Identify the prospects pain – then agitate it before offering a solution. It’s one of the maxims of an effective sales page.

But there can be too much pain in your sales page. And that happens in a couple of ways.

One is that you just go on too long agitating the pain. You’ve dug too big a hole before helping the prospect climb out.

But there is another, more subtle way, in which there can be too much pain in your sales page. This happens when the prospect has heard it before over and over again.

 For instance if the country is in a  recession or economic downturn and your message is reaching your audience late in the game. By this time you are rehashing things  your prospects have already heard many times over and are likely to tune out before you get to your message on your salespage.

One solution is to get to a story or case history early in the salespage, so instead of jaded commentary  on the woeful situation the prospect is in, you  are agitating the pain in an engaging way. Otherwise, identify the pain – then get on quickly with what you have to offer.

How you agitate the pain is also an issue when dealing with perennial problems. Let’s take insomnia, for example. The reader has probably heard  the “tossing and turning” pitch endless times. Spend too much time describing the pain of sleeplessness and they’re gone.

 
There are subtleties and gradations here on where the prospect is  in the “pain cycle.” Let’s say you’re talking to new parents. While many of their problems and concerns are as old as time, you may be reaching them when the problems are new to them. So you can spend more time talking about the difficulties they are facing. 

 
Creativity is the trump card in all cases. If you find new ways to agitate the pain, by all means, go ahead. There is nothing more powerful on a sales pages than making the prospect feel you understand their pain and have a way of making it go away. But if you think your prospect has heard it all before one too many times then get on with your solution.

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