How to write persuasive copy that converts to sales

Writing copy that converts to sales can be quite a challenge; especially, if you don’t know where or how to start. Because writing copy is as crucial as creating an impression and building a relationship with your audience and customers, it should be carefully thought of. It should be able to create a bridge between you and your target customers by making you and your products/services more interesting and acknowledged.

By writing copy that makes people want to know about you and the products or services that you offer, you are not just making your sales explode but also creating a presence in your industry. That’s why you need to know how to write copy that is remarkable, interesting and persuasive. And here are some simple tips that you can employ to make your copies convert to sales that shoot through the roof.

Structure

Your copy should be well-structured to be able to convert to sales. It should contain all the characteristics of a persuasive copy and demonstrate all the actions that you want the readers to carry out at the same time. Meaning, your copy should be both precise and enticing to make readers want to read your copy.

Headline

The first part of your copy is the headline. This should contain the introduction of what you want to say to your audience. Because you only have a few seconds to capture your audience before they close the page and forget about what you are about to offer, your headline should be short and sweet. To make things simple, it should contain the following characteristics.

• Benefits – You should start your writing with something that will make your readers want to read on and to do that, you have to showcase the benefits of your product, service or article so that your prospect customers will want to read on and find out how they can have the benefits that you are talking about.
• Right Words – You can also catch your audience’s attention by using catchy words like secrets, lies and success.  You should also figure out which words would work out well in your copy – whether intriguing or positive ones.
• Specific Subject – Your copy’s headline should express a specific subject so that your readers will know what they are reading and make them more interested in your topic.

Content

Your content is as important as your headline. If this part can’t explain your goal and keep your audience reading, you will not succeed in making a conversion like product sales, newsletter signups or webinar registrations. This part should also be as exciting as your headline and should further explain your product, service and intent.

If you want your readers to buy your products or sign up for your newsletter, this is the part where you tell them so. Explain to them why they have to sign up or purchase – which extends your explanation about the benefits that is stated in your headline.

Make every sentence engaging. You don’t also have to state everything in here. You can leave some things hanging so that you can have a chance to make your audience to ask questions.

• Easy-to-Remember Facts/Tips & Bullet Points– Your content need not be long and boring. You can use easy to remember things to list down with the use of bullet points. Most readers won’t read your whole article and would just skim for important details so it’s great to write your content using bullet points rather than long paragraphs.
• Statistics & Facts – Include researches and statistics to your content to make it more credible and interesting.
• Surprises – Add surprises to your content like prizes and astounding trivia to let your article be remembered by your readers.

End

After you have explained your product or goal, this is the time to tell your readers more about the benefits they will be having by following your instructions; like purchasing or signing up. This is like a summary of the benefits you’re presenting, but making it seem more magical and persuasive so that the last thing that your audience will remember is having the need to do what you want them to do because they are getting something for it.

How to Become a Persuasive Writer

Persuasion (Photo credit: reihayashi)

Now that you know how to properly build a good copy structure, you should learn how to be more persuasive so that your readers will read past the headline and follow your objective.

Practice – If you really want to be more persuasive and make your readers do what you want them to do, you should practice often so that you will develop your skills and have the perception of what your readers want. By doing this, you will also develop your own writing voice that your readers will recognize.

Know Your Audience – Research about your target audience through tools that can be found on the Internet like social networking sites or webmaster tools. Know the things they like so that you can communicate well with them and be able to include most of the things they like on your offers and articles to make them more attached to your website or business.

Tell Stories – To make your audience connect with you more, tell stories about yourself that is related to your topic. Aside from making yourself more involved in your article, you are also making your readers more attached because it’s like they are just reading a story while learning new things and not reading a sales proposal.

Have a Clear Call to Action – Don’t let your objective be buried in your post because you are writing too much about helpful information and amazing benefits. You should clearly state what you want your audience to do. You can do this by highlighting your desired action while accompanying it with complementary benefits so that your readers won’t feel ordered and feel offered instead (the slight difference in conveying your message will go a long way).

Proofread – One of the tiniest and most embarrassing things that could crush your credibility is simple misspellings and grammatical errors so proofread and make sure that your copy doesn’t have any mistakes. You can do this by reading your piece aloud so that you know where you falter.

Deliver – This one’s quite important. Even if you have created a magnificent copy but couldn’t deliver your promise, your audience will get disappointed and would not come back to your site. So be sure that every promise that you mentioned in your copy would be delivered. Also, it’s better if you give off some surprises that will delight your readers to make them come back for more.

The best thing to do while creating a persuasive copy is to be polite, approachable and sincere in your offers. Don’t state the obvious to avoid insulting your readers but never assume that your readers know everything about your topic and provide helpful insights and tips to guide your audience so that they will eventually follow your cues and realize your objective.

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