think your tips will surely help me in my marketing. Thanks.
Hi Vivek,
Glad that inspired you and I need to check out your Pinterest post. I’ve been playing around with it a lot lately.
I wish you will like it. But remember that pinterest may break down your server…. might be, since it brings more traffic than YouTube, twitter, Big G plus, Facebook and bla..bla..
Hi Anabel, as usual, a post full of actionable tips!
When I noticed my about page was getting hits everyday, I decided to treat it as a sales page and I added optin forms. Now on auto pilot it is converting more than almost all my sales pages in optins.
#TrueTalk
Hi Yeremi,
That’s great feedback:)
That can actually work Annabel 🙂
Glad to see your about page is one of the most visited pages on your blog.
For me, it isn’t. I am still fairly new, and this could change.
I will keep an eye on this article.
Hi Samuel,
That might be because the link to your about page is so much smaller and tucked away at the top of your blog than other links….
Great tips, I think emotional buttons, calls to action and outstanding headlines are the key. As well as an “irresistible offer” 🙂
Hi Mike,
I love headlines, they’re so much fun.
These are good information for anyone who wants to improves sales. I am pretty new to these area, but I have realized that we all need to diversify the areas from which we earn our living. I will make the changes to my about page and I hope I will see better results.
Hi Jack,
That sounds good, I hope it works for you.
Best wishes,
Annabel
Great tips.
I have been thinking a lot about rewriting my about page, and to focus on my readers and start creating trust from the very first paragraph. I have seen that one of my most visited pages is in fact the about page, and at the same time, it’s the page I have spent just a few minutes creating 🙂
You’ve got me thinking. Thanks 🙂
Hi Jean,
That’s good and an important point about building trust. You can’t get sales without trust.
Hi Annabel,
Yes – I do agree. Using your about pages or sections as an secret sales page is one of the best ways to keep exposing your product or service to the user. Having a well set up sales funnel and CTA’s in place is key to having a user stick around and not drop off your website or sales page, the longer they stay the better change they have of converting.
Hi Anton,
Re “the longer they stay the better change they have of converting.” This is very true.
Darn, this article really gave me some new ideas, on making “about page” to a sell page. Still, one need to be very careful not to mess up the aboutpage or the site will just look in-serious.
Hi Pressa,
You are right you need to be careful. Be subtle and soft, don’t push push push!
That’s a good tips and have learn one or two thing from the post. thanks for sharing
very well said, most of the time we try to directly sell it. You correctly pointed out that we need to first create an positive impression by improving our ‘About’ page so that visitor trust us. Once they trust us, sales will follow.
Hi Akhilendra,
Correct. Sales will only come once trust is built. Hopefully your about page can do both:)
Success comes from research and case studies in my opinion. One should experiment with layouts, pages, e.t.c to see what is converting best. If you are investing in advertising, you should try to maintain a good ROI by maintaining the conversion rate
Thanks for the great article
Hi Gautham,
Experimentation is always good:)
If I’m constructing a sales page, is it still okay to display advertisements in the sidebar? Thanks for the post, informative read.
Hi Alex,
That’s a good question and I haven’t thought about it before. Makes me want to do it though as I like the idea of readers being able to enjoy the about page without distractions.
Most long sales pages that I visit are usually trying to sell an ebook. With that said, I scroll to the end of the sales page for information on the price and free gifts. If the price is within my budget and what I’m willing to pay (I won’t pay a lot for an ebook), I’ll scroll back to the top. However, I hardly ever read an entire sales page that is long. Instead, I scan looking for the benefits. If the benefits get my attention, then I usually buy.
Hi David,
That shows how important it is to make our pages scannable:)
I have 2 about pages. One is about me personally. The other one is about what the reader can find on my blog. I’ve noticed that many visitors go to the one that is about me personally. Until I read your article here, I had been ranking my brain on what to do to get visitors over to my about my blog page. I have a call to action on both but it just makes sense that people would be more interested after reading about what they can find on my blog. I should have thought of it before but I guess I needed your article to get my mind going.
Hi Glynis,
Great, do share your personal info and stories too. After all, there may be a million web designers/accountants/writers but there is only one like you:)
Your post is absolutely agreeable, most of us donot even bother to work on the first two points but directly rush towards making sales, but to whom? We need to have a perfect traffic that is converting and to whom our stuff is visible so that they could buy and subscribe thereby increasing our profits.
Great point. Being social and networking always helps. Those people will be reading your about page too so even if they don’t need the product themselves it helps them to know you have it so they can recommend it to others.
Lots of people ignore the potential of the ‘About Us’ page on their sites. They are unaware of the fact that this page can serve as a really powerful sales page. Once people get to your site and like what you have to offer, they want to know who you actually are and why you are the right option to go for.
Thanks for the tips.
Awesome tips! I would have never thought about rewriting the second most visited page in a sales page. Annabel, you and Ileane really make a difference on blogosphere.
Thank you:) And thank you to Ileane for letting me hang out with you all here. It’s a great community.
My pleasure, Annabel. I should tell you that I also read your blogs, even if I don’t have time to leave a comment, I am a faithful reader 🙂
Hi Annabel,
It never came to my mind that an About Page could be used like a Sales Page. It really sounds a great idea and actually will also bring in a lot of subscribers but yes, we will certainly need to frame that page properly so that we are actually giving information and helping the reader but at the same time building new subscribers.
great site…. its help me a lot for gaining knowledge about blogging. and all the credits goes to author for this. thankyou
Turning our websites to sales pages would need a lot of brainstorming. A good marketing and advertising strategy can work well to influence visitiors to convert. People usually do not get ready to buy stuff so easily online and therefore the efforts that we put in should be very convincing.
The thing I still struggle with is balancing the need to make sales and develop my subscriber base with the very real need to not seem smarmy. You know, the whole “third tribe” thing. How do you balance those two seemingly conflicting goals?
Hi Craig, that is always a tricky one. I had to get over my fear of selling because it needs to be done. I think if you provide valuable information people won’t mind if you sell something every now and then. In fact I’ve been surprised by people thanking me for recommending certain affiliate products as they were confused and didn’t know what to choose!
Nice ideas I have never thought this kind of things I can not say I am have any kind of issue as for traffic and sales but this type of changes can bring more good changes and brings more costumers.
Thank you so much for the tips, must work on that about me page more .You gave me some good ideas please
Above three tips are most effective sales page writers, Someone write sales page who can apply these steps for write actractive details to the customer.
Great information in this post! You’ve given me some good ideas to improve my about page, which is probably the most neglected and underdeveloped area in my website and blog. Thanks for the tips!
I completely agree, offering someone a solution to what they are trying to solve is the main key to having a sales page. Just my opinion.
-Brad
Hi Annabel
This is a Excellent share. I know blogging is a must for business and as a business owner I know I have to get it done. At times writing can take up too much of my time. These are some great tips to better use my time when the writing does not come as natural.
Thanks for share it.
Hi Annabel
Awesome Summary with easy explanation All point of this article are valuable & useful. Whereas for the first, it is easy to elaborate and bring your point across, for a salespage, we have to filter down to the most eye-catching points to draw the attention of the reader.
i have been having a hard time getting my customers to convert and subscribe thanks for the article.