A lead usually comes from a referral. The referral could be weak or strong, but both can be very powerful if you have a solid system in place.
It could start with a friend named Tina referring her friend Stacy, who then of course goes to your website. If Stacy doesn’t feel engaged or comfortable right away, she’ll click away and probably never come back.
That’s it. Stacy either is intrigued by what you have to say or she isn’t.
There are ways to create a services page that engages and entices people and to avoid common “mistakes” that turn people off from buying from you.
Something I’ve Discovered
Over time, as I’ve worked with clients and their web sales pages, I’ve begun to see a pattern. For example, let me tell you about a client named Carol.Carol is a hard-working editor who struggled to get clients steadily coming to her. She cared about her clients, always met her deadlines, and did fantastic work. Yet there was a disconnect at some point in the sales funnel that she couldn’t figure out and change to her advantage.
She noticed that when it did rain, it poured. She either had too many clients or not enough. When she had too many clients a lot of them weren’t very good clients. But she took the jobs anyway because work had been slow.
She thought her sales page might not be effective, so she came to me.
We started off by looking at her website and I noticed 3 problems right away.
- The website started off by telling potential clients how much she would charge. (Price or fees should be last, because you have to convince them why she (or you) is worth it first.)
- She didn’t explain the benefits of hiring her.
- She lacked a powerful call to action with an easy way to contact her.
These kinds of mistakes are very easy to make. Even simple spelling errors on your sales page can mean the difference between a sale or not because it signals to a potential client that you don’t pay attention to details.
It’s hard to write and design your own sales page because you are so close to your business. You know the great value that you deliver, but explaining it is a whole different story.
So, over the years, I’ve designed a list of my top 10 rules to creating an engaging service page that converts potential prospects into customers. I’ll share it with you here, and I’ll give you examples and walk you step-by-step through your services page.
1. Create a Compelling Narrative
Some businesses tell a story about who they are and where they come from, while others weave a great story that sucks you in and convinces you to buy from them.
Can you see what Mark did so cleverly on his Heart of Business sales page?
He compliments you as he explains who he likes to work with and asks if you are a good fit for his services.
Then he begins to create his “ideal client” velvet rope:
Steering through and staying true to your heart often requires a few things.
As you begin to read through this
page, I’ll let you know that although I love working with clients, I can
only handle a very few.
That said, if you’re a perfect fit and I have an opening, I’d love to support you.
He gets you excited about the possibility of working together within the first few sentences. You can’t help but keep reading.Narrative Takeaway
Infuse Mark’s copywriting technique into your services page. For example, look at what past clients have said about their greatest struggles, ask your blog readers, Facebook followers and other outlets for feedback. Then use their language to help craft your narrative.
When you can create a services page that walks them through the process of how you work with clients, they’ll see for themselves whether they are a good fit for you. If they believe you can help them, you’ve already done the hard work and now you just need to close the sale.
2. Leverage Great Design to Build Trust
The most important aspect of people actually reaching out to you, giving you their information, and being responsive when you message or call them is TRUST. If they land on your website and they don’t feel like they can trust you, then they will never reach out or call you.
Peter Shallard’s client sales page is well-designed. You can see he put a lot of thought into who he is and what he offers. When you land on his site, you know he is serious about his business.
I have people who help me with designing my clients’ web sites, sales pages, and product launches. Design is not my superpower. Strategy is my USP that convinces people to buy from me. I know my superpower is understanding how a business owner can create a deeper connection with his/her audience.
Design Takeaway
When improving your design, you need to create emotional separation from it. If you can do this for yourself, that’s great. If not, I suggest bringing in an expert and have them look at your analytics and structure so they can give you tips on how to improve your conversion rate.
I know my strengths are marketing strategy and copywriting, so I have a team who help me design my sales pages and clients’ web sites, sales pages, and product launches. I also prefer a simple design to a cluttered one. I know what will work, but I’m not very good at creating the design itself.
If you believe in your idea and business never be afraid to hire someone you trust to help you convey your brand’s message.
3. Know Your Greatest Superpower (Your USP)
Your services page should focus on one major aspect of what you do well for your clients. I’ve reviewed services pages that give people 10 different options, and that is a huge mistake!When you give people too many choices, you stymie their ability to choose. Your Unique Selling Position (USP) allows you to leverage your superpower and build interest in what you do.
Take a look at your sales page and ask yourself if you have only one main offer with the rest supporting the main offer.
In my case, I offer product launch strategy and support, and with this service comes copywriting and structure for sales pages, product development, launch implementation, etc.
I’ve made the mistake of going too specialized. I thought I could create a business just around Twitter parties. I was wrong. When I expanded out my main offer, my business took off.
Superpower Takeaway
Your service page will work well when you focus on providing one service well. If you try to do too many things for too many people you aren’t going to attract your ideal people.
The key here is to test out your service page on people who would be your ideal client. Ask them what they think your main offer is and how they think you can help them.
4. Share Your Technique
Giving people advice that is valuable can be a little surprising to people. Many companies will hide their best information from you, so you have to hire them. When you show people that you are confident in your work, they will be drawn to you.It’s why I offer people a free product launch e-course when they sign-up for my newsletter updates. I know that they could probably use this information to make 10%-20% more money off their launch, but that’s ok. The people I want to be on my list and hire me will know that this is still a small percentage of everything I know. If they hire me, I could probably increase their sales by 30%-50%.
I tell people upfront the 3 biggest mistakes that they can make on their sales page free-of-charge. They might go back to their sales page and start working on these three mistakes, and that’s ok because they probably wouldn’t have hired me anyway. The people who do hire me know that I know my craft and I will help them increase their conversion rate and save them time and money.
I like to show people what they will get when they work with me. If they want to apply these free techniques to their sales page then I’ve done my job. I’ve earned a little bit of their trust. Eventually when they are ready to take their sales page or product launch to the next level I’ll be there to help them.
Sharing Takeaway
Show people that you aren’t afraid to share your expertise and help them see how valuable you can be to them. If you help people insulate their house, then explain the biggest energy drainers that most people miss. They might go to Home Depot and fix the issues themselves or they might not have the time or energy to do it. If you educated them and earned their trust, you will be the first company to come to mind when they are ready to invest in high quality insulation.
5. Be both Humble and Confident
Almost no one knows everything there is to know about their craft. In fact, my clients teach me new techniques and ideas all the time. When you work with someone, they need to know that you are willing to listen to their ideas and build on them. This humbleness is what will continue to help your business grow.Of course if you feel like a client has a weak idea, you must be willing to tell them why and give a very good explanation. This confidence will show them that you are also willing to help them avoid mistakes.
This concept took me awhile to learn. Initially, I acted more confident than I was and I didn’t listen very well to the good ideas that my clients presented to me. Over time, I brought humbleness and confidence to every interaction I have with my clients, and my business grew.
Confidence Takeaway
People want to see that you believe in yourself — that’s why testimonials are so powerful. When they see that you’ve helped other people, they believe you can help them. The key is to be humble with how you present yourself. If you go overboard with praise, people will tune you out and click away. Finding the right balance humility and confidence will attract your “ideal” people.
6. Describe Benefits Clearly
The list of features of your service is great, but it lacks an emotional connection. That’s why I teach all my clients to focus on benefits instead of features.The difference between the two are subtle, but critical. A feature is an aspect of what you deliver. A feature could be how your company is never late in meeting a deadline. That’s great, but what is the benefit to the buyer.
It’s better to say something like “When you work with me, I’ll always meet our deadline and keep your business on track”. It’s critical to build trust with your clients.
Benefits Takeaway
Look at what you offer and the benefit to your client. This is the type of copy you need to include on your services page. When you can paint the picture of how much better you’ll make their life, they will understand why they should hire you instead of your competitor.
7. Include Real Testimonials
I’ve seen so many services pages without testimonials. This still surprises me because testimonials are vital to proving the value you can provide potential buyers.The key is to put real testimonials that don’t over-hype your services. Over-hyped testimonials feel fake and disingenuous. In contrast, the best testimonials tell a story.
These three images over at Steve’s Rebel Fitness Guide tells a complete story in itself. Most businesses don’t have the luxury of having visual proof, so you will have to create a testimonial from your clients’ results. When you can back your work up with actual numbers from satisfied customers, that’s a story that will help sell your service.
Testimonial Takeaway
Use testimonials that tell a “before and after” story. Help your potential clients see how valuable your services are to people who are most like them. When you can use testimonials to paint a positive picture, prospective clients are more likely to trust you.
8. Make It Easy for People to Contact You
If you get someone interested in what you have to offer and they are ready to contact you and they can’t find the number to call or the contact form, you may lose the sale. Even a little extra time might make them lose their focus and click away before they reach out to you. The easier you make it for your ideal people to reach you, the more likely they’ll actually reach out.For example, when you want someone to fill out a form, keep it simple and only ask for the most basic information that you need to contact them.
Contact Takeaway
Look at how people are able to contact you right now. What is your contact conversion rate? Look at how many people land on your services page and divide that by how many people actually fill out your form and submit it. That’s your contact conversion rate. Simple, but not many people calculate this number. To increase your conversion rate, you need to figure out how to make reaching out to you more enticing, and reduce the hesitation they feel before they fill out their information and send it to you.
9. Offer a Guarantee
If you have a big company or if you do everything online, a lot of people that buy from you might not actually ever meet you. You have to build trust into your services page, and offering a guarantee that you will deliver what is expected of you creates trust.
In this example, you can see that Hampton guarnantee clearly states what they expect to provide you and hopefully exceed those expectations. By putting this in every hotel lobby, on their website, and now I’m talking about it, the more confidence people will have in staying at a Hampton hotel.
Guarantee Takeaway
Do you believe in the quality of your services? That’s sounds like a silly question I’m sure, but people need proof that you do. For example, if someone isn’t happy, how far will you go to make them happy? This is what you need to make very clear on your services page. It’s backing up your results with a guarantee that will make it easier for them to trust you and more likely for them to reach out to you for more information or to buy from you.
10. Create a Clear Call to Action
Your services page must direct people to the desired action that you want them to take. You can’t expect them to know what you want them to do next. Make your call to action (CTA) as clear and direct as you can.The simple formula is [action you want them to take] and get [thing you are offering].
You can see in the example below that Yoast’s call to action is “Fill out the form” and get “your website review!”
It specifically asks you to take the next step. Yoast created a simple call to action that converts well for him.
Call to Action Takeaway
Every service page needs to be clear on what is the next step you want your potential client to take. It might be filling out a form, calling you or hitting the buy now button. Whatever it is, make sure you are clear about the next action and the benefit of them taking that action.
Bonus Tip! Driving Focused Traffic
Being great at what you do is an accomplishment, but if people don’t know about you then you won’t be able to leverage all the knowledge that you have. This is why you need to stay hyper-focused on what you do well and drive targeted traffic to your services page.You have to create a domino marketing effect to grow your business. One way to drive focused traffic to your sales page is to get a boost from past clients and from bloggers with authority who can showcase your expertise in public ways.
You have to be hyper-vigilant in where you market yourself. You can’t be everywhere so you need to choose a few places to be a dominant player and make sure you are so valuable, people can’t help but talk about you.
Focused Traffic Takeaway
Look at where you’ve had the most success to date. Then think about how you can expand this and improve the quality of traffic to your website. Look at where your ideal people hang out and be the expert in this area.
Improving Your Service Page
Creating or improving your service page can seem overwhelming if you don’t have the right tools. But if you follow my top 10 rules, you should have a great start to connect with your audience and show them how well you deliver on your services.
The key is to improve your services page as you go along. You will never have the perfect services page. You’ll always miss out on some buyers as you hone in on your ideal clients. That’s ok. You want to make sure you are working with people that build your confidence and truly enjoy working with you.
10 Tips to Create a Sales Page that Converts Prospects to Customers
Posted in http://dominoconnection.com/10-tips-create-sales-page-that-converts-prospects-to-customers/