The Definitive Guide to Creating a Pricing Page that Converts

Source: Neil Patel

You’ve seen it before on thousands of websites.

The pricing page features three plans lined up horizontally. One is highlighted and declared the “most popular.”

But why?

Is it that this type of pricing page converts best?

Or have we just been doing the same old thing because “it works.”

It doesn’t make sense to go with the flow without fully understanding which pricing-page features actually drive conversions.

Losing out on sales due to lack of research is not an option. Neither is blindly following the industry-standard design.

In this guide, I’ll teach you the ways to hack your pricing pages to actually produce conversions.

Start by improving your CTA

Why should someone buy right now?

The idea of spending money now fills some people with fear.

In most cases, nobody actually needs what you’re selling.

And they sure as heck don’t want to give you their hard-earned cash.

That means you need to adjust your perspective.

One of the main reasons most pricing pages don’t convert leads into customers is a weak call to action with no urgency or too great of a request.

Your CTA has to communicate the value potential buyers will receive when they click.

If someone isn’t sure that their problem will be solved after purchasing your product or service, you can kiss that sale goodbye.

I’ve tested countless CTA variations, and I’ve found that communicating the benefits in CTA copy is key.

Just check out my website’s main CTA:

It’s specific. It communicates value without directly asking customers to give me their money.

And, ultimately, it’s intriguing.

Just talk to Paul Boag (UX designer) at Boagworks.

According to him, a call to action provides these three things:

1. Site or topic focus
2. A measure of success for your site
3. Direction for users to follow

Before people interact with a CTA, they have to recognize their need for the product.

You can’t jump into a business relationship without getting to know each other first.

This is why infomercials are still around.

They use the classic PAS formula of copywriting adapted for an infomercial:

They identify the problem. (You keep spilling on your carpet.)

They agitate the problem by illuminating struggles and pain points. (It’s tough to clean up, and professional cleaners are too expensive.)

And voila, they provide the solution. (Behold, the Carpet Cleaner 4000!)

Next, you have to communicate the outcome of clicking on the CTA.

What will I get by clicking on this button? A free trial?

Or does it just say “sign up now,” leaving your customers to think, “sign up for what”?

Believe it or not, the color of your CTA matters too.

Google (GMail) tested over 50 shades of blue for a CTA to find the highest-converting shade.

Yes, 50 shades of blue.

What was the end result?

More conversions!

Now, for most of us, that’s taking A/B testing too far.

But you’ve probably got time to test a few different colors.

SAP found that orange CTAs lifted their conversion rates by 32.5%.

Performable found that red boosted theirs by 21%.

The takeaway?

Colors hold weight. They mean different things to different people.

They can drive action and inaction.

In this case, Performable found that the color red drove urgency.

The main goal here is to make sure that your CTA stands out.

It needs to communicate a benefit that customers will get if they buy now. It needs to clearly communicate that consumers won’t want to miss the opportunity.

You can use the Tryit Editor to see how different colors work with your CTAs.

Give your plans a name that means something

Naming your plans is crucial.

But I’m not talking about the “Gold,” “Silver,” and “Bronze” names that you’re thinking about.

If you looked at a pricing page like this:

You’d be a little lost, right?

You don’t want to make potential customers work to find basic information.

Instead, give it to them ASAP.

How is anyone supposed to know what plan could fit their business, niche, or purpose if you don’t provide context?

The short answer is that they can’t.

So, you have to name them something that means something:

Adding names and context to your pricing plans aids in memory retention.

It helps people connect the dots and choose the best-suited plan for their needs.

So try to be descriptive, but don’t make it more than 1-3 words.

Be able to summarize perfectly which plan is best for what use.

Here’s an example:

You’re selling a live-chat software program with tons of integrations and features. You could call the plans Starter, Basic, and Pro.

But nobody knows what you’re talking about.

Nobody can derive the meaning from those names. That means they won’t know which plan is best-suited for their needs.

Instead, you could call them Startup, Small Business, and Fortune 500.

You’ve just removed an extra conversion roadblock with a few lines of text. Now, visitors know that the lowest tier serves startups, while the highest tier serves enterprise customers.

Plus, you’ve just tailor-made plans for the three most common buyer personas in your business. They now know exactly where to look, and they’ll convert without hassle.

Even better, you can use graphics to aid your plan names like MailChimp does:

Now customers can self-select which plan is best for them.

And with a little luck, you can ‘guide’ people to a more expensive plan because “that’s who they are” by name.

Use price anchoring to make expensive plans look cheap

Harvard defines the psychological anchoring effect as a cognitive bias.

Basically, it describes our human tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information we’re given when making a decision.

In other words, the very first price is the anchor. And then we compare any subsequent plans or prices to the first.

Here’s an example of how this works in real life.

Let’s say you’re researching jewelry for your significant other for Valentine’s Day.

You find a retailer, and the store’s blog tells you that the typical, high-end bracelet you’re looking for will set you back around $800.

Then the store directs you to a pricing page for a similar bracelet that only costs $600.

That $600 may have seemed steep initially. But now, because it now falls under $800, it seems like a bargain.

Do you get the gist?

You set an anchor ($800) and then deliver your product at a lower price ($600) so that people act now before that price goes away.

First, you’ll notice there are four plans laid out side-by-side.

When you start to look at the pricing, you see that the two most expensive plans are shown first.

So, while the $99 seems reasonable, the Plus plan next to it costs only $49, which makes it feel like a steal.

On top of that, the Plus plan is highlighted in blue, which makes it stand out amongst the rest as…

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