Since I teach a course teaching you how to write a better sales page, I’d thought I’d model some transparency and give you the inside track on what I think about when I write my own sales pages.

I love teaching via screencast and it’s something I do as a part of nearly all of The Voice Bureau‘s courses. And yet, this’ll be the first time I’ve ever made one for the blog! Enjoy, and after watching, be sure to let me know what questions you have in the comments.

• The most important consideration is that this page is exactly optimized for my Right Person buyer. If you want to find out more about who my brand is speaking to you, please visit my Is This You page.

• The Voice Bureau’s buyer is what can be referred to in marketing archetypes as a blend of a Methodical and Humanistic buyer type. This means that my Right Person usually thinks in a pretty linear and organized way. They love things like charts and graphs and comparison and ways to analyze, but at the same time, that’s inclination is softened by the propensity to hold a more holistic view, to want to see how all the parts fit into the whole, and to hold it all. In terms of the four elements, they’re a mix of Air and Water, so they’re open to and curious about possibilities while also being really good at flowing with what is. They tend to be Enneagram Types 1, 4, 5, and 9, and they also tend to be Myers-Briggs ‘NFs’ (mostly INFJs, INFPs, and ENFJs) and also some TJs, namely INTJ and INTP.

• I like my sales pages to have full-width columns (wherein the copy spans the entire available content area), with no sidebar.

• Use a balance of headlines, sub-headlines, bold text, italicized text, and regular paragraph text all throughout page — to give variety. Ample, appropriate use of white space breaks up the page for the eye. Choose a couple of different text styles that you consistently use throughout the page (but don’t let it be a carnival!).

• Choose a couple of fonts that are already at play in your brand or that complement your brand’s font family.

• Choose a couple of colors; these can be your brand’s signature colors (as I have on my sales page) or colors that are complementary to your brand’s signature palette that give the offer a palette of its own. If doing the latter, you would then carry these colors throughout all images and graphics associated with the course.

• Every great sales page has a balance of (1) your personal story, (2) description of where the Right Person potential buyer is at, and (3) treats the page as a resource or a teaching tool, to raise buyer awareness and provide client education. These three aims dance and waltz together throughout the page.

• Photos should help to set the mood and create the ‘world’ of this offer for site visitors — they should tie in to themes of the offer, feelings conjured, etc.

• More than just being section headers, headlines should be written to pull reader through the page (psychologically, emotionally) and signal transitions to another idea or pathway of consideration.

• Length: as long as it needs to be, and for most business owners I encounter, LONGER than you think. Studies show that long form sales pages convert better than short form ones, when everything else is equal: quality of copy, use of images, strength of the offer, price being right, etc.

Learn more about the course Writing the Conversational Sales Page.

UPDATE as of October 30th, 2014: The course is currently closed while I retool between sessions. Subscribe to the site for updates on when it’ll be re-released.

In the comments, I’d love to hear:

What’s your favorite new sales page-writing awareness from this video? What landed as a fresh insight or a-ha for you?