Copywriting isn’t just another tool in a marketer's toolbelt - it's one of the most important ones.
Good copy is all about generating the right emotions to entice a potential customer to buy from you. In this article, you’ll learn 4 proven tips to improve your copy and increase conversion rates.
According to Joanna Wiebe, the creator of Copyhackers, “I believe great copywriters are made. You CAN read a bunch of copywriting books, practice what you learn, observe what others are doing, practice what you learn and end up writing world-class copy that gets results. You do not have to be a particularly good writer, although that doesn’t hurt.”
1. Create Audience Personas
In order for your copy to successfully engage with people, you first have to know your customers. First, you begin by collecting as much raw data on your customers that you can find from things like surveys, relevant forum threads, search, and keyword term analytics. When creating personas, look at whether they represent your primary or secondary audience. Include their goals and how they might be able to achieve them. All of this will help you understand your audience better and with greater understanding comes the ability to reach and persuade them effectively.
Now there are 4 persona types that the majority of your customers will fall into. These are rational, thoughtful, hasty, and self-improvement personas. The type of copy you write will largely depend on which category the persona falls into. A hasty persona will react to your copy very differently than a rational persona would for instance.
The Rational Persona
This persona is primarily logical and detail-oriented. A customer with this persona will carefully consider your offer before they decide to purchase from you. This persona is also likely to check your competitors for a better deal. Around 40-45% of an audience typically falls into this category. When writing copy aimed at a rational audience, you’ll want to emphasize features, avoid fluff and vague language, but include extensive details particularly about the technology behind your product.
An excellent example of copywriting for the rational persona is the company Canada Goose. They sell high-quality winter clothing and their customers care about the quality and construction of the clothes. This is reflected in their product descriptions where they emphasize features and the underlying technology.
The Thoughtful Persona
A thoughtful persona cares deeply about the well-being of others. They are motivated by offers that help other people. This persona will also focus on your ‘about us’ page to determine what kind of company you run. Around 15-20% of people fall into this category.
This persona will want to see information about how your product benefits others both in the product description but also in an ‘about us’ or ‘mission statement’ page. Copy focused on targeting this persona should highlight the environmental or social benefits of your product. Patagonia is a good example of writing for this persona. Each product page has a part that explains the product's supply chain and how it follows their mission of sustainable living and environmentally friendly policies.
The Hasty Persona
This persona is impulsive, spontaneous, risk-oriented, and optimistic. They are more likely to make quick decisions and focus on the benefits when buying. Around 30-35% of people roughly fall into this persona. People that fall into the hasty persona respond positively to benefits, rich imagery, and power words. When writing copy aimed at this persona it helps to craft a story around the product. The J Peterman Company does this effectively in their product descriptions by selling a story behind each product. They fill the story with rich language and metaphors in order to appeal to this persona.
The Self-improvement Persona
This persona is rational and holds themselves and others to a high standard of integrity. Only around 5-7% of people fall into this category. They respond well to learning about the underlying technology of your product if it relates to performance improvements. When writing for this persona focus on how the product will help the customer improve themselves. They also appreciate a brand's heritage and this history can be leveraged to establish credibility with people of this persona.
Many fitness brands will market to this persona. Keen, a hiking footwear company does this successfully by listing all of the technology that goes into their footwear and how it improves performance.
2. Use Power Words
Studies have shown that people connect to emotion instead of words. With the right words, you can influence how people will feel about your brand and whether they choose to buy or not. Here are 13 case studies collected by Hubspot that show just how important word choice is for optimizing conversions.
Words like ‘instantly’ or ‘sensational’ are an example of power words designed to evoke strong emotions. Power words are rarely used in everyday speech which makes them all the more powerful when they appear in ecommerce copy.
The only problem with power words is that they’re sometimes “too powerful”. The whole aim of the game here is to form an emotional connection without the readers knowing. If you try and tug on their emotions a little too much and they realize, the game is up. The power words will have the opposite effect.
It’s a tough tightrope to walk, and if you’re already unsure about your ability to do this, consider hiring a product description writer who does this kind of thing professionally. That being said, while it’s difficult, it’s far from impossible to get the balance right, it just takes a bit of practice. Don’t be afraid to have a go yourself before resorting to outsourcing. If in doubt, use power words too infrequently instead of too much (to stay on the safe side).
3. Use Action Words
While power words are used to generate emotion, it is action words that will drive people to act. These words are energetic and subtly communicate to the reader to take action. Examples of action words are ones like begin, find, go, listen, locate, and understand.
4. Use the Correct Formatting
When people visit an e-commerce page, they do not carefully read every word but instead scan the pages. According to a Nielsen study on eye tracking, readers will scan in an F-shaped pattern. They’ll start at the top left and then to the right before dragging their eyes down the page.
To combat this, prioritize your most important content to the first few paragraphs and use a two-column layout. The column on the left shows a product picture and product information is displayed on the right-side column.
In Conclusion
Copywriting and conversion rates are heavily connected. Use the tips above and combine them with good copy to see a massive boost in your conversion rates.
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