27 Apr
Copywriting is one of the most important marketing tools. Good copy is all about generating the right emotions to entice a potential customer to buy from you.
Your copy helps people form an opinion about your brand. Therefore, it is incredibly valuable. A copy creates a bridge between you and your potential customers. That bridge allows you to approach consumers and convince them that you are the right brand for them.
Every element of your page has a role to play, each one is very important and together they combine to foster conversions. But none of them are more important than the words on your page. Well-written copy can make a huge impact on your conversion rate. However, to write such a copy, you have to be strategic and effective. Which is exactly what these tips will help you with.
1. Create Audience Personas
To create a copy that engages people, you should know your audience first. Start 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. The type of copy you write will largely depend on which category the persona falls into.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
2. Use Power Words
People connect with emotions 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. 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.
Using power words is the easiest way to elevate your copy beyond the ordinary. A sprinkle of these words can turn boring product descriptions into emotion-generating copy that turns browsers into customers, customers into fans.
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. Remain consistent
It is important to remain consistent from page to page in terms of both formatting and language. The customer is likely going to browse several pages, and you want to ensure they are getting the same message on each page. This can go a long way in promoting confidence in the brand and encouraging the customer to continue to browse and shop your store.
5. Don’t forget unique pages
Your homepage, About Us page, mission statement, and the like comprise your site’s unique pages. Unlike product or category pages (which usually follow a template), each of these pages has distinct content, copy, and design.
Optimizing the copy on your unique pages can have a noticeable impact on conversion rates. For one, these pages help customers understand you and your brand. If you can describe your brand in a way that resonates with your target customers, you’ll be able to sell more products at better prices.
6. Use the Correct Formatting
When people visit an ecommerce page, they do not carefully read every word but instead scan the pages. 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.
Therefore, 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. Action words make your copy sound more energetic and active. They also subtly tell the reader to take some action.
Conclusion
Your website’s copy is far more important than you realize. The connection between a copy and the conversion isn’t just a myth. Copywriting and conversion rates are heavily connected. Using power words, appropriate formatting, and persona-targeted copywriting can help you drastically improve the copy of your ecommerce website and, by proxy, its conversion rates.