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Are sales pages even needed

by Augie Johnston
18 replies
Hi,

I am planning on starting a fitness membership site. With most membership sites you have to have a login of course. I see some competitors (and many other membership type sites) who don't even use any kind of long letter/video sales page. They simply have a homepage with a short sales pitch describing the service features and a bunch of other pages/tabs you can click on (which i know is a big no no for a traditional sales page). Seems impossible to get affiliates with this.

My question is: Are these companies missing the opportunity to really pitch to their prospects?

I know I know, test and find out.

But I am just curious if anyone has any experience with offering a membership and not going with the traditional sale page.

My thinking is that maybe if you are interested in a membership seeing some long sales page and not the actual platform you will be using daily is a put off and you want to be able to see what your getting in some form at least.

Any input would be cool.

Augie
#needed #pages #sales
  • Profile picture of the author hanakuza
    Are you referring to sites like bodybuilding dot com or elite fitness? If it's those kind of sites I won't be back if I see a long sales page when I first visit. I don't think it fits with these kind of sites, but that's my opinion(and I'm a user of those sites)
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    • Profile picture of the author Schnitzel
      Oh yes, they are.

      In your case i'd totally have a video of people doing the workout. Like in those infomercials.
      Also i personally just love building sales pages.

      Imo a good sales page grabs you with a catchy (not hyped) title, a video that is no BS and just shows me 'hey, this is some of the cool stuff you're being taught' and some bullet points that clearly show me my advantages.

      I know i'm beating a dead horse here by telling you to really step into your customers shoes and writing for them what you REALLY would want to hear to be tempted to try the membership; but it always was and always will be like this: really care for your members and provide something really great and chances are you will get some sales.

      If done right salesletters are awesome, fun to make and definetly a possible way for you to go. I'm writing on 3-4 sales letters right now which are just fun to make (and i'm using different approaches there - will be interesting to see how they convert or what responses i get).

      What i would recommend is but one thing: offer the first month for 1$ - our research showed in an A/B split test that without 1$ trial we just made ONE sale for a membership site, but with 1$ trial we made NINETEEN sales. Both versions of the split test received equal amount of visitors and after that much of a difference even with a small fraction of our traffic we knew for sure that the trial option was the winner.
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      meh

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      • Profile picture of the author TheSpokesman
        I agree with the first response. One of my main sites is a health and fitness one which functions mainly as a venue to market affiliate products. I've tried to focus on solid content, especially on the home page without a lot of pitch. You need to give them something to get them coming back and treating your site like a sideshow at the carnival with a barker out front--"Step right up, see what's behind the curtain"--probably won't work. Especially with a membership site. You better be darned sure there is something behind that curtain besides a pitch.
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    • Profile picture of the author TBInternetMarketing
      Originally Posted by hanakuza View Post

      Are you referring to sites like bodybuilding dot com or elite fitness? If it's those kind of sites I won't be back if I see a long sales page when I first visit. I don't think it fits with these kind of sites, but that's my opinion(and I'm a user of those sites)
      Yea I'd agree that a long sales page maybe wouldn't work with this model
      What could be quite cool is a short video showing you the inside of the membership, with the benefits etc, and why they should join.
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  • Profile picture of the author Augie Johnston
    @Hanakuza: yeah I am referring to something similar to that, but not exactly. What we will offer is more of a personal training experience, not just information, the reason i think a sales page might be beneficial is becuase we are offering a service and not just information, but I still can understand why a sales page would turn some people away.

    @Schnitzel: thanks for the info...$1 trials are sweet I dont know if completely agree about sales letters being fun to make though haha...anyways, I'm living in Hamburg right now (but usually live in the US). I love Schnitzel, i'm guessing you live in Bavaria with that name I lived there last year near Bamberg.

    Augie
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  • Profile picture of the author Ed Micah
    Sales pages do play an important role in the world of trading.

    It gives the buyer a first impressions of your product/membership site, then with boosts of convincing to force them to buy your product/join your membership site!
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  • Profile picture of the author Augie Johnston
    @TheSpokesman: Yeah, I agree with you. I am starting to think that a hybrid site might be best. Good sales video, good content, and a quick pitch/service features. Of course I'll test a ton. Here is an example of what I'm talking about.


    Augie
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  • Profile picture of the author Augie Johnston
    Are any affiliate marketers reading this? I want your input mostly, becuase of course I would look to recruit affiliates and I have heard many say "I don't like sending traffic to sales pages that have leaks (other options besides clicking buy button)

    Augie
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  • Profile picture of the author Exire
    Originally Posted by Augie Johnston View Post

    My question is: Are these companies missing the opportunity to really pitch to their prospects?
    It depends on what their pre-sales material is like. If they've got affiliates who know what they're doing then the prospect is sold on the membership before he even visits the page. The page then just has to tell him he's at the right place, give a little more information to convince him he's made the right choice and present him with a way to join.

    But I am just curious if anyone has any experience with offering a membership and not going with the traditional sale page.
    I don't personally but, like I said above, they're probably relying heavily on pre-sales material. Either material their affiliates produce, material they've produced for their affiliates, or material that they've produced for themselves and are using.

    My thinking is that maybe if you are interested in a membership seeing some long sales page and not the actual platform you will be using daily is a put off and you want to be able to see what your getting in some form at least.
    Possibly. But this can tie into pre-selling the prospect before they even get to the site. If the pre-sell material covers all of the benefits/features/goodies of the membership then they're already sold on the idea before they get there.

    Think of it like buying a car. If you want a new car and research it online, read magazine reviews, check out the manufacturers website, etc. by the time you actually get to the dealer you're already sold on the car and the dealer doesn't need a long sales pitch to get you to buy--they just need to know what color you want it in. This is due to all of the "pre-sell" material that the manufacturer has made available through various channels to convince you to buy their car before you actually show up at the dealer's lot.
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    • Profile picture of the author keniskandar
      There are a few reasons why you write long sales letters - getting your prospects to take action immediately. There is almost a cult like following on how to do this in the most effective way, and sometimes people forget that writing a long sales letter is not the ONLY way to do it. Its probably the easiest and fastest way though.

      Whats more important is knowing your customer. A long sales letter sometimes have a "scammy" feel to it, and if your customers in your niche have an allergic reaction towards long sales letters, it wont benefit you do to one.

      For example, when i look for SEO services, i almost never rely on long sales letter vendors. I go for vendors that have professional looking sites, and strong references. But thats just me. So yes, test
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    How can anyone answer your question without seeing one or two of the sites you're talking about? So much goes into a buying decision. If you really want some insight post a couple of links and you'll get much more realistic feedback.

    With that said, I would never be trying to sell anything without a dedicated sales page. It certainly doesn't have to be the IM-style long copy page. In fact, for something like this such a page would work against you. But it does have to do the same things as any sales page. That is, relay a compelling message to buy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Drew Trainor
    I think in your niche a video sales letter is a great way to go.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anonymous Affiliate
    Regardless of how you format your sales message (sales page, free content teasers, email newsletters, etc), at any point through the process you need to broadcast your pitch. So, from that point of view, yes you need a sales point in your site. Now, wether you format it as a traditional long sales page or not is a whole different discussion.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Im certain that most people implement sales pages simply because "everyone else is".

    Personally, I dont like sales pages. Some of my best converting sites don't have them.
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    It is not in the fitness niche, but I do know of one site that does extraordinarily well with a landing page that has links within the site and no long sales page....

    See example here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Augie Johnston
    Great feedback everyone. Thanks alot. Once I get the site finished I will post links for further critiques. I guess the biggest thing I am worried about is not getting affiliates without having a long sales page, but I think that is stupid of me now that I think about it. I just need to get whatever pitch page it is converting well and show proof and affiliates will test their traffic and hopefully convert too.

    Augie
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  • Profile picture of the author Roan
    I think those kind of sites work better with videos. Long sales pages aren't always needed.
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