Bottlenecks Choking Your Sales?

When a sales page is not performing to your expectations, what’s the worst thing you can possibly do? NOTHING.

michel fortin

By making changes, any changes, you can strengthen your copy and improve your sales…provided you track those changes. In most cases, there are relatively simple steps you can take to improve your results immediately.

The Key Is To Always Be Closing Testing

Sadly, the vast majority of marketers don’t even test at all. They put up their sales copy or website, and then they do nothing hoping for the best.

But for those who do, the first thing they think of is to test by adding or changing something in their copy. Or they’re confused as to what to test first.

Is it the headline? The image? The close? The price? The color? Actually, none of these. The first thing to test is actually not adding or changing anything at all. It’s to first remove something instead…

… Bottlenecks.

In my experience, I’ve found that the best and most efficient element to test is to actually first remove the things that are stopping people from ordering.

Sales copy is a greased slide that should take the reader seamlessly and painlessly through your copy, from the moment they read the first few words to the completion of their order.

The easier it is to read and take action, the more sales you will make. Anything that blocks or slows down this greased- slide process should be eliminated.

Therefore, removing anything that causes friction should be your first objective. And do you know what the biggest bottleneck is?

Before I tell you, first let’s cover a few things.

First, you want to ensure you’re accurate as possible by tracking con- versions coming from specific traffic sources. Reason is, changes in your sales may not be caused by changes in your copy but rather in the quality of your audience.

Test Only One Element At A Time

If you make too many changes to your copy, you won’t know which change created the change in result. Granted, this can be a slow process. So if you want to test multiple variables at the same time, you need to take advantage of multivariate testing tools and services.

Multivariate testing allows you to test multiple aspects of your copy, simultaneously, while determining which variables as well as the best combinations get the highest response.

Now, your first step in improving conversion may be to review the sales page and eliminate any visual embellishments, flourishes, or distractions, including any impeding graphics, that can distract the reader.

Design Elements Should Aid The Sale, Not Hinder It

Eliminating any distractions from the reading and decision-making processes will increase conversions. Once you’ve trimmed the excess bloat that may be hurting your results, then and only then can you begin to focus on the copy.

There are three major bottlenecks common in sales letters that you will want to experiment with and focus your efforts on. They are, in order:

1. The headline
2. The process
3. The offer

How Can A Headline Be A Bottleneck?

As one of the vital factors in your copy, much has been written about the creation of a strong headline. It must be powerful enough to be compelling to the reader.

Some of my marketing clients have improved their sales from 20% to as much as 700% by simply testing headlines. (In some cases, it was as simple as adding or removing a few words, too.) This brings me to an important discussion.

The logic is simple: the headline is the “on-ramp” to your salesletter. If people don’t read past it, they won’t be on your “slide,” if you will, and take action—no matter how good your copy is.

That’s why the headline is often the biggest bottleneck in copy.

Here’s an interesting case in point. A coaching client once asked me for my opinion on an article that made what seemed to be a shocking revelation: ‘that the lack of a headline actually increased his sales’. In other words…