Most people hear the word copywriting and they immediately think of a skill that is only required for advertising. This is completely and utterly wrong. If you have a website, then you need to know how to master the basic elements of copywriting.
Copywriting plays an essential role in your website’s ability to increase…
- Page views per visit – From your call-to-actions to your navigation, the copy that you use can make the difference whether visitors bounce or stay.
- Email subscribers, opens, and clicks – Choosing the right copy for your lead magnet and even the sign up button can easily double and triple the number of subscribers you get. By mastering copywriting, you will also convince them to open your emails and click through to your landing pages.
- Revenue – Whether you are selling a course or coaching, the right copy on your landing pages can turn a little extra income into a six figure lifestyle.
From reading just about every book there is on copywriting over the last twenty years, I have found eleven tactics that consistently deliver incredible results.
#1. Get active with your content.
Many copywriters are afraid to take risks. This is why the passive voice is used for so much copywriting today.
Active voice is what you’ll want to use with your content. Not only is active content easier to understand, but it also makes the content feel more personal to the reader. Here’s an example to convey this concept.
Passive Voice:
We wrote this article about powerful copywriting tips to help people improve their writing.
Active Voice:
This article on powerful copywriting tips was written to help you improve your writing.
The difference between the two is the emphasis placed on the subject matter. People naturally focus on the first noun offered in a sentence.
In passive voice, you are talking about yourself…
We wrote this article about powerful copywriting tips to help people improve their writing.
In active voice, you’re talking about what the reader can do…
This article on powerful copywriting tips was written to help you improve your writing.
So if you want your content to make a powerful impact, make sure it focuses on the reader instead of yourself.
#2. Make it emotional.
You’re watching a television show dedicated to funny videos. You see a kid walk up to his father, who is trying to teach him how to swing a baseball bat. Except the kid doesn’t hit the ball. Dad gets hit in a very sensitive area.
You sort of laugh. You sort of cringe. If you have kids, you might say, “Don’t ever do that.”
This is the power of emotion. When you are creating content, you must provide emotion through your words. The best way to do this is to show people what is going on instead of telling them.
Here’s an example to help illustrate this technique.
Telling people what to feel:
Todd was angry. He decided to do something about it.
Showing people what to feel:
Todd gritted his teeth. He needed to do something different.
Content that connects on an emotional level is able to establish a relationship between the writer and the reader.
#3. Include the Zeigarnik Effect.
You’ve invested an entire season’s worth of time into a TV series. The final episode of the season is airing. You’re into the plot. Then, just as there seems to be a resolution to the conflict you’ve been watching, three fateful words flash up on the screen: “To Be Continued.”
Of course you feel disappointed at first. Then, as the days pass, you start looking forward to the continuation of that series. You want to know what happens. When you’re only a week or two away from the season premiere, you can almost taste the anticipation. This is the Zeigarnik Effect.
Or to put it in a way that’s easier to pronounce: you’re experiencing an open loop.
People naturally want to experience the completion of a thought or idea. When that completion does not occur, tension happens first. There might be anger after the tension. Slowly but surely, given enough time, that tension and anger evolves into anticipation and desire.
Your copywriting can include this effect by refusing to close an idea immediately. Keep the idea of the pitch open throughout the entire piece you’re writing. This will cause more readers to engage with the content from start to finish because they want a resolution.
Here are three ways I have used an open loop in my business.
Email Open Loop
Many of my lead magnets take subscribers through a 10 day sequence of daily emails. Each email will have a primary call-to-action, and a closing sentence that hints at what tomorrow’s email will deliver.
Blog Post Series Open Loop
The series or themed set of blog posts are a great way to keep readers hooked on your content. The last two paragraphs should start into a real juicy solution. Right before you give them what they are yearning for, you wrap up the post and ask them to stay tuned for the next blog post.
Sideways Video Series
The three part video series is one of the most effective ways to come across as an expert and produce a tremendous amount of revenue. I use the open loop at the end of the first two videos by telling them what is coming up in the next video.
A single email, post, or video is only going to create a topical relationship between you and your audience. The open loop allows you to immerse your audience with your best content. By the time they are finished, you are a trusted commodity.
#4. Ask the journalistic questions.
When you go to college to earn a degree in journalism, one of the first classes will teach you to ask six basic questions during any interview: who, what, where, when, why, and how. By asking these questions, you can pry more information out of an interview subject.
When you can answer these six questions in your copywriting effort, then you’ll be able to convey a sense of trust to the reader. They’ll feel like your content is real. Personable. Accurate. Those feelings add value to what you’re offering, which makes the reader more likely to consider your call to action later on.
Let’s use my blogging course as an example.
Who
The course is taught by Brandon Gaille, who built his blog from zero to 1 million monthly visitors in less than 18 months.
What
The course is made up of 18 video modules, which walks you through Brandon’s proven system for growing and monetizing blogs.
Where
The video modules can be accessed online through our membership site, and you can ask Brandon questions directly through our private Facebook group.
When
You will be able to join the course and our exclusive community during a special seven day launch window.
Why
This course is not just a blogging course. By the time you are finished, you will have a virtual MBA in internet marketing.
How
After you watch Brandon’s free masterclass, “How I Got to 1 Million Monthly Visitors,” you will be able to sign up and get instant access to the course.
If you are ever having trouble creating an outline for a landing page, then I suggest you start by answering these six questions.
#5. Use scarcity to spur action.
Scarcity is one of the most effective ways to get people to take action and buy your products. Amy Porterfield makes well over a million dollars on every course that she sells. Each of her courses are only available for a grand total of seven days. If someone does not buy her course during that period, then they have to wait until next year to get it.
Because of time scarcity, courses with a limited launch window will get more than 50% of their sales in the last 24 hours.
Here are three of the most effective ways to use scarcity.
One Time Bonus
At the end of my masterclasses, I offer a one-time bonus for anyone that signs up to my course within the next 30 minutes.
Price Increase
John Lee Dumas increases the price to his course a couple of times each year. He sends an email to everyone on his email list letting them know that the price increase is coming in seven days. He follows that up with three more emails, and then he increases the price by 10%. This creates a sense of urgency and causes a huge spike in revenue every single time.
Limited Spots Available
When it comes to webinar copy, a simple phrase right below the register button can increase your sign ups by over 300%. That phrase is “Limited Spots Available.” This has also been effectively used for coaching sessions and mastermind groups.
Whenever you are crafting your offer always find a way to create a sense of urgency with one of these scarcity tactics.
#6. Focus on your hook.
The best marketing hooks catch people off guard by surprising them. They are typically emotional and promise a benefit or solution.
Some of the most popular hooks in online marketing are…
- Coupons
- Contests
- Free Downloads
- Free Consults
These hooks are strategically placed in the sales funnel to move prospects closer to the buying decision.
For my marketing services, I offer a free 1-on-1 consultation. The consultation request goes to my personal assistant, and she calls them back to gather more information and schedule the appointment. Then I call them and have a conversation about what they are wanting to accomplish.
If I tried to sell them marketing services that cost between $1500 and $20000 a month on my landing page, then I would never get any new clients. The free consultation hooks them into a phone call that leads to a proposal.
#7. Titles, headlines, and subheadings hold great importance.
I have discussed the importance of titles in blog posts many times. The title or heading of your landing page or ad copy is just as important.
Here are a few headline formulas that are consistently used by the top advertising firms.
Keep it Simple and Be Direct
Free Marketing Consult with the CEO
Tell them the Benefit
Earn $1000 on the Side
The How To Headline
How to Grow and Monetize Your Blog
Give Away Useful Information
Free Masterclass on Using Webinars to Convert Sales
Always take your time on creating your headlines. I recommend brainstorming to come up with at least 20 different headlines for a landing page. This will allow you to pick out the best yourself or A/B test to identify the clear winner.
#8. Understand the difference between cost and value.
You walk into the grocery store. There’s a giant yellow sign that says “Bread – $3.” It’s normally $7. That’s a pretty good deal. You start thinking about whether or not you should purchase that loaf of bread.
Then you see another sign. “Fresh bread – $4.” You can smell the bread cooking in the ovens behind the glass display. Your stomach rumbles.
Which loaf of bread are you going to purchase? There’s a large chance that you’re more likely to purchase the fresh bread than the bread on sale even though it costs $1 more.
Why does this happen? Because the words we read engage our senses.
Even though the only difference between the two signs is “fresh” in the description, people are more likely to purchase the item which offers the best overall value to them. If you want immediate satisfaction, a warm loaf of soft bread is often better than day-old crusty cheap bread.
That doesn’t mean one loaf of bread has more value than the other. Each has value. It’s the consumer who decides which has the most value to them.
And that means in your copywriting, the smallest details matter when you are describing what you offer. You are competing with hundreds, if not thousands, of other writers promoting something similar. Your descriptive words will change how people picture what you’re discussing.
You want to offer fresh bread. Not just bread.
Amy Porterfield sells her course on how to create webinars for right at $1000. There are plenty of other courses on webinars for as low as $99. People pay ten times more for her course because of the value. She has personally used webinars to generate millions of dollars in sales.
I have no problem paying $1000 for her course because of the results she has achieved with her own business.
Whatever you are selling, try and focus on the value and not the price.
#9. Let your readers save time while reading.
Most content today isn’t read word-for-word. Sorry writers. It’s not that your words are unimportant. It’s just that people are super busy today and feel like they can’t sit down to read 1,500 words of brilliant copywriting.
Modern readers want to pick and choose what they read. This means they will first skim content to see if it has value. If it passes that first test, they will pick out the key points they’ll want to spend time on.
From a copywriting standpoint, this means you have more power in your content when you make your key points easy to read when someone is skimming. There are a number of ways that you can do this without really changing your writer’s voice.
- Add bullet points or numbered lists that naturally catch a skimmer’s eye.
- Use subheadings within your content for every 150-250 words of content.
- Reduce paragraph sizes from 4-5 sentences to 2-3 sentences.
- Use formatting options, like bolded text or italicized text, to indicate a specific point of importance. Colored text can also work. Avoid underlining the text since hyperlinks tend to be underlined.
- Break up your content with infographics, videos, images, and other forms of media.
The same tactics that get people to read through your blog posts will drive people deeper into your landing page.
#10. Be yourself.
You can tell when a copywriter is “faking it to make it.” Content which is not authentic is content that will fail.
From a copywriting standpoint, this means a writer must focus on what they know. If you’re writing about an unfamiliar subject, then research it before writing about it. Don’t try to pretend to be something that you’re not.
This is why writers must write what they know. Anyone can point out common concerns. It takes an expert to point out the real value proposition of any product or service to prove there is nothing the reader should worry about.
So just be yourself. And if being you isn’t good enough, look for a different subject to write about if you’re unwilling to spend some time researching the subject.
#11. Use the AIDA formula.
Gary Halbert developed a formula which works well for sales copy, but is also beneficial for virtually all copywriters. It’s called the AIDA Formula and its goal is to keep the reader focused on your thesis proposition.
Here’s what this formula entails.
- A is for Attention. You grab the attention of the reader with a meaningful title or headline and a compelling thesis statement.
- I is for Interest. This is where your copywriting must enhance the purpose of your thesis statement so that readers can see the value of what is being offered to them.
- D is for Desire. This is the push you need to transition the reader from wanting to have what you offer to feeling like they need it.
- A is for Action. The second “A” is your call to action. It’s the prompt most readers need to actually act upon the information they’ve just read.
The AIDA formula is another great way to start the copy outline for a new landing page whenever you are stuck in a rut.
By mastering these eleven copywriting tactics, your website will seduce your readers into becoming buyers. It really does make a huge difference to the bottom line.
I will leave you with a quote from David Ogilvy, who is largely seen as the greatest copywriter of all-time…
Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here. Brandon is currently the CEO of Aided.