You probably think your sales page is the best sales page ever, right?

Don’t worry, there’s no crime in thinking that way.

Most people think their sales page is the greatest thing since sliced bread. In fact, you may get pretty decent conversion rates from it, so in a way you might be partially right.

But what if you’re not? Or what if there was a way to increase your conversions even further?

Maybe it sounds impossible, but it’s not.

See, most sales pages follow the same basic formula. They’ve become so tired and stale that the average person has learned to tune them out the same way they tune out television commercials and ad banners online.

Think about the typical sales page. It probably has a big, flashy headline at the top, some decent graphics, maybe an eCover or two, some bullet points, a guarantee, and an order button.

But there’s a big problem with that. Most people are using sales pages all wrong. They start out by screaming that the product is the solution to all the prospect’s problems, but they haven’t identified the problem, yet!

Before you present the solution, it’s critical to remind your prospect of his or her problem in order to let them know why they need the product!

Let’s use weight loss as an example, because it’s one of the most common markets online.

Imagine a sales page screaming, “Lose weight fast!”

Okay, that’s all well and good, but it doesn’t push the right emotional buttons. It doesn’t speak to the prospect about the pain they are going through.

Instead, you should be asking questions like:

• Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
• Are you embarrassed to be seen in public because of your weight?
• Are you frustrated with clothes shopping because nothing ever seems to fit right or look like it does on the catalog models?
• Do you find yourself out of breath just walking to the mailbox?
• Do you avoid favorite activities like swimming or dancing because you’re so self-conscious?

These things remind the prospect not just that they need to lose weight, which they already know, but how very, very badly they want… they need to do it!

Pow! Right In The Kisser!

Evoking an emotional response is relatively simple if you understand your market at all. It’s important to get inside the head of your average prospect and really understand what motivates them.

Here are a few examples:

• A golfer might want to improve his swing so he can stop being embarrassed whenever he goes golfing with his friends.
• An overweight person might want to look better in order to attract a mate or feel better so he can do his favorite activities without getting out of breath.
• Someone who is looking to make money quickly is probably afraid they will become homeless or lose their possessions.
• A single person is lonely and feels the pain of that loneliness most at holidays and special occasions or when they see happy couples out together.

Once you’re inside the prospect’s head, and you know what he feels and why he feels it, you can choose the right intensifier to boost conversions like crazy.

Okay, so what exactly is an emotional swell?

An emotional swell is something that is placed on a sales page that helps remind the prospect of their pain in order to evoke the emotional response that will lead to a sale.

You ideally want to do this in a lightbox pop up that will appear at the top of the sales page in order to really stand out.

The lightbox pop up contains the following:

• A question that asks them if they have a specific problem. (For example, someone is overweight.
• Next, it includes a short list of bullets that describes the pain of the problem. (Embarrassment, loneliness, exhaustion, not being able to find clothes that fit, etc.)
• Finally, it lets the prospect know he can find the solution to his problem below.

I know, it sounds a little odd, because the format is very similar to a traditional sales page. (Headline, bullets, solution…) But the pop up aspect really makes a difference, because people pay more attention.

Also, it’s important to make sure you turn a need into a want, because a want is always more emotional than a need. How so?|

Well, think of a smoker. He knows he should quit smoking. He’s seen the warnings. He’s heard the news about how many people die every day from smoking related illnesses. His family may have even nagged him to death to quit.

But unless he truly wants to quit, he won’t. Period. No amount of warnings, nagging, begging, pleading, and even threats, or bribes will get him to quit unless he really wants to. Even if he’s finally nagged into quitting, he’ll likely fail unless he wants it badly enough.

Let’s look at exactly why this works:

1. It grabs attention. It gets the prospect to identify himself as a person who has a problem he needs to solve.
2. It turns a need into a want, which increases emotional pull.
3. It makes the prospect realize you understand the problem, which makes them more likely to listen to your solution. Thus, they are more likely to read your sales page and purchase the product.

Emotional swells are tailor made for sales pages, but you can also use them effectively on many other pages:

• You can use them on squeeze pages to encourage opt-ins.
• You can put them on blogs to engage readers.
• You can put them on pre-launch pages to stir excitement.
• You can put them over videos to increase views.
• You can put them in emails to engage readers, but you obviously won’t be able to use the standard lightbox pop up. It could be an image at the top.

They’ll work nearly anywhere you’d like to increase responsiveness.

Next Steps

If you’re interested in boosting conversions by simply tweaking how you talk to your prospects on your sales pages then  downloading our ‘Forager Bee’ System, “3 Step System To Deploy Powerful Sales Page Persuasion Techniques To Increase Conversions.”, below is a good place to start:

Remember, there’s honey inside the hive…