Product Creator Jumpstart Workshop

Product Creator Jumpstart Workshop Session Three: Sales Page Tactics

Purpose of Sales Pages • Sales pages are basically your 24/7 sales person there to do their best at turning a prospect into a buyer all day, every day, so it’s important they are done right. • It’s job is to somehow overcome everyone's natural objections that reaches that page and properly persuade that person that the product can and will solve their problem. • Moreover, to somehow pinpoint the people that need this product, remind them of the problems they are facing, and to convince them they need to solve them now by taking action and getting this product.

How Exactly is it Done? • The goal of a sales page is to get people to keep reading just a little bit more and is generally formatted for double-readership so that people can also just skim it and get the highlights as well. • Sales letters (or videos) basically take the reader through a series of steps that aim to overcome peoples objections one-by-one in a logical order to be able to hopefully convince them to buy and buy now. • Sales pages usually aren’t just written from a blank page, there’s a general formula that is followed and even the experts often use templates or swipe copy and just adapt it to fit the product and audience.

Objections to Overcome • Overcoming them is not always an easy task because there are many objections that people may naturally have like: • We don’t understand their problem • The product is to advanced for them or they don’t understand the benefit • They don’t think we’re qualified to solve their problem • They don’t trust us • It’s not urgent enough to address it now • It won’t work for them or they aren’t special enough to get the same results • What if it sucks and is a waste of money • It’s too expensive they can’t afford it right now • They don’t trust in themselves that they will actually use the product even if it is good

Element’s of the Formula • Some, all or a combination of these elements in a similar order: • Getting the readers attention • Introduce yourself and weaving persona into the story and connecting with the audience • Identifying and agitating the problem • Sharing the solution • Showing your credentials • Show how the reader will benefit and paint the dream • Remove doubt with social proof • Introduce your product or offer • Inject scarcity • Give a guarantee • Call to action • Give a warning and/or a p.s. statement of guarantee

It all Starts With the Headline! • Pre-headline – to call out the main problem the reader is suffering that the product is supposed to solve. (are you sick of ____?) • Or can on a squeeze page or something it can introduce what they will get like (Free video reveals…) • If you care about refund rates it will serve as a way of screening the prospect so people not interested will simply move along.

Headline Strategies (Cont…) • Main headline will state the main benefit • Best approach is to follow a proven formula for creating compelling headlines… • Formula is (big benefit + relatively short timeframe + distinct approach) • Sample: “Setup Amazing Membership Sites in Less Than a Day, With No Coding, No HTML Skills and No Problems!” • Or “Discover How This Technophobe Created a Legit $100,000 a Year Online Business in Less Than 6 Months, With Nothing but an Old Crusty Laptop and a Raggedy Set of Headphones!”

Headline Strategies (Cont…) • Another thing to remember is that people are driven by fear more than gain, people love secrets, and people love to be told how to do things… • Some short headlines that can be used to play off of that would be Warning: Don’t you dare__until you’ve__!! Or Discover Insider Secrets of ___ Here!! Or just a General “How to____ in 3 Easy Steps!” • Sub-headline – a small additional benefit • “and how you too can fire your crappy boss for good!” • Or – “how you too can build kickass websites your customers will beg for!”

Human Motivators 1. Self-esteem 2. Relatedness 3. Autonomy 4. Competence • To be wealthy • To be good looking • To be healthy • To be popular • To have security • To achieve inner peace • To have free time • To have fun

Structure of a Sales Page • Grab attention with headline! • Next step can be an introduction to yourself and story if it fits the product and audience. It’s beneficial to relate to your audience and begin the story. (People remember stories!) • Could have a picture and say, Hi my name is John Zapata and I’m relatively new to selling information on “how to make money online”, I used to be a “struggling whatever…”. However, now I’m really good at it, but trust me, I struggled at first…Let me know if this sounds familiar…(and then go on to describe the problem very well hopefully better than they can, give the assumption you know the answer.)

Relating to Your Audience • Next start to really hone in on the pain points of the issue and let the agitation begin! • For an making money type product, you’ll obviously be wanting to talk about how much the daily grind or rat race just sucks… • “Getting cut off by that inconsiderate driver every morning in traffic” • “Getting grilled by your 4 different bosses every morning before you can even take your first sip of coffee” • “Sitting in that windowless cubical under the dull florescent lighting all day long while others are out enjoying the beautiful weather” • Just whatever it is aggravates the hell out of you, will likely be the same for your audience…Spend some time thinking about it and really listen to what people complain about, you’ll get plenty of ideas! • Really work on imagining what their day is like and things that may keep them up at night and make it known you used to be just like them…

Introducing the Solution • You were just like them, until by this incredible stroke of dumb-ass luck you discovered this amazing thing that changed everything! (Hypey version, we’ve all seen…) • But really you just want to now introduce the idea or method, or inspiration you figured out that has led you to be where you are which can be their future and is basically your exact past. • Them finding your sales page now becomes their stroke of luck or whatever that will bring them to where you are now. • Talk about the benefits that you have received since this big problem has been solved.

An Alternate Approach • The problem may also be a third persons problem that you’re connected with (something your friend was going through) • Also, I do want to mention that another popular method is to state and agitate the problem first and then introduce yourself and present the solution. • It may just depend on the product and if you’re trying to speak to an audience that already knows you or not like they might in the WF. • Check this link for an example I found that basically goes straight from problem to solution: • http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-special-offers-forum/566836-fb-timeline-ignition-closing-march-31st-warrior-special-offer-day-hurry.html#1

Giving Credentials • This is where you basically will show anything you have to prove what you are talking about is true or showing that you’re qualified to be speaking on the subject or that your product does what it says it does… • So it could be income proof in any format, before and after pictures, a picture of your degree or certification on the subject, a demonstration if it’s software, a tour of the site, anything you can muster up to show there is reason to believe you can be trusted and the more the better!

Benefits NOT Features! • People don’t give a damn about you! • It’s all about how will they benefit from your product, how will it solve a problem they have. • Make sure you’ve figured out all the obvious and less obvious benefits and worked them into your copy. • In a nutshell, build strong emotional desire for the benefits of each main feature of your product.

Benefits Not Features (Cont…) • So now you can start making a list of the features AND the benefits so that way you can clearly differentiate the two and not accidentally mix them up. • An example is that car air conditioning you don’t advertise that it will blow hot or cold air out of the vents, you say it will keep you and your family from dripping sweat or freezing while you’re driving and keep your kids from complaining they are too hot or cold the entire trip. • You can get creative with the benefits too.

Social Proof • Next, you need to start thinking about adding another layer of reassurance that you’re not just blowing smoke and what you are claiming is true is true. • If the person is still reading or watching at this stage, the chances are getting good, that they would really love for you to be able to give just a little more reassurance and really want you to be telling the truth and have the answer to their problem.

Social Proof (Cont…) • We’ve all seen them, so it’s up to us to find our own way of getting social proof. • If it’s brand new product, then you have to give some review copies out or freebies in exchange for some feedback. • The more detailed the better, so if you can get a picture, name and city info that is usually good enough. • In the WF, linking to posts or copying PMs or emails is frequently used and usually good enough.

Presenting Your Offer • This is where your goal is to make the reader think they would be a damn fool to not take advantage of your offer right now. • This is where you’ll be revealing everything you have to offer in exchange for their money. • This should and will usually be a combo of a very reasonable price, bonuses or free gifts or anything else you can use to sweeten the deal!

Presenting Your Offer (Cont…) • A good offer is especially important if your not sure if your copy is the best it could be… • Make sure you go into enough but not too much detail to describe the bonuses or free gifts as well so the reader understands how they benefit them and will add value to the product. • And basically a bonus or free gift should just be something that naturally complements the product from a slightly different angle, but it could really be anything else that someone would find useful in that niche.

Giving Your Guarantee • This is the crucial stage of taking out the risk objection out of the picture by stating your solid however many day guarantee! • If you believe in your product than you can give as long of a guarantee as you want. Even a full year if you want because chances are if someone is going to ask for a refund they will do it PDQ. • Just make sure your payment processor isn’t going to view that as a risk i.e. Paypal…the longer you’re customer is able to ask for a refund for a product, the more Paypal is going to be concerned about the balance in your account to cover those potential refunds…

Giving Your Guarantee (Cont…) • You should include some kind of guarantee box with an good guarantee explanation. • Checkout http://freegraphiccreator.com to be able to create good ones for free. (don’t know the site owner and you can probably find the same tool elsewhere…) • And if you’re offer is REALLY good, you might even want to justify it a little bit to knock out the “it’s too good to be true” objection as well.

Time to Inject Scarcity • So once you’ve sucked in your audience, related to them, reminded them of and described their problem better than they can, introduced the solution, showed credentials, described all the benefits, the features of your product gives, presented your awesome offer and then gave your risk-free guarantee…yes, it’s time to inject some scarcity so they know they need to act NOW!

Time to Inject Scarcity (Cont…) • The reason you want people to act now is because if they don’t they may never act on it for several reasons. • The problem just might not be big or agitated enough for them to be really motivated to come back to act on it. • They aren’t convinced your offer is worth the price. • They might be scatter-brained and forget, or just too damn lazy to deal with it…

Time to Inject Scarcity (Cont…) • So there are several good ways to add that little extra motivation of the fear of losing something which we know is VERY powerful. • So a very common way is to have a time limit to it, such as a discount only for a short amount of time, only being offered for a certain amount of time period, or limited to a specific amount available for sale. Or you can even just offer a set of bonuses or a trial period or anything along those lines for a specific period of time. • Last thing on that, is just DO NOT BE FAKE for obvious reasons…at least if you want any repeat customers and a lower refund rate…

Call to Actions • A call to action needs to be very obvious for those who see it and are interested. • We’ve all see the big red arrows and the definite statements requesting the reader to “Click the buy button NOW!” • A call to action isn’t an exact science in terms of where to put it and it may be niche dependant…for ex. the IM niche is used to seeing internet sales pages so if they become interested they will quickly scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the offer and what the price is so one at the bottom may be sufficient. • Other niches you may need to experiment with placement or strategically place them throughout your sales page.

Warnings and P.S Reminders • After your call to action, there’s just a couple final steps and that’s to give any final warnings and some reminders to play up the fear of loss one more time and re-knock out any objections. • “Please don’t continue to struggle with…and take advantage while you still can!” “don’t stay stuck doing…” and so on. Whatever the problem will continue to be if they don’t buy right now. • As for the P.S statements, they can also be another form of a reminder or how great your offer is, or the element of scarcity. That is why it’s not uncommon to see more than one P.S reminder. They are also a great place to include another call to action in the form of a clickable link.

And That’s It! • But before I go, I just want to mention a few additional things that will help you out. • If you’re not naturally a great writer, or even if you are, it always makes sense to not reinvent the wheel and take advantage of other peoples time and money spent on good sales copy! Now that you understand the structure and strategy of sales letters, create a swipe file and never lose it. Just start paying close attention to what sales letters or emails draw you in and then take a few moments to think about why. Take whatever it was that resonated with you and copy it into a file along with any other notes that will be helpful to you later.

And That’s It! (Cont…) • And that includes everything, so don’t forget about squeeze pages, or headlines or whatever, just start paying attention and swipe what you like. • Just make sure you change it up and conform it for you, don’t ever just use the exact same thing for sales copy at least…a headline or email subject line you may get away with, but the point is you really need the swipe file for ideas and inspiration and then you can come up with your own twists on those things. • Remember to really analyze and get a great image of who your customer is so that way you can really agitate the problem and hit the emotional buttons correctly.

And That’s It! (Cont…) • Make sure you reread your letter a day or two later after you write it. Any time you just get done creating copy or doing anything for that matter you are much less likely to catch mistakes or get an objective look at it right after you just wrote it so give it a little time to leave your brain and then reintroduce it. • Lastly, your goal for the sales letter or video is just to be able to tell your or “the” story if there is one, but also just state your case and hit all the components necessary. So the bottom line is, it will vary for every product, just try and get everything in there. It will be quick for some products and take a lot longer for others so try and keep that in mind. Get as much feedback as you need if you’re not sure or try to find someone who has a similar successful product and see how long their letter is and what components they included.

Your Homework!! • If you choose to accept it…and you better! • Take a few minutes if you haven't already and try and memorize the different components to the sales page or video that I introduced and also the human motivators. • If you already have a product idea go back and make sure you’ve identified the biggest benefits and smaller ones as well.

Your Homework!! (Cont…)

Product Creator Jumpstart Workshop