Marketing
Make Your Copy Epic and Nail Conversion Optimisation
Anyone who wants to nail their conversion optimisation with better copywriting knows this:
Starting is hard.
It’s almost the hardest thing – just starting. Just getting the first words written, and overcoming blank page syndrome. And yet, it is the single most important part of your business. Because copy = $$$s.
I wrote copy for a really long time and I had no idea where to start.
Because here’s the thing:
It’s not content. You can’t start writing copy the way you’d write a blog. In fact, copy is almost the exact opposite of what blog (content) writing should look like. It shouldn’t be clever, catchy, long and involved (unless it’s a long-form sales page), or funny. But, at the same time, it can be all those things.
So, where do you start?
With your PROSPECT.
What does that even mean?
It means that you are going to research the shizz out of your prospect. And when you think you can’t research anymore…you keep going. That is mission-critical in conversion optimisation.
The EP(i)C Framework
At the end of 2021, I put together a framework for my copy process.
I called it the EP(i)C framework – isn’t that rad? And it’s sole purpose is conversion optimisation.
Here’s how it works:
1. Empathy
That is where we start. We start with empathy. Always.
How? We do so much research that we start to dream about our prospect.
We look at all of their previous copy. We look at their brand. We analyse their products and services. We run surveys with previous and current clients. We run surveys with people who have chosen NOT to work with us. We ask people if we can interview them for 20 minutes and we find out how we’ve changed someone’s life. Or we find out why they decided to go with the competition to change their life.
We mine our reviews and testimonials for snippets of language that speak to people’s insides – that jump off the page and dance. We write in the voice of the customer. Always.
Once you’ve established empathy in your copy you can being the persuasion process.
2. Persuasion
Now we start to agitate a bit. We explore our prospect’s deep dreams, wishes, aspirations, fears, and failures. We explore how their failure has helped them to learn – and we show them that they’re in a wonderful position to grow and do better because now they know better.
Your copy should answer these questions:
How can our product or service help them?
How has it helped other people in the past?
What testimonials and social proof can you use to further persuade your prospect?
Do they even know that there are solutions out there that can help them?
And if so, are they feeling jaded by these solutions? Or do they still feel like there’s something that they can do to help themselves?
3. And, finally, Conversion (Using the Rule of One)
This is where we start to explore the rule of one in copy.
In copywriting you should only ever be focused on ONE:
One person you’re selling to
One call to action
That’s it.
Keep that person that you’re selling to in the forefront of your mind whenever you’re writing copy. Be as specific as you possibly can about who they are, and what they want.
As you name the benefits using the voice of the customer (with all that delicious research you’ve done), and you show how your product/service changes lives, you will start to experience conversion.
Remember that copy is persuasion
The entire purpose of copy is to convert your reader into doing something or buying something. Your job, more than informing, is persuading.
Your copy should reflect the reader’s values back at them without having to provide context, reasoning, or conjecture. However, if you’re writing long-form copy (web pages and sales pages) you can (and probably should) include all of these components.
Every single word that finds its way into your copy should be there for a reason. There is no accidental use of words. No using words for the sake of words.
As you are writing, ask yourself, how does each word lend itself to the ultimate goal of persuasion?
And remember, RESEARCH THE SHIZZ OUT OF IT (then research the shizz out of the shizz). Try these tips the next time you write a piece of copy, and let me know if they helped, by finding me on LinkedIn and popping me a message. You’ve got this!
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