When consumers are considering whether your offerings are going to be the problem-solver they are seeking, your pricing page is of significant importance. Not only is it your opportunity to color and influence the pricing dialogue with potential customers, but it is also your chance to underscore your value in a manner which sets the right tone for your personas and builds trust in the future customer relationship—from first click through to conversion.
After reviewing hundreds of B2B pricing pages (and myriad expert notions on best practices), I’ve found the following four themes to be at the root of best practices:
The most effective pricing pages …
1. Make your hero the Hero
When visitors come to your pricing page, your hero image is the first chance to adjust the lens through which the users will judge the rest of the content on the page. The language and images you choose should consider the personas you are trying to reach and set a tone that speaks to their motivations and gives them a sense of who they’ll be dealing with. Just as with other elements of your site, the overall layout and design is nearly as important to engaging and converting visitors as the content you provide within. Take your time in crafting this conversation starter by providing an interesting, engaging opener that speaks to their stage of the Buyer’s Journey and keeps them scrolling down.
2. Keep it clear and simple
Regardless of how complex your offerings are, customers reviewing your pricing page are already dealing with the psychological effects that come with parting with their hard-earned dollars, so the last thing you want to do is to create a confusing or muddled presentation of the options they have. This sets the tone that working with your company could be muddled and confusing. Be sure your pricing options are clearly stated and easy to understand. If you are offering comparison pricing on multiple products or plans, be sure that the comparator points are clear so your visitors can quickly, easily find the plan that meets their needs. Much of your site content is probably pointing to important-yet-intangible elements like value or quality, so be sure that the pricing page clearly reflects the very tangible facts of your pricing points.
Finally, don’t give them too many options. Having a side-by-side grid of every feature your products offer with lots of check marks to show which feature applies to which plan may make you feel like you’re demonstrating the full breadth and width of your value—but to a consumer trying to make a choice, too many options can be overwhelming, leading to “analysis paralysis.” Highlight the key elements to help them make an informed decision, but refrain from turning this page into a checklist of everything you offer. If there are important facets that should be understood but aren’t surface-level comparators, that’s where dynamic or interactive elements come into play.
3. Promote Interactivity
In our evolving digital economy, consumers are increasingly expecting dynamic and interactive web elements. Features such as sliders, customized drop menus, and checkbox filter/feature selectors not only give them the sense that you’ve really thought through how your product could be used by a wide range of customers (including themselves), but also promote the idea that your organization is interactive and responsive as well. These elements are a great way to provide visitors a non-overwhelming experience while still enabling customers to access and understand the finer points of your offerings. In addition, calculating out or at least estimating cost based on the user’s feature selections is not only engaging, but ensures that your visitors won’t have to pull out a calculator just to get an idea of how much to budget. Yes, you want to keep your audience from looking like the hero graphic for this blog. Overall, allow visitors to enjoy a parsing experience that fits the level of focus that they want to apply by customizing your site in such a manner—it will go a long way toward building a trust relationship.
4. Build Trust
The inherent sense of anxiety that comes with any significant purchase is a threat to the overall engagement and success of your pricing page. Visitors have been educating themselves on what you do and evaluating others in your sphere that have similar offerings, so it is critical that you give them every reason to trust (and choose) you. Part of this trust-building comes from stewardship of the other elements discussed here—to demonstrate that you have deeply considered their needs and feelings when designing your entire site—but a pricing page is where you can take additional steps to ensure you are building their trust. This page is a perfect spot to let previous customers tell their tale and share how their experience with your company was one of trust and success. Whether it is through testimonials, case studies, or even simple quotes from previous customers, showing that others have been exactly where your visitor is now and have found success by taking the next step carries a lot more weight than any reassurances or value statements from you.
As developer agility and increasingly dynamic mobile experiences continue to color best practices in the area of pricing pages, these four themes will continue to be at the root of what drives successful conversions. Take a step back to evaluate what kind of experience your pricing page provides now. Your customers and your sales team will thank you!