Saving Lost Sales and Increasing Conversion with an FAQ

Today you’ll learn how to increase your sales page conversion rates by directly addressing your visitors’ most common concerns using a FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions, section.

Why do visitors exit sales pages without buying?

Understanding the mindset of your potential customers is much easier than you think. They are looking for a way to fulfil a current need, frustration, challenge or desire, and it’s your job to communicate whether your product or service can help.

Visitors on your sales page are hoping to find the answers to the following questions:

• Will this product or service help me to achieve my goal?
• Is the price affordable?
• Do I trust this company, in terms of product quality and aftersales support?
• How will the product be delivered? Immediately via download? Shipping times?
• Am I the right type of person for this product?

If they don’t find these answers, they leave to search for a competitor that does. Today you’re going to learn how to plug these leaks and convert more of your leads to paying customers…

Using an FAQ to build trust

Before someone will buy your product, they must first know, like and trust you.

You’ll use your sales page FAQ to help visitors get to know your brand, decide whether they like your approach, and ultimately build a level trust to get out their wallet.

You can build trust by including FAQ questions about your refund policy, your aftersales support and how long you have been serving similar customers.

Using an FAQ to filter out bad customers

You don’t want every lead to become a customer, trust me!

It looks good on your revenue, but bad customers will suck a disproportionate amount of your time and resources dealing with support, refunds, disputes and chargebacks – even if your product or service is top notch. The old Pareto principle applies: 80% of your admin will come from 20% of your customers.

Use your FAQ section to filter out these bad customers. Include questions that makes it clear that your product isn’t a magic wand and requires consistent action to be effective.

Using an FAQ to set expectations

A lot of lost sales are due to uncertainty. If your visitors leave your sales page with uncertainty, you haven’t done your job.

Your FAQ should include answers about your refund policy: How long is the refund period? Are there any requirements or prerequisites for getting a refund?

You should also set expectations about the the results your customers can expect. For example, courses require consistent action and application from the customer to be truly effective. Financial products can never promise results due to market conditions and other outside factors.

Being honest, upfront and clear about what your customers can expect (and not expect!) will build trust and reduce future support headaches.

What questions should your FAQ include?

The best FAQ questions come from your customers’ own mouths.

I encourage you to have regular conversations with your leads and customers, not to discover what you are doing right, but to understand their concerns, barriers and frustrations.

There’s an art to customer conversations that goes well beyond this FAQ guide, but nothing beats answers real questions on your sales page, in the exact language of your customers!

I recommend including applicable questions from the following list in your FAQ. They are tested and proven to enhance sales pages, so please, just lift them from this post and use them yourself!

• Is [product or service] right for me?
• After I purchase [product or service], what can I expect to receive?
• Does [product or service] guarantee I’ll [expected result]?
• Will I need to download any special software?
• What is the refund policy?
• How do I cancel my [service] subscription?
• What types of payment methods are accepted?
• How do I get support after purchasing?
• Is my data secure? How will it be used?

Displaying your FAQ for maximum effect

One downside to creating a comprehensive FAQ is it can make your sales page rather long, often pushing other elements further down.

I recommend featuring long FAQ section in easily expandable elements. This allows you to write a decent answer for each question and, if you choose an SEO-friendly expand method, it can add a ton of keyword-rich content to help your sales page rank well in the organic search results.

Personally, I use Thrive Content Builder plugin to include expandable sections. They feel nicely interactive and are fully mobile responsive. Here’s an example, using a fictional product:

(When you read these, note how the answers are encouraging, friendly and relatable. Effective FAQs demonstrate a company understands the frustrations of its customers.)