Creating Premier Product Messaging : Step 1 Copy Teardown

In the past few weeks I've seen copywriting talked about more than I've ever seen it before.

People are saying it's the number one skill any marketer should know (I actually agree).

Peep Laja just came out with Copytesting that literally tells you everything you need to fix on your website copy (Brilliant) and it seems like I' seeing literally 27 posts a day on Twitter.

It would seem that my reticular activating system is up and running because this week in the CXL institute my main focus was on creating premier product messaging and that's what I'm going to dive into on this week's blog.

Quick Aside: You may have noticed the part 1 at the top of the blog. This blog is going to be broken into 3 separate blog posts.

Why?

Because I want you to take action on what I'm presenting today, not be overloaded with information.

So without further ado. Let's get started.

Blank Page Blues

Let's be honest, we've all been there.

The blank page blues.

Whether it was your college psych class or this past week writing a landing page for a product launch in 20 days, you've wanted to slam your head against the desk and just quit.

What I'm about to share with you over the next 3 weeks is going to dismiss all of your blank page blues. It's going to take you from blank page all the way to a fully formed, data driven, customer focused product message that will increase conversion and decrease frustration.

You dig?

I dig.

Let's roll.

Step 1. Assess your Existing Copy

Your existing copy is obviously the place to start and the first question we need to ask is does our copy include those fundamental conversion critical elements that we need to make a compelling persuasive argument?

You know the kind.

Ever bought something when you didn't want to?

Ever been sold on an infomercial at 3:30 in the morning?

Yeah that kind of copy... less cheesy, but just as effective.

So assessing your existing copy is called a page teardown, and the key to this is not letting out your inner Simon Cowell and just bashing the page, it's to try to make sure that you're always basing your opinion on proven persuasion principles and framework.

That framework is three fold.

# 1. MEClabs' Conversion Sequence Heuristic: C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) - 2a

Conversion = Motivation + Value Proposition + Incentive - Friction - Anxiety

So right off the bat, you'll see some numbers and some letters and immediately want to run away, don't fret ye mathematically challenged grasshopper, this is not a mathematical equation.

This is using mathematical-like symbols to be able to convey what the power of each element in this sort of mix of key components trying to make a persuasive argument.

Do I have you back with me?

Yes?

Cool.

So this whole framework is simply the probability of conversion.

The probability that your page is going to move a prospect enough that they're going to say yes to your offer.

Each of the five components on the right side of the equation are the principles we need to be thinking about to make sure that we have the most persuasive copy.

Element 1. Motivation

Motivation comes down to the why and the when of someone hitting your page. Why did they come to the page, at what point in the pain did they hit the page, and really what they're expecting from you.

There's a lot of searching that happens on the internet and for the most part, outside of social media scrolling, there's a reason behind it.

Your prospects have something they want to fix or something they want to get better at. Sometimes it's an initial search, in others, it's a mission critical search. You can't control that, but it's the driving force behind why they're surfing the webernet.

So understanding the motivation is so extremely important in your product message. If you're not speaking to the motivation, in the language your prospect speaks, they will leave, and very rarely come back.

Element 2. Value Proposition

The second element is your value proposition. In the equation, you'll see that the motivation is preceded by a 4, which means it's highest priority, and the value prop is the next in line of importance, preceded by a 3.

If you're reading this, you know that the value proposition is all about the payoff! What's in it for ME! WIIFM!

What are you actually giving them, that they can benefit from that they can't get anywhere else.

So if you're speaking to their motivation and they're digging into your stuff because it's speaking their language and speaking to their desires, what is going to happen when they book that demo or click buy?

Tell them clear and concisely.

Element 3. Incentive and Friction

The next elements are the combined incentive and friction. Again, you'll see that this is 3rd in line of importance with a 2 next to the letters.

The friction element you can see is a subtraction. It means the more friction you have the lower your probability of conversion is going to be.

Friction really comes down to how hard are you making it for people to actually act and for people to actually convert?

Are you making people jump through hoops to get to you? Is your site convoluted? Are you not even clear about what you do?

That's friction

Inside that same parentheses, you'll see I for Incentive.

So what can you do to push them a bit and get them to put in the work of filling out the form. Maybe it's a discount, free piece of content, limited time offer, puppies...

Just something that gives them that little nudge of "oh I should probably do this now."

Element 4. Anxiety

This one is just as important as Incentive minus Friction in this equation, and equally as negative

Anxiety is really all about objections and perceived risk. It's the internal friction.

Ever thought this is too good to be true?

Ever had that internal conversation of

Self: Buy it.

Other Self: Self, I don't know if Ima be able to help you out, because, you know how my bank account is set up...

That's the A.

This is past the offering. They understand it. They're just worried that it's not going to do what you said it would.

So you've gotta to fill that page with testimonials, graphs, charts, social proof so that the conversation turns from the Kevin Hart on your right shoulder telling you you've got no money, to Elon Musk saying, I've got so much money I'll name my kid X AE A-12.

That's framework one.

From there you've got:

#2. Cialdini's Principals of Persuasion

So once you've dug into the equation above, you want to start digging into the scientifically proven principles of persuasion.

These come back to Robert Cialdini's 6 Principles of Influence.

We've got:

Social Proof, are others saying yes to you?

Authority, has a third party authoritative person or brand support the fact that your offer is great.

Likability... are you... likable?

Scarcity and urgency, which are a huge elements in terms of incentivizing people to act. If they know that there's a limited amount of resources, they are going to be more motivated to try to grab those resources.

Reciprocity, which is simply if you give me something, I feel obligated to give something back as a human being.

Commitment and consistency, getting someone to do a small act will increase the likelihood that they will say yes to a bigger ask later.

Tribalism, Can you make people feel like they are a part of something, like they belong? If they say yes, they're joining your team. A great marketer to look at for this one is Garrett J. White of Wake Up Warrior.

#3. Claude Hopkins's Scientific Advertising

If you've never heard of Claude Hopkins you should look him up.

I'd never heard of him myself until this class and this week I got his book Scientific Advertising and it was brilliant!

You can actually get his book for free here.

This guy was born in the 1800's (That's before the internet), so like before Google and all that and still tested copy to figure out was working and what wasn't. So cool.

Read the book and let me know what you thing.

There were a few things to think about from his book that should really go into assessing your existing copy.

Be Specific

You can't be everything to everybody. It's that simple. You have to have an ideal persona in mind that you can really speak to.

Generic copy is forgettable. There's no emotional draw, no specific memorable details, it's just going to be something they scroll past.

Claude Hopkins pointed that it's really hard to lie with specifics.

Let's think about this for a second, what seems more believable:

"Our Thingamajig increased conversion rate by 72% in 17 days for X company."

Or

"Our Thingamajig increases conversion rates for companies 70%."

If you think the first one, you'd be like most people.

People assume specifics with honesty, and generalities with lying.

Pretty Cool eh?

Offer Service

This is something that is massively important.

I think a lot of times in copy we forget that you've got to give to get. No one cares that you have a number to hit, or a quota. They're looking into your product as a way to better themselves.

This goes back to everyone's favorite radio station WIIFM, What's in it for me?

So you've got to craft your message as offering service, not trying to sell.

So really speak to the benefits, really speak to why they're going to be better. Speak to them sitting on the beach in Hawaii, not the travel itself.

Show how if they go with you, their life is going to be so much easier.

Tell the Full Story

Don't stress about long copy if it's clear and concise.

Too often people will shorten their copy because they think people won't read it (and that's sometimes true), but it also leaves your persuasive argument lacking.

You've got to walk people through the gap.

Here's where you are, here's where you want to be, here's the gap, and here's what fills it, how and what happens on the other side.

Be A Salesperson

Ask yourself if this was me talking to a person trying to convince them that what I'm selling would help them, would it actually move them forward.

If the copy wouldn't help you sell in person, it probably isn't helping on paper.

Don't think that because you're writing, the whole dynamic changes.

Write like you talk.

And only write what would help you in person.

So Now What?

Now you tear down that copy my friend.

It's important that you don't forget about tying all of what we just talked about into each of the funnel sections.

Every piece of the journey is a part of your total copy and persuasive argument.

So top of funnel we have the attention grabbing copy, the headlines. This is actually crucial.

If this doesn't align with their motivation or just isn't visually appealing you won't drive them down the funnel.

The persuasive copy is what gets people excited about the offer and gets them to truly understand it and why it's great for them. It's so crucial that this is where you speak to the benefits, offer social proof and really create buy in. Why?

Because next is the transactional copy which is where the friction comes into play. This is where people go from feel good, to actually having to do something. They actually have to do work to get the outcome you promised, so you may have to deal with anxiety here as well.

So all together we have a whole bunch of principles, copywriting principles, conversion principles, persuasion principles, that we want to be thinking about when we put together this framework.

In the following blogs we'll be discussing the hands on application of actually getting this done.

Until Next Time.