Optimizing your conversion rate: copywriting rules

Intro

The good copywriting is not about being tricky. It’s about being honest and specific, knowing the challenges of your audience, and how to present them a solution. Here we won’t be talking about well-known things, such as learning about your target audience before writing, the uniqueness of your text, and the truth behind it. Although, there is something else you can do with your texts to increase your conversions.

How the text affects your conversion rate

You might think that the text doesn’t make any difference. You’ve spent a bunch of money to develop a website, paid an unreasonable sum to your designer. Banners, Adwords, Facebook Ads… For some people, the good text is still optional. That’s the reason why there is a lot of meaningless texts like “first-class,” “the best quality,” “buy now.” Even Apple has its new iPhone which is “Brilliant. In every way.” Of course, they’ve managed to get away with it:)

How can the text help you with CRO?

• Win the trust of your potential customers
• Make the search engines work for you
• Keep the potential customer engaged, increase the loyalty

So, let’s discuss what you can do about it.

Telling about your offer

It can be your homepage or product page text, ad copy or direct message via email. Here are some rules for you to follow:

• Don’t be rude and don’t force people to buy. There is no magic word or tricky move which would make people give you money like zombies. “Buy now!” repeated several times throughout the entire text, without any proof, isn’t the best way to gain somebody’s trust. Focus on telling and showing the customer all he needs to know before the purchase, and you may not need to be all that annoying.

• The point above doesn’t mean that you can’t deliberately make your text more attractive. There are some general rules of influence but don’t go crazy following them — focus on finding the right form instead.

  It’s known that the deficit forces people to buy. But “Few vacant spots left!” totally seems to be a fake deficit. “10 spots left!” is already better.

  “The offer is limited” — the fake deficit, the bad copy. “We’re sorry, but we have only 10 items left” is much more specific and better.

  “The rarest event!” is not that clear. “The next event will be in October of the next year” — oh no, I’m going now.

• Magic phrases that actually can work: “no spam”, “guarantee”, “you can try this for free”, “no chasing you after you’ll give us the email”, “delivered the great result to XXX people, “if there is any problem with the setup, just call us”. They are only magic if true. By the way, numbers, as proof, are still valuable.
• Exclamation marks are cheap. “50 % off” doesn’t sell worse than “50 % off!”. And it’s better than “50 % off!!!”. Stop admiring your offer that much, let the customer do it.
• Explain the features in terms of the customer. For me, the size of the laptop in inches is nothing — but I want to know for sure whether it fits in my backpack. Be specific, anticipate questions, and answer them.
• Right and clear CTA. What’s my next step and what will I get after completing it? Make it easier for the potential customer. When somebody visits your website, it doesn’t mean he’s ready to purchase. He’s just being curious and looking for some benefits. In this case, downloading a free brochure or anything else of value will be the most pleasant and easy action — especially if you sell expensive services.
• Stick to the right structure. Don’t try to sell from the first paragraph. But don’t start with the history of the sofas you sell as well — it doesn’t make any sense.
• Good copy isn’t necessary the long one. If it’s too long, the user gets bored. If it’s too short, the user leaves without any action.
• For one moment, forget about the text. You can write a beautiful description of the new phone, but will it sell without great photos? Don’t overwhelm your customers with words when they don’t need it.

Introducing your company

• Don’t be general. If I can replace the name of your company with any other name, you’ve lost it. Forget the “premium,” “fast-growing,” and other pretentious words.
• Don’t forget testimonials. Nowadays, no one wouldn’t care about the words you say if there are no other people’s words to prove that.
• Don’t be boring and nerdy. Only a few people are interested that “long ago, in 2001, my friend and I decided to establish a company.” Tell about your success, problems you’ve solved, tons of customers you’ve already made happy. Bring numbers to the stage.

Proving your expertise

Just a few years ago a blog on the e-commerce website wasn’t such obvious thing. Nowadays, almost everyone gets the idea that customers love valuable information served for free. They’re happy when someone gives them an answer without demanding anything in return, and they adore those lovely tests à la “What kind of an online-shopper you are.” The blog is the place where you can entertain them and still show that you can be trusted.

• Make it interactive. We remember something better if it demanded some kind of action. A copy not only tells and sells. A copy is a way of communication and the great opportunity to make the first contact with customer memorable for him.
• Test headlines. A headline is a very first thing to gain the customer’s attention while he’s looking through your blog, the most important and interactive part of every text. Have you managed to catch the reader’s attention in the first 30 seconds? Good for you! Make it bold, honest and attractive.
• Don’t get carried away with all this SEO stuff. Making your texts look good for robots can push you to the first Google page but turn down all the people that come to this page and don’t see anything valuable for them. Thank Google, the algorithms get smarter and smarter.
• Make it easy for reading. Use bullet points, avoid long sentences, and the customer reward you with his attention.
• Proofread it one more time. For somebody, your grammar mistakes can make a difference. “Can I trust these people, if they post lame texts on their website and?” This potential customer may not even spend one more minute to find out that you’re good at your business.

How to measure the quality of your texts

How to find out whether your texts are bad or good?

Sorry to disappoint you, but there is no way to learn for sure if the reason for high or low conversion rate is exactly in the text. There are some analytics features for you to test your suggestions.

• Page reading tracking. If you write a blog on your website, read this article about blog reading tracking. It’s okay to use that for other pages as well. You can see how the user interacts with your text and how much he scrolls the page. After that, ask yourself: “Is my text way too long? Is it easy to get bored at the very beginning? What can be optimized?”
• A/B testing. Compare the users’ reactions to different CTA texts or different headlines. In my opinion, it’s the most reliable way to find that one headline which works for your audience.

The conclusion

Taking care of your copies means taking care of your customer. It means that you care about the way you communicate with people. But there is more to it than just a copy: the usability, design, and marketing still go first. Otherwise, who will read your amazing texts?

I don’t know any “word hack” that can make people buy from you if there is nothing valuable behind the words. Eventually, it will cost you the reputation. Attractive text with “right” words is nothing without your product.