Once you complete your manuscript and deploy your marketing and promotional plan, your sales page is the only thing that stands between you and the kind of income you want to make selling copies of your books.
Whether you decide to sell your books on your own website or on an external platform like Amazon.com it’s important to structure each page that you use to sell your books in a way that makes getting sales more likely.
While you could just throw something up and get a few random sales, taking the time to do things deliberately and including certain elements always delivers better long-term results.
So, what elements make up a high-converting book sales page?
A Compelling Headline
A key component of a well-crafted book sales page is a strong and compelling headline.
Along with being the first thing your prospect sees on you book selling page, your headline does several very specific tasks.
It identifies your ideal reader and it makes a big promise to your prospect about what your book will do for them. Your headline also hooks readers into your sales page and begins to propel them along to the ultimate goal of making a purchase.
Take your time with your headline and make it great.
Book Cover Image
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. They also say that you can’t judge a book by its cover. No matter what your personal stance is, when it comes to creating a winning book sales page, having an image is very important.
A well-designed digital book cover grabs your prospects attention, clearly represents what they can expect to find in the inner pages of your book and also gives a general impression of the overall quality of your book offer.
In other words, the better your cover image looks, the more confidence your prospect is likely to have in every other aspect of your marketing.
Empathetic Content
In order to sell the most books, you have to convince your prospects that you relate to their concerns on a deep level and that you have solutions to the problems they have.
Is your prospect bored? Show them that you have the novel that promises to transport them to new and exciting places in their mind. Does your prospect want to learn how to do something technical? Demonstrate that your non-fiction book will show them how do what they want to achieve with step-by-step instructions.
The more you can make your prospect feel like you understand them and you can help them to solve their problems, the better your chances are of making a sale and developing a strong rapport that encourages them to buy more of your books in the future.
Testimonials and Reviews
No book sales page would be complete without testimonials.
They are perhaps the best social proof you could ever add to your page to encourage the sale of your books and increase the number of sales you do get once they start to roll in.
Testimonials are like votes of approval from other readers of your book. They provide specific feedback, increase your credibility and prove to potential buyers that you are a trustworthy seller who will provide value for their money.
Some sellers have found that including testimonials on their sales page (especially if they are accompanied by a photo of the reviewer) increases their conversions by more than 100%.
If you are just launching your book and have yet to gather any reviews or testimonials, you can try giving your book away for free to between five and ten people with the intention of getting back testimonials and reviews that you can add to your page.
If you are a new author, this can often be challenging, but the potential for increased book sales is always more than worth the effort.
Buy Now Button
The entire purpose of creating your book sales page is to sell books. Once you’ve crafted the content of your sales page, one of the most important parts of the page is the ‘Buy Now’ button.
A prominent ‘Buy Now’ button creates the perfect call-to-action that clearly tells your prospect that you want them to click, put your book into their shopping cart and complete the transaction.
The general rule of thumb is that your ‘Buy Now’ button should be big, bold and brightly colored. It also helps to put more than one ‘Buy Now’ button on your sales page to give prospects more than one opportunity to decide to make a purchase.
Author Biography
An important snippet to include in every book sales page is your author biography.
If you are selling your books from your own website, this becomes a little less important because your prospect can always click over to your About Me page to find out more about you and your books.
However, if you are selling books on another platform, this short blurb is important as it helps to reinforce your brand and give details that increase rapport and reinforces your credibility as an author.
Easy-to-Read Text
Studies show that most people initially skim text on web pages before deciding whether or not they want to take the time to read the entire page in detail. The same thing applies to scanning book sales pages.
When you create your book selling page, you want to make the page as easy-to-read and easy-to-skim as possible.
To accomplish this, use bold headings, write short and snappy sentences and paragraphs, include plenty of white space and use list and bullet points generously.
This helps your prospect to find the information they are looking for faster and makes it easier for them to figure our if your book is a good fit.
A Sense of Urgency
An important aspect of creating any book sales page is weaving a sense of urgency throughout the material on the page, particularly in the area immediately surrounding the ‘Buy Now’ button.
Creating a sense of urgency makes it much more likely that someone who lands on your sales page will actually click the ‘Buy Now’ button and make a purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
While not absolutely necessary, a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section is good to include on your sales page if you are selling a book on a technical subject or if you tend to get asked the same handful of questions over and over again before your prospect makes up their mind to buy your book.
FAQ sections are a great place to address concerns and to overcome objections in order to get closer to the eventual book sale.
Pricing Details
No book sales page is complete without pricing details displayed prominently on the page.
If you are selling you book through a platform like Amazon.com, your book price will be displayed near the top of the page. However, if you are self-hosting your book sales page on your own website, it’s customary to have your book price further down, after you’ve had time to sell your prospect on the virtues and benefits of buying your book.
Along with displaying your price, think about putting your book “on sale” by slashing the normal price and displaying a discounted price.
Make sure that you indicate that the new pricing is for a ‘limited time’ only to continue to build on the concept of creating a sense of urgency.
Just as the human body is made up of parts that come together to create one perfect and highly functional machine, the same goes for creating a book sales page that works.
Spend time creating your page to include all of the components above and you will be poised to bring in sales that will change your self-publishing life forever.
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