Four Tips to Help you Build Stronger Pricing Pages

We've said this many times on this blog. We emphasize it because it's true. Turning a website reader into a buyer is a challenge. And you need every part of your online marketing to serve the purpose of helping you meet that challenge. Any part that doesn't help you meet it, or worse, keeps you from meeting it, needs to either be fixed or scrapped.

If you run an online store, one part of your marketing that you need to be “spot on” is your pricing page. Think about it: if readers make it to your pricing page, they've probably made it a few steps up the conversion ladder.

They're probably at least somewhat interested in buying from you. If your pricing page persuades them to click through to your landing page, there's a very good chance they will become your next customer.

But, if your pricing page does its job poorly, it will cost you sale after sale after sale. So please make sure your pricing page is “dialed in”. In this article, we will offer you some useful, actionable tips to help you do that.

You will notice that we deal with pricing page issues that don't necessarily relate directly to price itself, but do have an effect on customers' decision to buy, and on your ultimate conversion rate.

“The online marketing process is fragile”

1. Deal Preemptively with Objections Your Potential Buyers Are Likely to Have

When someone is on the verge of taking his credit card out of his wallet to buy, chances are he's feeling some anxiety and tension. Chances are he's got some doubts. He may be having second thoughts about buying from you, and you can bet he has questions.

Objections are a common part of the sales process. And it's no different online. But online marketing is different than in-person sales; your prospect usually doesn't tell you his objections directly. He may search your FAQ page for an answer. He may contact support. But he may give into doubt and fear and just quit the process.

In that case, you both lose. So why not consider doing himself and yourself a favor and answer his objections preemptively. On your pricing page, have a list of commonly asked questions (objections) and answers to each one.  Chances are you'll save quite a few sales this way.

2. Use Your Pricing Page to Build Your Reader's Trust in you

I'm confident that by the end of today's article, you'll have reached the conclusion that your pricing page shouldn't contain only prices. Here's something it should do: It should build trust. It should work to give your potential buyer a feeling of security. How?

You could include testimonials from happy customers. Remember that your existing buyers are far more effective at persuading your potential customers than you ever could be. So harness the power of testimonials and put them to work for you on your very important pricing page.

Show that your buyers' credit card data is safe by including a symbol from a trusted security provider like Verisign. To put shoppers' minds and hearts at ease that you are a trustworthy merchant, join and display the symbol of the Better Business Bureau.

3. Keep Your Pricing Page Simple, Clean and Uncluttered

This is critical. As we've said so often on this blog “Confusion kills conversions”. If a prospect makes it by choice to your pricing page, chances are he's quite interested in buying from you. But like we said a moment ago, he's probably also feeling  anxiety and tension.

Put yourself in his place for a moment, and think about this: you are asking him to open up his wallet and give you money. So given that he's feeling tension over this, he's subconsciously looking for an excuse to “hit the door”. Don't give him that excuse.

Here Are Some Ways You Can Keep Your Pricing Page Simple, Clean and Uncluttered.

A. Don't Have Too Much Pricing Page Copy. 

People, when they are on the web, tend to be busy, impatient and distracted. So here is an important rule to follow – make it easy for them to buy from you.

Don't have more pricing page copy than you need. Remember that a lot, if not most of your readers will prefer to skim your page rather than reading in depth. So make it easy to skim.

Keep your paragraphs and sentences short. Have relevant captions for your images. Use headlines, sub-headlines and calls to action. Without overdoing it, use italics and bold text to call attention to particular parts of your copy.

Take all of these steps with the goal of enabling “skimmers” to understand your message in its entirety even if they don't read all of it.

B. Make Everything About Your Pricing Plans as Simple as You Possibly Can. 

If your prospect is looking at your pricing options and scratching his head in confusion, you probably won't be making the sale. And this isn't something you want to do only with your actual pricing plans. Deliberately simplify every part of your pricing page to make it easier for your prospect to read, understand and respond to.

C. Don't Offer Your Customer Too Many Pricing Choices.

According to conversion optimization expert Brian Massey, “Choice is often an e-commerce conversion killer”. It may seem counterintuitive, but if you offer too many choices of pricing plans, you are likely to paralyze your prospect to the point where he doesn't buy. So limit the number of choices you give him.

4. Decide in Advance How you Want to Compete in Your Market. 

When putting together your pricing page, if you want to compete on price, focus on your low price by placing it in large, prominent text above your benefits and features in each price plan.

If you want to focus on overall value, benefits and so forth, put visual focus on these in a way that draws attention to them and draws attention away from your price. You may even go so far as to place your price in small font below the list of features and benefits.

Test! Test! And Test Again!

I understand how some parts of this article might seem contradictory to you.  For example, I told you to “keep your pricing page simple, clean and uncluttered”. I then suggested you add BBB and Verisign seals, a list of possible objections and answers, testimonials, and so on.

I believe you can do all of these while still keeping your pricing page simple. Alter and test it routinely and thoroughly. Keep what works. Get rid of what doesn't.

If you are running an e-commerce store, your pricing page play a vital role in your online sales process. It's usually the last page your customer sees before he clicks through to your landing page. Or if it's set up poorly, it may be the last page he sees before he leaves your site in frustration.

So do your pricing page right. It will help you develop some powerful persuasion momentum that could indeed help you make the sale!

When you've succeeded at getting potential buyers to click through from your pricing page to your landing page, you are almost home. But the prospect isn't yet your customer.

An Important Piece Of The Online Marketing Puzzle

Your landing page has to successfully convert him. You need great copywriting and design, and you need a compelling offer. And wouldn't it be nice if you had a landing page platform that gave you a “leg up” on your competitors?

This online marketing “unfair advantage” is available today, and it's called Lander. Not only is Lander the easiest-to-use-landing page platform in the Universe, it's engineered to help you enjoy a higher conversion rate.

You can try any of Lander's landing page templates and rate plans free of charge for up to 30 days!

Lander has over 25,000 users in over 132 countries. We'd love for you to join our large and growing family. We'd love for you to enjoy the many benefits they enjoy. So try Lander today!

Happy Marketing!