This post originally appeared on tBL member Joshua Lyon’s blog Joshua Lyons Marketing Blog and is republished with permission. Find out how to syndicate your content with theBrokerList.
Welcome back to our “How to Improve Your Copywriting Skills” series! In part four of this series, we discuss the importance of research when targeting your audience with sales copy. Conducting research on your audience will drastically improve your conversion rate. For tips on what to research, be sure you read that blog post. However, for this section, we are going to discuss how to actually write your sales copy.
Why is Sales Copy Important for Copywriting?
The primary purpose of improving your copywriting is to make a sale. This is what is referred to as your sales copy. Or, it’s the words your prospective clients see as you convince them to hit “Buy”. Without strong sales copy, you will experience much fewer conversions from your leads. As mentioned in the previous section of this series, researching your target audience will help improve your sales copy. For one, it will help you decide where to put your sales copy.
Where Does Sales Copy Go?
There are many channels you can use to place your sales copy. However, this does not mean you should use your sales copy on every channel available. Depending on your target audience’s preferred platforms, you will want to utilize those, rather than platforms where they are not present. Additionally, there are platforms you can use to drive your target audience to your sales copy. For example, with a landing page.
Landing Page
A landing page is an optimized page that is designed to generate more sales. Rather than sending a prospective customer to your general website, a landing page is designed to capture their attention and keep them reading. On this landing page, you will want to utilize as many of the tips we offer in this series as possible. Use a great hook, explain the benefits of your product or service, and what problems you will solve for them. Also, remember to use emotions in your copy so they feel emotionally charged when reading your landing page. Later on in this blog post, we explain some other things to include in your sales copy.
The great thing about a landing page is that you can direct traffic to it from a variety of channels. You are not limited to just one channel to drive sales. You can place the link to your landing page in a variety of places where your audience frequents. In fact, you can use the channels below to direct people to your landing page, rather than your general website or “About Us” page.
Social Media Posts or Advertisements
If your target audience is on social media, you can use your sales copy on these channels. However, you will want to do some research on your audience and see which social media platforms they prefer. Once you figure that out, you can use social media posts to include your sales copy. You can also run social media pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements to target cold audiences. Then, use your copywriting skills to attract new sales. Also, put the link to your website or landing page in your social media post or PPC advertisement so people who are interested can learn more about you.
Be aware, you won’t want every social media post to be a sales pitch. Many generations today expect businesses to be more personal on social media, rather than constantly selling. Your social media accounts should not become a place where you give a new sales pitch every day. They should be a place where potential customers learn more about your business and develop a relationship with your brand. Also, remember, the best sales copy is when the customer doesn’t know they are being sold.
Search Engine Advertising
Search engines are another channel you can use to advertise your business and use sales copy. These search engine advertisements are PPC, in which you drive traffic to either your landing page or a webpage. You will need to include some sort of sales copy, but it will be much shorter than other channels. This is why it is best to ensure the webpage used in the advertisement is an optimized landing page. A landing page will ensure the potential customer can learn more about your business and develop interest.
Email Marketing
Another popular place to use sales copy is in email marketing. You can build an email list the lead magnets, in which you offer a free resource in exchange for the customer’s email address. Then, you can send them an email with your sales copy. As usual, you will want to include a link to either your website or a landing page in the email. It is best to keep your sales emails short and sweet and give the customer the option to learn more about your service.
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What to Include In Your Copywriting
Throughout this series, we have offered many tips on what to include in your sales copy. In particular, part two of this series goes over how to design your sales message. This is very helpful if you have no idea how to go about copywriting for your audience. In part one, we discuss the reasons people buy products or services, which is also important for writing your sales copy. Additionally, in part three, we discuss the emotions to trigger when copywriting. It is best to read all of these sections before you set off on your copywriting journey. But, here are a few more tips to wrap up this series.
Focus on How You Solve Problems and Provide Benefits
Perhaps one of the most important things in your copywriting is to focus on how you solve problems. If you are unsure of the problems your target audience has, do research on it. Once you find out what problems you solve for your customers, you will be ready to start copywriting. Talk about how your products or services make life easier or more enjoyable. Say something like, “You will have so much more time back with your family when you use our services.” Or, “You likely hate how tedious these tasks are, so take your time back and use our services.” Whatever the benefit of your product or service is, talk about it.
Make Sure Your Message is Clear
When your prospective customer is on your landing page or reads your sales copy, they shouldn’t be left with questions. They should have a clear idea of what you offer, how you solve their problems, and how to purchase your services or products. If you read your copywriting and your customer has to make any assumptions, rewrite it. You can also ask your loved ones to read it and tell you if they would have any questions. If you publish sales copy and someone asks a question about it, rework your copywriting to answer that question. Paying close attention to feedback is vital to having a fully optimized sales copy message.
Talk About Them, Not About You
Although it may sound bad, people prefer talking about themselves. Especially when it comes to investing money into something, they want to know about how the product with benefit them. They don’t care about how it will benefit you if they invest in your business. With that being said, keep an eye out for home many times you use these words: I, me, we, our, my, and us. At most, you should only use any of these words once or twice in an entire sales copy pitch. This will help you keep focus on the customer and their incentive to buy, rather than focusing on your company.
You’re Ready to Start Copywriting!
If you have read all five parts of this series, you have plenty of information to kick off your copywriting journey. It may sounds daunting, but the best way to start is by creating a rough draft. Keep practicing until you know you would buy your product with the sales copy. If you, your co-workers, and your loved ones all agree it’s clear, enticing, and focused on the customer, you will likely see great success.
As always, if you have any questions about copywriting, feel free to contact us. We would love to answer your questions or help you with your copywriting.
