You’ve seen it before on thousands of websites.
The pricing page has three plans: the most popular one is highlighted.
But why?
Why do we use this type of pricing page? Does it convert well or are we just used to it because it is what we have always done?
You can’t just go with the flow when it comes to pricing-page features without understanding which ones actually lead to conversions.
How do you ensure that you get more sales from your pricing page? In this guide, we’ll share some pricing page best practices for creating high-converting pages that boost your revenue:
1. Start by Improving your CTA
Why should someone buy now? Because if they wait, the price might go up, and they’ll end up spending more money.
In many cases, people don’t want or need what you’re selling. They would rather not spend their money on it.
That means you need to adjust your perspective.
Most pricing pages don’t convert leads into customers because the call to action is weak, there is no urgency, or the request is too great.
The button or link that you want viewers to click on to go to your website or landing page (known as a call-to-action or CTA) needs to clearly convey the value that potential buyers will receive when they click it.
If someone is certain that your product or service will not solve their problem, then you will not make that sale.
Just talk to Paul Boag (UX designer) at Boagworks.
According to him, a call to action provides these three things:
- Site or topic focus
- A measure of success for your site
- Direction for users to follow
Before someone can interact with a CTA, they first need to realize that they need the product.
You can’t just start a business relationship with someone without getting to know them first.
This is why infomercials are still around. They use the classic PAS formula of copywriting adapted for an infomercial:
They (You) identify the problem. (You keep spilling on your carpet.)
By bringing light to struggles and pain points, they are stirring up the problem.
And voila, the Carpet Cleaner 4000 is the solution.
After clicking on the CTA, you will need to communicate the outcome to the user.
By clicking on this button, you will get a free trial.
Without context, customers may not know what they are signing up for.
The color of your CTA, or call-to-action, matters more than you may think. Google (GMail) tested 50 different shades of blue to find which one resulted in the most conversions.
What was the end result of 50 shades of blue?
More conversions!
This is going too far for most of us.
You have probably have time to try out a few different colors.
According to SAP, the use of orange CTAs increased conversion rates by 32.5%.
Performable found that red boosted theirs by 21%.
The takeaway?
The meanings of colors vary from person to person.
They can drive action and inaction.
The urgency driven by the color red was found by Performable.
The most important thing is to make sure that your CTA is noticeable.
If you buy now, you will get a benefit that consumers won’t want to miss!
2. Give your Plans a Name that Means Something
I’m talking about the names for the individual features and products that make up your plans. Although it may be tempting to name your plans after metals, it is more important to name the individual features and products that make up your plans. This will make it easier for your customers to understand what they are getting.
If you were to look at a pricing page like this, you would be a little confused, correct?
Avoid making potential customers work to find basic information.
Provide context to your potential customers as soon as possible so they can form a plan that fits their business, niche, or purpose.
The short answer is that they can’t.
So, you have to name them something that means something:
If you want people to remember your pricing plans, give them names and put them in context.
It helps people understand the options and choose the plan that is right for them.
Use as few words as possible to describe the following. Make your descriptions no more than three words. Try to be descriptive, using as few words as possible.
This table summarizes perfectly which plan is best for what use. The “Best for most users” column lists the features that users need most often. The “Don’t need” column lists features that users don’t need very often. Users can choose the plan that’s best for them based on their needs.
The table below shows which plan is best suited for different uses. The “Best for most users” column lists features that users need frequently, while the “Don’t need” column has features that users don’t need often. Users can pick a plan based on their needs.
With a few lines of text, you have just removed a barrier to conversion. Now visitors know that the lowest level is for startups and the highest level is for enterprise customers.
Not only have you created a streamlined process for your buyers, but you’ve also specifically targeted the three most common buyer personas in your business. They now know exactly where to look and can convert without any difficulty.
Now customers can choose which plan is best for them.
If you’re lucky, you can steer people towards a more expensive plan because it’s who they are, based on their name.
3. Use Price Anchoring to Make Expensive Plans Look Cheap
The psychological anchoring effect is when people rely heavily on the first piece of information they’re given when making a decision. This effect is due to a cognitive bias and is something that is commonly seen in humans.
This means that the first price is the standard against which all other prices are compared.
First, there are four plans laid out side-by-side.
The most expensive plans are shown first when you start looking at the pricing.
The Plus plan is the recommended option because it only costs $49 and is highlighted in blue.
4. Avoid page Clutter Like the Plague
The pricing page of a website should be designed in a way that is simple and clear. It should be effective in conveying the value and benefits of the product or service, and motivate the viewers to take a desired action (such as make a purchase).
Most visitors don’t read all of the text on a website, only skimming through about half of it. Therefore, website owners shouldn’t include long, detailed posts about topics like pricing.
People are more likely to convert when you make it easier for them to do so.
The following text is about how giving users a clear and concise direction helps them focus on signing up for something.
It’s a way to increase the perceived value of a product or service. I’m not saying that offering different plans and options is bad, it can actually make the product or service appear more valuable.
However, be careful with this tactic.
Too much information on a pricing page can lead to users feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do next.
What’s that?
When there is an overwhelming amount of information, it can be difficult to make a decision. This can cause people to feel paralyzed and avoid making any decision.
The restaurant menu is excessively long.
This text is saying that if you try to figure out what to order for too long, you will become frustrated.
If your website is too cluttered, it may discourage people from converting to customers, and create additional obstacles.
If you put too many options on your pricing page, it could overwhelm users and cause them to leave the page.
Here are a few rules of thumb:
- Limit feature and benefit bullet points to four max.
- Simplify how you’re displaying monthly versus annual costs.
- Ditch “learn more” links that only add more content on the page.
- Reduce license variations if possible to avoid further complicating the user’s options.
5. Simplify the Design
The best way to design a web page is to keep it simple. This is especially important for pricing pages.
One way to simplify your own pricing page is to remove all unnecessary page elements, like top navigation and sidebars, so there’s only one main area to focus on. For example, Groove’s pricing page is ultra-simple with a single box to draw visitors’ attention:
If you have a WordPress site, you’re in luck because many themes come with landing page templates that get rid of navigation and sidebars. You can also look at this WordPress Beginner list of the best WordPress landing page plugins.
6. Make the Copy Easy to Understand
The simpler a pricing page is, the more likely people are to understand it and be drawn to it.
You should make your pricing page copy clear so that visitors will understand the benefits and the price.
We understand that you may be tempted to include a lot of information on your pricing page to help make a sale.
But this can work against you. When people visit your page, they’re already thinking about buying, so just give them the information they need:
- What your product offers
- What it costs
- What’s included in each plan
Too much information can be overwhelming and turn customers away.
If you want to add more content, make sure it is after all the information listed above. That is how OptinMonster does it on their pricing page.
7. Address the FUDs
FUDs are fears, uncertainties, and doubts that can prevent visitors from buying unless they are addressed on your pricing page.
One way to deal with potential objections is to be honest and answer the questions that visitors have. For example, here’s how the MonsterInsights pricing page handles it:
To ensure that your pricing page is as effective as possible, check with your customer service and support departments to find out what the most frequent questions are, then write answers and include them on your pricing page.
If you are looking for the best business phone systems and VoIP providers, then check out our top picks!
If a visitor is worried about not liking your product or service, you can highlight a money-back guarantee to help ease their anxiety.
8. Highlight the Benefits
Visitors come to your pricing page with the question “what’s in it for me?” in mind. It is therefore important to highlight the benefits of your product or service on that page.
In other words, your page copy and pricing tables should focus on what the customer wants, not what you want.
MailChimp’s pricing page is easy to understand and provides a brief description of what users get at each pricing level. The plan names also match their buyer personas, making it easy to choose the right plan.
9. Use Urgency and FOMO
Build up enough FOMO and you’ll engage in all sorts of risky behaviors, like clicking on a malicious email attachment or handing over your credit card details to a phishing site. There’s no doubt that humans are wired to act on urgent situations. Fear of missing out (FOMO) takes this to another level. If you have enough FOMO, you’ll engage in all sorts of risky behaviors, like clicking on a malicious email attachment or handing over your credit card details to a phishing site.
FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out, is a powerful marketing tactic that you can use on your pricing page to create urgency and encourage visitors to take your offer.
You can trigger FOMO by:
- Using numbers to show how many other people are benefiting from your product or service
- Offering an additional reward when visitors make a quick decision
- Showcasing stock levels or availability
You can show urgency by:
- Including time-based and scarcity language in your copy
- Using the right colors to get attention for your offer
- Creating an exclusive urgency
You can increase the urgency of your offer by using a countdown timer combined with other tactics, like a sale on your pricing plans. OptinMonster makes it easy to add a countdown timer to your offer, making your visitors more likely to take action.
If a product is out of stock, you should not just send customers away. Here’s how to win more sales with “out of stock” pages.
10. Build Trust
Pricing pages that convert effectively build trust with visitors. It is a crucial part of marketing and how you do it matters.
It is important to be ethical as a marketer and let customers know that there is a plan B if they are not happy with the product or service. However, research has shown that too many warnings can actually deter people from even choosing a plan.
Instead, put your trust builders naturally on the page. These include:
- Trust seals that show their data is secure
- A money-back or other guarantee
- Social proof, in the form of testimonials
Our article on collecting customer feedback will give you some tips on how to get testimonials from your customers.
If you’re looking for a way to build trust quickly and easily, TrustPulse is a good option. TrustPulse helps you use social proof to increase trust, conversions, and sales by up to 15%.
Conclusion
We marketers have a problem.
We get stuck in a rut, doing the same old things, following the same “industry-standard” practices as everyone else.
Don’t get fooled again – take a step back and analyze the data. Things like colors, button copy, plan names, loss aversion and FOMO (fear of missing out) matter more than you might think.
Rethinking your pricing page can set you apart from your competition.
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