Why Your Sales Page Isn't Converting (And How to Fix It Fast)
Wanna listen in on the exact podcast episode that accompanies this blog post? You can do that here, or wherever you get your podcasts. Read on for the exact steps to audit your sales page.
Sometimes content's not the problem.
If you've been posting great content, getting clicks to your sales page, and you're still not seeing the results you expected, I want you to hear this. The problem might not be your content. It might be the page you're sending people to.
And the good news is you can fix that a lot faster than you think.
If you're getting okay conversions on your sales page, if you do this audit and implement the changes, they could easily double.
Today we're digging into a piece of your business that can have a huge impact on your sales, your confidence, and your momentum as an educator. We're talking about optimizing your sales page for online courses, workshops, coaching offers, and education programs.
What You'll Learn:
How to audit your existing sales page for conversion problems
Why your first headline matters more than anything else
The difference between features and benefits (and why people aren't buying)
How to optimize your sales page for mobile users
The 3-step framework to increase conversions fast
When to Focus on Your Sales Page (Not Your Content)
If you've been inside Sought After Educator, you already know how important this is. And if you've been following along, you know that we've spent a lot of time on solving the right problem in the right order.
If you have identified that the fall off on your sales page is where the problem lies, or if you've been sending a ton of traffic to your website and you're still not getting sales, that is a good indicator that this is where you wanna look.
If you're directing people to a sales page, whether that is for a course, a workshop, a retreat, a membership, a live class, or a coaching offer, this is gonna help you ensure that when someone clicks over, the experience aligns with the promise you're already making in your content.
Because if your content is strong but your conversion point is weak or it feels misaligned, then you're gonna start to get that nagging feeling that nothing is working. You may start to feel that urge to burn it all to the ground. However, it may not be necessary.
Inside Sought After Educator Accelerator, we talk about this constantly: When visibility is happening but results aren't, the problem is almost always at the convert stage.
Why Sales Pages Matter for Educators
This is one of the most important skills for independent educators because you're not just selling an appointment. You are selling a transformation. You're selling a journey, and your sales page needs to clearly reflect that.
A while back I had Bailey from Honey We Creative (who is a web designer) on the show, and we talked about what makes a high converting website. One thing she said, and something I teach, is that copy comes first. Content is the messenger and design enhances it.
Today I'm gonna dive deeper into that copy and the structure side to help you optimize what you already have. Take notes, because if you apply what you learn here, it genuinely changes how your pages perform.
We don't always need a full rewrite. Sometimes after you read this post, you'll realize you definitely do need a full rewrite. But we can almost always optimize what's already there so it does a little better.
Step 1: Fix What People See in the First 2 Seconds (Above the Fold)
This could be one of the most important pieces. What someone sees the moment they click over to your sales page.
Think about the client journey using the awareness, consideration, decision framework. If someone is clicking from social media, they're usually between awareness and consideration. Your content has activated interest, they wanna know more, and your sales page has one job: help them complete the move into decision.
When you are posting great content and you're speaking to their identity, their struggles, their desires, they know that you understand their problem and could potentially help them solve it. That's when someone is going to click the link or comment the keyword and wanna find out more.
What they see in that first two seconds determines whether they stay or leave.
If they aren't instantly confident that they're in the right place, they'll bounce.
The Biggest Mistake Educators Make Above the Fold
One of the most common mistakes I see is using that first section simply to announce the name of your program or the title of your workshop.
Unless your offer name is extremely descriptive and your audience is already really familiar with it, that approach may not be the best one.
Instead, your first headline should call out:
The overall outcome
The identity shift
The core desire
It should answer the question: What's in it for me?
Right under that headline should be a clear call to action. If you don't have room for a button above the fold (and when I say above the fold, I mean what you see when you don't have to scroll at all), at least use a visual cue. Something as simple as an arrow that encourages them to scroll can definitely work.
Step 2: Optimize Your Headlines (This Is Where 80% of Your Time Should Go)
Headlines are the most important part of your sales page. You should spend around 80% of your time on them.
Here's why: people are going to skim the page. Different buyer types are going to skim the page. You might have people who skim and then go back and read the copy in between. Or you might have people that just skim all the way down the page until they see the thing that they want to see.
Most of them are still gonna read those headlines. You can think of them almost like a speed bump. The headlines are that bigger copy.
What I see a lot is people will say things like "Here's the thing" as their headline. But that is wasting that super valuable real estate.
What Your Headlines Need to Do
Your headlines need to do two things:
1. Tell the full story of the page. Think of your headlines as giving the cliff notes version.
2. Make the reader want to read the text underneath. Each section's main job is to pull them deeper.
The Sales Page Headline Audit
Before you go deeper into editing your sales page, do a quick Sought After Educator style audit.
Pull up the page and ignore everything except the headlines. When you do that:
Does it make sense?
Does it tell a story?
Does it reflect your method, your promise, your transformation?
Does it feel like a journey?
If not, then that could be the problem. And that would almost certainly be the problem if you are getting traffic to that page but you're not getting any conversions or any conversations.
This applies whether you're an educator selling a workshop, an online course, an in-person training, or a coaching container.
Two Types of Headlines for Sales Pages
Inside the Sought After Educator Accelerator, there are two kinds of headlines you'll see often:
Functional headlines are things like "What You'll Learn" or "What's Included." These don't typically move people forward.
Conversion headlines reflect the deeper benefit of that section. If you can get a little more creative, it's definitely beneficial.
There are times on a sales page where you will likely need functional headlines as well. Headlines are both copy and design. They break up text and they guide the reader. They help people who are already kind of interested become people who are ready to make a decision.
Think about a sales page as a stand-in for a sales conversation or a sales call. If you can think of it from that perspective, then it's going to give you a lot more of an indication of what needs to be on that page. What do people need to know in order to facilitate a decision?
The goal is that they help people who are already kind of interested become people who are ready to make a move. They also support decision phase momentum, that internal feeling of "this is for me" that carries them from section to section.
Spoiler alert: The first section that I teach inside of the Sought After Educator Accelerator for your sales page is called "Make Them Feel Seen." That is vital, and I'll die on this hill. You need to understand your customer to a point where you will be able to make them feel seen in order to deliver really powerful education.
Why Mobile Optimization Actually Matters for Course Sales
Here's something most people miss: Make your calls to action direct and simple. CTAs like "Join Now," "Enroll Today," "Book Your Spot," or "Start the Trial" are clear. "Get it for $27" if you have a low ticket offer can work really well. They help people know what to do without having to think too hard about it.
Remember: nearly everyone who is viewing your page is viewing it from their phone, especially if you are marketing on social media predominantly.
Kajabi or Squarespace (both platforms that I use, Kajabi is my preference probably just because of the data reading) will technically optimize for mobile. They'll technically do it, but that doesn't mean the experience supports conversion.
A page that looks beautiful on desktop can be a confusing, scroll stopping dead end on your cell phone.
Make sure you check your pages from your phone. Both of those platforms allow you to edit on the mobile experience. I recommend that you go through and manually optimize those things to make sure it's all working together and it's all cohesive and it all makes sense.
Step 3: Stop Listing Features and Start Explaining Benefits
A lot of educators will say things like "people aren't buying courses anymore" or "nobody wants to pay for education right now."
I can tell you confidently from working inside the industry every single day: people are buying education. They're buying a lot of education.
One of my clients actually just sold 10 spots in her program that doesn't even start until January. Just in this past week. She is half sold out of her presale spots in a really short period of time.
What people are not buying is an unclear offer, an unclear promise, or an unclear transformation.
What's the Difference Between Features and Benefits?
A feature is what something is.
A benefit is why it matters.
Educators love to list features because we understand why we created things the way that we did. We understand why the amount of calls matters, why the modules matter, why the lessons matter, why the bonuses matter. But our audiences don't typically care until they understand:
Why should I care?
How does that help me?
How does that make my life easier?
How does that move me toward my outcome?
Do you wanna include the features? Yes, absolutely. Particularly for analytical buyer types. They wanna know every single thing that is included. But we need to communicate the benefit.
I want you to think about why every single part of your program exists. When you're auditing your sales page, make sure you're not just listing what's inside your offer. Explain why it matters.
Inside of the Sought After Educator Accelerator, this is an exercise that we do. I teach a simple feature to benefit formula that helps you explain why it matters and why it exists.
Your Sales Page Audit Checklist
Let's recap the full order when it comes to your audit:
Step 1: The First Screen
Does your headline call out the outcome, desire, or identity shift?
Is there a clear CTA above the fold (or at least a visual cue)?
Does it look good and make sense on mobile?
Step 2: The Headlines
Do they tell the full story when read alone?
Do they guide the reader down the page?
Are they conversion-focused (not just functional)?
Step 3: Features and Benefits
Are you explaining why each part of your offer matters?
Have you connected features to outcomes?
Does it answer "what's in it for me?" throughout?
When you implement this, you will see your conversion shift if your messaging is on point, because you are going to be solving that problem in the right order.
Want someone to hold your hand through all of this? Check out Sought After Educator where we walk through sales page templates, copy formulas, and conversion optimization together.
If you enjoyed this post, let me know by sending me a DM on Instagram @itsjodiebrown and tell me what you want to hear about in future posts.
Want more strategies like this? Subscribe to The Sought After Educator Podcast wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.
