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The secret to writing good sales copy starts here:

1.) Indirect Marketing Vs. Direct Marketing

Working out whether you are going to market your product or service directly or indirectly will have a huge influence on what sales copy you choose to include.

Indirect marketing is basically writing content that helps to capture the attention of your audience and potentially lead to sales. Often indirect marketing offers a lot of free content that persuades the reader to enter their email address, allowing marketers to re-target them. This format is usually beneficial for building a brand and establishing a relationship with your customers.

If you are going to use this type of marketing, the 4 most important factors to remember are:

  • Get your potential customers attention by having a title or image that stands out
  • Work on building up your relationship slowly- don’t bombard them, ease them into it.
  • Target all your content to lead to a direct sale
  • Split Test your strategies, use trial and error to determine what is working.

Direct marketing is when there is information that leads directly to a call to action which then generates a sale instantly. Often the best type of direct marketing is a free information hook, something short and sweet that grabs buyers attention and stirs up emotion. This format is usually good for impulse buys and one time purchases.

If you are going to use this type of marketing, the 4 most important factors to remember are:

  • Use information to grab your audiences’ attention
  • Ensure that the words used tap into some emotional response
  • Relate the product or service you are offering to the emotion
  • Provide a logical reason why your customers need your product now

2.) The Character Traits of Your Customers

The next step to writing convincing and riveting sales copy is to establish who your customer is and who you have developed this product or service for.

This goes beyond your target audience and more into the individual character traits. Take the time to think about what makes your average customer tick and what motivates them.

For example, if you are targeting a product for teachers go beyond women aged 25-40 and into the fact that they probably love children, reading, speaking and are naturally nurturing. You also know that they work Monday to Friday and often have time off in the summer months.

When you think deeper about your customers lifestyle, needs and wants, it allows you to write more persuasive content that actually sells.

3.) Offer Something Others Don’t 

Distinguishing your product or service in a sea of competition can be difficult, but if you highlight to your customer the one thing your product does that others don’t do, you might be able to get the sale over someone else.

While this is all well and good, dig a little deeper and research what your competing products are offering and what others have to say about it. A good place to start with this is reading reviews on sites like Amazon.

By understanding what customers are saying about competing products, you can get a clearer idea of where you can swoop in and pick up their pitfalls.

4.) Define Your Content Style

Developing a tone of voice when it comes to writing sales copy is important, especially if you are offering a service. Good sales copy has the potential for the reader to develop a relationship with the voice and this is the start of trust.

If you want to create a light, fun feel, go with a humorous voice, if you want your readers to feel secure and safe, offer a soothing tone of voice that uses phrases that perhaps their mother would have used.

Here is a quick example, lets say you want to sell a fleecy blanket, here are two different tones:

Tone 1: Soft and fluffy, this luxurious blanket will keep you warm on those cold winters nights. Made entirely from pure Australian sheep wool etc etc…..

Tone 2: Cold Winters Nights Got You Down? Forget turning on the heater, try our warm and cuddly Aussie wool blanket. Its so soft you will feel as if you have died and gone to heaven…etc

As you can see, these two examples of sales copy offer similar information but in a much different tone. Work out which tone works best for your products or services and then aim to keep that tone throughout the entire website.

5.) Make Sure Your Content is Scannable

Let’s face it, no matter how good your content is, the average customer only reads about 16% of what you write. Shopping online is designed to be quick and easy so ensuring that your sales copy is easily understood is paramount.

Scan through your content and make sure that key words are highlighted and users can understand your main selling points quickly. Having bullet points, headings and subheadings can also be useful.

Large fonts also work well as does have infographics or videos.

6.) Final Questions to Ask Yourself

After following these 5 suggestions, here are a list of final questions to ask yourself:

– Have you included all the top features and benefits of your product and service?

– Is your copy focused on the character traits of your readers? ie. Are you using “You” more than “We, I and Us”?

– Are your sentences well laid out and easy to read?

– Read your copy out loud- do you stumble or get tongue-tied?

Writing good sales copy is personal to your products, services and your customers style. Focus first on creating a page that speaks to your audience and then add in the technicalities as needed.