Trustworthy copy is essential for any digital strategy that aims to persuade and convert your audience. But how can you write copy that builds credibility, engages your readers, and motivates them to take action? In this article, you'll learn six conversion copywriting principles that can help you create trustworthy copy that converts.
The first step to writing trustworthy copy is to understand your audience. Who are they, what are their pain points, what are their goals, and what are their objections? By doing thorough research, you can tailor your copy to address their specific needs and desires. You can also use their language, tone, and voice to create a rapport and show empathy.
Consider the mindset of the customer, medium the ad is serving and make sure to match the expressed intent. What mindset is your customer in when they are engaging with this copy? People searching Google, scrolling social media, or watching YouTube content are in different mindsets so the copy will need to reflect that. The audience and keyword targeting should be highly relevant to the copy and also reflect the mindset of the intent. Lastly always deliver with the content on the landing page if one is being used and be sure you are not overpromising as that will break trust.
The only sure way to gain your audience's confidence is to place yourself in their shoes, really know them. So when they see your copy, their feeling is 'exactly, that's how it is' which will instill more faith in your expertise/offering. Talk to your audience, listen to them, read their reviews, get a full picture of their pain points and wants. And then with all that information, write that 2 sentence copy that really resonates with them.
Understanding your audience is non-negotiable. Without this, your copy is just shooting in the dark. It's not just about demographics, you need to dive deep into their psyche. What keeps them awake at night? What delights them? Tailoring your copy to speak directly to them is a must. One more thing: empathy sells, be as specific as possible – generic doesn't convert.
Crafting copy that's both trustworthy and conversion-friendly is like creating a well-balanced recipe. Start with understanding your audience's needs, then sprinkle in social proof—perhaps through success stories or testimonials. Keep your message clear and concise; nobody likes an overly complicated dish. Authenticity is your secret ingredient, so let your brand personality shine through. And, of course, wrap it up with a compelling call-to-action—it's the finishing touch that guides your audience to the next step. Mix these elements skillfully, and you've got a winning blend for trustworthy and converting copy! ????
Remember! Never ever create a copy without knowing your audience. How can you communicate your brand marketing message without knowing who you are talking to? The copy should strongly resonate with your audience's beliefs, culture, emotions, needs and wants. Trust is all it takes to create an evarlasting bond and your marketing copy should build, elevate and retain trust.
The second step to writing trustworthy copy is to focus on the benefits of your offer, not the features. Benefits are the outcomes and results that your audience wants to achieve, while features are the characteristics and details of your product or service. Benefits answer the question "what's in it for me?" and show how your offer can solve their problems or improve their situation.
It's important that the benefits of the product or service you are promoting are written in relation to how they solve your audience's specific pain points - explained in their language. You should spend time listening to them in any ways you can. If you have focus groups or direct client feedback - great. Otherwise, spend time on online forums and Facebook groups where they may be interacting, and familiarise yourself with creators they follow.
Showcase Your Unique Value Proposition on your copies: Uniqueness, Distinction, and Benefits. What makes your product stand out? Explain why someone should choose your product. How is different from the competitors? Answer why someone should choose your product over others Finally, explain how the product resolves my situation with its benefits.
Your audience doesn't care about your product's features. That's a fact. What they care about is what your product can do for them. It's about the transformation, bridge between A in B point. Always write about benefits. Ask yourself, "So what?" after every feature. Then ask yourself "why". And again. And again. This helps in drilling down to the real benefit. People buy emotions, not products.
It's imperative! Everyone wants to know - "What's in it for me?" Remember! Someone is giving his/her precious time to ready your copy. If you do not strongly and clearly convey the underlying benefits for them, they would loose interest. Why would they engage with you at the very first place? The copy should clearly reflect the problem you are solving, the need you are catering to.
In crafting trustworthy copy, the emphasis should shift from product features to customer benefits. Benefits represent the desired outcomes and results, answering the crucial question, "What's in it for me?" By showcasing how your offer can solve problems or enhance their situation, you create a compelling narrative that resonates with your audience's needs and aspirations. This customer-centric approach reinforces trust by demonstrating the tangible value your product or service brings to their lives.
The third step to writing trustworthy copy is to use social proof to back up your claims and boost your authority. Social proof is the evidence that other people have used and liked your offer, such as testimonials, reviews, ratings, case studies, endorsements, or logos. Social proof shows that your offer is credible, valuable, and popular, and helps your audience overcome their doubts and fears.
If you can have a video testimonial within your creative, this will help a great deal. If you are able to get a thought leader or someone who is recognised in your industry, this will further enhance trust in your brand.
Without social proof, everything you claim is just that - claims. You will present the best version of yourself, as you should. What people want to know, are the actual experiences. If I'm looking to onboard a partner agency, I would want to see case studies of companies in the same industry. If I'm buying a dress online, I'd like to find someone of similar body-type in the reviews and get a more tailored idea. Collect as much social proof as you can and highlight them to get the attention of similar users.
Social proof isn't just a nice-to-have; it's essential. People trust people, not faceless corporations. Showcasing testimonials, reviews, and case studies isn't just about flaunting success, but it's about building trust. But be authentic – people can smell fake from miles away. And diversify your social proof - different types resonate with different audiences.
Am besten ist man selbst der Proof of concept. Es ist wichtig nur über Dinge zu schreiben zu denen man eine reale, eigene Erfahrung hat. Das ist unique Content und authentisch.
I helped a client move from a small trickle of clients every month to running a one month launch campaign that netted 171 new clients which equated to $100,548 ARR. Other than re-clarifying his offer, the main reason why it was successful was that we loaded up his landing page with 5 different forms of social proof and used the social proof in about 10 different sections on the page. When the prospective customer is scrolling, they're constantly being reminded that others trust this person and the proof is in so many different ways (verified reviews on Google, real-time sign ups, testimonials, before and afters, screen shots of feedback DM's) that it feels almost endless. This is the key : To create a feeling of irrefutable proof
The fourth step to writing trustworthy copy is to write clear and concise copy that is easy to read and understand. Avoid jargon, fluff, and vague statements that can confuse or bore your audience. Use short sentences, paragraphs, and headings that break up your copy into digestible chunks. Use active voice, verbs, and transitions that create a smooth and logical flow. Use punctuation, formatting, and white space that enhance readability and clarity.
Get to the point, fast. Your audience doesn't have time for puzzles. Write as you speak – this isn't an academic thesis. Break your text into skimmable chunks. People scan before they read. And do not use jargon. Average people have no idea what are you talking about. Your goal is comprehension, not showing off your vocabulary.
With ever-reducing attention spans, the copy should be able to tell more with less. Make it super easy for your users to read, understand and comprehend the message. Avoid using fancy words and long sentences.
Absolutely agree! Writing clear and concise copy is crucial for conversion. I've consistently found that simplicity is key. By avoiding jargon and using short, straightforward sentences, the message becomes more engaging and digestible. Effective use of headings, bullet points, and white space greatly enhances readability. Remember, in a world cluttered with information, clarity is king. This approach not only attracts but retains reader attention, making your copy not just readable, but memorable.
As the fourth crucial step, ensure your copy is clear and concise for heightened trustworthiness. Sidestep jargon, fluff, and ambiguity that may confuse or disengage your audience. Employ short sentences, paragraphs, and headings for readability. Utilize active voice, strong verbs, and smooth transitions to maintain a logical flow. Leverage punctuation, formatting, and white space strategically to enhance clarity and make your message easily digestible.
K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple & SEXY) repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat,
The fifth step to writing trustworthy copy is to add a compelling call to action that tells your audience what to do next and why. A call to action is a button, link, or text that invites your audience to take a specific action, such as buy, sign up, download, or contact. A compelling call to action should be clear, urgent, and benefit-driven, and should match the goal of your copy and the stage of your audience's journey.
Your CTA is your money maker. It's not just about telling people what to do, but your offer should be irresistible. Be clear, be urgent, but be compelling. Your CTA should play into what your audience's desires or fears are. And make it stand out.
What is the intended action that you want your audience to take? Now that they have found the copy compelling, and you have provided a good reason to them to act, also do give them a clear direction to act. Ask yourself, why would they act on your marketing message copy? Is it urgent for them, are their any benefits, does it help them to solve a problem?
Debe haber llamada a la acción visible desde el primer momento y hasta el último. Y adecuar su mensaje al momento del texto y del tipo de usuario: el que accederá al principio es impulsivo y se motiva con la inmediatez. El que accede al final es reflexivo, y necesita comprensión. Esto afecta también a la manera de redactar los textos: propuesta de valor, beneficios y ofertas inmediatas al principio. Explicaciones, por qués, y faqs hacia el final.
There's a reason why those LinkedIn posts with 'Agree?' get 100 comments saying 'Agree'. It's because it works with the natural flow - you go through a story and have a certain feeling about it by the end of it. So when you're given a CTA in the end, you take that action as a natural step. Spam example aside, you should surely provide an appropriate CTA depending on the type of content as you want to make it easy for your audience to take the appropriate action. For some forms of social media content, the native CTAs of the platforms are enough (follow/comment/subscribe). Sometimes, you need to need to add links etc. as the more apt CTA. For instance, at the end of a blog post, linking to a contact page makes sense.
Social proof builds trust, and a well-defined CTA serves as the guiding path for converting that trust into tangible actions—whether it's making a purchase, subscribing, or engaging further. It's the essential link between compelling narratives established by social proof and actual user involvement. A concise and effective CTA ensures that the credibility gained transforms into measurable results, making it a critical component in the journey from interest to meaningful engagement and conversions.
The sixth and final step to writing trustworthy copy is to test and optimize your copy based on data and feedback. You can use tools such as analytics, surveys, heat maps, or A/B testing to measure how your copy performs and how your audience responds. You can then use the insights to improve your copy and increase your conversion rate. Testing and optimizing your copy shows that you care about your audience and their experience, and that you are always looking for ways to serve them better.
You should not assume that your copies are perfect as it is; testing and optimizing are necessary. - If you observe that users are interacting more with a certain copy, build more on that style. - Try A/B testing across different channels: announce a product with different descriptions, see which one gets more engagement - For anything major, test your copies first with focus groups before getting it out
Appease your audience by giving the people what they want! Once you identify hooks that capture their attention, focus on points of drop off to experiment with. Understand the why behind where you lost users in your copy and that should guide you in the right direction. Consider consulting with an expert and outsourcing if this is an area that feels draining as opposed to invigorating. Focus on spending your time applying your skills on what would give you the largest return of investment.
Testing copy is so difficult. Are people scrolling down because they're getting bored and want to get to the end or because they read it? Are people spending time on the page reading because they're interested? Or is it better for them to actually spend less time and go directly to what you want them to do? One article, unless it's a specific landing page, isn't just one article. Depending on the sales funnel and the complications of it, it's one page of a longer book. Try testing and optimising just one page of an entire book. It doesn't always work for what you're trying to do. Where possible, if you can speak to customers directly, potential or current, and ask -- do so. Data is nice to have but data doesn't always reflect demeanour.
If you’re trying to write educational/informative pieces, look at what type of information your competitors are including in their copy. Include that information and then provide even more based on your own experiences/expertise to really cement yourself as the market leader in your space. Do this a few times and you will have the most comprehensive educational piece that is unique to your website. From Google’s point of view, this is also how you rank well.
A lot of professionals have added quality contributions which are handy for operations. However, less concern is placed on algorithm. Every digital platform has its algorithm in place, hence, when creating copy that converts, you must consider how each platform reacts to marketing copies. Likewise, consider some keywords that would disrupt as well as erupt positive actions. In addition, don't be rigid, add little humour to your copy, but don't over do it. A good place to harness this is on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. Lastly, don't use one copy for all platform, personalized copy for each platforms.
Reputation takes time to build. Clearly outline what makes you and your brand stand out from competitors in ways that cannot be outdone. This ultimately will allow you to establish the credibility you need to create long-term value.