How to write a sales page that converts without hiring a copywriter

You’d probably rather stick a fork in your eye than write a sales page. Or get stuck watching Star Trek on repeat.

But I’m here to tell you that writing your own sales page can be easy. You can write a sales pages that converts. You can be your own sales page copywriter.

In fact, with these techniques I’ll share with you…

You’ll have 80% of your page written before you’ve wrote a single word into your Google Doc.

FOR REAL.

Now, it’s easy to get caught up that sales pages are important. After all, if they’re wrong or don’t hit the mark with your audience, it affects your wallet.

But I want you to reframe that. Every single piece of marketing you do is a test.

You’ll test if your copy, your funnel, your offer is working with your audience.

I truly believe that anyone can write their own copy. In fact, most of my clients can and do. They just don’t have the time (hence why they call me ;) ) .

But why should you believe me?

I frequently write high-converting funnels for my clients.

I helped Emily increase her sales page conversions by 68% by tweaking the messaging (and making her brand voice sassier).

So grab your Moleskin and a pen, I’m delving into my exact process of creating Emily’s sales page. 👇

Research

‘If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.’

Albert Einstein

The prep of your copywriting is THE most important part of creating your funnel.

Research for any project starts inwards and goes outwards.

I dig into my client’s audience - their students, their email list, their social media followers.

By understanding them on a deeper level, aka not as a faceless avatar who likes dogs and eats Sushi). But as a 3D human who has beliefs, problems, goals, values - getting into their heads on this level truly makes them feel understood.

This is the secret to copy that converts.

👉 surveys: quantify the issues your audience is struggling with and create a message hierarchy. Survey your students and people who haven’t bought from you

👉 interviews: ask deeper questions to uncover what’s really going on your audience’s head. This is where you can really uncover the actual issues inside their heads (for example, your audience might think their issue is overeating, but they might explain their issue is actually low self-esteem).

👉 message mining: scour the places your audience hangs out on the Internet to see what they’re talking about, why they bought your product (or rival ones), how it’s helped them,

Create an Excel spreadsheet with the headings: pain points, desires, mindset beliefs, objections.

And while going through the research process, fill out your spreadsheet.

This is what my spreadsheet columns look like

Then take each column and look for patterns. What pains are mentioned the most? What goals are mentioned the most? Any words that are repeated?

This is the start of your messaging hierarchy (aka determining the messaging that’s repeated the most in your audience and therefore needs to at the top of your sales page - in the headline or subheading).

By the time you open up your Google Doc, 80% of your copy should be within your research. You will literally copy and paste phrases and language you’ve found.

Offer optimisation

Is your offer converting? We’re looking for if your offer has a product-market fit, aka your audience wants what you’re putting down.

Once you’ve gotten your survey responses, use the messaging to make sure your offer promise, name, and benefits are aligned with your audience.

Other things to consider when optimising your offer:

• do you have a solid guarantee or refund policy? (These aren’t necessary as long as you have a solid promise)

• do you offer bonuses?

• do you offer tiers or payments plans?

• is your audience asking questions you could easily solve with a training, worksheet, PDF, etc?

Audience awareness

There are 5 stages of awareness, as described by Eugene Schwartz.

Unaware: really hard to sell to, don’t worry about this

Problem aware: audience knows they’ve got a problem but doesn’t know how to solve it

• remind them of the problems they’re facing and how it’s effecting them

Solution aware: audience knows how to solve their problem, but doesn’t know about your offer (or a specific offer yet)

• show them what your solution is and the USP

Product aware: audience is aware of your offer and needs further proof to convince them

• explain the benefits and features and hit them with social proof (testimonials)

Most aware: ready to buy

Depending on where your sales page is in your funnel, you’ll typically find your audience will be problem aware or solution aware.

So lead with their awareness (aka their top pain or goal) and then as they go down the page, their awareness is building based on the information you’re sharing. (Look at the info above!)

Writing your headline 

If you haven’t generated interest in 15 seconds, then you probably aren’t going to.

CrazyEgg

Sounds scary, right?

That’s why your headline is the most important part of your sales page.

And that’s why you should write it last. (Seriously, procrastinate on that!).

When writing your headline, your first one is never the right one.

Instead, write 50 options. It will take a long time but it’s so important. Eventually you’ll keep tweaking until you hit the winner.

If you have the software to do so, then A/B testing these would be perfect.

(A/B testing is where you use two headlines at the same time – one half of the audience will see headline A, and the other half will see headline B. Then you use the headline which converts the most, and then you repeat the process again, using the winner. A/B testing means your conversion rates, and therefore revenue, will continue to increase!). 

Help your audience make the RIGHT decision

The right decision might be a NO.

Yes, you might be helping your audience say no to your audience. That’s cool.

This means you’re going to get customers who are certain your offer is right for them (reducing refund requests).

We shouldn’t force or coerce our customers into buying from us.

Call-to-action buttons 

CTAs are the final barrier to getting your audience to buy – it’s the last button they click before being transported to the payment page. 

So get them to click by using verbs like ‘Download’  ‘Grab’, for example, and put it in first person: ‘I want to grab my copy now’.

If you’d like more information about CTAs, then check out my blog on how to optimise them for conversions (it’s not as scary as it sounds and you won’t need a web designer for it), and read here why they’re so important.

Introduce your offer

This is where you’re gonna delve into your research. Grab your offer promise and put it right underneath the offer name.

Back your shit up

You want your audience to trust you.

So back up everything you say with data, statistics, videos, social proof, etc.

If you say you’re an authority, how can you prove that? Have you been featured on podcasts or stages?

Add in your personality

Show your clients who you are. Brand voice is so so important - I fuel my client’s copy with their personality.

Adding your voice into your copy helps your audience to connect with you, it attracts more aligned customers who actually gel with your personality, and it’s fun.

There’s too much dry copy out there. Save the world from boring AF copy.

Write for the skimmers

Not everyone reads every single word on the page (except me!) so cater to people who’ll skim the page by putting the most important information in the headlines.

Craft your bio

Really pay attention to your bio. Shout your credibility and weave in your story and your why. We don’t care about the college you went to or your alma mater. Ew, David.

Strut onto your sales page like this

Social proof  

Use social proof to prove what you’re saying. Make your testimonials relate to actual pain points and goals your audience has.

Instead of..

“Nicola was great to work with.”

Try

“Nicola made us 43678% ROI on our sales page.”

See, how the second one actually tells me something. The first one is subjective.

And don’t forget other types of social proof…stats, media appearances, peer testimonials, your experience.

Answer the FAQs 

Whatever your audience emails you, DMs you, asks your team…answer in this section.

By the way, it’s the most read section on the page so do not skip it.

Found this helpful? Let me know! 👇