Improving Online Copy - 6 Easy Strategies

Copywriting is all about using words to get people to invest in your service or product. Improve your online copy – and therefore conversions – through the six topics outlined below. rn1. Staying Honest Your copy should always tell the truth. You may be able to fool a few people, but consumers will eventually find out if you omit information or purposely hide details. Instead of avoiding obvious problems in your product, it is better to be honest and openly address concerns so that your customers will feel safe investing in your product. Mention areas of concern and resolve these before consumers can question the integrity of your product. Similarly, excessive exclamation points, “get rich quick” schemes and other exaggerations all take away from your trustworthiness. Consumers will not buy into claims for which you failed to support with evidence. You should never provide your potential customers with any reason to doubt your honesty, since this will translate into doubting the decision to invest in your product. rn2. Establishing Credibility As a copywriter, you need to make sure your advertisement is believable. The public has been trained to suspect online scams so from the very beginning you are fighting to establish your authority and prove the legitimacy of your product. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and other inconsistencies all subtract credibility. Conversely, providing testimonials or feedback on your product can add to its credibility. This can include methods such as endorsements, videos, quotations or reviews from reputable sources. Just as your product must be credible, you or your company must be too. Factors such as awards, longevity and size of your company all act to reassure your potential customers. Once you are a well-established company or sell a well-known product you will not have to work as hard to create trust. In the meantime, it is very important that you make your audience feel as comfortable as possible. You don’t get to contact your customers face-to-face, so it is up to you to find other ways to reassure them that you are a credible source and your product is a safe bet. rn3. Maximizing Order and Minimizing Length Simply put, long copy looks intimidating. Copy should be broken up into small, manageable paragraphs. Lists should consist of no more than 5-7 items. Many people read only the first few sentences of a paragraph or the first few bullets in a list, so make sure that these are your best. Go through your copy and find words that can be eliminated without changing the meaning of your advertisement. Another thing to consider is what information appears “above the fold”, or the information that is available before the customer has to scroll down. Just as people are more likely to read your first bullets, they are more likely to read what occurs before the fold. Include your main message here, or provide an incentive for scrolling down. rn4. Clarity – Plain and Simple Your advertisement should be simple and to the point. If your copy is in any way confusing to your audience, they will navigate away from your page rather than stay to figure it out. People should be able to identify the product you are selling almost right away. After reading your entire advertisement, they should have a good understanding of your product and how to buy it. Your copy should flow in a logical manner so that people feel compelled to keep reading until they reach the sales pitch. Again, most people are uncomfortable with giving out personal information online. If your copy does have required fields to fill out, make sure the customer knows what will happen after they enter in their information. Finally, avoid big words that can convolute your message. rn5. Make it Personal Try to make your copy sound as though you are communicating directly with the individual reading it rather than a corporation speaking to the general public. Invoke a sense of caring towards the individual through words that would come up in a personal conversation, like “I”, “me” or “you”. You can also make the voice of your copy have a “personality” so that people will feel an emotional connection towards your advertisement, as opposed to copy that comes across as cold and expressionless. As soon as people start to view your copy on a personal level, they will feel more comfortable investing in your product or service. rn6. Provide a Reason to Buy Always provide a reason for your customers to justify making the purchase. Justification can come from almost any source, as long as it convinces the consumer that his or her life will be better off in some way after they have purchased your product. Find a way to attach a value to your product. For example, it might bring status to the consumer, or keep them safe in some aspect. You might even identify unique features of your product or a great price that sets it apart from the competition. However, you may need to provide further justification for very low or very high prices.