Hey Beautiful,

I want to talk about the long-form sales page again — yes I do.

I just wrapped a 15-pager for a client and sent it over to her from a little cafe in Lafayette, LA where they put hummus on grilled cheese. Interesting.

Before meeting my husband Aaron, life in the South was not on my radar, and yet here I am now with a gang of 3 roosters, their black-and-white egg-laying ladies, two children under 10, and a garden that’s almost too much to handle.

I digress.

I’ve written many a sales page and I know a few things about ‘em.

In no particular order, here’s what you need to know:

The bulk of sales page writing isn’t writing — it’s deep thinking and research.

I'll assume you have a service or program that gets your clients solid results.

I'll assume, also, that you want to sell it better, at a higher price, and with more ease.

You have a lot of questions to consider as you set yourself up:

How do you position it?
Who is this offering really for?
Who is it not for?
What does she need?
What does she want?
What problem does your offering solve?
How does it solve it better than other potential solutions?
What keeps your ideal client or customer up at night?
Why isn’t she making progress?
What stops her?
What words and phrases does she use to describe her situation and her challenges?
What words and phrases does she use to describe her desires? Her future?
How can you communicate with her in a way that makes immediate sense?
What is your offerings’ sweet-spot pricing that leaves you feeling well-compensated and has her feel like she just made a super smart decision?
What other offerings do you sell?
How do these offerings compare?
How do they differ?
Any upsells?
Are you doing a pre-sale price?
Are you adding bonuses?
If so, which ones?
Testimonials? What are past clients saying about working with you?

There are a lot of questions a good copywriter is asking upfront, like a lot. It’s a seriously immersive process.

When I’m working on a sales page I’m pacing around my home in someone else’s brain, thinking about their troubles, and oh — did I remember to put the laundry in the drier?

Getting paid to research, think, analyze, and then finally bring words to the page that have a cadence, a vibe, and are very easily read is a total dream for me. I mean, I do this stuff anyway — this is what I can’t not do.

I am, after all, the girl who hid in her closet with a stack of books who only came out to boil some frozen ravioli. Immerse. Eat. Repeat.

If you want to write an emotionally-moving sales page, one that strikes your reader with a lightning bolt of certainty, I recommend doing some solid prep work upfront.

Get into it.

Get specific.

Do your research.

Think. Think again.

Get in your reader’s shoes.

Get on the phone with her.

Dig into old emails.

Give yourself time.

Then make the key structuring, positioning, pricing, and promotional decisions you need to make, and stick to them.

After those decisions are solidified, start to write or rewrite your copy weeks ahead of your next launch or enrollment period. Be thorough.

As a copywriter, I like to have 6 weeks minimum before an open enrollment/launch to do my best work writing a sales page for a client. 8 weeks is even better.

Ready to pass off your next sales page to a pro?

Run your project by me here: http://www.jillian-anderson.com/starthere

And if you think you have what it takes to DIY your copy and do it well, you’ll want to check out Copy Slam: the High-Impact Recorded Sales Page Critique for the Woman Who is Ready for Nearly Effortless Sales.

Inside Copy Slam I record myself critiquing a real sales page that promotes a 5-week live program. I point out everything I see. I explain exactly what the author needs to cut, fix, rearrange, and rework.

Check it out here: http://www.jillian-anderson.com/copyslam

Big Love,