Don’t be too quick to start
I’m not talking about delaying the inevitable here – I’m merely talking about making sure you have done all your research before you begin. You should also have a clear USP in your mind, not just something you think will do the job. Give yourself enough time to gather together all the facts and figures you need to help you when you write your landing page. Make sure also that you have a direction to go in with your writing. Do you know which points you want to make in your copy? Do you have an idea of the benefits you want to talk about? We’ll get into this more later, but I’m sure you can see the benefits of being prepared.
Think about different headlines, and which type of headline would serve your purpose most effectively
The headline of any landing page is usually the first thing that people see when they land on your website. Even though there will be other writing that is visible, the headline is always created in larger lettering, so it will immediately jump out at whoever is reading the page. It pays to find as many landing pages as you can, simply to read the headlines that they use. You’ll start to see how different copywriters use different techniques to attract peoples’ attention. And of course, some of these techniques are better than others, depending on the skill of the copywriter. Some headlines are merely intended to shock and grab the attention, while others get you thinking and immediately have you hooked, even if your own intention was to click away and find another site. Do you have any particular type of headline in mind, or any ideas for headlines that you might use? Jot them down so you don’t forget them – any one of them could turn into the real deal later on.
Do some keyword research
Keyword tools are many and plentiful online, so there is no excuse not to know which keywords people will be looking for. This stage can take some time to complete, but it is well worth doing because you need to know that people will be able to find your landing page once it is finished and online. A lot of your potential buyers will come from the search engines, which will send them to the most appropriate web pages for their needs. Google, Yahoo and all the rest will go on what you give them, and if your landing page doesn’t have the right keywords on it that your audience is typing into that search box, then you won’t get the traffic you need in the first place. Make sure you focus on your primary keywords and phrases, and add some secondary ones here and there as well if you can.
Stay focused on your audience
Think of your landing page as being a presentation to them – like you’re on stage, and you’re keeping their attention, so that they don’t get bored or wander off anywhere else. Keep that image of your perfect customer firmly in mind with every word you write, and ask yourself how accurately you are aiming at them. Will they understand what you are trying to tell them? Are you making your product appeal to them in ways that only they will really ‘get’? What else can you say to seal the deal and have them reaching for their credit card to make a payment?
The 800-Pound Gorilla: 305-page guide for Writing, Publishing, and Selling EBooks and 17 video tutorials at The Wealthy Plumber: Writing, Publishing & Selling EBooks.
Start by brainstorming
Probably the worst thing that you can do when you sit down to create a landing page is to write. Before you get to that stage, you need to brainstorm as many ideas as you can. Don’t let yourself get inhibited by thinking about whether specific ideas are any good or not – just get them all written down to begin with. Think about how you could approach your topic and your product in a way that will immediately capture the attention of your audience.
Think positively
It can be a very daunting experience at the moment when you sit down and start to make some progress on writing your landing page. Where on earth do you start? This is where it helps to be positive, so that you can approach your task in the right frame of mind. If you don’t do this, and you end up worrying about how good your landing page is going to be, then you may not achieve the results you want. To put it simply, if you are in a negative frame of mind, then it is more likely that your writing will come out in a negative way as well – and that is the last thing you want for a web page that is supposed to be making people feel excited and enthused about your product.
Avoid your computer – at least to begin with
Many of us are so used to working on our computers that we never think of just picking up a notepad and pen any more. But when you are starting to put ideas together for your landing page, there’s no doubt that they will flow much more easily when you have a piece of paper to look at and not a blank screen. Computer documents don’t allow you to scribble in the margins or cross things out in quite the same fluid way that your good old pen and paper does. Don’t try and keep things neat – so long as you can read what you have written, that’s all that matters.
Ask yourself what the focus of your landing page is
Some landing pages are designed simply to give away a free product, in the hope of selling something else later on. Others are clearly designed to make a sale. What purpose is your landing page going to have? Whatever it might be, you need to get it clear in your head what needs to be done, so that you can stay focused on that the whole time you are writing. You will also find it much easier to research how other similar landing pages have been written and structured.
The 800-Pound Gorilla: 305-page guide for Writing, Publishing, and Selling EBooks and 17 video tutorials at The Wealthy Plumber: Writing, Publishing & Selling EBooks.
Research your subject
When you sit down to start making notes about your landing page, think about the subject or area that the product you want to sell falls into. Gather together as much information as you can about that subject, because it will help you to build your landing page. For example, if you are selling an eBook on making cash through online auction sites, find out all you can about the current situation regarding those sites. Have they been in the news? What have other people achieved in this area?
Research your audience
If you don’t know anything about your audience, how can you hope to sell them anything? There may be a limit to what you can find out about them, but the more you know, the more likely it is that you will be able to really connect with them when you finally sit down to write your order pulling landing page. Try and create a mental picture of the typical customer who will be interested in your product, and jot down some notes about them. How old are they? What kind of income do they have? If you have created the product you are going to sell, then you should have a lot of this information already. By working out who the ideal buyer is, you will be able to write your page directly for them.
Research your product
More research! But you will soon see that this part of the copywriting process is just as important as the actual writing stage. After all, how will you know what to write if you aren’t clear on who the audience is, what the product is and what subject it is about? So find out all about your product – what it does and what benefits it offers to the customer. Think about how it will be used and whether it has any multiple uses as well. Write down anything that you think might be helpful – you can always delete it later if it doesn’t help in any way.
Determine your unique selling proposition
This is known as your USP. It is vitally important that you know what this is before you start writing – otherwise you may end up with a vague piece of copywriting that doesn’t really convey anything strong or worthwhile to your customer. What you need to remember is that everyone who visits your web page will very likely have seen other similar web pages already. Why should they pay any more attention to yours? That needs to be the question that you ask yourself before you write your landing page, and at every second of the journey as you DO write it. Only then will you be able to come up with a great and unique selling proposition and be able to get it across to your potential buyers as they are reading your copy.
The 800-Pound Gorilla: 305-page blueprint for Writing, Publishing, and Selling EBooks and now you can receive a FREE110 pages ABRIDGED VERSION just by clicking Work From Home Writing, Publishing & Selling EBooks.
To view the unabridged version and the 17 video tutorials see The Wealthy Plumber: Writing, Publishing & Selling EBooks
Make sure you understand what a landing page is
This might sound strange, but some people THINK they know, but they have never done their research properly. A landing page is a single web page whose entire purpose is to sell a single product. You should never try and squeeze more ‘value’ out of a landing page by trying to sell more than one thing from it.
Research other landing pages
There’s nothing better than taking a look at what is already out there. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t copy anything, but the more landing pages you read, the more the techniques that have been used on them will percolate into your brain. And that will make writing them yourself much easier. It doesn’t matter what products are being promoted on those landing pages either. If you are selling an eBook for example, you should still look at landing pages that have been created for physical products of all kinds. The techniques used in all of them will be very similar, and you’ll start to spot them after a while.
Determine what other successful sellers do
This goes hand in hand with the previous point. You’ll probably come across landing pages that are similar in nature to the one that you will want to create. They may tackle a similar product. Take a look at how they work and whether or not you feel compelled to take action and order the product yourself. How do they draw you in? Watch for any particular techniques they use and make a note of them as you may be able to do something similar yourself. Learning by association is a very good way to master the various techniques that will lead you to sell more products yourself.
Make sure you focus on online techniques
It is tempting to start looking at all kinds of sales letters when you start learning about copywriting. But make sure you don’t look at any which may fall through your mailbox, because the techniques for writing an offline sales letter are somewhat different to those that are used online. So stick to your area of interest, and if you are writing a landing page, learn about landing page copywriting techniques and nothing else.
The 800-Pound Gorilla: 305-page blueprint for Writing, Publishing, and Selling EBooks and now you can receive a FREE110 pages ABRIDGED VERSION just by clicking Work From Home Writing, Publishing & Selling EBooks.
To view the unabridged version and the 17 video tutorials see The Wealthy Plumber: Writing, Publishing & Selling EBooks
