Read time: 4 min, 53 secs

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

So this week my team is launching a Google ad campaign.

But to do that we need incredible sales pages for the customers to go to (and make them want to buy).

But instead of keeping those tips to my team, I’m sharing it with you.

So in today's issue, we’ll cover how you actually get sales from ads.

We’ll talk about:
• The 4 things to include on your sales page to get customers
• Common mistakes that stop your website from getting customers
• A case study: how Semrush does their sales page

Stay until the end to vote on which topic you want next week and get personalized feedback on your marketing for free.

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

You can’t get sales to your website: you need a sales page.

I had a client who was frustrated his ads weren’t getting sales.

I took a look and realized: he was sending people from an ad directly to his website.

It’s a common mistake so he’s not alone.

What happens when people go to your website is they get distracted by all the extra buttons and information. So they click around and never buy.

Instead: send people to a sales page where they can’t distracted and it’s set up to get them to buy.

This took me forever to understand the difference so I’ll show you an example: Let’s use Semrush.

Semrush is a tool helps you find keywords and web traffic for SEO and ads. I use it myself I like it.

For context - their site gets 9.3 million visits a month. Of which they pay for 640,000 visits.

They know what they’re doing.

So let’s look at their website vs their sales page (then later I’ll show you how you make your own).

Here’s their website:

See all the buttons at the top? That’s great for people learning more about their brand, but it’s not great for sales! It’s distracting.

Now, let’s look at their sales page (where they direct people from ads).

Here’s the landing page from their ad:

Much simpler, right?

No distractions. There’s only one action you can take on the page - and it’s trying Semrush for free.

Then the rest of the page convinces you with social proof and how it’s better than other tools.

Now, check your sales page for these 4 simple tips to actually get customers (and at the end we’ll cover common mistakes):

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant: you can see anyone’s ads by going to the Google Ad Transparency Center or Facebook’s Ad Library. That’s how I found it.

1) Design your offer so it feels far more valuable than your price

A lot of times the product/service is amazing, but that doesn’t come out on the sales page.

My favorite explanation of how to make your sales page feel valuable come from Alex Hormozi (founder of Acquisition.com).

When a potential customer lands on your page, they need to feel that your offer:

1. Helps them achieve a powerful dream outcome

2. Is highly likely that they’ll achieve it

3. They get the outcome FAST

4. And it doesn’t take them much effort

Imagine each one as a sliding scale.

Your sales page needs to convince the customer that your offer is valuable by having each of the 4 parts that make up value.

But… the customer still has a bunch of excuses for why they won’t buy! So let’s handle those excuses on your sales page next 👇

2) Help the customer get over their excuses

Customers have been burned before. They’ve wasted their time and bought things that don’t work. So they come up with excuses not to buy.

You’re not there in person to hear their excuses, so we need to handle it on your sales page.

Here’s some examples:

Logistical questions:
“How does this work?” “What happens next?”

Explain the next steps so customers aren’t surprised.

Objections:
“But this won’t work for me.” - Explain who it’s for (& who’s not for).

“I need time to think about it.” - Give them a time when your offer ends.

“I don’t have the money.” - Give them financing options.

These are general objections. You’ll want to talk to customers and hear what specific objections they have.

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
The less your customer knows about you, the longer your sales page and the more you have to persuade. If they’re coming from ads, they don’t know much so persuade them harder than if the customer was coming from your socials.

3) Make it easy to take action

Make sure you only have one call to action. ONE.

People either buy a product or contact you. Not both.

Now, that doesn’t mean just one button.

When you scroll through the Semrush page you’ll see the one CTA (“Try Semrush free”) sprinkled throughout the page. This makes it easy to sign up.

But it’s clear throughout the page that there’s only one thing you can do on the page: sign up for Semrush.

4) Use reviews to build trust

There’s a lot of fakers and scammers on the internet. So you need to build trust to get the sale.

Trust building is most important when the people you’re selling to don’t know you.

2 ways to do that quickly on a landing page:

Reviews
Reviews are the best trust-builders you can use.

There’s different types of reviews so ranked in order of most trustworthy its:
1) Video reviews
2) Text reviews (with customer profile pics)
3) Text reviews (no profile pic)

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
A lot of people are faking reviews now too. So the more genuine the review sounds the better.

You can also share reviews from 3rd party sites like Capterra or Trustpilot. People assume there’s less bias with 3rd parties.

Credibility
Anything that makes you an expert or authority.

Have you been doing this for 20 years? Do you have a certification? Can you prove that you’ve done it yourself?

Show it off on your site.

Semrush is not shy letting you know other people trust them!

Troubleshooting: 4 common mistakes (that keep customers from buying)

1) Not persuading customers enough at the top of the page.

Most people don’t scroll down. So you need to persuade people to take action in that first screen.

Make sure your call to action, trust builders, and value are all covered on that first screen at the top (before people even scroll).

2) Too distracting (too many buttons)

In most cases, I’ll remove all the navigation buttons at the top.

That way the only choice a customer has - is to buy.

Removing all the extra buttons can increase sales 4 - 5x.

3) Messaging isn’t persuasive

Copywriting is a whole issue on its own, but here’s a few simple messaging mistakes people make:

• Talking about the features instead of the benefits those features give you

• Buttons sound like effort, not excitement (change “submit” to “receive a free call”)

• Too general and doesn’t make the reader think “woah this is for me!”

4) It’s too short

This feels counter intuitive, but the less people know you the longer your sales page has to be.

If people are coming from ads and they don’t know you, it should be longer than if the people are coming from your socials and they know who you are.

Get your website to convert visitors to paying customers

Now, if your website is ready for customers, you’ll need people to actually see your site.

Check out last week’s issue below to take your first step to run ads and drive people to your sales page:

And that’s it!

If you liked this post, and don’t want to miss future issues, sign up for free:

If you found this helpful, please forward this email to 1 friend or colleague. They'll appreciate you and you'll help grow the community.

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
Twitter
LinkedIn

P.S. Want personalized feedback on your marketing efforts for free?

I’ll check out your SEO, ads, socials, & landing pages. Then, I’ll give you a list of small changes you can make to get big results (paying customers).

If your business is over $3M in revenue, grab time for free.

🙋 Vote: Next Week’s Topic

Choose the topic that 13,753 readers receive next week (vote below):