The New Sales Page

Appsumo is brilliant. I just wandered over to Facebook, and was doing my this and that, and then I noticed a little ad in the right hand side (if you can’t see this, click here):

The ad is simple. But what caught my attention was the really colorful pie chart, and then “The Guy Who Wrote The Google Analytics Book.” To me, this was quite the authority call-out. I thought, “Well, I guess I can’t do a lot better than that, now can I?” So I clicked.

This takes me to Appsumo’s site, where they don’t let me in unless I give them my email address. Here’s that page:

Now, this should stop some people. Some people won’t even give away their email adress, even if they think there’s a nice deal behind the page. But look. It’s simple, it’s funny, and it’s convenient. All three things equate to trust, don’t they?

Just your email address, nothing fancy = I trust you because you’re not really asking me for much.
“We’re not jerks,” something funny = I trust you because people who point out they’re not jerks are less likely to BE jerks (we hope).
You can even login using your Facebook credentials, something convenient = I trust you because I don’t even have to worry about you bugging me in my inbox, if I live on Facebook.

Once inside, the yummy gets even better.

1. Success. We’ve already achieved success. I feel good already.
2. I understand what you’re selling. It’s simple and easy to read.
3. There’s that social proof again. He’s the GUY WHO WROTE THE BOOK.
4. There’s that title again. I KNOW what I’m buying.
5. More “funny” to make me feel better.
6. Look! A VIDEO testimonial.
7. I forgot to talk about this. A countdown. URGENCY.
8. And look, more funny PLUS a guarantee.

And then at the bottom, we get this:

This Is the New Sales Page

You can count the ways this is awesome. I have even forgotten a few. For one, there’s a Facebook Like and a Tweet link at the bottom, too. So not only can you review the deal, you can SHARE THE HECK OUT OF IT with other people, thus extending Appsumo’s efforts even more.

By the way, they’ve also purchased some ads via ad networks, because I started seeing Appsumo ads on places like Skitch.com (where I store the above screencaps) while I was referencing them for this post. So they’ve even thought about THAT.

This is the new sales page. It’s not just a bunch of technology that makes it better. It’s great design. It’s simple sales methodology. It’s a push towards a call to action that’s really hard to resist. It’s a clean page that drives my attention directly towards that obvious decision to buy. Most of that has very little to do with tech, and everything to do with treating your buyers like you care about them and then adding ways for your buyers to participate and share.

Okay, that’s not entirely all.

How Online Sales Move: A Macro Perspective

Let’s zoom out just a little and look at the sequence:

1. I see a well-crafted Facebook ad and click. (Lots of how-to needed to do this well.)
2. I opt in via email to get access to the deal (simple, but we’re rarely doing this, are we?).
3. I get a great sales page with video testimonial and other features (the video added a LOT to this pitch).
4. I not only can buy, but I can SHARE (which is one super huge takeaway).
5. Everything is simple and light and the design matches this.

Is Your Sales Page Anything Like That?

How are you selling? Are you doing any of that? I know mine aren’t. That’s why I picked up Premise (affiliate link): software that helps WordPress make better sales pages (among other things it does). I decided that I needed some help in figuring out sales pages that sung the way Appsumo did, technically. The funny and trustworthy? I’ll have to earn that, myself.

What about your pages? What do you think?

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