May 13, 2025 • 28 mins
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Think your sales page is ‘good enough’? What if a few small tweaks could double your income—without creating a single new product?" In this episode, I’m sharing one of the biggest game-changers in my digital product business: sales page optimization. With just a few strategic changes to your existing listings, you can increase your conversion rate and double your income, without chasing more traffic or creating new products.
I break down the simple but powerful formula (traffic × conversion rate × price = revenue) and show you exactly why improving your sales pages is the most overlooked and high-impact piece of the puzzle. We’ll dive into the four stages every buyer goes through and how to align your sales pages with each stage. I’m also giving you five actionable sales page tips you can implement today, including how to upgrade your visuals, product previews, descriptions, social proof, and pricing strategy.
01:49 - Clarifying what exactly a conversation rate is (and what counts as a “good” conversation rate!)
07:03 - The four psychological stages that buyers go through before making a purchase
10:26 - Five key elements for sales page optimization
21:04 - How to prioritize sales page optimization if you sell more than one product
Links & Resources:
- Episode 126, Make Your Courses & Memberships Unmissable on Your Website
- Episode 115, 3 Simple Steps for a Sales Funnel That Converts
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode147
Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business.
Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Doyle (00:01):
What if I told you that no matter what you're
selling, doubling your salesdoesn't always require finding
new customers or launching newproducts. Over the years, I have
helped 1000s of business ownersimprove their SEO and drive more
traffic to their products.
But there's something equallyimportant that a lot of my
(00:21):
students and my clients need tofocus on, and that is conversion
rate optimization. Because let'sface it, all the traffic in the
world will not increase yourearnings if your sales page or
your product listing doesn'tconvince those visitors to turn
into buyers.
(00:41):
In today's episode, I am sharingthe math formula behind your
product's success and how tocalculate and improve those
conversion rates, whether you'reselling in simple product
listings in a shop or amarketplace like TPT or Etsy, or
you have custom sales pages andfull fledged funnels for bigger
offers. Plus, I'll help youfigure out what to prioritize
(01:04):
first when you're ready to startmaking improvements.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
(01:24):
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
(01:49):
First up, let's make sure we areall on the same page about what
a conversion rate actually is.
Really quickly, your conversionrate is the percentage of
visitors who take a desiredaction. In this case, we're
talking about purchasing yourproduct or your offer.
If 100 people view your productpage and two of them buy that's
a 2% conversion rate. Simpleenough. But the reason that this
(02:13):
is so important is that boostingyour conversion rate from 2% to
4% literally doubles your salesfrom the exact same amount of
traffic.
That's why I get so excitedabout conversion optimization.
It's like finding money hidingin plain sight because you've
already done all the hard work.
You made the product, you listedit on the platform, or you
(02:34):
posted it on your own website,and now you have an opportunity
to get it selling better.
You might be wondering whatcounts as a good conversion
rate, or how to know if yourproducts have room for
improvement, and we'll getthere. But let's start with that
math formula first. So there isa really simple equation behind
(02:54):
every single digital productsuccess and the income that
you're earning from it. It'sjust traffic times conversion
rate times price, equals yourincome or your revenue.
So traffic refers to the numberof people that are viewing your
sales page. You'll probably seethis listed as page views in the
analytics on your website, yourmarketplace platform, or even
(03:17):
just in Google Analytics.
Conversion rate is thatpercentage of people who see the
page and then actually buy andthen the price, of course, is
how much you're selling it for.
So if we look at that examplethat I shared earlier, if you
get 100 page views with a 2%conversion rate and it's a $10
product, then you make $20. Themath is just 100 times 2% times
(03:41):
$10 equals $20. Super simple. Ifyou improve any one of those
numbers on the front end of thatequation, then obviously the
number on the back end of theequation is going to grow.
So if you increase your traffic,your revenue grows. If you
increase your conversion rate,the revenue grows. If you
increase your price, the revenuegrows. If you improve on all
(04:05):
three, then you see massivegrowth in your business. The
goal is to be able to increaseall of them, or at least find
that perfect price and thenincrease your traffic and
conversion rates.
Now today, we are focusing onthat middle piece, the
conversion rate, because it'ssomething that a lot of people
forget about, and it can offersome really quick wins. See, it
(04:28):
is, in some cases, a lot harderto get more traffic to your
product than it is to improveconversions from the traffic
that's already there.
So if you can take thatconversion rate and increase it
from 2% to 4% now you're gettingfour purchases for every 100
page views, and your income is$40 for every 100 page views
instead of 20. Now, obviouslyI'm using easy numbers, but
(04:50):
imagine where that goes if youhave 1000s of page views or an
even higher conversion rate.
Alright, so let's talk aboutwhat counts as a good conversion
rate. On average, digitalproduct, conversion rates
typically fall between two to 3%for most online sales. So if
you're selling in your own storeor you have a full sales page or
(05:11):
a sales funnel, that's a goodbenchmark to use for those
areas. But marketplace platformslike TPT and Etsy usually see a
little bit higher conversionrates.
The theory is, this is becauseof two things. First of all,
people who come to a marketplaceplatform are already shopping.
So there's that buyer intent tomake a purchase. They're just
(05:33):
trying to decide which productthey're going to buy.
The other thing is, there issome built in trust as far as
knowing that their paymentinformation is secure, knowing
how they're going to access theproduct after buying, knowing
that a product has gotten lotsand lots of positive buyer
reviews in the past. Sotypically, if you're selling on
(05:54):
somewhere like Etsy or TeachersPay Teachers or some other
marketplace, you will see alittle bit higher conversion
rates on average.
So your benchmarks to look foron Etsy are around three to 5%
and on Teachers Pay Teachersaround 4 to 7%. Now I know I
just shared some benchmarks foryou to use as goals, but really
(06:14):
the most important metric foryou, as you're working on your
own conversion rates isn't tocompare to averages outside of
your own business, averages forother people's businesses,
averages in a marketplace. Itreally is to focus on your own
conversion rate average andfocus on improving your own
numbers, not just trying toreach arbitrary numbers that
(06:37):
somebody else told you are rightor best
All right, so now that weunderstand the math, let's take
a look at the customerpsychology that gets people to
make a purchase. Because inorder to increase your
conversion rate, you have toknow what this buyer psychology
kind of path is, and be able toaddress the issues at each
(06:59):
stage, depending on where peopleare when they find your product,
right?
So there are four stages,psychological stages that buyers
go through before they make apurchase. The very first stage
is called awareness, and this iswhere the buyer knows that they
have a problem. They recognizethat this is an issue, and they
(07:20):
want to solve it.
A lot of times when you'reselling something, maybe through
Facebook ads, or you're sendingout email campaigns to people
who haven't actively sought outa solution that you offer. A lot
of times those people are inthis awareness stage, you're
hoping to catch the people whoknow they've got a problem, or
maybe they just need to betriggered to remember that they
(07:42):
have a problem, and then you canstart selling to them.
The second phase is calledconsideration. This is where
people already know they've gota problem. They recognize it,
they know they want a solution,and they're in the phase of
starting to look for thatsolution, or compare the
different possible solutionsthat are out there.
This is typically where peoplestart when you are selling in a
(08:06):
marketplace platform, because,like I said earlier, those
people are already buyers.
They're in that shopping modewhere they are looking for a
solution when they go to thatmarketplace.
The third phase is decision.
This is where people have lookedthrough lots of possible
solutions, and they're workingon narrowing down and making the
best choice for them. If we aretalking about a marketplace
(08:28):
that's a little easier tounderstand, because they might
be comparing your product tosomeone else's.
If we are looking at a salespage or sales funnel, they
probably are evaluating andtrying to decide if your product
is going to solve their problem.
They may not be comparing it toother offers that are out there,
because maybe they aren't reallylooking at those other offers,
(08:49):
but they are trying to decide ifthis is going to be best for
them and if it's going to meettheir needs and solve their
problems.
And then the fourth stage isaction. This is where we want to
get them. This is why they aremaking the purchase. They are
ready now to click that Add toCart button, but you still have
to get them from add to cart orclicking that, yes, let's do it
(09:11):
button to actually giving youtheir payment information and
finishing the checkout.
When it comes to thispsychological stages that buyers
go through, you want to makesure you're optimizing your
sales page for each stage inthat path. So when it comes to
the awareness phase, make sureyou are immediately calling out
(09:33):
the problem that your product,or your course, your membership,
whatever it is solves. You wantto immediately call that out
right at the beginning.
You also want to spend some timebuilding trust and credibility.
This is important for thatconsideration phase. You want to
really highlight what's in yourproduct or offer, but not just
(09:56):
highlighting what's in it,addressing any
hesitations,objections,questions they might have.
That's important for thedecision phase.
And then the action stage isreally all about removing
friction points, making it aseasy as possible for people to
go ahead and check out. If youhave multiple steps people have
to go through to get to thatcheckout button, see how you can
(10:18):
streamline that. Just make it aseasy as possible remove as much
friction as you can from thatpart of the process.
All right, with that customerjourney in mind, let's talk
about the five key elements thatyou need to optimize, and I'll
share some specifics for whetheryou're selling on your own site
or on a marketplace platform.
All right. First up, let's talkabout product visuals and first
(10:40):
impressions. Your product needsto pass a three second test.
Sometimes you'll hear peoplecall it a scroll test or a
caveman test. Can someoneunderstand what you're selling
within three seconds of lookingat it?
Now, three seconds isn't verylong. We can't read very much in
that time, so your productvisuals are going to be huge
(11:01):
when it comes to this. Make surethat your product mock ups or
your thumbnails, whatever imagesyou're using on the page,
instantly communicate what theproduct is. On a product listing
page, this is not where you wantto be using stock photos or
anything that doesn't reallyshow your product well.
Of course, you want to make sureyour photos are professional.
(11:23):
They're clear. They're sizedright for the platform that
you're on. If you're on amarketplace, make sure those
thumbnails look good even at thesmaller sizes, because sometimes
people won't click to blow thoseup bigger. So make sure those
thumbnails are clear even insmaller sizes.
When it comes to sales pages, ifyou've created a full sales page
on your own site, you want tomake sure that that very first
(11:44):
image they see before they startscrolling. We call that the hero
image, is a really high qualityimage, and it either shows your
product in context, if it's amore tangible thing that they're
getting. Or if it's somethingless tangible, something like a
course or a membership, makesure that the image you're
choosing and the text thataccompanies it really conveys
(12:04):
that transformation that you'repromising them.
The second major conversionfactor is how you're letting
people take a preview of yourproduct. See if you can give
people a way to try before theybuy, this really helps reduce
that purchase anxiety and makethem feel confident about what
they're buying. There are lotsof different ways to do this,
(12:25):
but essentially, you want toprovide some sort of strategic
samples that show the quality ofthe product without giving
everything away.
For a printable in somethinglike a TPT or an Etsy store, you
want to show some completedexamples of that work, or clear
previews of what they will getwhen they download. If you're
(12:45):
selling something like clip artor design elements, you want to
show close ups of the art thatthey're going to get and usage
examples. If you're showingclose ups, you can definitely
watermark them so people can'tsteal those and use them. But
you want to make sure that youare showing the quality of the
art that people are giving.
If you've got templates, maybeshow some before and after
(13:06):
examples, some examples of thetemplate by itself, but also how
it might be used for differentpeople in different
circumstances. If it's a courseor maybe a membership, offer
them a free lesson or free onelittle piece that gives them
just one aha moment, anythinglike that that you can do, lets
people see the quality of yourwork, and it helps them trust it
(13:29):
more, so they're more willing tospend money on it to get the
full thing.
All right. Next up, let's talkabout your product description.
This is somewhere that a lot ofpeople really miss out on
opportunities. So the way thatyou're describing your product,
whether it's in a productlisting or it's in a sales page,
you really need to make apsychological shift from telling
(13:50):
people what you're selling them,what is in your product, what is
in this offer, to telling themwhat they're going to get from
it. Think about the outcomes orthe benefits for your buyer.
Make sure that you areexplaining how your product is
going to solve a specificproblem. Every time that you
(14:10):
list a feature, because, yes, wedo need to list what's included,
every time you list thosefeatures, tell them why they
need this. Be thinking toyourself, what's the benefit?
What's in it for them? Why did Iinclude this feature? This can
make your product descriptions,your sales pages get kind of
long, so be sure that you'rebreaking it up with bullet
(14:31):
points or icon lists orsomething like that, so it's
easy to scan.
And as you are writing yourcopy, be thinking about the
common objections people mighthave, and go ahead and address
them. A lot of times, thefeatures we include are to fix
those objections, those Yeah,but what ifs, that people are
(14:51):
thinking. So make sure you'readdressing that when you're
naming those features or thoseparts that are included in your
offer.
Now, the longer your productlisting or your sales page gets,
the more important it is to bestrategic about how you
structure it. Make sure that youare getting that most important
information out up front. Solead with that. Be sure you're
(15:14):
including anything technicalthat matters, making sure that
that stuff is included so peopledon't purchase, and then realize
that it won't work for thembecause of some technology
things or compatibility issues,and make sure you're using
headers, you're adding in imageson sales pages, you are using
icons or bullet lists or emojis,whatever you can to really break
(15:36):
up those walls of text and makeit easier for people to read and
also to skim.
Because as important as it isthat we write these words in our
sales pages and our productlisting, people are most likely
not reading every single word,so you need to make sure that
you're laying it out to grabtheir attention and draw their
eye to the most important parts.
(15:58):
All right, fourth on my list,and this is a big one, is how
you're using your social proof.
Social proof is importantbecause it tells people without
you having to say it outright.
Other people love this, so youwill too. It's important to
think about quality versusquantity. If you're on a
marketplace, a large number ofreviews can really help, because
(16:18):
they usually have those starrating systems that are listed
right up by the product title,and if people see that you have
a 4.9 rating and you've got1000s of reviews, that makes you
look really trustworthy.
On the flip side, if they seeyou have a 5.0 rating, but only
one review that 5.0 doesn't meanvery much, because it's just one
(16:39):
person. So large numbers ofreviews can be really helpful.
If you're on a marketplace.
Within the product listingitself, on a marketplace, or
your own website shop, or ifyou're using standalone full
sales pages, the quality of thereview is a lot more important.
So when you're choosing reviewsto copy paste or to screenshot
(17:01):
to put in your sales pages, pickthose very carefully. Look for
ones that have specific results.
Look for numbers. Anytimesomeone shares a number like
this saved me four hours ofwork, or my students are scoring
20% higher on their tests.
Whatever it is, if you can findreviews with numbers, those go a
long way. So look for anythingwith numbers. Look for things
(17:24):
that have specific results thebuyer got out of your product or
your offer, or specificfeatures, things that they loved
about it.
Another thing to look for isthose objections. So if someone
says, I was worried about this,but this product addressed that
and fix it. And it was perfect,even though I was worried about
this thing. Those are reallygood ones, because chances are,
(17:47):
if that buyer had this concern,this objection, then other
buyers will too.
Think about where you're puttingsocial proof throughout your
page as well. You don't want tojust put it at the bottom. I
know typically when we're onmarketplaces, TPT, Etsy, Amazon,
everywhere, those productreviews are way down at the
bottom, and that's fine, becausesome people will go down there
(18:09):
and look for them. But thinkabout where else you can put
some social proof throughout thepage.
Use that social proof to breakup your sales pages so that
people see it as they arereading. You can also put the
social proof right next to theobjection that it addresses. If
someone talks about a certainfeature they loved, put that
(18:29):
testimonial right next to whereyou share about that feature.
And then format matters too. Soif you can, use photos or
screenshots wherever you can,because that is going to build
more trust. See, savvy buyersknow that you can type any words
you want into your descriptionor onto your sales page, but if
(18:51):
you can add a screenshot ofsomeone else's words, that
builds a little bit more trust.
When it comes to sales pages,and really, you could do this in
product listings as well. If youhave numbers of satisfied buyers
or students or members that arereally impressive, big numbers.
Use those numbers. Show those inyour sales pages. Likewise, if
(19:16):
you've got logos of people whohave a lot of respect in your
niche. Those are maybe clientsof yours or places you've been
featured, highlight those. Putthose logos on the page, and
then highlight those ratings andreviews as well.
All right, last up, let's talkabout pricing strategy. It's not
just about the number. Youreally want to price based on
(19:37):
value,according to the problemyou're solving, not just how
long it took you to create orhow many things are included in
it. When it comes to differentplatforms, if you're on a
marketplace, you probably needto compare your pricing to the
competition to make sure thatyour pricing is positioned
competitively.
(19:58):
You don't want to be thehighest, but you also don't want
to be the lowest within yourcategory of products. So look
for similar products and try toget your pricing to fall
somewhere kind of the top halfof the middle is usually a good
place to start. And then you canadjust based on your conversion
rates. When it comes to thingsthat you would be selling
(20:18):
through a custom sales page,things like courses and
memberships, you can compare.
You can look at what else is outthere, but really focus on
creating that value stack thatshows everyone what they are
getting and how much value thatis, and then comparing it to
alternatives.
So if you have a course on howto DIY something, compare the
(20:38):
price of that course to how muchit would cost to hire you or
some other professional to dothis thing for them, or how much
it would cost to figure it outon their own, because there is a
cost involved in figuring thingsout on your own without your
course. Maybe it's a time cost,not a dollar cost, but think
about that comparison framingthat you can do based on
(21:01):
whatever you are offering.
So those are the five things tooptimize. You might now kind of
be wondering, Where do I startif you sell more than one
product, which most of us do. Solet's talk about which products
to focus on first and how toprioritize. I always tell
everyone to start with the datathat you have. So look at your
(21:23):
numbers. Let that guideeverything that you do, as far
as optimizing existing products.
My recommendation is to startwith your best sellers. A lot of
people want to start with thething that's not selling at all,
but the thing is, those bestselling products have proven
demand in your market, becausepeople are buying it, and you
(21:45):
already have some momentum andare getting a lot of sales. So
the improvements you make hereare going to have a bigger
impact.
See, those best selling productsprobably already have more
traffic than the ones thataren't selling well. So if you
can increase your conversionrate by 1% on something that's
getting 1000 views a month,you're going to make more money
than if you increase by 1% onsomething that's only getting 10
(22:07):
views a month.
The other thing is, you can usethose best sellers as a good
place to test the changes thatyou're making and figure out
what works for your audiencebefore you start updating
everything. It'll be faster totest on those best sellers,
because you're getting more pageviews, and I'll talk about that
in a minute. All right, let'stalk about letting your data
And then for those products thatare needing both, my advice is
lead you.
So if you have a lot of traffic,but your conversion rate is low,
(22:32):
then you want to focus on thoseconversion elements, those key
to start with the conversionelements first, and then focus
elements that I just shared,because your goal is to get that
conversion rate up. If you havea high conversion rate but
you're not getting any traffic,then you need to leave those key
elements alone and focus onmarketing and focus on
(22:52):
optimizing for search. So lookfor the right search terms.
Start sending this product outand emails to your email list,
post about it on social, runsome ads to it wherever you're
running ads.
on the traffic, because youreally want to improve those
products, so that when you startsending a lot of traffic to it,
(23:21):
you're making the most of thattraffic. But in reality, start
with whichever one is easier foryou and whatever it is that
you're actually going to do.
Because I know sometimes when wesit down to work on conversion
elements, if that feels hard, wejust will keep putting it off
and never get it done. So if theother thing feels easier, than
go for it. The important thingis just to be making progress.
(23:44):
When you're doing this, you wantto make sure that you are
measuring your results to seewhat's working and what's not.
So document all of your beforenumbers that would be the
traffic, the conversion rate andthe price.
Test just one change at a time,if at all possible. So when
we're talking about theseconversion elements, test, one
(24:06):
change. Test, swapping out yourimages. Test, changing up your
description. Test, just onething at a time if you can,
because that's going to give youthe best data about what is
working and what's not. If youchange 10 things, then you'll at
the end of the day, know mychanges worked or my changes
didn't, but you won't know whichchanges worked and which didn't.
(24:27):
So if you can just test onething at a time and give those
changes enough time for you tocheck the after data, compare it
to the before data, and see thedifference and have reliable
data for that. So myrecommendation is that you get
at least 200 page views inbetween tests and record your
data and check it each time.
(24:48):
All right, let's talk about someaction steps. I know I have
thrown a lot at you today. WhatI want you to do now is go look
for your top three to fivesellers and run them through a
quick check of each of thosefive key conversion
elements.Check the data too, andpick the one part that seems the
weakest to improve first. Setyourself a calendar reminder to
(25:11):
review those conversion ratesagain in about 30 days, or
whenever you think you'll get200 page views, to check and see
if this has positively impactedyour conversion rates, and then
continue to make similarchanges.
Now, if you are selling onmultiple platforms, you want to
make sure you're looking at dataon each different platform,
because you might need tooptimize differently for the
(25:33):
different places that you sell.
I hope this episode has reallyshown you the power of
understanding the math behindyour digital products, and how
even a little tiny improvementin your conversion rate can
really increase your incomewithout having to create new
products or find new customers.
If you found this valuable, Iwould love for you to take a
screenshot while you'relistening to the episode. Do it
(25:56):
right now and then share it witha friend who sells digital
products too. And if you haven'talready, don't forget to hit the
follow button so you won't missnext week's episode. Thank you
so much for listening, and I'llcatch you next time!
What if I told you that no matter what you're
selling, doubling your salesdoesn't always require finding
new customers or launching newproducts. Over the years, I have
helped 1000s of business ownersimprove their SEO and drive more
traffic to their products.
But there's something equallyimportant that a lot of my
(00:21):
students and my clients need tofocus on, and that is conversion
rate optimization. Because let'sface it, all the traffic in the
world will not increase yourearnings if your sales page or
your product listing doesn'tconvince those visitors to turn
into buyers.
(00:41):
In today's episode, I am sharingthe math formula behind your
product's success and how tocalculate and improve those
conversion rates, whether you'reselling in simple product
listings in a shop or amarketplace like TPT or Etsy, or
you have custom sales pages andfull fledged funnels for bigger
offers. Plus, I'll help youfigure out what to prioritize
(01:04):
first when you're ready to startmaking improvements.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
(01:24):
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
(01:49):
First up, let's make sure we areall on the same page about what
a conversion rate actually is.
Really quickly, your conversionrate is the percentage of
visitors who take a desiredaction. In this case, we're
talking about purchasing yourproduct or your offer.
If 100 people view your productpage and two of them buy that's
a 2% conversion rate. Simpleenough. But the reason that this
(02:13):
is so important is that boostingyour conversion rate from 2% to
4% literally doubles your salesfrom the exact same amount of
traffic.
That's why I get so excitedabout conversion optimization.
It's like finding money hidingin plain sight because you've
already done all the hard work.
You made the product, you listedit on the platform, or you
(02:34):
posted it on your own website,and now you have an opportunity
to get it selling better.
You might be wondering whatcounts as a good conversion
rate, or how to know if yourproducts have room for
improvement, and we'll getthere. But let's start with that
math formula first. So there isa really simple equation behind
(02:54):
every single digital productsuccess and the income that
you're earning from it. It'sjust traffic times conversion
rate times price, equals yourincome or your revenue.
So traffic refers to the numberof people that are viewing your
sales page. You'll probably seethis listed as page views in the
analytics on your website, yourmarketplace platform, or even
(03:17):
just in Google Analytics.
Conversion rate is thatpercentage of people who see the
page and then actually buy andthen the price, of course, is
how much you're selling it for.
So if we look at that examplethat I shared earlier, if you
get 100 page views with a 2%conversion rate and it's a $10
product, then you make $20. Themath is just 100 times 2% times
(03:41):
$10 equals $20. Super simple. Ifyou improve any one of those
numbers on the front end of thatequation, then obviously the
number on the back end of theequation is going to grow.
So if you increase your traffic,your revenue grows. If you
increase your conversion rate,the revenue grows. If you
increase your price, the revenuegrows. If you improve on all
(04:05):
three, then you see massivegrowth in your business. The
goal is to be able to increaseall of them, or at least find
that perfect price and thenincrease your traffic and
conversion rates.
Now today, we are focusing onthat middle piece, the
conversion rate, because it'ssomething that a lot of people
forget about, and it can offersome really quick wins. See, it
(04:28):
is, in some cases, a lot harderto get more traffic to your
product than it is to improveconversions from the traffic
that's already there.
So if you can take thatconversion rate and increase it
from 2% to 4% now you're gettingfour purchases for every 100
page views, and your income is$40 for every 100 page views
instead of 20. Now, obviouslyI'm using easy numbers, but
(04:50):
imagine where that goes if youhave 1000s of page views or an
even higher conversion rate.
Alright, so let's talk aboutwhat counts as a good conversion
rate. On average, digitalproduct, conversion rates
typically fall between two to 3%for most online sales. So if
you're selling in your own storeor you have a full sales page or
(05:11):
a sales funnel, that's a goodbenchmark to use for those
areas. But marketplace platformslike TPT and Etsy usually see a
little bit higher conversionrates.
The theory is, this is becauseof two things. First of all,
people who come to a marketplaceplatform are already shopping.
So there's that buyer intent tomake a purchase. They're just
(05:33):
trying to decide which productthey're going to buy.
The other thing is, there issome built in trust as far as
knowing that their paymentinformation is secure, knowing
how they're going to access theproduct after buying, knowing
that a product has gotten lotsand lots of positive buyer
reviews in the past. Sotypically, if you're selling on
(05:54):
somewhere like Etsy or TeachersPay Teachers or some other
marketplace, you will see alittle bit higher conversion
rates on average.
So your benchmarks to look foron Etsy are around three to 5%
and on Teachers Pay Teachersaround 4 to 7%. Now I know I
just shared some benchmarks foryou to use as goals, but really
(06:14):
the most important metric foryou, as you're working on your
own conversion rates isn't tocompare to averages outside of
your own business, averages forother people's businesses,
averages in a marketplace. Itreally is to focus on your own
conversion rate average andfocus on improving your own
numbers, not just trying toreach arbitrary numbers that
(06:37):
somebody else told you are rightor best
All right, so now that weunderstand the math, let's take
a look at the customerpsychology that gets people to
make a purchase. Because inorder to increase your
conversion rate, you have toknow what this buyer psychology
kind of path is, and be able toaddress the issues at each
(06:59):
stage, depending on where peopleare when they find your product,
right?
So there are four stages,psychological stages that buyers
go through before they make apurchase. The very first stage
is called awareness, and this iswhere the buyer knows that they
have a problem. They recognizethat this is an issue, and they
(07:20):
want to solve it.
A lot of times when you'reselling something, maybe through
Facebook ads, or you're sendingout email campaigns to people
who haven't actively sought outa solution that you offer. A lot
of times those people are inthis awareness stage, you're
hoping to catch the people whoknow they've got a problem, or
maybe they just need to betriggered to remember that they
(07:42):
have a problem, and then you canstart selling to them.
The second phase is calledconsideration. This is where
people already know they've gota problem. They recognize it,
they know they want a solution,and they're in the phase of
starting to look for thatsolution, or compare the
different possible solutionsthat are out there.
This is typically where peoplestart when you are selling in a
(08:06):
marketplace platform, because,like I said earlier, those
people are already buyers.
They're in that shopping modewhere they are looking for a
solution when they go to thatmarketplace.
The third phase is decision.
This is where people have lookedthrough lots of possible
solutions, and they're workingon narrowing down and making the
best choice for them. If we aretalking about a marketplace
(08:28):
that's a little easier tounderstand, because they might
be comparing your product tosomeone else's.
If we are looking at a salespage or sales funnel, they
probably are evaluating andtrying to decide if your product
is going to solve their problem.
They may not be comparing it toother offers that are out there,
because maybe they aren't reallylooking at those other offers,
(08:49):
but they are trying to decide ifthis is going to be best for
them and if it's going to meettheir needs and solve their
problems.
And then the fourth stage isaction. This is where we want to
get them. This is why they aremaking the purchase. They are
ready now to click that Add toCart button, but you still have
to get them from add to cart orclicking that, yes, let's do it
(09:11):
button to actually giving youtheir payment information and
finishing the checkout.
When it comes to thispsychological stages that buyers
go through, you want to makesure you're optimizing your
sales page for each stage inthat path. So when it comes to
the awareness phase, make sureyou are immediately calling out
(09:33):
the problem that your product,or your course, your membership,
whatever it is solves. You wantto immediately call that out
right at the beginning.
You also want to spend some timebuilding trust and credibility.
This is important for thatconsideration phase. You want to
really highlight what's in yourproduct or offer, but not just
(09:56):
highlighting what's in it,addressing any
hesitations,objections,questions they might have.
That's important for thedecision phase.
And then the action stage isreally all about removing
friction points, making it aseasy as possible for people to
go ahead and check out. If youhave multiple steps people have
to go through to get to thatcheckout button, see how you can
(10:18):
streamline that. Just make it aseasy as possible remove as much
friction as you can from thatpart of the process.
All right, with that customerjourney in mind, let's talk
about the five key elements thatyou need to optimize, and I'll
share some specifics for whetheryou're selling on your own site
or on a marketplace platform.
All right. First up, let's talkabout product visuals and first
(10:40):
impressions. Your product needsto pass a three second test.
Sometimes you'll hear peoplecall it a scroll test or a
caveman test. Can someoneunderstand what you're selling
within three seconds of lookingat it?
Now, three seconds isn't verylong. We can't read very much in
that time, so your productvisuals are going to be huge
(11:01):
when it comes to this. Make surethat your product mock ups or
your thumbnails, whatever imagesyou're using on the page,
instantly communicate what theproduct is. On a product listing
page, this is not where you wantto be using stock photos or
anything that doesn't reallyshow your product well.
Of course, you want to make sureyour photos are professional.
(11:23):
They're clear. They're sizedright for the platform that
you're on. If you're on amarketplace, make sure those
thumbnails look good even at thesmaller sizes, because sometimes
people won't click to blow thoseup bigger. So make sure those
thumbnails are clear even insmaller sizes.
When it comes to sales pages, ifyou've created a full sales page
on your own site, you want tomake sure that that very first
(11:44):
image they see before they startscrolling. We call that the hero
image, is a really high qualityimage, and it either shows your
product in context, if it's amore tangible thing that they're
getting. Or if it's somethingless tangible, something like a
course or a membership, makesure that the image you're
choosing and the text thataccompanies it really conveys
(12:04):
that transformation that you'repromising them.
The second major conversionfactor is how you're letting
people take a preview of yourproduct. See if you can give
people a way to try before theybuy, this really helps reduce
that purchase anxiety and makethem feel confident about what
they're buying. There are lotsof different ways to do this,
(12:25):
but essentially, you want toprovide some sort of strategic
samples that show the quality ofthe product without giving
everything away.
For a printable in somethinglike a TPT or an Etsy store, you
want to show some completedexamples of that work, or clear
previews of what they will getwhen they download. If you're
(12:45):
selling something like clip artor design elements, you want to
show close ups of the art thatthey're going to get and usage
examples. If you're showingclose ups, you can definitely
watermark them so people can'tsteal those and use them. But
you want to make sure that youare showing the quality of the
art that people are giving.
If you've got templates, maybeshow some before and after
(13:06):
examples, some examples of thetemplate by itself, but also how
it might be used for differentpeople in different
circumstances. If it's a courseor maybe a membership, offer
them a free lesson or free onelittle piece that gives them
just one aha moment, anythinglike that that you can do, lets
people see the quality of yourwork, and it helps them trust it
(13:29):
more, so they're more willing tospend money on it to get the
full thing.
All right. Next up, let's talkabout your product description.
This is somewhere that a lot ofpeople really miss out on
opportunities. So the way thatyou're describing your product,
whether it's in a productlisting or it's in a sales page,
you really need to make apsychological shift from telling
(13:50):
people what you're selling them,what is in your product, what is
in this offer, to telling themwhat they're going to get from
it. Think about the outcomes orthe benefits for your buyer.
Make sure that you areexplaining how your product is
going to solve a specificproblem. Every time that you
(14:10):
list a feature, because, yes, wedo need to list what's included,
every time you list thosefeatures, tell them why they
need this. Be thinking toyourself, what's the benefit?
What's in it for them? Why did Iinclude this feature? This can
make your product descriptions,your sales pages get kind of
long, so be sure that you'rebreaking it up with bullet
(14:31):
points or icon lists orsomething like that, so it's
easy to scan.
And as you are writing yourcopy, be thinking about the
common objections people mighthave, and go ahead and address
them. A lot of times, thefeatures we include are to fix
those objections, those Yeah,but what ifs, that people are
(14:51):
thinking. So make sure you'readdressing that when you're
naming those features or thoseparts that are included in your
offer.
Now, the longer your productlisting or your sales page gets,
the more important it is to bestrategic about how you
structure it. Make sure that youare getting that most important
information out up front. Solead with that. Be sure you're
(15:14):
including anything technicalthat matters, making sure that
that stuff is included so peopledon't purchase, and then realize
that it won't work for thembecause of some technology
things or compatibility issues,and make sure you're using
headers, you're adding in imageson sales pages, you are using
icons or bullet lists or emojis,whatever you can to really break
(15:36):
up those walls of text and makeit easier for people to read and
also to skim.
Because as important as it isthat we write these words in our
sales pages and our productlisting, people are most likely
not reading every single word,so you need to make sure that
you're laying it out to grabtheir attention and draw their
eye to the most important parts.
(15:58):
All right, fourth on my list,and this is a big one, is how
you're using your social proof.
Social proof is importantbecause it tells people without
you having to say it outright.
Other people love this, so youwill too. It's important to
think about quality versusquantity. If you're on a
marketplace, a large number ofreviews can really help, because
(16:18):
they usually have those starrating systems that are listed
right up by the product title,and if people see that you have
a 4.9 rating and you've got1000s of reviews, that makes you
look really trustworthy.
On the flip side, if they seeyou have a 5.0 rating, but only
one review that 5.0 doesn't meanvery much, because it's just one
(16:39):
person. So large numbers ofreviews can be really helpful.
If you're on a marketplace.
Within the product listingitself, on a marketplace, or
your own website shop, or ifyou're using standalone full
sales pages, the quality of thereview is a lot more important.
So when you're choosing reviewsto copy paste or to screenshot
(17:01):
to put in your sales pages, pickthose very carefully. Look for
ones that have specific results.
Look for numbers. Anytimesomeone shares a number like
this saved me four hours ofwork, or my students are scoring
20% higher on their tests.
Whatever it is, if you can findreviews with numbers, those go a
long way. So look for anythingwith numbers. Look for things
(17:24):
that have specific results thebuyer got out of your product or
your offer, or specificfeatures, things that they loved
about it.
Another thing to look for isthose objections. So if someone
says, I was worried about this,but this product addressed that
and fix it. And it was perfect,even though I was worried about
this thing. Those are reallygood ones, because chances are,
(17:47):
if that buyer had this concern,this objection, then other
buyers will too.
Think about where you're puttingsocial proof throughout your
page as well. You don't want tojust put it at the bottom. I
know typically when we're onmarketplaces, TPT, Etsy, Amazon,
everywhere, those productreviews are way down at the
bottom, and that's fine, becausesome people will go down there
(18:09):
and look for them. But thinkabout where else you can put
some social proof throughout thepage.
Use that social proof to breakup your sales pages so that
people see it as they arereading. You can also put the
social proof right next to theobjection that it addresses. If
someone talks about a certainfeature they loved, put that
(18:29):
testimonial right next to whereyou share about that feature.
And then format matters too. Soif you can, use photos or
screenshots wherever you can,because that is going to build
more trust. See, savvy buyersknow that you can type any words
you want into your descriptionor onto your sales page, but if
(18:51):
you can add a screenshot ofsomeone else's words, that
builds a little bit more trust.
When it comes to sales pages,and really, you could do this in
product listings as well. If youhave numbers of satisfied buyers
or students or members that arereally impressive, big numbers.
Use those numbers. Show those inyour sales pages. Likewise, if
(19:16):
you've got logos of people whohave a lot of respect in your
niche. Those are maybe clientsof yours or places you've been
featured, highlight those. Putthose logos on the page, and
then highlight those ratings andreviews as well.
All right, last up, let's talkabout pricing strategy. It's not
just about the number. Youreally want to price based on
(19:37):
value,according to the problemyou're solving, not just how
long it took you to create orhow many things are included in
it. When it comes to differentplatforms, if you're on a
marketplace, you probably needto compare your pricing to the
competition to make sure thatyour pricing is positioned
competitively.
(19:58):
You don't want to be thehighest, but you also don't want
to be the lowest within yourcategory of products. So look
for similar products and try toget your pricing to fall
somewhere kind of the top halfof the middle is usually a good
place to start. And then you canadjust based on your conversion
rates. When it comes to thingsthat you would be selling
(20:18):
through a custom sales page,things like courses and
memberships, you can compare.
You can look at what else is outthere, but really focus on
creating that value stack thatshows everyone what they are
getting and how much value thatis, and then comparing it to
alternatives.
So if you have a course on howto DIY something, compare the
(20:38):
price of that course to how muchit would cost to hire you or
some other professional to dothis thing for them, or how much
it would cost to figure it outon their own, because there is a
cost involved in figuring thingsout on your own without your
course. Maybe it's a time cost,not a dollar cost, but think
about that comparison framingthat you can do based on
(21:01):
whatever you are offering.
So those are the five things tooptimize. You might now kind of
be wondering, Where do I startif you sell more than one
product, which most of us do. Solet's talk about which products
to focus on first and how toprioritize. I always tell
everyone to start with the datathat you have. So look at your
(21:23):
numbers. Let that guideeverything that you do, as far
as optimizing existing products.
My recommendation is to startwith your best sellers. A lot of
people want to start with thething that's not selling at all,
but the thing is, those bestselling products have proven
demand in your market, becausepeople are buying it, and you
(21:45):
already have some momentum andare getting a lot of sales. So
the improvements you make hereare going to have a bigger
impact.
See, those best selling productsprobably already have more
traffic than the ones thataren't selling well. So if you
can increase your conversionrate by 1% on something that's
getting 1000 views a month,you're going to make more money
than if you increase by 1% onsomething that's only getting 10
(22:07):
views a month.
The other thing is, you can usethose best sellers as a good
place to test the changes thatyou're making and figure out
what works for your audiencebefore you start updating
everything. It'll be faster totest on those best sellers,
because you're getting more pageviews, and I'll talk about that
in a minute. All right, let'stalk about letting your data
And then for those products thatare needing both, my advice is
lead you.
So if you have a lot of traffic,but your conversion rate is low,
(22:32):
then you want to focus on thoseconversion elements, those key
to start with the conversionelements first, and then focus
elements that I just shared,because your goal is to get that
conversion rate up. If you havea high conversion rate but
you're not getting any traffic,then you need to leave those key
elements alone and focus onmarketing and focus on
(22:52):
optimizing for search. So lookfor the right search terms.
Start sending this product outand emails to your email list,
post about it on social, runsome ads to it wherever you're
running ads.
on the traffic, because youreally want to improve those
products, so that when you startsending a lot of traffic to it,
(23:21):
you're making the most of thattraffic. But in reality, start
with whichever one is easier foryou and whatever it is that
you're actually going to do.
Because I know sometimes when wesit down to work on conversion
elements, if that feels hard, wejust will keep putting it off
and never get it done. So if theother thing feels easier, than
go for it. The important thingis just to be making progress.
(23:44):
When you're doing this, you wantto make sure that you are
measuring your results to seewhat's working and what's not.
So document all of your beforenumbers that would be the
traffic, the conversion rate andthe price.
Test just one change at a time,if at all possible. So when
we're talking about theseconversion elements, test, one
(24:06):
change. Test, swapping out yourimages. Test, changing up your
description. Test, just onething at a time if you can,
because that's going to give youthe best data about what is
working and what's not. If youchange 10 things, then you'll at
the end of the day, know mychanges worked or my changes
didn't, but you won't know whichchanges worked and which didn't.
(24:27):
So if you can just test onething at a time and give those
changes enough time for you tocheck the after data, compare it
to the before data, and see thedifference and have reliable
data for that. So myrecommendation is that you get
at least 200 page views inbetween tests and record your
data and check it each time.
(24:48):
All right, let's talk about someaction steps. I know I have
thrown a lot at you today. WhatI want you to do now is go look
for your top three to fivesellers and run them through a
quick check of each of thosefive key conversion
elements.Check the data too, andpick the one part that seems the
weakest to improve first. Setyourself a calendar reminder to
(25:11):
review those conversion ratesagain in about 30 days, or
whenever you think you'll get200 page views, to check and see
if this has positively impactedyour conversion rates, and then
continue to make similarchanges.
Now, if you are selling onmultiple platforms, you want to
make sure you're looking at dataon each different platform,
because you might need tooptimize differently for the
(25:33):
different places that you sell.
I hope this episode has reallyshown you the power of
understanding the math behindyour digital products, and how
even a little tiny improvementin your conversion rate can
really increase your incomewithout having to create new
products or find new customers.
If you found this valuable, Iwould love for you to take a
screenshot while you'relistening to the episode. Do it
(25:56):
right now and then share it witha friend who sells digital
products too. And if you haven'talready, don't forget to hit the
follow button so you won't missnext week's episode. Thank you
so much for listening, and I'llcatch you next time!
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