There is only one thing that significantly affects the conversion rate of visitors into customers. No, it is not the layout or a design or cool graphics or awe-inspiring animation. It is the website copy that makes the conversion rate surge up or dive down. High-converting website copy follows a set of principles which I am going to share here.

Secret of high-converting website copy

Magic Headline

Some headlines work better than others. Most of the people err here. When it comes to writing headline for a post, all they do is write whatever first comes to their mind and use it as title. What possibly could be worse than this — not writing the copy at all?

Do not commit this mistake. Think hard before writing a headline. I will suggest you to write 10-15 versions of a headline before choosing any one.

USP

USP stands for Unique selling proposition. In the beginning, you would like to know what is that one thing that you would want to talk on a webpage. Do not build too many selling propositions in a web page. This will confuse your audience. Yes, even two is too many in this context.

Focus

Your copy should not waver. It should be laser focused on the promise it is attempting to deliver on. Do not let is waver even for one word. Keep your audience and its needs in mind when writing copy. Use your audience’s language to communicate.

Descriptive copy

Copy that builds on the promise made by the headline converts better. Do not just write anything on your web page — you can do that but you should not — as it will dilute the effect of the proposition made in the headline.

Tell story

People do not care about data and stats as much as they care about story. Tell them anecdotal tales and they will believe you. Give them data and they will yawn.

These are some of the principles of copy writing, which you should include in your writing to make your web page convert like crazy.

Well, the answer is that not all the copy writers are cut to be equal. Some of them are far, far better than the crazy wannabe-copy-writer jerks out there, and rest of the aspirants are just that — aspirants.

Like copywriters, not all the website copies are equal. Quite a many websites — more than anyone can overlook — have badly written copy. They openly seem to violate the basic rule of copy writing, and most of the elements of a good website copy seems missing from there.

What are the elements of good website copy?

A website copy has to have the following elements ingrained into it. Mess with one of them and you will ruin your chances of getting conversion.

1. Snappy, catchy headline to attract viewers’ attention.
2. High quality relevant image to give fodder to people who think visually, and content for image-search.
3. Explanatory body copy to build on the promise made by the headline. The body copy with the help of relevant images will build desire.
4. Powerful call to action button and words at appropriate places.
5. Keyword rich headings and sub heading.
6. Attributes and benefits listed at bullet points.
7. Different font styling — different font sizes, color, attributes (like bold, italic, and underline, etc.).
8. Trust seal, and other trust factors.

You should judiciously use each one of the element in the website copy that you write. You should also add testimonials in boxes on the home page and other relevant pages. Testimonials work wonder because it is third-party endorsement of the services you are promising to offer. Another thing that you should keep in mind while writing website copy is that you are writing it for human being not for search engines, so do not stuff the pages with keywords.

Better Website Copy Writing Tips

• Your copy should not be visually heavy. Make the copy easy to scan. You can do that by dividing copy using sub-headings, and bullet points.
• Keep one eye on the target audience and another on the matter you want to convey. It is necessary to strike a balance between the two.
• Always remember, in writing style is so important that at times style, in itself, becomes substance.
• Add relevant “call to action” at important junctures in your web pages. This will help you increase conversion.
• Do not talk about attributes, talk about benefits.
• Build the story until it reaches to climax in the last line where you should add the ultimate call to action.
• Do not make pages multi-focused.
• Define model target audience of the website before writing copy for them.
• Use short sentences and short and simple paragraphs.
• Keep the content jargon free.
• List the benefit.
• Make the benefit as clear as possible.

Copy is what determines the future of the website. The more time you will invest in creating the copy, better will be the future of your website.

Let me give you a piece of good news: if you have written even a single brilliant copy then you already know the tricks, and all you need to do is standardize the process. And in order to do that you need to know the process.

5 steps to writing a better copy

Step1: Know your goal

You must be wondering why everything has to start with setting a goal. Let me help you in this. A goal is the end point where you want to reach when you set your sail. If you do not set a goal before setting sail, you will get lost in the sea. You need to define your advertising goal before you start writing your copy.

Step 2: Know your audience and their needs

A product is always made for a specific group of target audience. Although everyone can consume the product, it is never made for all. Similarly the advertisement created for the product should also not be created for all. Define a target audience, which often will be similar to the target user group of the product, and then find the reason why the target group will use this product.

Step 3: Appeal to their interest

I have seen many people who make ads to suit their needs and communication style, which I must add, fails to make any connection with the users. It is important to know the desire and aspiration of the target audience before writing an advertisement copy. When writing an ad, you should always remember that you are writing this to sell a product.

Step 4: Emotional appeal

Logic always fails to connect with the target audience. If you talk all logic, and reason in the ad then your ad will definitely fail. You need to connect with the target audience on the emotional level.

Step 5: Keep it simple

Do not clutter your ad by saying this and saying that. This will not take you anywhere. Keep it simple, and talk just about one benefit at one time. It may be possible that the product solves many problems, but in advertisement you are not supposed to write about all of them. Mention the most notable feature that matters to the audience.

Copy writing is like cooking. If you do it with love using proper ingredients in the right proportion then the guests will be delighted, but when the copy is cooked without much consideration to the proportion of each ingredient, the guests will excuse themselves and leave the party. A good copy consists of the proper use of six key ingredients, which we will discuss below.

Visitor value

No one is interested in knowing how cool the technology was that you used to make the product you are offering, nor do they want to know how ground-breaking the innovation is on which you have based your product. No one gets sold on empty words. People need empathizing words, words that understand their needs, and tell them how good their lives will be after using the product in question. They want to know, why they should invest time, energy and obviously money in the product you are selling.

Appeal to emotion

Do not get sold to the idea that we are made of nuts and bolts, reasons and logic, and comparison and decision. No, we are not. We are, if you prefer it that way, emotional fools. We are governed by the synaptic firings and misfiring, and yes we are made up of veins and bones. We only act when we feel something is important or worth it, and we see any worth or importance in any word or goods only when we understand the value of it, and we understand the value only if the product or the word connects. Touch me where no one has touch before, and I am all yours!

Headlines are important

How many times do you want me to reiterate the importance of headlines in making the visitors act? Instead of wasting my words on how important a good headline is, and how you should create one, I will suggest you to read How to Write Crowd-Pulling Headlines Part –I and three other articles following this. Please do not mind my words. I was trying to be funny. I know I have failed.

Make it lively

Well, the last two sentences of the previous paragraph was written deliberately to make you react, and that is what I call making the post lively. Do not preach gospel. You do not need to adopt a serious tone and make a long face to say something serious. People are not that dumb! You can use sarcasm, controversy (yes, I mean it), humor, drama, or anything that you think will make your writing lively. An image can also do the magic.

Third-party endorsement

My employer says I am a good writer. He thinks I am one of the best writers he has ever employed. Do you believe it, or will you believe it more when I say, I am the best writer around, and you cannot find a writer better than me in the budget you have? Which one sounds more credible? Indeed, the first one, and that is because someone else is saying I am good. You should do the same for the products you are writing about. We call it using testimonials. Testimonials vouch that there are people who liked this product. Use credible and authentic testimonials.

Call to action

Hey man, you wrote a great article, but what am I supposed to do? I liked what the product you wrote about, but from here where should I go? What should I do? These are some questions that are in desperate need for an answer, and the answer is call to action. Add call to action words like, “Hurry, the Offer is Limited!,” “Call Now to Avail Special Discount,” “Click here to Know More.” in the copy you write and the click through rate and also the conversion rate will increase significantly.

I hope I have done justice to this topic. What do you think? Have I missed something that had to be covered? Your suggestions, feedback and complains are welcome. Use the comment box below.