How to improve your copywriting and make more sales in 2019

Whether you’re selling an ebook, software, a plugin, an online course or consulting services. If you’re simply a business owner hoping to boost a marketing campaign, you can improve your existing conversion rate with the power of quality copywriting.

Considering the amount of content that marketers put out there and the investment that goes with it, how great is their ROI? I mean, how many of them generate more visitors to their site, as well as increase sales?

Persuasive, quality copywriting that converts boils down to understanding how to trigger the right emotions that will induce a potential customer to want to buy from you as a business owner.

In this writing I’ll show you how to use five proven copywriting strategies to drive both search traffic and rankings to the top.

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#1: UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE PERSONAS

But, before you can do that effectively, you’ve got to know your customers. The process is like taking a piece of information and turning it into a success.

You need to create audience or customer personas, in order to effectively bridge the gap between where your audience is and what you do as a business owner, so that your message is relevant.

Name your personas, however, is only the first step of of identifying who these individuals and business owners are. Next, you’ve got to give them demographics and a background: how old they are, where they came from, where they’d like to travel, what their occupation is, etc. Use the raw data from whatever source you have access to – such as surveys, keyword and search term analytics and forum threads.

When deciding personas, include whether this persona represents your primary or secondary audiences. Also, include the persona’s goals and how he or she might meet those goals. That information shows you how to reach and persuade your audience effectively. 

Business owners and companies of all sizes are embracing and developing buyer personas, because it gives them an edge over their competition.

Developing a persona can be as simple as filling in the blanks of a template, like the one below.

#2 WRITE INSTANT-CLARITY HEADLINES

8 out of 10 people to read your headline, but only two will read further – less if your headline is not catching their attention. Headline determines your conversion. It should be a quality headline to persuade each of your readers to read the rest of your article.

Millions of articles and blog posts have been written about how to craft headlines. From what I can see, I don’t think most marketer have trouble writing catchy headlines featuring good copy with the right keywords.

Headlines have a lot of tasks to accomplish. In addition to persuading readers to keep reading, headlines ought to drive search traffic and encourage word -of-mouth referrals, as well.

But, if the headline isn’t clear and people can’t tell, solely from your headline, exactly what the article is about, then it hasn’t done its job, period.

Remember that your targeted readers no longer interested in every piece of website content from start to finish. They just can’t, because there’s just too much of it out there. Instead, they’ve all become skilled page-scanners.

Make your website content scan-friendly, by using subheadings to organize and break up your website copy. This will make it easier to understand and will help the majority of readers.

You also have to make your headline easy to understand. It’s been proven that readers tend to absorb the first and last three words of a headline – the words in between get glossed over, if not ignored outright.

So, how do you write instant-clarity headlines that are attractive, keyword rich and relevant?

i).   Use numbers: Putting numbers in your headline accomplishes three things:

• It draws people into the post
• It compels people to share it
• It provides certainty

ii).  Add the right keywords: Targeting the right keywords in the marketing campaign of your headlines will also give you an edge, because you’ll drive qualified leads, in addition to generating more search visitors.

The best thing that could happen to your online business is a continual flow of search visitors and targeted leads.

Bloggers who have built a loyal audience understand that answering questions is the key to dominating search engines and building a successful online business. And, your customers’ questions are mostly the keywords (search terms) that they’re typing into the search box.

This is why keyword research is important.

Now that we’ve discussed how important it is for your headlines to be instantly clear, let’s look at the various ways to avoid headlines that destroy your credibility.

1).   Avoid confusing headlines: Confusing headlines will drive the user away and discourage them from coming to your site again.

Smart copywriters know that their job is to write good copy that sells. As a result, they’re sharply focused on clarity. This means that they eliminate every detail – no matter how tiny – that may decrease their conversion rate.

Marketing campaigns which fail to understand the psychology of customers and how the brain works risk misleading their target audience.

This been proved in TV commercials. Unfortunately, some people who don’t really understand content marketing are now misleading readers with their headlines and ads. This kind of confusion can destroy your credibility.

Clickbait (adding trigger elements to the headline solely to prompt more clicks) may sound like a great marketing tactic, but it does more harm to your personal brand than good.

Write headlines that are meaningful, clear and relevant to a specific audience. Rather than shooting for cleverness in your headline, aim for clarity.

2).   Help readers trust you: Before you can improve your conversion rate, your job is to help your target audience perceive you as trustworthy.

It’s your responsibility to make them trust you through the things that you say and do. When it comes to selling yourself, words are 7% of the message. So, what you say in your blog posts is important to building trust, but good copywriting is perhaps even more vital.

Persuading your customers to take a step from where they are to where you want them to be takes creativity and incentive.

You may want to upsell, like Amazon, or give away a valuable ebook, short report or software solution. From one point of your marketing funnel to the next, you have to persuade customers, through good copywriting and visual marketing.

You can build trust by being transparent. Those posts generate the most social shares and comments.

#3: USE THE AIDA STRATEGY

Creative minds look for opportunities to improve their results. It doesn’t matter whether they’re writing a blog post or connecting on Facebook, they always look for ways to give more value.

A lot of factors contribute to the success of your website content. 

AIDA is an acronym for:

A – Attract Attention

I  – Trigger Interest

D – Create a strong Desire

A – Call to Action

i).  Attract Attention: In copywriting, there’s lots of advice on writing a powerful headline. After all, 73% of the buying decision is made, based on the headline alone.

ii). Trigger interest: In your headline, you’re making a promise that you intend to fulfill before the reader is done reading the website content. Some benefits can be found in every headline, but real interest is built from the first paragraph so good copywriting is key.

iii).  Build a strong desire: A good marketing campaign is all about discovering the gap between what the customer really wants and the products or website content that you’ve created for them. According to James Gilbert, “good marketers don’t sell products, they create desire.”

iv).  Call-to-action: The last piece of the AIDA puzzle is the call-to-action. One of the most common mistakes bloggers and marketers make is failing to effectively persuade customers to take action, even after attracting attention, building interest and creating a strong desire.

#5: IMPROVE CLICK-THROUGH RATES

Your customer is pressured to click tons of ads that are thrown at them on a daily basis. 

If you want to succeed at content marketing and stay ahead of your competitors, you’ve got to continually improve your knowledge and skills, especially in the area of testing.

Before writing a post on how website content length affects rankings, I had to test it for myself. How else could I draw any conclusions? You have to test, too.

One of the important lessons that I learned, early in my blogging career, is that there is no single rule for improving your conversion rate.

No matter where you get advice from, you know that no one can guarantee specific results. 

Since they’re so effective at improving your conversion rate, you should especially test your headlines.

If you want to increase clicks on your campaigns and you’re wondering where to start, my advice is: start with the headline, not the call-to-action. 

The headline is critical. It’s easy to identify a lack of clicks, when the CTA is not compelling. But, it’s much harder to figure out when the headline is actually the culprit.

CONCLUSION

In years past, a copywriter was someone who wrote ad copy to sell a product or service. Today, however, customers want education, inspiration and satisfaction. 

Copywriting should provide all of these. But, it also needs to persuade the prospect to buy. It should provide a social experience, as well and make it easy for people to share helpful website content.

That’s why we prepare this Ultimate Copywriting (12 Month Copywriter Training Program) for you to increase your conversion and sales up 113% or more.