072: Designing for Conversions with Melissa Burkheimer

Get Back To Design: Design Business | Designer | Creative Business

As the online business industry evolves, more business owners are realizing the importance of a website that does more than look pretty. They understand that a well-designed website will attract clients and customers visually, as well as do part of the selling for them.

With that being said, conversions are something all web designers will have to start putting a larger focus on to stay relevant in the industry. It can be an intimidating topic so to help with that we’ve welcomed Melissa Burkheimer on the podcast today to talk about sales pages and designing for conversions!

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Melissa’s Journey

Before starting her own business, Melissa had a part-time job in the billing department of a company where she was employed for almost 10 years. While the flexible schedule was great, there was no marketing or creative department.

To get out some creativity, she started designing business cards for people she met at creative events. She started for free and slowly increased her prices from there. Shortly after, she landed a local gig with a steady income that allowed her to leave her part-time job.

She used networking (aka going out and talking to people ;)) to land clients and eventually created a steady stream of work.

In 2012, she started following big-name online entrepreneurs like Marie Forleo and Amy Porterfield and started taking online programs that helped her grow as a web designer and business owner.

Her first sales page project was for Amy Porterfield’s FB Influence and, through referrals, she was able to work on the sales pages of more and more people she was following online. Through this work she also realized that she was a good project manager.

She has now started her own mastermind for web designers as well as her own podcast where she interviews designers and helps them share their journey.

How conversion-focused design came to mind

Her first sales page project for Amy Porterfield’s FB influence program, which became extremely popular. A couple months later, she was brought in by James Wedmore to work on a couple of his sales pages.

Through projects with marketing gurus like those, she learned about how well-made, conversion-focused sales pages were created and she got valuable on-the-job training.

Does the process involved in sales pages carry over to conversion-focused websites?

Melissa shared with us that a lot of the strategy that goes into a sales page can be applied to conversion-focused websites as well. Followers need to be inspired and encouraged to take action.

She pointed out that designing pretty things isn’t going to cut it anymore. You have to understand the entire customer journey before you can design something for a client and be successful with it.

What is the most important part of designing for conversions?

Melissa shared a few important pieces of designing for conversions, including:

• The overall flow of the website or sales page
• Buttons and calls-to-action that are easy to find
• Great copy
• A clear offer

What are some tweaks designers should make to their own sales pages?

Melissa shared with us a few things all designers’ sales pages should contain:

• Who you are
• How you help
• What’s included in the offer
• What the end result is that the client is going to get

She also shared that your sales page should be a stand-alone page. When someone clicks to view it, it should open in a new tab and take away the navigation menu and all other distractions.

Melissa also encouraged everyone to talk about previous clients, focusing on the testimonial where specific results are shared.

Where is the best place to start with conversion-focused design?

If you’re interested in offering conversion-focused design services, Melissa suggests creating a beta offer for them. This way, you can get your feet wet doing projects with conversions as a goal.

She suggests doing your first ones at a discount and while doing those projects, figure out your process, nail down your systems, and fix and hiccups that are encountered along the way.

From there, continue to monitor your clients to see the success they have.

She also pointed out that serving as an apprentice under a designer experienced in conversion-focused design is an amazing opportunity to learn.

Melissa’s 90-Day Accelerator

For those of you with us as this episode goes live, Melissa’s 90-Day Accelerator program just opened up and is available until March 1!

In it there will be 2-3 calls per month with hot seats and design critiques. There will be a focus on mindset and sales to finally make $10k months possible. She also covers systems, sales page design, and all kinds of social media content.

Head over here to learn more.

Learn More About Melissa

Melissa Burkheimer is an award winning graphic designer, creative director + design visionary who helps well-known thought leaders, entrepreneurs, authors and personality brands create the BEST websites in their industry.

Today, her design studio stays at the forefront of the digital marketing industry by designing web sites and sales pages that elevate her customers’ brands, products and services with the iconic design they deserve.

Her mission is simple: help her customers create identities + websites easily so they can spend their time doing the things they love. Melissa also mentors freelance web designers who want to grow 6-figure businesses and has been featured in Daily Worth, Social Media Examiner, and Lady Business Radio.

Website – Podcast

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