Do you feel your website could use some love in terms of its sales copy? Are you frustrated about how confusing or inconsistent the text and descriptions on your product pages are?
Then you are one of the thousands of business owners and marketers who feel the pain.
You recognize the importance of a snappy website that will tell the story about your brand. Having product descriptions that deliver the one-two punch in 5 seconds or less is critical for driving sales.
You’re thinking – strong differentiation, value proposition, and messages that speak to your audience are everything.
But this copywriting coming to you naturally feels as unnatural as getting out of bed at 3 am to run.
How can you craft relevant messages and high-converting value propositions into one perfect, fool-proof sales page copy?
Believe it or not, even if you have never considered yourself a writer, this is possible.
Thanks to specific systems and frameworks, you can create messaging that reflects your audience’s pain, needs, and motivation, which will prompt them to hit that “Buy now” button. These systems and frameworks are what elite copywriters use to weave their target audience’s narrative into the sales page.
Keep reading.
The Copy Teardown
As the name suggests, start by re-assessing your existing copy. Is it clear and consistent? Does it speak to your audience?
A teardown doesn’t mean getting as many red marks and strike-throughs on a page as possible. Instead of treating it as a “to rewrite” outline, consider it a gap analysis – find out where it may not be working.
How? You ask.
Elite copywriters use these frameworks below:
(In this article, I’ll discuss the foundation – MEClab’s Conversion Sequence Heuristic. You can read Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion in this CXL article and Claude Hopkins’ Scientific Advertising here.)
As MEClab’s Conversion Sequence Heuristic formula looks complicated and mathematical (it’s not), I’ll hold off on sharing it until I tell you what it’s all about.
MEClab defines the Conversion Sequence Heuristic formula as “a framework of five factors to focus your optimization energy.”
The most significant factor influencing conversion into your copy is motivation – why, when, and what your target audience expects when they land on your webpage. Motivation reflects their desired outcomes, pain points, and problems, purchase prompts (or events that urged them to look for a product). While motivation is entirely within the audience’s circle of control (and you cannot do much to change it), you can influence other elements within the formula, like Value.
Value proposition reflects your product’s unique benefits and advantages, delightful product features, needs, and requirements. When doing your teardown, ask yourself—are you clear about your value proposition? Do you highlight it in a way that tells the audience they need to buy your product? This is where your quick win lies.
Other factors that can influence conversion, aka your audience’s decision to buy your product, are the following:
Incentive – what can the audience get from buying your products? Are there discounts, exclusivity, and dedicated customer support?
Friction – is anything that hinders your website visitors from purchasing your product. This can be anything from filling up a long-form to navigating your sales page and looking for the right buttons or a long shopping cart process.
Anxiety – refers to any concern your audience may have from purchasing a product on your website. Do they feel secure leaving their credit card details on your website? Do they think delivery may take longer than other products, or may your price be higher than your competitors?
Now that you know these five elements, here’s the formula:
You will see that the higher the number next to the letter is, the more significant the influence they have on the probability of conversion. And that the more you reduce the friction and anxiety among your target audience, the more likely they are to buy your product.
A bit mathematical, but not that complicated, right?
If you’d like to know more about the formula, you may read it through MEClab’s page.
Message Mining and Swiping
Message mining is collecting opinions, statements & ideas about your product or competitor products from your target customer.
It’s all about writing your copy straight from the horse’s mouth. What are your users and target audience saying about your product?
Dig through your product reviews, given that you already have customers or visitors. Read them individually and outline common themes, keywords, and narratives. They may have had experiences or pain points you would never have imagined.
“Swipe” memorable copy. It’s all about using their exact words and narrative with impunity! Look for keywords, phrases, or sentences that describe your product from their eyes. Weave them into your sales page’s copy and product descriptions. Find out multiple benefits and their key reasons to buy.
Conduct surveys, polls, interviews, and even user tests to grasp your customers’ perspectives—what they feel and why they need your product.
Create an outline of common themes and keywords. Find out which element of the above conversion formula they pertain to (motivation, anxiety, value?). Score them according to your customer’s motivation and how they will match your unique value proposition – or the main reasons to buy.
Know where your unique value proposition lies so you can highlight it throughout your messages.
Message Hierarchy
Much like telling a story, crafting your copy has to reflect the classic story framework (narrative arc). Remember lessons from your school days?
Writing a copy is pretty much the same thing. But instead of these classic elements, we can think of them in marketing terms:
This is the best way to think of how to prioritize and order your messaging:
- Clarify their motivation
- Build up with value and demonstrate how your product addresses their motivation
- Address any anxiety
- Peak with the call-to-action with incentives
- Follow-through with supporting messages post-transaction
It is also essential to adjust your messaging according to the awareness level of your audience.
Suppose they have low product awareness or haven’t heard much about your brand. In that case, you need a more extended build-up that addresses motivation and value.
You need a longer-form copy to establish who you are, why they need you, how you can offer value, and how you can reassure them that buying you is one of the best decisions they’ll make.
But if you’re an Apple or Nike, practically everyone knows you. You can spend less time on motivation and value and go straight into a punchy, shorter copy.
Essentially, when they’re already on your website, they’re likely motivated to buy that they’re only browsing for products. They recognize your value and that the best thing to do is to get out of their way – your job as a copywriter is to provide clear and punchy product descriptions that lead them to the transaction page.
What’s next
This article is scratching the surface of product messaging and conversion copywriting—massive credits to Momoko Price for the screenshots and these key takeaways from her CXL Product Messaging Course. Templates available will help you map out your messaging mining and hierarchies, as well as more tips on how to draft your first copy. I’m more than happy to share with you, so if you’d like a copy or have any questions, leave a comment below. Email me@tinasendin.com or connect with me on Linkedin!
If you liked this article, here are some growth marketing articles you may also find useful:
- Google Tag Manager – why you need to set this up for your website analytics
- 5 amazing things that Google Analytics can do
- Here’s the Google Analytics 101 you’ve been looking for
- 5 things you should look for in Google Analytics
- A/B testing techniques from the experts
- How to get more website conversions (and how growth marketers do it)
- Conversion Optimization: The Important Role of Research and Testing in Growth Marketing
- Growth Marketing Mindset: The User-centric Approach
- What is growth marketing? [CXL Institute Minidegree Review]
