The 12 Steps of a Killer Sales Page

Actually this refers to any kind of communication where you need an end result.

Looking to convince your boss to give you a pay rise?
Want that holiday in Florida but the wife/husband is not so keen?
Need to convince a company to take your services?

On paper, on the phone, on TV or on the internet the emotions that generate the right human response to create an “acceptance” are all the same.

In the above respect, everyone is a potential customer and everyone will be reticent to buy your product or accept your proposal. Thoughts will be going through their minds like

• “I can’t afford it”
• “I don’t need it right now”
• “You don’t understand my problem”
• “What happens if I don’t like it”
• “How do I know you’re qualified”
• “I don’t believe you”
• “It won’t work for me”

The 12 steps of a killer sales letter are all designed to answer the customers questions, calm their fears, create an emotional situation where they are happy to buy.

Make no mistake about it. Most people buy based on emotion and NOT logic.
Say what? Not you, you always apply logic to your buying!

OK, does your car really need to have 180bhp to commute to work? That exercise bicycle that your shirts hang on? That doughnut at lunch time?
Get my point?

So the 12 steps are

• Get attention
• Identify the problem
• Provide the solution
• Present your credentials
• Show the benefits
• Give social proof
• Make your offer
• Inject scarcity
• Give a guarantee
• Call to action
• Give a warning
• Close with a reminder

The sales letter should grab immediate attention by hitting emotionality buttons and continue to pull your prospective customer through the sales letter adding more and more emotion as it heads to it’s conclusion. Eventually closing the sale right her and then.

Never let a prospect “come back later” because they probably won’t.

So Briefly……

Get Attention

Use eye popping and heart stopping headline. Make sure you get them aboard in that crucial 6 seconds.
That means visually good as well as good words. See end of this post for free headline graphic creator.

Want a system that will make you a lot of money? –rubbish
You Need the System That Made Me $14,263.76 In One Weekend – much better
3 Tiny Steps That Made Me $14,263.76 Overnight – even better

Identify the Problem

To sell something you need to convince your prospect that they have a problem and you will fix it. That problem needs to be a BIG problem.

If you were selling life insurance for example you would not say “you don’t have life insurance”. That’s not a major problem. It doesn’t show the effect of the problem.

You would say something like “Your family could be left homeless if you aren’t properly insured”. Then you would agitate the problem. “Your kids will have to drop out of college and would end up never having a decent job”. Your grand children…

well you see where I’m going and why I never became an insurance salesman

Provide the Solution

But hey, miracle upon miracle, you have a fantastic solution. Just headline what that solution is at this point and tell them there worries are over.

Present your credentials

this bit is where you ensure that the potential customer knows you are the expert. Or have access to the experts, or are being backed by the right people. Tell them how you made this work for others. What great results you have had or even just how qualified you are. Basically anything that will prove to them that you are the person to listen to and trust in this endeavour.

Show the Benefits

This one that many people get wrong. There is much confusion between “benefits” and “features”. At his point we DO Not want features.

Features are what stuff does.
Benefits are what stuff does for us.

All round, hyper fast inflating, super protection air bags fitted to all models… is a feature
You crash, you won’t die .. is a benefit!

Try listing all the feature and turning then into benefits.

Did you ever see a beer commercial that said it tastes nice? No, it makes you cool, it makes you smart, it makes you attractive to the opposite sex, it makes you forget the daily drudge. Those are benefits (in a sales sense!)

Bullet points are great for this

Give Social Proof

Social proof is very powerful. Basically if you can see that others have already gained the benefit of a product then you will be much more likely to buy. Who wants to be the first to try something untested right?
This usually means testimonial from happy customers.

Word of warning. If you don’t have any do not make them up, do not pay someone on fiverr to create them, do not borrow somebody else’s. Firstly when you get caught out it will destroy your reputation and your business. Secondly Clickbank and others are now clamping down heavily on many dodgy practices and this is one of them.
If you don’t have testimonial just don’t put them in. Just make sure the other 11 steps are covered. Once you sell a few things you will get testimonials.

Make Your Offer

Now it’s time to get down to price. Not just price though but VALUE.  Thoroughly explain everything you are offering and put a value on each part. Grow the value of your product. Add bonus items if you want to increase value.

The idea is to show a huge value for the total package/product and that your price is steal. You can’t just make this stuff up though. You can’t say that it was $500 and your are selling cheap at $50. If it never sold at $500 then that is fraudulent.

Inject Scarcity

This has been the mainstay of many a sales letter in the IM world for some time. It’s almost a joke now. In fact false scarcity will actually get you into trouble with the Clickbank and the others.

Yes, use scarcity but it must be genuine. If you say 100 copies only then you had better be sure that is all you will sell. This works well for some products like PLR for example where selling only a few copies will actually make them more valuable and you can charge a higher price.

If you want to sell as many copies as possible though then try limiting your bonuses. Say bonus items for first 50 customers only.

Give a Guarantee

Should go without saying but many people still argue over refunding money to unhappy customers. Yes you may get ripped off by a few that simply buy and refund but they are few and far between. Fact is that if they are unhappy customers then a fast refund may get them back on side and confident enough to buy your next product. If they are scammers , well why would you want them as customers.

So money back NQA guarantee of at least 30 or 60 days

Call to Action

Based on the assumption that your potential buyer could still be hesitating tell them exactly what to do. Do not leave them to make any decisions themselves.
So Click that buy button below. Fill ion your email address here – or whatever it is you want them to do. Tell the exactly.

Give a Warning

For those that may still be hesitating add a warning. What would be the outcome if they don’t buy?. Think about the benefits. They would have none of those. So tell them straight.

Close with a Reminder

Finalise with a summary. A key benefit, How valuable your offer is, Your guarantee, how to pay and any other key notes.

A few More Tips

Make your sales copy easy to understand. Aim at making it readable by the average 10 year old. Keep your sentences short and avoid lots of long, high falutin’ words.

Don’t make it just one dense lump of text. Break it into regular paragraphs. Add clean graphics. Ensure plenty of “whitespace”. Don’t scare off your customers with a complex read.

Sure expert copywriters get paid a lot of money and can produce some great sales copy. If you are starting out it’s unlikely you can afford one. If you can ,you have to ask yourself if they are any good!

However by following the formula above you can consistently write pretty good sales copy that will convert your product. Yes, you still need good products but who will know unless you sell a few?

So not having a good sales page IS NOT a reason for holding back. Don’t let it be your stumbling block. Use the 12 steps above, create your own copy and go for it.

To help with the graphics that can really make your page look professional I have put together a sales graphics creator. Its completely free for you to use and simple as pie. Type the text you want. A few clicks of the mouse to make stunning headlines, payment buttons, guarantee certificates etc. No Photoshop or design skills needed. It really is that easy.

There is also a video tutorial (though probably not needed)

Click Access The Online Graphics Creator