5 Common Sales Page Mistakes & How To Fix Them

If you do any amount of business online, then chances are you’ve utilized a sales page before. Maybe you’ve created it yourself from scratch, you’ve hired a copywriter and DIY’d the design (or vice versa) or you’ve gotten really fancy and hired out the entire process.

No matter what route you take, sales pages have one singular goal – to sell! This could mean selling a product, selling a service, or even building your email list through an opt-in page. So clearly, if your sales page isn’t making sales for you, that can be pretty frustrating.

Here at Specht & Co. we design and review lots of sales pages for our clients, so we know a thing or two about what makes a sales page effective, as well as what some of the most common pitfalls are when it comes to sales page design.

Today we’re going to chat through the five most common sales page mistakes we see, and how you can fix them with ease. Let’s dive in!

Branding

Mistake: Sales page uses colors, fonts, and imagery that is different from your business’ overall brand

Fix: Use your brand colors, fonts, and images on your sales page 

Too often we see sales pages using branding that is completely different from the businesses “main” branding, and this can create a huge disconnect. If you’ve read any of our other blog posts, you know that the key to effective branding is consistency. When your brand looks the same on all platforms (including sales pages) it allows you to build brand recognition and helps your audience to trust your brand and business.

If your sales page looks completely different from your website, social media, etc. you run the risk of confusing your audience when they land on your page, because they’re unsure if they’re in the right place or if the sales page is actually associated with you and your business.

For best results, we always recommend using your brand colors, fonts, imagery, and overall design style on all sales pages you create for your business. Plus, you’ll save yourself a ton of time by not reinventing the wheel each time you design a new sales page.

Page Layout

Mistake: Sales page looks cluttered and is not easily scannable

Fix: Use plenty of white space and break up the page into sections

We’re going to start this one out with a few statistics:

• Users spend an average of 54 seconds on any single web page

• The average reader can read between 200 and 300 words per minute

• The average sales page contains anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 words

This means that on average, someone who lands on your sales page will only read between 4% and 12% of your copy before deciding whether they’ll stay on the page or leave.

Designing your sales page in a way that’s easy to scan quickly will help maximize those 54 seconds, and increase the likelihood that users will be intrigued enough to continue reading the rest of the page (and ultimately take action).

You can do this by utilizing clear headlines, bulleted lists, icons, etc. and avoiding large blocks of text that can be cumbersome and difficult to digest.

Imagery

Mistake: Using overly generic stock photos

Fix: Use custom brand photos or carefully curated stock photos

You might be surprised to hear that in my opinion, the best investment you can make in your visual brand is not in a fancy logo design, but in a quality set of custom brand photos. Having polished, professional, and on-brand photos is one of the easiest ways to elevate your brand and connect with your audience. As such, we always recommend that our branding clients at Specht & Co. invest in a brand photoshoot if possible.

This same principle applies to sales pages. Your audience can spot cheesy, generic stock photography a mile away and to be frank, using these types of photos can really erode your credibility.

We understand that not every business owner is in a position to invest in a brand photoshoot, and that’s totally fine! You can achieve the same result by carefully selecting stock photos that fit with your brand visuals, are related to your offering, and connect with your ideal audience. When souring stock photos for our clients, we typically use Creative Market or Shutterstock, but there are plenty of stock photo sites that will yield great results.

CTA’s

Mistake: CTA’s are difficult to find and/or read on the page

Fix: Place multiple CTA’s on the page in colors that stand out and fonts that are easy to read

The entire goal of a sales page is to compel your audience to take an action, whether that’s to purchase a product, enroll in a program, or opt in to an email list. As such, effective use of CTA's or calls-to-action is vital when designing your page!

There are three simple keys to effectively using CTA’s on your website:

1. Use CTA’s in colors that contrast from the page background

2. Use fonts that are easy to read

3. Place multiple CTA’s down the page with at least one above the fold (top section of page)

Following these three tips will ensure that your audience knows exactly what to do in order to take action on your page, and help increase conversion (aka make more sales!)

Tech

Mistake: Sales page is not optimized for mobile

Fix: Test your sales page on multiple devices

I would hope that by now this one is pretty obvious, but time and time again we see sales pages that don’t work properly on mobile devices. Unfortunately, these people are unknowingly missing out on a ton of sales, opt-ins, and conversions. We both know that’s not what you want!

Over 50% of website visits and over 40% of online purchases happen on mobile devices as of 2023. That’s a lot of web traffic. As such, it’s vitally important that your sales page looks nice, loads quickly, and functions properly on mobile devices to include cell phones and tablets.

Before you publish your sales page, we recommend that you test it on a minimum of one computer, one mobile phone, and one tablet. Bonus points if you’re able to test on both Apple and Android devices. Doing so will ensure that your sales page looks beautiful and is user friendly no matter how your audience chooses to access it.

So there you have it, our five most common sales page mistakes AND what you can do to fix them! To recap, they are:

1. Using colors, fonts, and imagery that is inconsistent with your brand

2. Using a layout that is cluttered and not easily scannable

3. Using cheesy, overly generic photos

4. Using CTA’s that are difficult to find and/or read on the page

5. Not optimizing your sales page for mobile devices

If you’ve run into any of these problems with your sales page, you can use the fixes listed above to quickly and easily improve the design of your page, and in turn make more sales! 

If you’d like a second set of eyes on your sales page, book a brand audit! We will review your brand, website, social media presence, and any sales page through our expert lens and provide actionable feedback to help you improve!

And if after reading this post, you’ve decided that you’d really just rather not design your own sales page, consider booking a Designer Day! We can knock out a beautiful, strategically designed sales page in just one day!