SuccessChef.com Style Sales Letters

[Joshua Uebergang]

I suppose they're being called "mini-site sales letters". The sales letter is basically split into different pages with clear links for navigation at the top. It's extremely popular with software products.

A similar though "minor" version of this style is a letter like The Panic Puzzle Program | Overcome Your Anxiety, Fear, and Panic Attacks

What's been your experience in conversions for this style of copy? (I know the best way to find out is to test.) Have amazing samples to share? Have tips to make this successful?

The principles of good copy don't change. I know you also need to be careful at keeping everything relevant to the product/service being sold otherwise you'll distract the reader.

The benefit I see of it is it may not trigger the "oh crap, another site selling something to me" response. And readers can jump to the information that's important to them (like testimonials, samples, or ordering) as everyone is at different stages of the buying cycle.

[Robert Plank]

Switching to a tabbed WordPress sales letter will hurt your conversions. It definitely converts less than a single page sales letter with the same information just because it's too easy to navigate from page to page without buying.

A better example (also made by Fortin) is www.bravethewave.com

The reason you'd make a sales letter like this is because these are the kinds of sites the public is used to seeing, and this is what Google eventually wants all sites to look like instead of direct response sales letters.

There's no reason you can't have both sites... doesn't cost you anything to setup another web site.

[Ross James]

Originally Posted by Robert Plank

Switching to a tabbed WordPress sales letter will hurt your conversions. It definitely converts less than a single page sales letter with the same information just because it's too easy to navigate from page to page without buying.

A better example (also made by Fortin) is www.bravethewave.com

The reason you'd make a sales letter like this is because these are the kinds of sites the public is used to seeing, and this is what Google eventually wants all sites to look like instead of direct response sales letters.

There's no reason you can't have both sites... doesn't cost you anything to setup another web site.

I agree 100% with everything you wrote. I think the key will be offering a gift in exchange for subscribing to a list. I think that's how you should run an adwords campaign, that way if you lose them atleast you can still reach them on the backend.

My thoughts anyways.

Best,

Ross

[briancassingena]

I agree about the adwords campaign, set a per prospect budget and build the back end relationship with them. Then comes the sales letter style pages, people set up these sales pages and wait for traffic and wonder why they don't convert, there's little point in someone seeing your sales pages until they know and love you, then send those targeted members to the page and THAT is your true conversion figure

[MikeHumphreys]

Originally Posted by Robert Plank

The reason you'd make a sales letter like this is because these are the kinds of sites the public is used to seeing, and this is what Google eventually wants all sites to look like instead of direct response sales letters.

There's no reason you can't have both sites... doesn't cost you anything to setup another web site.

The other reason for doing a multi-tab site like Success Chef is when you have a brand with multiple themed products to offer the same target market from the same site. You usually see this done in e-commerce sites more than IM but it works, regardless of the niche.

It is more search engine friendly because of the increased number of "content" pages that can be spidered.

Look under the Products section of Success Chef and you'll see everything on their "menu". You can order a full "meal" or just individual "entrees" depending on your preference and budget.

Hope that helps,

Mike

[MFree]

So in your experience, if the product is singular in focus, it's likely more advantageous to use the single sales letter approach vs multi-tabbed?

[Ross James]

Originally Posted by MFree

So in your experience, if the product is singular in focus, it's likely more advantageous to use the single sales letter approach vs multi-tabbed?

less likely to lose the prospect, correct.

[Joshua Uebergang]

less likely to lose the prospect, correct.

Less likely to lose the prospect? If you lose the prospect by not getting their name, that's why you capture their details on a squeeze page at an easy 30% conversion rate. I seriously doubt a multi-tab site will ever convert better than 30% because the options detract from conversions. If you're converting browsers into leads at 40% on a general site, then put that on a squeeze pae with a singluar focus and your conversions will skyrocket anyway. That's the primary limiter I see of these multi-tab sites.

Marketers have been giving away gifts and capturing leads on single-page sites for years without the "browsing-encouraging" site design like successchef.com. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're saying Ross for the benefit of a multi-tab site sounds extraneous to the argument of a single-page versus multi-tab sales letter approach.

Robert, that makes a little more sense. However, it doesn't matter what the public is "use to seeing". If a single page letter converts better, who cares if they're not use to seeing it and who cares if Google "dislikes" you more (little less traffic)?

From my understanding, the only reason I'd see you go a multi-tab site is if you have multiple-products. Thanks for pointing that out Mike. I'd like to understand the conditions and psychology of this more.

[Ross James]

I said lose the prospect. What don't you understand about it? Read up

-Ross

[Robert Plank]

Originally Posted by Joshua Uebergang

What do you mean "lose" the prospect? If you lose the prospect by not getting their name, that's why you capture their details on a squeeze page at an easy 30% conversion rate. I seriously doubt a multi-tab site will ever convert better than 30% because the options detract from conversions. If you're converting browsers into leads at 40% on a general site, then put that on a squeeze pae with a singluar focus and your conversions will skyrocket anyway. That's the primary limiter I see of these multi-tab sites.

Marketers have been giving away gifts and capturing leads on single-page sites for years without the "browsing-encouraging" site design like successchef.com. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're saying Ross for the benefit of a multi-tab site sounds extraneous to the argument of a single-page versus multi-tab sales letter approach.

Robert, that makes a little more sense. However, it doesn't matter what the public is "use to seeing". If a single page letter converts better, who cares if they're not use to seeing it and who cares if Google "dislikes" you more (little less traffic)?

From my understanding, the only reason I'd see you go a multi-tab site is if you have multiple-products. Thanks for pointing that out Mike. I'd like to understand the conditions and psychology of this more.

The idea is make a multi-tab blog sales letter to make AdWords happy (I have some) and also have a 1-page sales letter for everyone else (most of my sales letters)

If you're Coca-Cola, or Donald Trump, going for brand awareness, or Amazon.com... a single page sales letter wouldn't work would it?

But for the 99.999999% rest of us just selling one product, go for a sales letter. I'd rather get the one sale now then offer the other products over time in an autoresponder sequence.

[zigato]

Yes, I have had experience writing sales copy for those kinds of 'mini-site sales letters'. I wrote them for the company that I used to work FT for, which was a multi-million dollar company. However, we also did squeeze pages, blog niche domination, and so on.