Ecommerce Presell Page Strategy (Result: $18 Million Sales)

Bonus Material: Jimmy Cyclone Presell Page Template

Want to write content that sells your products without having to sit down and write blog posts every week?

Today I’m going to show you an ecommerce content writing formula BOOM! by Cindy Joseph uses to write a presell page to sell their makeup products. This one page has helped generate over $18 million in sales for Boom.

It works so well, they send all their paid traffic to this one presell page.[*]

What’s unique about this page is that it’s part advertisement, part editorial. It combines content marketing with direct response copywriting to convince people to buy.[*]

As I take you through this case study, notice how Boom takes a broad topic related to their market (embracing natural hair color) and transitions it into selling Boom products (natural makeup products for older women).

I’m going to show how I would replicate what Boom has done for my beard products company, called BANG! by Jimmy Cyclone.

Here’s the nine-step content copywriting framework you can follow to replicate what Boom does to write content that sells:

Step 1: Identify A Topic Related To Your Product

Follow these two steps:

  1. Identify what you do and who you do it for.

  2. Brainstorm a list of topics related to what you do (it is OK to talk about something not exactly like what you sell.)

Boom sells makeup products for women over 40. Here are some topics they brainstormed (in this case study I will be showing you how they use topic #3.)

  • Makeup tips for older women.

  • Feeling beautiful over 40.

  • Embracing natural hair.

For Bang (my beard products company for older men), here are some topics I brainstormed:

  • Grooming tips for older men.

  • Unconventional beard tips.

  • Growing a beard over 30.

Action Item: Brainstorm three broad topics related to your product, then pick your favorite. To get data on which of your ideas people like the most, run a Facebook poll using your topics as the answer options (like I did below when I wrote about AppSumo’s Multi-Million Dollar Marketing Playbook).

Screenshot showing a Facebook poll about what people would like to know

Step 2: Write A Great Headline

Screenshot showing a content piece about embracing one

To write a great headline, you can use one of three angles. Here are three examples from the “embracing natural hair” topic:

  1. Competitive: 5 Tips To Have Better Looking Hair Than Beyonce.

  2. Benefit Driven: 5 Tips For Embracing Natural Hair.

  3. Inspirational: 5 Tips To Make Your Hair Glow Like Jennifer Aniston.

Boom used the “Benefit” driven headline on their presell page and a subheadline to make the content more relevant to their target market of women over 40 years old.

Here are three examples from my beard products company:

  1. Competitive: 5 Beard Tips Your Barber Doesn’t Want You To Know.

  2. Benefit Driven: 5 Beard Tips To Go From Stubble To Stylish In 5 Days.

  3. Inspirational: 5 Beard Tips To Make Your Beard Shine Like The Sun.

Action Item: Choose a topic related to your product, pick one of the three headline angles, and write your own headline. Use this presell page template.

Step 3: Give Away Five Practical Tips

Screenshot of copy on a webpage, with arrows outlining what they are

Directly underneath the headline, you need to give people five practical tips they can follow related to the topic. Your tips should be:

  • Actionable.

  • Educational.

  • Inspirational.

Actionable tips are the best type of tips to give because if people follow your free advice and get results, they are more likely to trust what you sell and buy from you. Try to include at least three actionable tips.

For my beard products for men, here’s an example of five tips from my presell page “5 Beard Tips Your Barber Doesn’t Want You To Know”:

  1. Respect your beard as you would respect yourself (Inspirational).

  2. Treat your beard as its own separate entity; an organism unto itself (Educational).

  3. Trim every day if possible, even if just to clip one or two stray whiskers (Actionable).

  4. Beard oil in the morning, coconut oil in the evening... rub in the direction you want your beard to grow (Actionable).

  5. Don’t be afraid to consult a barber for a beard trim once a month or so, but only when you need a resculpt, or things have gotten out of hand (Actionable).

Action Item: Write five tips that are actionable, educational and inspirational on the topic related to your product. Use this presell page template.

Step 4: Introduce Your Product

Screenshot of a page with the picture of an old woman and copy, along with descriptions of the sections of the page

After giving away five useful tips, you need to introduce your product to the reader. To transition from tip-giving to their product, Boom uses an image of 64-year-old makeup artist and model Cindy Joseph (their ideal buyer persona image) and uses a leading question for the subheadline.

The leading question takes people from thinking about tips to embrace their natural hair to thinking about a topic related to the Boom product (makeup).

The company core value for the topic is then introduced. This is where Boom positions themselves as being the solution to women having dozens of makeup products. They use Cindy Joseph,  who only uses a few makeup products, as an example.

Boom then uses product placement at the end of the section to introduce people to three of the items she uses (which links to the Boom store page).

To recap, here are the four content elements you need to introduce your product:

  • Buyer persona image.

  • Leading question.

  • Company core value.

  • Product placement.

For my beard company, here’s how I would introduce my new product line “The Ladies’ Man Badass Beard Oil”:

  • Buyer Persona Image:

  • Photo of a guy taking a selfie with a caption

  • Leading Question: Is there a lady in your life who’s ever whispered in your ear “Your beard hurts my face; shave it off or we’re off?”

  • Company Core Value: “Men shouldn’t be slaves to their beard,” said Jimmy Cyclone, a rock star and five-time beard architect who uses one dollop of beard oil every morning and evening.

  • Product Placement: Jimmy’s “baby bottom soft” beard is all thanks to his new line of beard oils called “The Ladies’ Man Badass Beard Oil.”

Action Item: Get a buyer person image, and write copy for your leading question, company core value, and product placement that you can use on your own page. Use this presell page template.

Step 5: Show Social Proof

Screenshot showing a content piece with different sections of the page highlighted

Screenshot of a page on a website and a CTA button

After you’ve introduced your product, you’re going to show social proof that it works. Boom uses Jennifer Aniston as social proof of someone who uses their products.

They name-drop and talk about company benefits that match the company’s core value from the previous section. They then show social proof of where Jennifer Aniston mentions the product, a quote related to the product, and an image of Jennifer.

If you have social proof of a celebrity who endorses your product like Boom does, you can follow this same strategy.

If not, you have three options:

  1. Send your product to famous people in your industry.

  2. Pay a celebrity for a day (instructions here).

  3. Use a different type of social proof (here are 13 types).

For my beard company, here’s how I would use the “Where You’ve Been Featured” social proof type to prove the value of my product:

  • Name Dropping: Vogue loves The Ladies’ Man Badass Beard Oil!

  • Company Benefits: Have a coarse beard? You’re not alone. One in five men loses the lady in their life because of bad beard maintenance. Don’t be a slave to your beard. “The Ladies’ Man Badass Beard Oil is a revolution for you and your lady friend,” says Jimmy Cyclone. The Ladies’ Man is the only beard oil that’s anti-itch, baby bottom soft, and smells like victory.

  • Social Proof Feature: When asked by Vogue what life’s like with a beard, Jimmy Cyclone said, “Life’s better with a beard. Apply one dollop of The Ladies’ Man Miracle Morning beard oil in the morning, and one dollop of the Electric Evening beard oil in the evening. You can’t go wrong.”

  • Social Proof Quote: “My husband loves the Ladies’ Man Beard Oil. He says his beard doesn't itch anymore… and it feels softer to me too.”

  • Social Proof Image:

Photo of a guy taking a selfie along with some funny captions

  • Call To Action: Beard architect and rock star Jimmy Cyclone says “The beard maketh the man.” His new line of beard oil is a game changer with the ladies. Check JimmyJams New Beard Oils.

Action Item: Write your social proof copy. Use this presell page template.

Step 6: Tell People About Your Product

Screenshot showing the sections of a page

After showing social proof, now is the perfect time to tell people all about your product. This is the section to pitch your product and go for the sale.

Boom uses a subheadline to briefly describe the product, and mention the product’s price of $27. They talk about every product in the Boom line with a description of the color and exactly what it’s used for.

They then include a hero shot of every product in the Boom line with an add to cart button embedded on the presell page, so people can add the item they’re interested in directly to their shopping cart. This way, you don’t force people to go through a product page, if they don’t want to.

Finally, there’s a demo video of each product below every add to cart button. These videos are on Boom’s product pages, but to increase conversions, they embed the demo videos on this presell page as well.

The demo videos give people more information to make a purchasing decision directly from the page. If people are interested in seeing all the products inside the Boom store, then they can click on the “View All Products” button at the end of this section.

Here’s how I would tell people about my beard product using the framework from this section:

  • Product Price: The Ladies’ Man Badass Beard Oil comes in circular containers that are as heavy as Jimmy Cyclone’s left bicep. They are $17 each and sold only on Jimmy Cyclone’s website.

  • Product Description: The Bang products come in unique sun and moon containers. The Ladies’ Man Miracle Morning, a hamster-scented beard oil for your beard to shine in the morning sun; The Ladies’ Man Electric Evening, a phoenix-scented beard oil for your beard to shimmer in the evening moonlight. One slap to the face every morning and evening, and you’ll have a beard as bright as a diamond.

  • Product Image:

    Photo of two similar images side by side with different logos

  • Add To Cart: $17 The Ladies’ Man Miracle Morning, $17 The Ladies’ Man Electric Evening.

  • Demo Video:

    GIF of a man getting beard slapped and growing a beard instantaneously

Action Item: Write your product copy. Use this presell page template.

Step 7: Tell People About The Person Behind The Brand

Screenshot showing copy that details mistakes in using a product, and a picture of the person behind the brand

After telling people about your product, you are going to dive into the common mistakes people make when buying your sort of product, including the picture and background of the person behind the brand.

Screenshot showing copy on a page and a description showing what it says

Here’s an example from my beard products company:

  • Product Use Mistakes: Jimmy Cyclone, who recently turned 28, only needs his beard and a guitar. He’s one of those mad dude types who riffs about the meaning of life through song and spends just a few minutes a day on his beard maintenance before he’s out changing lives and inspiring young minds.

“The biggest mistake strong, bearded men make is only oiling up the ol’ beard once a day,” he said. “It might look OK if your lady likes a scraggly beard, but if you want to be a ladies’ man you need Miracle Morning oil in the morning, Electric Evening oil in the evening... then rub in the direction you want your beard to grow.”

  • Person Behind The Brand:

Photo of a guy taking a selfie while doing a funny face

  • Background Of The Person Behind The Brand: After growing up at Redcliffe — Nudgee College, class of ‘06 — Jimmy moved to London in the late 2010s.

“Any man can start a beard, but a true man never finishes one,” he says. ”Take what you do seriously, but never yourself. The ladies love that. All the ladies still ask me to this day: ‘Is that still your same beard from Nudgee ‘06?’”

Cyclone is a lyrical genius, teaches algebra in London, and is waiting on some geezer on the drums so he can release his EP album.

While his drummer’s taking his sweet time, he’s growing his beard, cooking hard-boiled eggs, and catching a few sunrises. He was spotted on a London subway by a man with a scraggly beard one day, and has been admired by all ever since.

About three days later, he went into the beard business himself. “There’s nothing a few beers and a good beard can’t fix,” he says. “I wanted to do a line of beard oil that matches the human circadian rhythm.” The beardy goodness, he says, is soft, thick, and full of joy.

“When somebody says to you, ‘Wow, that’s a jammin’ beard!’ that’s a man’s beard.”

Action Item: Write copy that tells people about the person behind your brand. Use this presell page template.

Step 8: Show A Testimonial

Screenshot showing a testimonial and a CTA button below that

After telling people about the person behind your brand, you are going to unleash one of your best customer testimonials and another call to action for your product.

What if you don’t have any customer testimonials?

Use this video testimonial strategy that Boom uses.

Here’s how Jimmy Cyclone would do it:

  • Testimonial: I’m a bearded man, and used The Ladies’ Man beard oil before rocking up to a mate’s party. I was the envy of all non-bearded men at the party. And on average I now lift more weights than I did without Jimmy Cyclone’s beard oil. Ladies love my beard. — Joey McHutchins

  • Call To Action: Try The BANG! By Jimmy Cyclone Beard Oil Line! You’ll love it.

Action Item: Find one of your best customer testimonials and use it in this section. Use this presell page template.

Step 9: Offer A Product Bundle

Screenshot showing the sections of a page

After showing a testimonial, in this final section you are going to wrap up your presell page with one of your unique selling points, a bundle offer for your product, and a newsletter signup.

Boom uses the unique selling point that their makeup products are environmentally friendly. They also have three bundle offers with facial mask creams and moisturizers to increase their average order value from engaged readers who reach the bottom of the page.

Finally, they close the page with a newsletter signup that’s pitched as the “Boom Club” where people can get access to new video content and discount codes. This gives people who like the products but don’t want to buy right now an option to keep up with Boom updates.

This is a long page! Make sure you optimize your images before uploading. You don’t want your page to take forever to load, and someone to go away before you have a chance to presell them.

Here’s how I’d create this section for my beard products company:

  • Unique Selling Point: Bang products are handmade by strong men with beards. No child labor, no beard automation, and definitely no men without beards. If you get scraggly beard: trim any stray whiskers, discontinue use, and see your barber.

  • Bundle Offer: Biker Boys Bang Bundle ($147), Macho Men Bang Bundle ($177), Men With Muscles Bang Bundle ($197).

  • Newsletter Signup: Bearded men are far more likely to win elections. People trust a Neanderthal-looking leader. Join the Bang Club to learn how to become a reliable beardsman who follows his instincts.

Action Item: Write copy for your unique selling point, offer a product bundle for engaged readers, and give people a reason to sign up for your email newsletter. Use this presell page template.

How To Use This Presell Page For Your Own Business

This one page converts so well for Boom that they use it in their paid advertising, and in their pre-purchase, post-purchase, and cart abandonment email sequences.

To get the plug-and-play presell page template they use click here to learn more and install it on your site. The Zipify template they use allows you to offer your products right from the article page, like I showed you in this case study.

If you’d like to get a Google document I made, with a template you can use to write your own presell page, click on the button below.

Get The Presell Page Google Document Template