Best Ever Tips for Writing Compelling Effective Sales Copy that Works

Being able to write persuasive, compelling and engaging text for articles, blogs and websites is what make the difference for successful sales online. It is knowing what to write about, how to structure it, and how to trigger the right response from your readers. Writing for the internet is different from writing for print media, Do it correctly and the buttons will run hot delivering a flood of responses and generating income. Do it wrong and you will lose the leads you have struggled so hard to generate.

Visualize exactly what your customers are looking for, from their perspective, and don't let your own point of view dominate and swamp them. You need to understand the market properly to be able to provide exactly what the users are looking for, and to stimulate their curiosity and overcome their scepticism.

This article provides and series of tips to help you write compelling and effective sales copy to improve the success of your marketing.

Source: Public Domain
Source: Public Domain
Source: Public Domain
Source: Public Domain

Tips for more Effective and Compelling Sales Copy

Do your Research, Know and Understand Your Target Market and Customers -You need to know who will be interested in what you are selling, what drives them, what they look for, what will trigger them to take action. Above all else you need to understand exactly what they are looking for and why they may have found you. It resembles hikers on a pathway. They will be looking for signs to what they are looking for. If they see your sign, and decide to head your way, you need to be able to deliver exactly what they are expecting. You can't be vague about it or you will frustrate your potential customer and lose them.

Be Direct and Don't Deceive - Do not try to trick or deceive, but be honest and focus directly on topic. Your customers will leave as soon as they sniff any signs of dishonesty of attempts to deceive or trick them into heading off topic.

Break the main ideas into various parts and topics - This will keep people interested as they can scan through to find what they are after quickly without reading through stuff that is irrelevant to them. Different people will want different things.

Be honest and sincere about the product - If there are flaws, prerequisites or limitations for some reason, then make sure you highlight these things up front. Your customers will appreciate your honesty, sincerity and transparency.

Always Keep Focused and Move Relentlessly Toward the Sale - Keep moving toward the sale and supplying answers and information on answers to questions and queries. Put yourself in your customer's shoes and think about what they would like to know about the product. Meet their needs and challenges head-on. Keep the 'buy' button prominent so that as they get the answers their satisfaction may trigger a sale.

Don’t Forget the Follow Up - Don’t just provide a generic “Thanks!” after a sale. Inform them what will happen after they have paid and finalised their order. Include things such as - how soon will the goods be shipped, or how and when they can download a digital product. You may also want to include details about related sales items and deals.

Offer Support and Help - What if they have questions? Offer support (even if it’s not your product). This generates a sense of trust and shows that you a genuinely engaged with the product and fully understand it.

Use People's Natural Curiosity - People are naturally curious, but can also be sceptical, guarded and cautious. You need to stimulate their curiosity without arousing their skeptical defenses. Use phrases such as:

This tactic is widely used in advertising because it works so well. You need to make people aware that you know things about the product that they maybe unaware of, and so trigger their curiosity. They will click on your offer of more information to learn about it, provided there are no traps and the offer is genuine with no obligations. Focusing on your own curiosity will make you a better writer.

Go the Extra Mile and provide what no one else provides - Do the things that no one else wants to do, things that are new and exciting and answer the questions that people want to hear about. But go beyond the answers and go the extra mile by working out why they are likely to ask those questions. This will provide an underlying theme and thread that can enliven your writing and make your offer even more compelling. Everyone wants to know more about some aspect. If you supply what people really want, that is useful and easy to follow, you will hold people longer and increase conversions. Use natural curiosity to create an awareness of the gaps in what people know and what people need. People don't like feeling that they are not up to date and that they are missing out on something. Make people aware of the gaps and what they are missing out on. Use this to your advantage by filling these gaps you have created by stimulating their curiosity and a pathway to knowledge that will help them make a commitment.

Use the Power of Social Proof and the Herd Instinct - You need to make people hungry for your offer and make them aware that your site is the most popular and trusted way of getting a good feed. Social proof is getting you customers to believe what others are saying or doing, and providing lots of references to how popular and successful your product is. The online messages are “200,000 Copies Sold!”, “9,000 Moms Agree!” and 90 out of 100 dentists use BigMolar toothbrush". This herd instinct fosters a reassurance that spurs people into action. Think about how to use social proof in your copy, in your headlines, in your guarantee, in an advertising piece. Having it in the copy, without overdoing it, is much more effective than a series of testimonials in links that people seldom open. 

The Power of Social Networks for Promotion and Creating Social Proof - This is the New Wave of Marketing on the Web by creating referrals and recommendation from 'friends' on the web. People are actively seeking out this social proof, particularly to choose between the competition and to get ideas about what they need. They look for reviews, recommendations and simple comments on Twitter, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Real, valid and genuine social proof can’t be bought and can't be faked, but it can be a goldmine. All you can do is promote the best possible services, product or experience. Provide the links and buttons to help let your customers become ambassadors and tell their fiends about it. Getting your customers to tell their friends is the perfect form of social proof.

Telling a Compelling Story in Copy - Story telling can easily become 'story selling’ and it is used to create a visual picture of a person who like your product and how they have benefited and liked your product. It also sets up a curiosity pathway, by creating a need and expanding on what the product can do. "Mr. X was totally unaware of what he was missing out on and how it has changed his life". Telling a good story depends on how well you understand your product and an your customer's curiosity, their hopes, deficiencies, fears and even dreams? They may be unaware of how your product can help. So tell a story about how someone like them found your product and how it changed their life.

Make the Stories Compelling with Lost of Gems along the Way - The story is not a sales pitch describing the product and all its benefits. It needs to be designed to get the customer interested so that they hang on every word and want to keep reading, like a thriller or an adventure tale. A good copywriting story is like a good mystery novel. The first tips for this is referred to as the hook - you want the reader engaged so that they take your story 'hook, line and sinker'. The “Hook” is a challenging copywriting technique to learn. A hook is something your customers simply can’t miss and will entice them to reading the story. Again the key is to understand your customers, their curiosity and your ability to create a thirst - to make them aware of something they did not know before, but simply have to know now. You need to engage them - get hooked.

Creating an Image and Profile of Your Best Potential Customer - You probably won't be able to sell your product to everyone. It will appeal to a certain type of person with certain features, background and experience. You need to target your copywriting on a profile of your typical average customer. Why not get one of your customers to give you their profile and why they bought your product? You need to build an image of your best possible customer and how they think. For example: are you appealing to hardcore tech-heads who are obsessed with hardware and performance specs? Or are you appealing to modern, trendy women with sophisticated tastes? Are you talking to parents concerned about their children? Or are you appealing to teenagers with a fist full of dollars who crave to be seen as hip and trendy? Clearly the copy will need to be very different in each case. 

Create a Sense of Urgency, Scarcity and the Last of the Best Deals - Urgency can trigger decisions and also builds social proof and the sense that the customer may miss out or not benefit from a very limited deal that is about to expire. If everyone wants something and it is about to be sold out – it must be good! You have seen all the ways that advertisers use these tactics. Create a need and desire, a sense of scarcity, and use urgency to win the decision to buy. For example use phrases such as:

BUT you should always be honest about your deadlines and deals. 

Have a Solid and Authentic Guarantee - People want to feel confident that the product will meet all their expectation and is worthwhile. A solid guarantee will offer assurance that you back up all your claims and this make them more willing to make commitments. Limit the time the guarantee applies, otherwise you make be giving people free use of you product. Make sure you comply with legal requirements and can meet all the customer's expectations. But don't be too generous!

The Power of The Good Summary - A good concluding summary can be very useful for converting visitors into buyers. Be very brief and include the following ideas. That means doing such things as:

Test and Get Feed Back on your Copy - You learn by doing, you get better by receiving and responding to feedback. Always try to get feedback, not only in sales figures but from your colleagues and friends and the best of all your customers. Google products, such as Adwords ads, Website Optimizer and Analytics can tell you which pages are performing best. Tests should always be ongoing and you should keep records or progress. Offer discounts to customers who provide feedback, perhaps via the sales form itself. This will help you improve your copy and build a better profile of your potential customers.