Most businesses don’t realize the importance of sales copy, and it matters more than you might think. While you should always supplement the information with video and images, the right words on the page are a huge impact and are highly powerful. They can determine what consumers do.
A small image of a new iPhone doesn’t give you the specifications. Videos showcasing running shoes don’t attract traffic without an appropriate written copy. You must get down the basics of copywriting for your sales page to compel the right action for your business.
Unfortunately, most marketers don’t know what they’re doing when writing sales copy or why it matters. They may turn off consumers and miss the target audience.
As you are sure to learn, creating killer sales copy isn’t just a one-and-done situation. The information you write on your landing page must change and evolve, and the only way to learn what works is to test everything out.
While it takes time to test and refine copy, you are sure to get more revenue when you do it correctly.
What’s Sales Copy?
Sales copy is the text that can persuade people to buy your product or service. You could write sales copy in an overlay on an image, create lists, or have it in paragraph form.
Good sales copy focuses primarily on how the consumer benefits from what you’re selling. In most cases, the sales copy is too dry. The reader is bored immediately and doesn’t continue reading. While you shouldn’t turn the sales page into a novel, you can play around with voice and language to get your visitors to stay to acquire more leads.
Primarily, the goal of sales copywriting is to convince the person to purchase your product or service. It must present what you sell in an attractive way, making the consumer say yes and continue from the landing page to the product pages.
However, that’s easier said than done. Most marketers go wrong with their sales copy because they allow the item to speak for itself. The issue is that if the consumer has never worn a pair of shoes from you, they have no reference point.
Along with that, you must reach out to them on an emotional level to tap into their need for what you sell. That means you’ve got to hit pain points and focus on the qualities your product has that the competition doesn’t. That appeals to your target demographic and helps you.
The Best Tips for Writing Sales Copy
Most people incorrectly believe that design is the only thing that sells products, and this isn’t true. Sales copy is crucial for helping consumers make an educated decision, but it also highlights the top advantages that people can enjoy when they invest in the items you’re selling.
Design matters, but without sales copy, it doesn’t produce much revenue for the business. The goal of sales copy is to grab the reader’s attention, so you must write in a way that they understand.
Here are the top sales copywriting tips available to help your company produce persuasive, eye-catching, and engaging sales copy. Whether you sell SaaS products or sneakers, these strategies are there to help you understand what to write, how to do it, and spruce up your existing copy or start all over.
To make it easier, this guide uses a fictitious company selling HVAC services and products.
Choose a Single Focus
The potential buyer has one specific goal, pain point, or need. Usually, they have other pain points, too, but you should focus more on sending the primary pain point home.
For example, you have an HVAC customer with a failing air conditioner, so they have various issues:
- Higher electricity bills
- No communication between the thermostat and air conditioner
- Frustration over units that aren’t environmentally-friendly
- Uneven cooling of the house
While you should mention each thing, you want to focus on the one from your buyer personas and customer information collection efforts. That way, you don’t overwhelm the audience with so much information at once, and customers feel like you are talking directly to them.
Define the Goal
Your goal is clearly to sell something, but you should have a specific goal for each sales page. For example, do you need to sell a particular product, bundle, or an expensive version of the same thing? Use the sales copy to help you push the audience toward your preferred action.
You should also define the goals based on conversions.
Before you write the sales copy, test it by putting it in front of many consumers. That way, you get a better idea of the base conversion rate. What percentage of the visitors convert from the sales page based on an educated guess or historical data?
Understanding the starting point ensures that you know if the changes you make to your sales copywriting efforts have the right effects and improve metrics.
You should also ensure that you don’t muddy the goal. For example, do you plan to sell new units? Is the goal to have visitors sign up for your service maintenance programs? Each page you have requires a well-defined and specific goal.
Identify the Target Audience
It’s important to know what your target audience needs, wants, and expects from the product or service you offer. If you can’t speak to those requirements, your sales copy is never likely to convert.
Picture the ideal customer in your mind when writing your sales copy. Imagine that they are in the same room as you and think about these things:
- What challenges they face
- How they overcome obstacles
- What goals they have
- How you can assist
Your specific goal here is to tie the product’s benefit directly to those needs. You might know that most of your customers get scared about the high price of replacing a full HVAC system. Discuss the many ways they can save money with time. Also, consider using hard data and social proof whenever possible to convert more of your prospects.
Use Words that Compel
You don’t want to bore the reader so much that they click off your page. Instead, you should consider ways to captivate the audience so that they use their imaginations to think about the future and the reasons for buying.
Here are two sales copy examples designed to convince a person to purchase a new air conditioning unit:
- Is it time to replace your older AC unit? We’ve got a wide range of items to fit your needs and provide free consultations from licensed technicians. Choose an AC unit today to enjoy the benefits of chilled air.
- It’s the hottest day of summer so far, in the late afternoon. Suddenly, you realize that no air is coming from the vents. Even if you had every fan in the world, you couldn’t stop sweating inside your home, and now you’re scrambling to find someone to replace the AC unit. Don’t wait until this happens to you!
The second sales copy option paints a full picture and hits the pain point. If the consumer lives in a warm state, they’re instantly panicked from the words and start thinking about calling you to prevent an AC disaster!
Ensure It’s Readable
Most marketers write their sales copy to be boring and hard to read. Specification lists should be there, but they’re often too difficult for regular people to understand. Therefore, they don’t inspire conversions. Thick text walls have the same effect.
Readability primarily focuses on several factors:
- Storytelling
- Bold and large copy to indicate something important
- Plenty of white/negative space
- Relatable language
When you’re selling an AC unit, it could take more sales copy than you think. However, you can interrupt the wall of text with visuals. Another great point is to consider short sentences.
While long sentences can make you seem more professional at first, they’re often difficult to read. Likewise, avoid long run-on sentences; break up the words, so it’s easier for your readers.
Tell Your Story
Using a narrative to focus your sales copy can generate excellent results. Tell a story around the focus or goal to help others connect with your brand and product.
The story doesn’t have to be true. In the example used above, you can paint pictures with anecdotes that describe potential problems.
However, don’t forget to include social proof. Case studies and testimonials are also essential to tell stories. You can also explain to consumers how your brand came to be and why you chose to create your service or product.
If you’re running an HVAC company focusing more on green energy, you might discuss energy consumption and carbon emissions and how your products produce fewer of them. This appeals to other like-minded consumers.
However, those who are focused more on indoor air quality should have a different sales copy approach. Your business dictates the information you provide, but the goal also matters. In that case, you might talk about families who suffer from asthma and allergies, finding no comfort in their own homes.
Your business probably has a few power words that it uses all the time. This might be specific to your brand or the industry. While fancy words can make you seem smarter and more professional, they can also turn others away. A power word here or there can be a good thing, but the ultimate goal is to have a conversational tone; act like you’re talking to a friend instead of being a salesperson.
Identify the Buyer’s Primary Objections and Work Against Those
There is bound to be at least one person who doesn’t like your service or product, but that doesn’t mean the business is bad. Consumers are good at justifying their purchases or finding the many reasons not to buy things.
If you can identify those objections early enough and refute them in the sales copy, the prospects feel that you’re not hiding information from them. With that, you’re working around their subconscious objections without them realizing it.
Ultimately, price is a huge buying factor, and this is even more pronounced for home improvements like a new HVAC system. Refute the objection of a high cost by comparing energy consumption numbers of a 10-year-old unit to one that’s new and manufactured today. This can help you show the bigger picture to your prospects.
Highlight the Benefits of Your Product/Service
Many times, marketers only promote the product’s features. For example, a new AC unit might have features like:
- Durable construction
- Variable-speed operation
- Multi-stage cooling systems
- SEER ratings
In a sense, consumers don’t care as much about each data point as what it means for them and how it can help them.
For example, the high SEER rating indicates that the unit uses less energy, so the consumer pays less for electricity. Include the technical details when writing copy, but explain what they mean and offer them as benefits.
When you’re writing sales copy, interpret the product features as advantages. In other words, what outcome does the end-user see from it? How does it improve their lives more tangibly?
Create an Excellent Call to Action (CTA)
At the end of your sales copy piece, you need to have a call to action that’s attractive and easy to spot. Most people use a button to make it eye-catching and encourage people to buy.
if you have a sales page explaining the benefits of a particular AC unit, your call to action might look like this:
- Schedule a free consultation today!
- Discover more comfort for a lower cost.
- Spend less money on energy bills with a new AC unit!
Sales Copy Examples Showing Exactly What to Do
There couldn’t be a better teacher than the companies that are already doing a great job with their sales copy.
Barkbox is a great example because it demonstrates how you can communicate a lot of information with fewer words. You know that this company has boxes starting at $22, the value you receive, and when the boxes ship. Along with that, it features a great CTA.
The “how it works” page is entirely focused on the customer. You instantly know the price and value, and there’s a guarantee, so you get replacement products.
This example of custom illustrations can engage the audience. Plus, the company refers to the target audience (dogs) through dog-based language.
Basecamp is another example of great sales copy. It knows who its prospective customer is, and the unique language helps them toward starting a free trial.
It also features custom illustrations, but the copy itself is powerful and concise. You get a touch of humor with an understanding of the issues potential customers face.
Plus, the value proposition is quite clear. It mentions various problems, then claims that it can solve them.
Regardless of what examples you look at, there are bound to be great options that convert well.
Find out Why the Sales Copy Doesn’t Convert
You might have been hard at work to fix your sales copy, but you get nowhere. This is a common issue, but you can overcome it.
Most of the time, the copy doesn’t convert because it’s not refined for the audience you’re trying to reach. Those who visit your sales pages just don’t connect with it.
However, there is a way you can help your audience understand what the service or product can do for them. Think about the landing pages and what they say. For example, if someone goes to your homepage from an organic search, they expect to be wowed from the moment they arrive. If they go to the contact page, you shouldn’t be trying to sell them things from there.
See How the Audience Interacts
Data is a powerful asset when it comes to marketing, and this includes writing killer sales copy for your business. There are many websites out there that can generate reports on user behaviors to help you see how people interact with your landing pages and sales pages.
With that, you get data that’s specific to your business and no one else’s. It’s even possible to A/B test various versions of your sales copy so that you choose the perfect design, language, and layout.
Try Different Strategies
There’s only one way to know if your sales copywriting is right for you, and that’s testing it. It’s also important to automate your data collection process, so you’re spending less time with administrative tasks and more ways to connect with the audience and implementing link-building strategies.
Most sales professionals are only as good as the marketing techniques used. For example, you might have experienced HVAC teams, but they can’t install new units if no one buys them!
Conclusion
It’s not hard to write sales copy, but it might not always work after you’ve created the first draft.
You may have to keep at it until you’ve produced 10 versions of the same web pages before it generates conversions. That’s okay, though. You can still collect data and tweak the written copy based on what you find out.
Once more for good measure: You should be:
- Focusing on one thing
- Defining the goal
- Identifying your appropriate audience
- Use compelling phrases
- Ensure readability
- Tell a story
- Identify objections and work around them
- Highlight the benefits
- Have a great CTA
If you don’t feel that you can do that yourself, consider hiring copywriting services from reputable companies to do it for you.
