5 Rules for writing a high-converting copy

Slouched at your desk with the third cup of coffee and sore eyes from glaring at your screen, you try to fill up the page with words that will persuade a potential web visitor who is most likely to make a purchase.

Unfortunately, the right words often refuse to come out.

Sounds familiar?

In sales and marketing circles, it's become trendy to praise great copywriting as the secret weapon that divides successful brands from the rest of the pack. Sure, "write words that sell" is sound advice. Well-written landing pages, cold emails, and sales enablement content are critical to converting leads to customers.

But, when it's time to write something, it's definitely not a ferry ride, isn't it?

The good news is: It's not rocket science either. Even as a beginner or a "non-writer," you can use the powerful mindset shifts and formulas in this post to quickly boost the quality of your sales copy.

Let's dive in.

1. Follow the AIDA copywriting formula

When you're gazing into the abyss of a blank page, and you've yet to write a single sentence, it's easy to wonder "What's next?"

This is where the AIDA formula, popularized by copywriting legend Gary Halbert, can get the ball rolling. From start to finish, the formula structures the specific stages you must include in your sales page, email, or any piece of writing that aims to elicit a response.

The AIDA Model, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action model, is an advertising effect model that identifies the stages that an individual goes through during the process of purchasing a product or service.

Here's an example of AIDA in email marketing:

Let's break down this amazing formula:

• Attention: Begin by grabbing the attention of your lead with an attractive headline that's relevant to your prospect's needs.
• Interest: Pique their interest and nudge them deeper into your copy with opening paragraphs. Common examples include a personal/corporate story, a question to the reader, or a description of a problem/solution.
• Desire: After gaining interest, it's time to explain how your product/service enriches your prospect's life. On a sales page, this is often expressed through bullet points that describe benefits. On a cold email, it could be a short paragraph detailing the impact your product or service will have on them.
• Action: After impressing your prospect by showing how you can help them, invite him/her to take action e.g., click a link, fill out a form, or reply to an email. Concluding with a specific call-to-action like "Shop Now"; as mentioned in the example above.

2. Connect benefits to new realities

"Sell the hole, not the drill".

Copywriting tips like the above may sound like absolute truths, but they still miss the mark.

As echoed by Peep Laja, founder of CXL, your copy should "Focus on articulating the value people will get. Make sure the copy makes it clear who it's for, and what pain it helps to avoid or gain it helps to achieve."

Effective copy connects all the logical and emotional dots to sell a successful experience to your prospect. One way to communicate this experience is to use the "so what?" hack. Simply read through the features and benefits in your copy, pause when you talk about your product or service, and then ask yourself, "so what?"

This forces you to articulate the desirable experience that your product delivers.

Apple's iPod ad is a classic example. The feature is "1GB of storage for MP3s".

After asking "so what?", however, this translates to "1000 songs in your pocket."

This is what exactly called as:

"Connecting benefits to the new realities."

3. Outshine competitors with specificity

In the early 1900s, advertising pioneer Claude Hopkins cemented himself in copywriting history when he catapulted Schlitz beer from B-list brewer to #1 in sales.

At the time, most beer companies spouted identical claims about the purity of their beers. In the ad that blew Schlitz's competition out the water, Hopkins took another route. Instead of making generic claims, he told the story behind the beer brand and vividly described the distillation process to drive the "purity claim" home.

He detailed how the beer was cooled in a unique way that removed impurities. How each bottle was sterilized at least four times before being filled with Schlitz beer. Hopkins even drew attention to the fact that they built a 4,000 footwell to supply water- even though the nearby Lake Michigan was a valid source.

Compared to the blur of statements claiming "the purest beers", there's no competition. That's the power of specificity in your copy or story. It sets you apart from the crowd and resonates with prospects. Because when everyone out there is shouting "super," "proprietary," and "exclusive"...then no one is!

4. Invigorate your copy with power words

A study by Elizabeth Loftus wanted to test if word selection could influence eyewitness testimonies. In the test, subjects were shown a video of different car accidents. After watching, they were asked," about how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?"

All subjects were asked the same question although the word "smashed" was replaced with verbs of varying power like:

• Contacted
• Hit
• Bumped
• Collided

Source

Researchers found that when stronger verbs like "collided" and "smashed" were used, witnesses estimated higher speeds. They were also more likely to falsely report that there was broken glass at the scene, despite there being no glass shown in the film.

As shown in the research above, a single word change can have a drastic impact on perception. When you're trying to get someone to take action, it has the power to instantly increase or decrease conversion rates.

So, pick your words carefully. Once you've written a solid first draft and you're happy with your message, go back and inject vigor into your words using these 801+ power words.

5. Practice a conversational tone

When we asked email copywriting expert Emily McGuire how non-writers can write high-converting copy, her biggest tip was:

"Write like you're having the conversations you want to have with your ideal customers. It comes off as more conversational, personable, and helps your readers address their pain points easy peasy."

Or, as Privy CEO Dave Gerhardt puts it, "Write like you talk".

Conversational writing makes it easier for your prospect to connect with you. And it's not about throwing in the f-bomb or divulging personal information. It's about making your message easy to understand. You can do this by:

• Breaking sections of copy into bullet points(like this).
• Emphasizing important words.
• Leaving enough whitespace on the page.
• Using short sentences and paragraphs.
• Treating subheadings like headlines.

Apps like Grammarly and Hemmingway will also work to measure and refine how "conversational" your copy is. If you're new to writing and want detailed feedback, go with the Hemmingway app. It'll summarize the reading level of your copy and mark complex sentences and bloated descriptions.

Contrary to popular opinion, copywriting isn't an elusive art that's accessible only to a gifted few. It's more of science; one that focuses on understanding the conversation in your customer's head and showing how you can help.

Share your thoughts in the comments section:)