Ignore your buyers [3 of 7]
A high-converting landing page ignores the buyers.
That’s strategy #3 in our 7-Day Sales Challenge. And like the first two strategies, it sounds insane.
Conventional wisdom says that to boost sales, you have to speak your buyers’ language. Talk about their pain points. Make it all about them.
However, Paras Chopra, is the Founder of Visual Website Optimizer, says that buyers are NOT the right audience for your landing page.
(Quick timeout: As backward as this strategy sounds, remember that this challenge is all about keeping an open mind. So don’t click away just yet, I promise this is going somewhere important…)
“There are exactly three kinds of visitors,” says Paras.
The first kind is The Buyer. “So, this kind of visitor has a strong intent to buy,” says Paras. “He just wants to come on the site and wants to buy your product right away.”
The second kind is The Researcher. “This kind of visitor is typically has a pain point and he wants to solve that pain point by searching for a particular solution,” says Paras. “So, he does not know which product he wants to buy, but he just knows that he wants to buy something that will solve his pain point.”
The third kind is The Window Shopper. “He’s not really into buying,” says Paras. “He does not really even have that pain point. He’s probably on your site because somebody shared your link.”
So to boost conversions on your landing page, ignore The Window Shoppers AND The Buyers.
Now, ignoring The Window Shoppers is obvious. Sure, we work hard to get more eyeballs on our site, but they don’t even have the pain point you’re solving. They probably won’t ever buy.
But why ignore The Buyers?
“The Buyer will buy anyway, even if you hide your ‘add to cart’ button or your ‘buy now’ button,” says Paras. “He is so convinced that this thing should be bought.”
So that leaves The Researcher, the visitor who has your pain point, but isn’t sure which product he or she will buy.
“Your whole site should revolve around researcher,” says Paras. “So, everything you write about in your site, everything you talk about on your site, it should be pinpointed to the researcher. It will help you convince the researcher to become a buyer.”
Okay, but why not try to reach all three, to make the most of every visit to your landing page?
“You can’t make your site talk to three different personalities with the same language, with the same visuals. You have to model your site to one particular kind of personality,” says Paras.
“You don’t have to completely neglect the window shopper, but it’s incredibly hard to make him buy that particular solution because he does not have that pain point, right? It’s like selling combs to a bald person. You can do that if you try hard enough, but you cannot sell that in volumes.”
In other words, The Buyers are already sold. And if you try real hard, you MIGHT be able to convince a small percentage of The Window Shoppers to buy, but it’s such a small amount that it’s not worth killing your potential to sell to the people who are more likely to buy–The Researchers.
“So, number one goal of sales pages is to answer any particular doubts or questions that The Researcher might have,” says Paras.
Your challenge right now: In your notebook or Google doc, assess your landing pages or your website: Is it speaking to The Researcher?
Are you addressing The Researchers’ fears and concerns, and showing why YOUR solution is the clear solution to their pain point? Or are you wasting valuable real estate by talking to The Buyers or trying to convince The Window Shoppers to care about the pain point you solve?
Take just a few minutes and write down your answers now, while this sales strategy is still fresh on your mind.
And once you’ve done that, check out this FREE checklist from Paras’ members-only Mixergy course. See, targeting Researchers is just the first step in boosting conversions on your site. Paras outlined SEVEN key areas, all highlighted in this handy Landing Page Checklist.
Normally you have to be a Mixergy Premium member to get this checklist, but as a part of this special 7-Day Sales Challenge, you can download a FREE copy here:
-Andrew
Founder, Mixergy