COPWRITING AND CONVERSION

Transcription

1 COPWRITING AND CONVERSION

2 n COPWRITING AND CONVERSION

3 Legal Page 2013 Firepole Marketing. All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from Firepole Marketing. (But it's easy to get permission; just us at

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS GETTING ATTENTION AND CREATING ACTION 1 THE CYCLE OF COMMITMENT AND REWARD 3 THE CHAIN OF CONVERSION 5 WHERE THINGS GO WRONG 7 SECRETS TO GREAT COPYWRITING: 8 IT ISN T JUST COPY 11 ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT TRACK? 14 FURTHER READING 15

5 Getting Attention and Creating Action Aside from actually delivering your product or service, the most important part of building a business is making people aware of it. This is marketing, and it isn t just advertising, but is about creating a relationship that results in the mutually beneficial exchange of value otherwise known as a sale. When you re working online, this means having solid copywriting that leads to strong conversions! Good copywriting will engage the reader with stellar headlines, relatable storytelling, and contentbe long enough to allow them to understand all the benefits of the business or offering, but short enough that they ll actually read through the whole thing. It ll describe (in heart-wrenching detail) a problem that the reader is experiencing, and it ll offer a solution to that problem in a way that really resonates, and makes taking action irresistible. Of course this is easier said than done. Good copywriting is an art and done badly it can come across as sleazy, untruthful and generally distasteful. Bad copywriting speaks to problems that don t resonate with the reader, or is way too verbose, or is badly structured and hard to understand. It talks about in generalities and not specifics. It doesn t aim to speak to an individual, and because of that, no one finds it relatable. If this is the case, people don t read on, and conversions are depressingly low. It sounds marketing buzzword speak Gross. If you think your landing and sales pages may be victims of bad copywriting, if your customers are very slowly trickling in, or you re not converting for the opt-ins and sales that you had hoped for, how should 1

6 you proceed? How do you identify what is missing, or which element needs work? A small problem can have large effects, and if you don t know exactly where things are broken, you ll waste ages of time fixing things that aren t an issue. We re going to get into some copywriting tips and tricks a little bit later on but first we re going to learn how to identify where they need to be employed using two tools to help identify where you need to beef up your copy the cycle of commitment and reward, and the chain of conversion. It could be that you re asking too much of your prospects without ever really demonstrating the great value you can bring them. These two tools will identify this problem for you. 2

7 The Cycle of Commitment and Reward This is the secret weapon of building an engaged audience that loves what you do, buys what you sell, and tells their friends about it. It goes a little bit like this: Once you ve gotten the attention of your target audience, perhaps by writing an awesome guest post, or running a webinar that leads people to your landing page, you need to encourage them to take a step towards becoming a lifelong customer. You can t just come right out and ask them to take that leap it s too soon for that, and it would be a little like asking someone to marry you after one good date. What you do instead is ask for a small commitment, like joining your mailing list, or becoming a fan on Facebook and give them a really compelling reason to do it. Once they make that step, reward them with something way batter than what they expect. A brilliant free report or manifesto, exclusive blog posts, access to a network, or even access to *you* anything that makes the time and effort they put in seem like a fantastically good bargain. Next, you ask for a bigger commitment: maybe offer a free sample or trial after you reward them with the amazing experience of enjoying your offer. In all cases, the value that you give them must always dramatically exceed the risk that they took. This starts a pattern of offer, action, reward, offer, action reward that leaves you both very satisfied, and feeling as if good value has been exchanged. Finally (and you do this as many times as necessary to establish trust) you ask them to make the ultimate commitment, which is to actually buy something from you and when they do, you give it your all to make sure they have the absolute best experience you can deliver. 3

8 Of course it doesn t end after the first purchase; the cycle of commitment and reward can be used again and again for the entirety of the customer s lifespan with you. This is where your business plan and marketing plan really mesh and become one. Everything you do should be designed to make this cycle better and more efficient for you and your customers, which means that pretty much every part of your business will be informed by this pattern. You see? It s all very simple but none of it is easy. Throughout all of this, it s important to keep in mind that customers, and your relationship with them, have lifecycles. There are best practices for speaking to customers at each stage of the life cycle, and it s important to understand where they are in the cycle so you can talk to them in a way that really resonates. For example, someone who has just heard of you needs different messaging than someone who has been on your mailing list for two years. And someone who's been with you two years but never made a purchase needs a different message than a paying customer where they are in your marketing and sales funnel matters. Learning about the customer lifecycle can also help you determine which aspect of your business is not working as it should; that is, why particular visitors to your site are not becoming delighted repeat customers. Let s take a quick look again at how to determine where your audience is in their customer lifecycle, or as we call it the Chain of Conversion. 4

9 The Chain of Conversion You can figure out where your customers are in the lifecycle by using the Chain of Conversion. The chain starts with acquisition, goes on to service, and then finally to retention. Let s break this down: A percentage of Strangers become Leads A unique visitor or stranger reads some of your copy, and then takes an action based upon it (for example, giving you their address in exchange for a free piece of content, or signing up for blog updates). This turns them from a stranger into a lead. A percentage of Leads become Prospects A lead, perhaps now subscribed to your list, shows more interest in what you re doing by responding to more copy. Now, they ve become a prospect, who could potentially be interested in a product or program you have for sale. Prospects receive the Presentation A prospect is someone quite likely to buy when you make an offer whether in an , on a landing page, via a presentation, or, in some cases, a direct sales pitch. A percentage of people receiving the Presentation become Customers If you ve done a good job at nurturing the relationship from stranger to lead to prospect, and it s a good fit, some prospects will understand the value you have to offer, and will become paying customers. 5

10 A percentage of Customers become Repeat Customers After your prospect buys, they are a customer, and the sales goal then is to get them to buy again and again, repeatedly over the course of your professional relationship. This may sound intuitive or overly-simple, but it s at the core of every sale you have ever made and will ever make. If there aren t enough sales being made, then one of the links of the chain is broken, or not working properly, and you need to fix it. If you read about this topic, you will hear other terms. For example, a stranger is a cold lead, someone who has shown interest is a warm lead, and a prospect is a hot lead. In the Audience Business model, we seek to gradually warm up our leads so that they naturally become prospects and customers, instead of feeling pressured and running away. 6

11 Where Things Go Wrong As you can imagine, before you begin to repair what s broken, you must first identify the broken link. A certain percentage of people will move from one link in the chain of conversion to the next but if at some point you see a major drop off in the number of people who are moving on, then that is a weak link and needs to be fixed, fiddled with, or altered in some way. Collecting visitor and conversion data can help you determine whether or not the issue is at the beginning of the cycle (with lead generation), or at the very end (conversion). In a nutshell, is the issue that people are not hearing about your products and services, or is the issue that plenty of people know about them they re just not interested in buying? Lead generation issues can be a result of weak headlines, poor SEO, over-saturated markets, or lack of focus. Have you identified your One Person, and are you speaking to their pains and passions? Conversion issues can be the result of weak copy and headlines, poor description of benefits, or simply not understanding what you customers need to know at each stage of the process. Additionally, you should check for unclear calls to action, poorly designed sales funnels, and general lack of engagement building. (Are you effectively applying the cycles of commitment and reward?) If you believe you ve got a lead generation issue on your hand, work at optimizing the first part of the customer life cycle. If your issue is with Conversions, then start at the very end, and work your way backwards, tweaking and optimizing as you go. 7

12 Secrets to Great Copywriting: Most of the tweaks you will make along your chain of conversion to get people participating in the cycles of commitment and reward will have to do with your copy. Copy refers to anything at all that you right with the intent of making a sale, building a relationship or otherwise communicating with your audience. It s a pretty big part of your online business. So how does one write great copy? For starters, always be yourself, be clear, be conversational and give specific instructions on what to do next and why and how it will be a good thing. Remember that you are not talking to your leads or prospects as a whole; your goal is to cater your message to your One Person. People relate to and respond positively to copy that addresses them as the individual that they are, rather than addressing them as though they were a group of people. This can feel a little counterintuitive you want to reach as many people as possible, right? Of course, but a message diluted to appeal to everyone convinces no one. You want to use the language, terms, questions and words that your ideal customer uses pull it right from research you do into the blog posts they write, the questions they ask and the comments they leave don t be afraid to be specific. Furthermore, you ll want to study and draw on elements of persuasion such as: 8

13 Liking. People like to do business with people they like so if you have a good idea of your customer, who they are, and what they care about, you can create an authentic relationship built on genuine liking. Social proof. Proving that other people have used and benefited from your solution. This is easiest through testimonials and referrals. People don t want to take a blind leap, so demonstrating that other people are doing it can tip the scales in your favor. Reciprocity. If you do something nice for someone, they are inclined to do something nice in return. This is the foundation of the cycles of commitment and reward. No one likes to be indebted to someone else so provide as much help and value you can, and the people you connect with will want to reciprocate. Commitment and Consistency. People don t like to have conflicting ideas in their heads. If they think something about themselves, it s hard to act in a way that goes against that. A positive answer to a question like Do you want more customers for your business makes it difficult to later fail to take action that will lead to more customers for your business. People will be consistent with things they ve done or said before. Storytelling. Storytelling isn t technically a trigger of influence but it s VERY important to writing compelling copy. The human brain is wired to understand and relate to stories more than any other kind of information. Facts and figures are great, and certainly add credibility and authority but it s through telling a story that people will begin to see themselves in the scenario you create. Authority. People trust authority figures it s why we trust our doctors, and have so much respect for engineers and architects they have expertise and authority. You want to position yourself as a known expert in your niche, because it will make it easier for people to trust you. 9

14 Scarcity. The idea that there is a limited amount of the solution you re offering, and they should act NOW to make sure they get it. This should be used sparingly it can come across as inauthentic easily. If you want more information about different triggers of influence and action, check out the work of Robert Cialdini a pioneer in the space. Now, what about the big daddy of copywriting conversations headlines? After all, headlines have a big job to do. They are the first thing a reader will see, what they will skim in mere seconds to see if they want to learn more, and set the tone for the entire piece that comes after. They have to be good. A good headline won t give your readers the choice but to read on it should make reading on feel irresistible. List posts fare well online (The Top 7 Reasons You Should Think Hard About Your Headlines), as do posts that speak to the Six Buttons of Buzz: the taboo, the unusual, the outrageous, the hilarious, the remarkable, and secrets. If you struggle with headlines, or are looking for some other really useful headline formulas, we recommend Headline Hacks. Read up on techniques and formulas to strengthen collateral, give credibility to your business, and make the value that you are offering much more concrete and attractive so that your prospects NEED to have it. Don t try to reinvent the wheel there are proven tactics that get the message across quickly and effectively. Use them. 10

15 It Isn t Just Copy Copy the writing that sells your product and services is the foundation of good conversions and how people will be encouraged to move through the cycles of commitment and reward and the chain of conversion. It s an important skill, but happily, there are standard best practices that work. All you have to do is learn them. While copywriting is the foundation of conversions and a healthy customer lifecycle, there are other important elements which can be optimized to repair a broken link. You have to optimize your conversions at EACH stage, and this means optimizing your landing pages, your sales pages, your auto-responders, and your up-sells and all the funnels that feed into each of these elements. Great so you get that you need to optimize for conversions but how exactly do you go about optimizing something like a landing page? For starters, ask yourself if all the elements of a strong landing page (or any web page, for that matter!) are present. Are there indicators of credibility on the page, elements that would indicate to a stranger that you are an expert in your field and someone they can trust? Are your call-to-actions clear, attractive, and strategically placed? 11

16 Are all your navigation bars removed so that there is only one possible action to take (opt in)? Are your copy and headlines concise and to-the-point? Are the benefits of opting in sufficiently outlined? Is the value painfully obvious? To learn more about landing pages and how to improve them, be sure to check out Landing Pages and sales Funnels. The next step is less formulaic, and something of a slog to get going, but is just as important. You have to split test. (Find out why split testing is like sex in high school!) At a high level, split-testing is comparing two slightly different versions of the same copy or page against each other to see which causes more conversions. Very small changes can change your conversion rates dramatically. Sometimes it can be as simple as using a different color - but the complexity lies in the fact that there are no manuals that teach this. You really have to get in the trenches and test one color against the other. Also words, headlines, emphasis, placement of page elements everything. It may sound daunting, but you will understand when you run a split test and find that a very subtle change results in a drastic improvement for your Conversions. Split tests can sometimes produce surprising and delightful results. When split testing start with the big things, like headlines and body text, and work your way down to the small details. Make a point of split-testing your landing and sales pages using tools such as Visual Website Optimizer so that you learn what works best for your audience. Doing so requires a bit of initial setup work in order 12

17 to learn the technology, but ultimately there are little tweaks that can pay off in a major way. Each individual element, from your copy to the look of your landing page, can be optimized over time to make sure you get the best possible results from your marketing efforts. 13

18 Are You On the Right Track? So, how do your copywriting skills and conversion rates check out? Where can you improve? Are there any missing links in your Chain of Conversion, and if so how can you optimize and iterate so that strangers and more easily turned into satisfied repeat customers? Looking at your customer lifecycle as it is right now: where are most people coming to you from? What are they doing once they find you? What is currently making the biggest impact for your business? Here are some things to look at: If you get 90% of your traffic from guest posts, then your by-line and landing page should be first on your list to optimize. If you get good conversions on your landing page but no one response to your s, then you ve got to take a good hard look at your copywriting. If your list is engaged and responsive, but doesn t buy anything, then you need to revisit your sales copy. Or maybe if you fine-tuned the presentation itself, and retrained your existing sales staff you could convert more presentations into sales. You want to go with what is going to give you the most benefit for the least effort. If you can get a good improvement from a small change, it may be a better idea to do that than to work long and hard on a big change with an equal or only slightly better result. Use your time and money wisely. 14

19 Further Reading The bottom line is that Copywriting and Conversion are critical to your long term success and if you re really uncomfortable with how either should work, then consider getting training or hiring it done! But if you want to give it a shot, take a look at your current Chain of Conversion and collaterals, and jump right in! Here are some additional resources to help you get started: How to Be Persuasive? Advanced Tips from a 4 Year Old and a Girl Scout The Secrets of Marketing Best Practices A $26, SEO Sales Letter Example AND Swipe Copy How to Sell More in 5 Steps: The Essential Guide to Marketing The Art of Pulling the Trigger: Upselling Done Right 3 Landing Page Ideas That Can Fix Your Low Subscription Rates Communicate With Customers to Make Them See the Value of What You Offer 7 Steps on How to Create a Successful Newsletter and Have a Profitable Launch Video Killed the Copywriter? (How to Start a Video Blog) 15