7 Copywriting Tips to Increase Your Conversions
Let’s learn 7 Copywriting Tips to Increase Your Conversions. While the world of marketing and advertising is evolving at an ever-quickening pace, there are some fundamentals that tend to stay the same.
One of those fundamentals is copywriting.
From the first newspaper ad for real estate in 1704, to an ad on Facebook for the latest VR headset.
Whether it’s for a sales page, a display ad, a search ad, or an email – effective copy can mean the difference between making a sale or not.
Here are a few general tips that will help you write better copy and increase customer engagement.
Speak to Your Audience, Not About Them
When YOU are writing YOUR copy, a general rule of thumb is to use “you” and “your’ as often as YOU can.
Of course, you don’t want to go overboard, but the point is that you want to communicate directly to your audience, rather than just passively speaking about your product or service.
When it comes down to it, the customer isn’t really interested in your product or service.
What they’re interested in is their own situation and how your business benefits them.
Address the User’s Objective
Following through from the previous tip, you not only want to communicate directly to your audience, but you also want to focus on what their goal is.
Put yourself in their shoes and consider what they want to accomplish in doing business with you.
What are their wants, needs, and desires?
How is your product or service going to get them where they want to be?
When reading your copy, if the user’s situation is a lock, they should feel like your product or service is the key.
Include Numbers or Statistics
While there are an endless amount of tricks and tactics that advertisers use, sometimes you just need to get straight to the point.
Especially in today’s age of information and eCommerce, users are both informed and short on attention span.
Oftentimes, users have pre-determined how much they are going to spend on a purchase.
By including the price in your copy, you are making the buying process easier for them, and bringing them closer to purchase.
Personally, when a business isn’t up front about the price, I am immediately turned off from making a purchase from them.
We live in a time of convenience, and at this point customers expect it in the buying process.
Along with price, you’ll want to include any numbers or statistics that will make their decision easier.
Include Emotional Triggers in Your Ads
The current science of the brain and decision making tells us that emotions play a primary role in the process.
Again, put yourself in the shoes of the user and consider their wants, needs, and desires.
How will that new dress your selling make her feel?
How relieved will the customer be after using your new anti-itch cream?
How much more secure will their family feel with your new alarm system?
Understand your audience.
Consider how they feel, how they want to feel, and incorporate that into your messaging.
Tell A Success Story
As you know from our previous article on storytelling, stories are a powerful way to communicate and engage your audience in a way that resonates with them. (Check it out if you haven’t already read it!)
In short, stories convey information and ideas to us in a way that is compelling. Our brains understand a narrative arc better than just a bunch of pure facts. (remember the previous tip)
Stories make your message relatable and real.
You might be wondering how you can pack a story into something like a display ad.
First, you can use the ad to simply introduce the story and then flesh it out on a landing page after the user clicks.
However, we also know that a picture is worth a thousand words.
I’m sure you’ve seen a weight loss ad with a before and after photo – the picture says it all.
The more you can frame your messaging into a story arc, the more engaged your audience will be, and the more likely they will be to do business with you.
Use Social Proof
Social proof is an incredibly powerful motivator.
Nobody wants to be the first to try something. They want to know that there are other satisfied customers that love their purchase.
Amazon reviews are a perfect example. Are you going to buy the toaster oven with 5 stars or 1 star?
How about the one with 10 reviews vs 500 reviews?
This one is a no-brainer.
People want to know that what you are selling is working for other people, the more the better.
Include reviews, your number of customers, and any other sort of social proof in your copy.
Focus on Benefits, Not Features
People aren’t concerned with how many watts your toaster oven uses, they want to know how fast and thoroughly it will cook their pizza bagels at 3AM.
Generally speaking, they don’t really care about your product or service at all, they care about how it will make their lives better.
As mentioned previously, put yourself in the buyer’s position and think about what they want to get out of your product or service.
Make it about them and what they will gain.
Focus on Features, Not Benefits
“What?” “But you just said..”
Yes sometimes you’ll want to focus on the features of whatever your selling.
It’s okay if you’re a little confused.
While it’s not rocket science, copywriting is a nuanced craft that requires thoughtful discretion depending on a variety of different factors.
First, a point that we’ve hammered down countless times throughout our articles, you must know your audience.
The average Joe Shmo probably isn’t that interested in the technical features of a toaster oven.
They’re not interested in wattage, or heating elements – they want their frozen pizza cooked quickly.
However, if you’re a computer hardware supplier, technical features are exactly what your audience wants to know about.
You’re not going to woo them with marketing language about how “speedy” your RAM is.
They want the straight facts and nothing else.
In the digital age, more and more consumers are informed throughout the buying process, and they know exactly what they’re looking for.
As we already mentioned, you must know your audience, and even better – experiment and test to find out what works.
Contact Us to learn how we can help you build a digital strategy that converts. Or, learn more about our services today.