You’re seeing visitors but not conversions. It’s a classic problem for any sales website and one that shows a fundamental flaw with your sales funnel.
Before you start changing around your site’s design or paying big bucks for a retargeting campaign, think about tweaking your copy. If you’re not saying the things your visitors want to read, it’s no wonder you’re losing them once they’re on your site! Here are 13 tips to keep in mind as you evaluate your sales copy:
- Use active voice. Writing in an active tone exudes confidence, giving your readers a reason to pay attention to what you’re saying. There’s nothing unclear or complicated about an active tone – it’s perfect for giving readers exactly the information they need.
- Maintain authority. In addition to an active voice, write in an authoritative tone. Authority translates into credibility, which gives readers a reason to trust you. Trust then leads to conversions and repeat business, which are the pillars of brand advocacy.
- Write with urgency. People are more apt to take advantage of an opportunity that won’t be there tomorrow. If your copy conveys a sense of urgency, you’ll drive conversions by forcing people to capitalize now, instead of putting off their decision indefinitely.
- Keep it simple, stupid. Why over-complicate things? Give people the essential details while you have their attention and don’t waste time getting into concepts that may be irrelevant. Don’t put up barriers between visitors and conversions!
- Use descriptors. People are emotional beings who act on impulse. Making them happy, scared, sad, jealous or intrigued will drive them to convert on your site. Make sure your copy is utilizing good descriptors to evoke emotions conducive to selling your product.
- Illustrate value. Why should someone buy your product? If your copy does one thing, it should be to explain the value of your item. Benefits-driven copy is tremendously powerful when written well and should be a staple on every sales website.
- Format for ease-of-reading. No one is going to read a wall of text. No one. Break up those paragraphs with subheads, bullet points, different text layouts and more! The less your copy seems like reading a book, the more likely people are to skim it.
- Avoid hyperbole. Never in history has over-promising and under-delivering ever worked out. Kick the hyperbolic sales copy for well-crafted, benefits-driven copy and you’ll set good expectations for your customers, resulting in more conversions.
- Create a strong call-to-action. You don’t have to hold a potential customer’s hand throughout the sales process, but you do need to prompt them on what to do next. Add a strong, relevant CTA to your sales copy to push people further into the conversion funnel.
- Proofread! How you present your copy is almost as important as what it says. If you’ve got spelling errors, grammatical mistakes or awkward sentences, it’ll reflect poorly on your pitch. Proofread everything before it goes live and make sure the copy is error-free.
- Add links where helpful. Need to explain something further or illustrate a reference mentioned in your copy? Add a relevant link! Trying to cram that info onto the page will also convolute and expand your copy, losing your readers in the process.
- Speak to your audience. Generic copy isn’t wooing anyone. Speak directly to the person you’re trying to sell to and entice them with specific reasons to buy. Keep your target demographic in mind before you start writing and avoid generic platitudes.
- Stay on topic. The shorter and more focused your copy, the more the main idea is going to hit home. Packing too much in and straying too far from the central value proposition will lead to loss of interest and a lost conversion as your reader gets bored and moves on.
Use this quick-reference list as a guide when evaluating the sales copy on your website and don’t feel bad when you realize how many of these rules you’ve violated! Truly great sales copy takes time to perfect, but when you master it, conversions will follow.