Today’s post is from our guest, Carmine Mastropierro. You can learn more about Carmine in his author profile below the article.
Copywriting can make or break your business. It’s how you directly and indirectly communicate with your customers. It brings out emotions, answers questions and leads users towards the sale. You don’t have to be a pro either to improve your sales copy.
Ahead are 10 copywriting strategies that will improve conversion rates and are easy to implement.
1) Features versus Benefits
When writing product and service descriptions, don’t forget to include the benefits of what you’re offering. What are benefits you ask? They are everything the customer should experience by using your product and generally include emotion.
For example, instead of just stating the materials and color of a rain jacket, you can add it will keep them dry while looking stylish. This makes purchasing much more enticing and justifiable as they can imagine exactly what they will experience.
Similarly, you can communicate pain points that customers may be facing. Continuing off the jacket example, we could mention that they won’t have to worry about arriving to work soaked anymore or getting their hair messed up.
Where your customers are in the buying journey will also change how you write your sales copy. These are the three stages and how you can adjust your copy accordingly:
- Awareness stage: Customers in this stage are beginning to realize they require a solution for a problem. Ask questions you believe they’re thinking and write about pain points. This will get them more emotionally invested in your brand.
- Consideration stage: Some research has already been done by the customer. They may be considering you already so add more call to actions.
- Decision stage: The customer is making a final decision on whether to purchase or not. Testimonials, reviews, and case studies can help convert them to a final sale.
2) Storytelling
Connecting with your audience is a great way to build trust and community. When users can relate to you and your business, they are more likely to become customers. One of the best ways to achieve this is through storytelling. It can be done in many forms.
Consider the position a potential customer is in and talk about how you were once there too. Maybe you were in a financial struggle before starting your business. Tell them about it and how you got to where you are now. Storytelling can also be a lot simpler, like mentioning something recent you experienced that inspired your latest article.
3) Sound like an Expert
If you sound like an expert on any given subject, people are more likely to trust your brand. When speaking about your product, service or while writing content, use statistics and numbers. This is a surefire way to build credibility. For example, instead of just saying a marketing strategy generates more revenue, state exact numbers. Use case studies and real data to back up your claims. This is a simple and easy way to make you appear more trustworthy and credible.
4) Use Urgency
Imagine you’re shopping and there are 100 items left of what you’re looking for. Odds are you wouldn’t be in too much of a rush to get one. Now, if there were only a few left, it would probably be a different story. This is what we call urgency and it’s easy to implement into sales copy, such as:
- Announcing a sale is almost over.
- Displaying how many units are left of a product if it’s low.
- Saying a coupon only lasts until a certain date.
Strategies like these create urgency for the customer. It makes them feel like they must take action now or they may miss out.
5) Buy with Emotion, Justify with Logic
The purchasing process is very emotional based even if you don’t realize it. It’s very common to wish to buy something based on emotion and then justify it with logic. An example would be fancy sports cars. Some people enjoy the allure of how it would make them appear and believe it puts them in a higher class. This is pure emotion of course but they would justify by claiming the gas mileage and high tech features are what sold them.
[bctt tweet=”Always lead sales copy with emotion and then justify the purchase with logic.” username=”exprance”]
With this in mind, always make sure to lead sales copy with emotion and then justify the purchase with logic. This ties in with the previous features versus benefits approach as well. Tell the customer how they will benefit but mention why the purchase is reasonable. Will they save money? Will it improve their health? That is how you finish it with logic.
6) Exclusivity
Everyone loves feeling special and unique. This is how a lot of luxury companies brand themselves. If you purchase a product from them, you’re part of an exclusive group. Not all businesses can pull this off but here are some ways to try:
- Having a members only area of a website.
- Branding your product as rare and one of a kind.
- Selling limited edition products.
- Offering a private newsletter.
7) Honesty
Being honest about your business is key to success. You may think that mentioning disadvantages or cons wouldn’t be beneficial but it can help quite a bit. This makes you appear more trustworthy and credible since you aren’t only focusing on the good things about your product.
Be honest about how your company started, what your products do/don’t do, and what you can deliver. The last thing you want to do is surprise your customer or make them feel unsatisfied.
8) Calls to Action
This is the first copywriting strategy almost every entrepreneur learns first. It’s also one of the most effective. A call to action is simply a phrase that tells users to take a specific action. These include:
- “Buy now”
- “Don’t wait any longer”
- “Contact us today”
- “Get your free quote”
They are often short and sweet. It’s enough to make a sale or lead a customer towards one. Depending on your business, you will use different calls to action.
9) Formatting
Have you ever come across an article that was pure paragraphs of text? You probably took a few scrolls and left. Without good formatting, content is hard to digest. It makes it difficult to find the answer you need and understand what the article is going to discuss. Some good formatting rules are:
- Use header tags to break down different points within the content.
- Use lists and bullet points for organization.
- Bold certain keywords in every paragraph.
- Include useful links to other resources.
- Add images or video.
10) Get Them Saying Yes
When you understand your customers well enough, you can tailor your content perfectly to their personas. You should ask questions they are probably thinking throughout your sales copy. If the answer is yes, they are more likely to agree with the purchase later. It also is a wonderful way to build trust as it shows you understand them well. Examples include:
- “Have you been trying to build a website?”
- “Struggling with SEO?”
- “Are you thinking about X or Y?”
Key Takeaways
Small changes in your sales copy can make a big difference. It’s an aspect that every business owner should strive to improve. The following is a summary of the 10 above strategies:
- Include how the customer will benefit from using your product or service, not just what it does.
- Tell stories that relate to your audience.
- Use statistics, studies, and data to sound like an expert.
- Create urgency to entice customers to purchase.
- Justify the purchase with logic.
- Make your product appear exclusive or rare.
- Be honest about your brand, history, and products.
- Use call to actions.
- Format your content so it’s easy to digest.
- Ask questions your audience would be thinking.
As you can see, copywriting doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for any business. Try one or a combination of the above techniques and experience the results for yourself.
