Copy And

8. Writing Above the Fold Sales Page Copy That Converts

• Samantha Burmeister @ Nomad Copy • Episode 8

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How to Write Sales Pages Part 3

Think of your sales page like a newspaper stand. What your visitor sees “above the fold” is the deciding factor in whether they keep reading—or click out. In this episode, I’m breaking down how to write above the fold sales page copy so you can hook your reader, build trust, and drive action in 40 words or less.

Whether you’re writing a sales page, opt-in page, or full website, these above the fold tips are essential for making sure your most valuable real estate actually works for you.

Key Points Covered in This Episode:

  • Why the above-the-fold section is the most important part of any sales page or website
  • The 3 key ingredients every high-converting hero section needs
  • How to write a CTA that doesn’t just ask for action but inspires it
  • How to write attention-grabbing sales pages with only 30–40 words

Resources Mentioned:

Catch up on the whole series here:

Part 1 - Sales Page Best Practices
Part 2 - Headlines That Hook
Part 3 - Above the Fold Must-Haves
Part 4 - CTAs That Get Clicks

Find Donna and the CEO Sprint podcast at this link!

To find Danielle at DM Squared Media, go to dmsquaredmedia.com/nomad. 

Connect with me:

Nomad Copy Services → sales pages, emails, websites, and more.

Get on my calendar → if you’d like me to write your sales copy for you!

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Nomad Copy Agency writes copy that CONVERTS for service-based businesses. Inquire about done-for-you services here.

Samantha Burmeister:

Hello, friends. I am beyond excited to talk to you about the most visited part of a sales page. In fact, it's the most visited part of any page that you create, including every page on your website, sales pages, opt-in pages, et cetera. What is that part? It is the above the fold section. In this episode, we're gonna learn about what does go above the fold, what doesn't go above the fold, and exactly how to write one so that people either say, oh my gosh, give me this, or, I need to keep reading, but I am hooked. Let's dive in. If we haven't met before, you are listening to Copy and the marketing podcast where we talk about copy and all of the things that you need to do to write really great copy in your business so that you sell more because copy is what converts. My name's Sam. I'm the founder and lead copywriter at Nomad Copy Agency, where I write sales psychology informed copy to help you sell. In fact, I had an entire sales career before I went into copywriting, so I've been trained by some of the. Businesses best, and now I bring it to you. So let's talk about the above the fold section on your website. Here's the origin of the above the fold section is that back in the day, they used to sell newspapers. People bought them, and if you didn't have a subscription or you were traveling, you would buy them typically from these big old boxes, and the boxes had the newspapers inside. They were folded in half and whenever was above the fold. On the first page is what sold the entire paper. So this is where the incredible headlines were. This is where the top news of the day was that would get you to purchase the paper. This is the White Sox win the World Series. This is something happened in the world, right? Like. These are the headlines that sell. As the digital Age came about, we kept that same terminology, and what it means now is everything that you see, either on mobile or desktop, on any webpage that you visit is considered the above the fold. So this part is super important because it is the part that by default, every single visitor to your sales pages, to your website, and your opt-in pages visits. No matter what. So let's jump into some best practices and how to write this above the fold. Your above the fold has three distinct portions no matter what. And honestly, it doesn't need anything other than these three pieces. So they are telling people what you're offering, why they should want it, and how to get it. They typically go in a slightly different order though we usually tell people why they should want it. This is your big transformation standpoint, saying this is what happens after you purchase. This is who you become when you get this thing, the what is then saying what it is. And then the how to get it is your call to action button. Now remember we are in part three of a four part series, specifically about sales pages. So I'm gonna focus on sales pages here today. And that call to action we're gonna talk about a little bit. But be sure to tune in next week to learn more about your. Call to action if you do not know what the transformation is that you are offering or don't know what that is. I'm gonna touch on that here really quickly, but we go super in depth back in episode four and when we're defining our ideal audience. So if you need to know your transformation, I encourage you to skip back to that episode. I'll be sure to link it in the show notes. So let's talk about transformation and call to action. Your transformation is what happens after people receive your solution. The example that I continue to use is energy drinks. The problem might have been that somebody is tired. There's a ton of solutions to somebody being tired, including. Getting better sleep, drinking coffee. However, red Bull, the company is specifically positioned to provide you with an energy drink so that you're not tired. However, something Red Bull does really well in their marketing is that they don't sell Red Bull. They don't say, try the blueberry flavor. Sugar free might be great. What they sell is what happens as a result of drinking Red Bull, which. Based on the things that they sponsor would have you believe that you can jump out of planes at atmospheric levels and be totally fine. They go for this extreme sports. However, what they're really selling is the energy that you have as a result of drinking Red Bull. So they're not selling the problem. They're not saying you won't be tired anymore. They're not selling the solution, which is an energy drink. They're selling the transformation of who you become, which is this adventurous, energetic person. When you have Red Bull, so if we were to write a sales page for Red Bull, it would likely say something along the lines of, it gives you wings or become a more energetic person. So that's the why. What it is, it is a low calorie energy drink. Priced at the right price for every person or something like that. We're saying what it is and then how to purchase it is what we wanna know next because we read this and we say, I wanna be a more energetic person, and it's as easy as just grabbing a single energy drink. So then their call to action may say something as simple as buy now, or it might say something as elaborate as grow your own wings. We wanna be sure that we see on these calls to action. And again, our next episode has a lot of information on calls to action, so be sure to listen to that one next. But we wanna be sure, as a rule of thumb, that our call to action is actionable, which means it has a verb. So now we know what goes into. Above the fold section, you'll notice that I didn't say, give all of the details about what's included in your service or your program. You will notice that we didn't say that it should be super long and almost serve as a mini sales page. All we're doing is giving that 40 word overview of what you offer and why people should want it, and the biggest area of opportunity that I see for other people's sales pages is that why they should want it. Typically people use this real estate and they waste this real estate. So let's talk about how to use this real estate. The best thing, number one, we're looking at 30 to 40 words or less above the fold, you might say, but Sam, I have so much goodness in this program that I'm offering. Great. Absolutely. Put it later on in the page. We talked about that in the first episode in this series, which was our sales page best practices, but really above the fold. You need to accomplish those three things in 30 to 40 words or less. Here's why is that the average person reads in their native language at about. Four words per second, and they stay on the page for an average of seven seconds. So four times seven is 28. Realistically, we probably have a little bit more time than that, especially in the services industry. And the reason that we have a little bit more time is because most people in the small business. Service-based industry have rapport with the people who are getting on their page before they land there. So we do have a little bit more time. So we're looking at 30 to 40 words maximum to tell people again, those three things, what they are getting, why they should want it, and how to get it. So that's our first best practice is 40 words or less. Second, create a compelling call to action. I worked with a client recently and her call to action said, yes, please. There's no verb there. We want a verb. We wanna know not what they're. Doing, but what they are becoming. So we could say something like, grow faster, become better. Start your journey now. So what's not happening and we want to be future focused in our calls to action, is not to say download it here. That is a verb, and that is a very like C plus B minus call to action. Because we wanna be sure that we're focusing on their transformation. So it's not that they are doing the thing that you want them to do, which is give you money, it's that you are offering them the transformation, which is what they want. Third thing that's a best practice here is we don't wanna ask rhetorical questions. What I see a lot of on sales pages is, do you wanna become a better designer in your own business or a question like that? We don't wanna ask rhetorical questions, and here's why. There's two reasons. One, it puts people on the defensive. The second is that it gives people mental gymnastics and they will lose you. So we don't wanna add any additional friction to the top of the sales page. That's not to say you can never ask questions. However, this is not the place to say, imagine if or what if you could blank. That happens later. So that's our third thing. No rhetorical questions. Fourth, make sure it's super freaking clear. You are above the fold should be easily digestible by people who are not in your industry. Remember, you are selling people things so that they can get to a point where they're receiving what you have. If I were to have come at you in the original sales pitch for us working together and said, do you want your above the fold in your CTAs and your sales psychology to all feel aligned, you might have to do some mental gymnastics to be like, so that's all the parts of the sales page, I think. It's gonna take you a minute to get there. Same thing. I work with a lot of people who work in the spiritual realms and the professional services realms, where an accountant might be talking about balance sheets and profit and loss statements and ebitda, but their clients are not speaking that language yet. People who are more spiritual are talking about being aligned with their business. Astrology. Might like the words of alignment and astrology might not mean anything to them, but something like create the perfect timing in your business might be a way better thing for a business astrologer to say. So we wanna be super freaking clear above the fold. Fifth thing, we want to use your client's language. We want to talk like your people, and the way that we do that is to survey them. We use their language against them, not in a negative way, but in a mirroring way. This is a core tenet of sales psychology, and it's something that you can go back to episode two and listen to some information about. I'll again, I will link that in the show notes, but mirroring is just you using the same words as your clients so that they feel super freaking heard. Because if they don't feel heard, they're going to think that you're gonna talk over their heads and they're not gonna wanna work with you. So we've had five so far use 40 words or less. We're creating a compelling call to action. We're not asking rhetorical questions, we're being super freaking clear and using client language. Finally, this is copy and, and copy is always an and because it is part of the marketing puzzle, and this is copy and make sure that when you're doing your above the fold, it is designed well. You should have H ones and twos. This also goes into some SEO core tenants as well, but it should be easy. To look at for, again, seven to 10 seconds and understand what it is that we're getting. So it's that clear copy and it's designed clearly as well. We don't need a ton of script fonts. We don't need a lot of pictures. We certainly don't need pictures. I see this a lot with mockups, with a lot of words on them. We need a total of 30 words that tells you what they're getting, why they should want it, and how to get it. Again, with the design. Your call to action should be super visible. It should be a completely different color than its background. Perhaps it also has an outline. Maybe there's some other design factors that have it move or sparkle or look really, really clear. Your entire above the fold should be large, clear, and make it so inevitable that somebody should click on the button. So how do you get started with this? I personally recommend grabbing a free resource. Go to nomad copy agency.com/podcast. The link will be in the show notes where it will create the first two sections of your sales page for you in like two minutes. It's super easy to use. It's technically meant to be used for your opt-in pages, which is for your freebies, but it can be multipurposed over to your sales pages. So I encourage you, if you're thinking, Sam, nobody's staying on my page for that long, your analytics are telling you that nobody's clicking and nobody's converting. That's where I would start with this. And of course, if you have any other questions about the above the fold, please feel free to reach out. You can find me on Instagram and LinkedIn. The links to those are gonna both be in the show notes as well. And of course, this is me as. So, so nicely for you to leave a review. Be sure to like, subscribe, do all the things so that other people can find my show as well. Ultimately, I am here to see other entrepreneurs win because when one of us wins, we all win. We understand that the velocity of money. Is a real thing. And when you give a small business owner your business, they're more likely to give it to other small business owners, which means that it's not getting eaten up by things like taxes and the corporate economy. So I'm here to see us all win. If you know other business owners who should also be making more money in their business and can do it by writing really freaking great sales pages, share this with them. And of course, like I said, the lowest. Lift for you is to just like and subscribe. I will love you and the algorithm will love me in return. So stick around for next week. We are talking about calls to action and how to get people to click on your stuff. Again, it's gonna be in the context of sales pages, but these principles carry over to all of the copy that you're writing. So thank you for being here. Have a fantastic week, and I will slide into your earbuds again soon.