When it comes to converting readers, your sales copy can play a crucial role.
It can be your single best chance to present your product or service as a solution to their needs and show that it’s worth their time to explore.
But what is sales copy exactly? Essentially, it’s a strategic pitch you give consumers who may need what you have to offer.
More specifically, sales copy is content composed in a way to persuade consumers to take a desired action. This action may be to download a white paper, sign up for future emails, buy your product, or any other interaction relating to your business and sales goals.
If done correctly, it will be so irresistible that the consumer can’t just simply pass you by.
The secret is to make your sales copy about your potential customers and address the initial stages of the digital marketing funnel.
Once you have their attention, then you can divulge everything about your brand, product, or service.
With so much available online these days and everyone’s increasingly busy schedules, you may only have this one chance to capture their interest. It helps, then, to learn effective tips to write sales copy that actually converts. Here are 9 of them.
1. Select a Central Focus
The top tip for effectively crafting sales copy is to avoid trying to include everything and instead select a central focus.
In other words, don’t use this as a blanket statement or message showcasing all your brand, product, or service can do or has to offer.
Sales copy is not meant to create general interest. Instead, you want to narrow its focus and guide consumers to take a specific action.
You’ll need to choose a focus that you believe will be the most compelling and marketable to your particular audience. To help with this, create or refer to your buyer personas and the data you’ve already collected about existing customers.
Also, examine your SEO strategy and identify the keywords used by your targeted audience. These can provide clues as to what is most important to them.
For example, say you are a copywriter tasked with writing sales copy for a special spice blend that both chefs and home cooks can use. Your copy needs to focus on one aspect, not everything from individual ingredients to recipes to health benefits.
You may determine that your target audience will like the convenience of having all the different spices in one complementary blend. Or perhaps it’s the health benefits of the combined spices that will meet their needs. Whatever focus you choose, stick with it throughout.
2. Define the Goal of Each Piece of Sales Copy
Every piece of sales copy needs to have one well-defined and specific goal.
For example, do you want to sell to new customers or add to what existing customers already purchased?
Are you selling one specific product or service, a set (such as related courses), or an advanced version of something?
Determine what it is you wish to accomplish with your sales copy, and then define the conversion or sales goal you are seeking.
Knowing this will help you write more concise text to achieve that goal.
3. Identify What Audience You Want to Reach
In sales copy, you need to target your messaging to a particular audience.
Start by identifying who you want to reach. For example, who will your product or service appeal the most to? Why will it appeal to them specifically?
If needed, create new buyer personas or modify the ones you have to match with what you find, then cater your copy to them specifically.
4. Ensure That It Solves a Pain Point
Every piece of sales copy needs to address and solve a pain point of your target audience or buyer persona.
Your message needs to reach them on an emotional level and focus on a particular pain point and how your particular product or service can alleviate it.
Narrow the offered solution down to one thing, showing what your offering can do for them.
If you’re not sure what pain point to focus on, do a little keyword research and find out which one your audience uses most often.
Often, clues to pain points are found in the queries and keywords themselves.
5. Prioritize Benefits Not Features
It’s easy to become enamored with all the features your product or service offers, yet this is not the way to reach consumers who are looking for what it can offer them personally.
Rarely do consumers care more about specific details than what the product or service means to their needs, wants, or interests.
They may not even care about all the great features, at least initially. For this reason, you need to prioritize benefits not features.
Start by considering how your target audience can benefit from your product or service. What will they get out of it personally? How will it benefit their life?
Next, identify which benefits will be the most attractive to a higher number of them. Incorporate what you find in your sales copy.
You can present the chosen benefits in engaging content alone or add in a visual aid, such as an interactive infographic.
6. Choose an Informative Headline
As with any type of content, an informative headline that can capture the attention of your audience and make them want to learn more is essential.
Your sales copy is no different.
To write these attention-getting sale copy headlines, follow these tips for highest impact.
- Make it concise and to the point.
- Mention the main benefit your audience will gain from the product or service.
- Give a reason as to why this is a valuable offer.
- Use numbers whenever possible (e.g., 3 Secrets to Writing Better Sales Copy that Results in Conversions).
7. Use Storytelling Along with Compelling, Engaging Language
Sales copy is meant to create audience engagement. You want the consumer to take a desired action.
Because of this, the language you use needs to be both engaging and compelling.
You want to evoke emotion or create excitement, not provide vague and over technical copy that fails to engage readers.
One of the better ways to accomplish this is by using storytelling to better connect with customers.
Let the story you tell speak to a specific pain point of your target audience, one that resonates with the life experience of your buyer persona.
A story such as this can better help them connect with your product, service, or brand, creating an emotional reaction.
Where can you find a story to share in your sales copy? Try borrowing one from an existing customer or create one based on what you know about your product or service.
For example, if you sell home air filters and your target audience is those suffering from asthma or allergies, you can relate a story of a customer who found relief and can now enjoy the sanctuary of their home.
8. Let Testimonials Work for You
Testimonials of consumers with prior experience with your brand, product, or service can serve as a valuable tool when creating your sales copy.
These are a type of social proof showing consumers that you are real and that you are trustworthy and authoritative.
They show who is already connecting with you, buying what you offer, and receiving the positive results your product or service offers.
In turn, such testimonials can sway more of your audience to purchase from you also.
Be sure to include only testimonials that relate positively to your central focus and pain point.
9. End Your Sales Copy with a Clear Call to Action
Be sure to include in your sales copy a clear, compelling, and easily recognized call-to-action (CTA).
Align this CTA with the purpose of your sales copy, whether that is to buy a particular product or service, download content, sign up for an interactive newsletter, or whatever else.
Use your CTA to let the consumer know what to expect next once they click on it.
For example, your call-to-action may include something similar to the following.
- Schedule your free, initial consultation.
- Download a Free Trial.
- Sign up now.
- Download the free eBook Now.
- Learn More.
The quality of your sales copy can go a long way to making or breaking your messaging efforts. It can also directly impact your conversion and sales rates.
The key is to give consumers a reason to continue reading it, click on that CTA, and take the desired action.
To achieve this, find your central focus, know your audience, address a particular pain point, prioritize benefits over features, and tell a story with compelling language that the reader just can’t ignore.
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