How Long Should a Sales Page Be?

I asked a simple question in a few Facebook groups the other day …

“How long should a sales page be?”

I got responses ranging from as long as it takes to sell the product to it depends on the price to I have no idea.

Now here’s the answer:

It depends on the amount of your offer. Your sales page should include enough of the RIGHT words to propel the reader into action. (Yep, they got that one right – I hang out with a ton of smarty pants folks :))

For example, let’s say you’re selling a $75 mini-course on how to sell shoes online. You have a few videos, worksheets and that’s it. Now, you don’t need 50 pages of text to sell a $75 product.

You’d literally kill folks with your words. And NOT in a good way.

Second, it depends on your audience. Selling to a bunch of ice-cold folks who barely know your name? (You may want to rethink doing that, but that’s for another email.) You’ll need more words to get them to part with their moolah.

Third, it depends on what type of product you’re selling. Is it a “gotta-have-it” or a “need-it-in-my-life”?

Let me break this one down:

Gotta-Have-It Offers

A gotta-have-it offer is something folks don’t NEED to survive but want to so they can live a happier, richer, healthier life. Think of coaching services, copywriting, health coaching and so on. No one’s going to die without these (well your business might), but you see my point.

To sell these items, you need to do some serious copywriting because you have to stir up the DESIRE for the product when logic is telling them that what you’re selling is not something they require. With a long-form sales page, any good copywriter can make the reader believe they need the product or service.

Need-It-In-My-Life Offers

On the other side, you’ve got the need-it-in-my-life offers – clothes, food, shelter – life’s essentials. Now to sell these items, all you need is a fantastic unique selling proposition (USP) and copy that makes the offer sound irresistible. You can usually do those two things in less than 3 pages – think billboards and magazine ads.

Alright, so what’s the answer, Apryl?

How long should a sales page be?

Well … it depends. I can tell you that the sales pages I write for clients who sell products and services ranging from $47 to a few thousand bucks are between 600 to about 2,000 words.

But I want you to know that it’s not about the number of words, it’s about having the right elements to make folks wanna smack the buy button. Now, I share all these elements in my new book, Shots Fired! How to Write Copy that Pierces Hearts (And Opens Wallets). 

In the meantime, I know you want something today to make this sales pages thing a whole lot easier. And, of course, I got you covered.

So …

Here are the top 4 questions you MUST ASK yourself before publishing your next sales page:

  1. Did you pierce the heart of the buyer and make an emotional connection?
  2. Did you paint the picture of the “promised land” and how the buyer’s  life will improve after buying your product/service?
  3. Did you address the buyer’s objections to investing in your product/service?
  4. Did you make it easy for the buyer to smack the buy button? Side note: You should always include buy buttons throughout the page (folks get annoyed when they have to go all the way to the bottom to click – make it easy).

And that, my friend, should hold you over until you can get your hands on my bestselling book.