Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 03:43 am
Want to keep people engaged and reading your copy so you get a chance to convert their attention?
Unless you’re a professional copywriter, increasing your conversions could feel like you’re being forced to learn a second language.
But, in this guide, you’re going to see that you don’t actually have to learn how to write copy at the highest levels possible just to increase your conversion rates.
Instead, you can take some (or all!) of the copywriting hacks we’re about to show you, start putting them to use in your messaging, and watch the increased conversion rates follow.
There’s a bit of a caveat, though.
While the hacks in this guide are great for getting you quick wins — you’ll want to make sure you understand who your one perfect customer is before you start using them.
(And we’ll dive a bit deeper on that as we work through each of the hacks.)
To get started…
Get Our TOP Copywriting Secrets Here!
Hack #1: Keep the Focus on Them, Not You
The biggest thing you can do to improve your conversion rates is simply knowing your audience better than they know themselves — and then speaking directly to them.
Many times, entrepreneurs and marketers get caught up in the steam they’re building and want to share how great the thing they’re selling is without actually talking about how it benefits the people buying it. To avoid making this mistake, spend more time focused on “you” language instead of “we” language.
Here’s what we mean:
- ‘We‘ Focused: “At XYZ Company, we create high-quality running shoes designed to help athletes perform their best.”
- ‘You’ Focused: “Imagine lacing up a pair of high-quality running shoes designed to help you perform your best, every time you hit the track.”
In the first example, it’s all about you and your company.
In the second example, though, it’s all about them and what they get out of it.
Because that’s ultimately what they’re interested in… “what’s in it for me?”
Here’s another example to give you a comparison:
- ‘We‘ Focused: “We’ve designed our software to be user-friendly and efficient.”
- ‘You‘ Focused: “You’ll breeze through your tasks with our user-friendly, efficient software.”
Take a look at this example from Velox Networks:
The first word is “we”.
They do speak to the benefits of their service but they’ve still made the message about themselves and their company when all their prospects care about is how it’s going to make their business more productive.
To avoid making this mistake, a quick hack you can use is to hit Control + F on your keyboard and search for any of these words: I, Me, My, We, We’re, or your brand’s name.
If you find those words, tweak the copy to take the focus off of you and put it back on your prospects and what they get from the conversation.
Hack #2: Remember, They Said it Best
If you want to connect with your audience on a deeper level — so they convert at a higher level — one of the easiest hacks you can use is to use the actual words and phrases they use.
People want to be understood.
When you can show that you understand their struggles, wants, needs, greed, and desires, they tend to resonate with your messaging on an emotional level.
And people buy based on emotion, then justify their purchase with logic.
Check out this example from Basecamp:
One of their clients said they have “stuff scattered everywhere”.
So they used it in their messaging.
Then, if other prospects hit the page and feel like they, too, “have stuff scattered everywhere”, they’re going to feel understood — and like this may be the solution to that problem.
To use this hack, you’ll want to become a fly on the wall where your perfect prospects hang out.
Take a look at:
- Customer Interviews: These are a gold mine of information because they’re full of phrases and words you can pull. For instance, if you’re selling a skin cream product and your customer says “My husband finally noticed”, you can use that in your copy and immediately engage other customers who may be wishing the same thing.
- Surveys and Feedback Forms: When you’re running surveys, you want to use open-ended questions to help draw more information out. You want your customer to talk openly about how the product has benefitted them so you can pull those one-liners from the feedback.
- Customer Service Interactions: Customer support tickets, live chats, and phone calls are another great source for this information. As long as they’re speaking openly with you or your team, use the phrases they’ve said in your messaging and tie your offer to the benefits they said they’ve received.
- Forums: People LOVE to discuss what they prefer, offers they’ve used, and how those offers have benefitted them on private forums. Places like Reddit can be one of your best sources of this information, especially when you’re working with a new offer & don’t have live customer feedback yet.
- Amazon Reviews: The Amazon review section is another great source of “fly on the wall” feedback because customers are openly reviewing offers like yours. Take a look at the review for Copywriting Secrets below.
In this review, one of the big takeaways is “I found myself rereading chapters and making detailed notes”.
That shows how engaging the book is and budding copywriters LOVE to take in as much information about the subject as they can — so letting them know other people have been rereading chapters and taking detailed notes is a great way to get that point across, instead of saying: “I’ve made it so you will want to reread chapters and take detailed notes!”
Which, if you haven’t already given it a read, check out Copywriting Secrets now.
But let’s say you run a career counseling service and want to become a fly on the wall to get this type of feedback for your copy.
You can jump on Reddit and search for subreddits related to career counseling.
Take a look at the post above, there’s a ton of great feedback in the title alone.
Using that in your copy could look something like this:
“Are you doing extra work without a pay increase or title change? You’re not alone. Management loves to hand out more work without paying what you’re worth. At CareerPath Counseling, we’ll show you the strategies you can use to navigate these situations — and come out ahead. Start your journey with us today.”
Here’s another example from Reddit:
In our career counseling service example, how effective do you think a headline would be if it read:
“Tired of having promotions dangled over your head — only to have them given to a coworker to keep them from leaving? Here’s how to handle it.”
If someone’s in that position, feeling that frustration, they’re going to keep reading. It’s almost impossible for them to look away, especially if the frustration is fresh in their mind.
But the more often you can take the exact words your (potential) customers have said and then use them inside of your messaging, the more often you’re going to keep them engaged and reading so you get the chance to ask them to take action on an offer you’ve made.
To use this hack, spend a bit of time in the areas and websites we mentioned above. Collect as many of these one-liners and phrases as you can, and then strategically use them in your messaging.
Get Our TOP Copywriting Secrets Here!
Hack #3: Give Their Eyes a Break
With such short attention spans these days, one of the biggest conversion killers people face (often without realizing it) is massive walls of text.
If your visitors are forced to read too much copy or stare at a massive wall of text and make sense of what you’re trying to say, you’re going to lose their attention — and the conversion.
Take a look at this guide, as an example.
It’s roughly 2,000 words of content, but we’ve broken it up using formatting, images, headlines, bullet points, and examples to help break up the wall of text.
If all we did was drop 2,000 words of content here with long paragraphs, no formatting and made it look like a college essay, chances are you wouldn’t read it.
(That would be unfortunate.)
A properly formatted piece of copy, though, can:
- Influence your reader’s mood and interpretation
- Control their reading speed and direction
- Highlight key information and guide them through the message
There are a few ways you can do this, too.
Font Type: The fonts you use can make or break your message. Check out this example:
The headline is easy to read, right?
The subheadline, though. It takes a bit of effort to figure out what it says.
That effort is what can drive your visitors to hit the back button or start searching for cat memes.
Font Size: On the same token, the small font next to the CTA makes it really hard to see what they should be doing next. Some people may even need their glasses to read it.
Line Spacing and Paragraphing: Using the right amount of dead space between your lines of copy and other elements, like your imagery, can make your message easier to read.
Color: Colors convey and draw out emotion. Check out the example below.
We immediately recognize red as being “stop” or “danger”.
On the flip side of that, we recognize green as “go”.
This is a great example of using color in the right way to help their audience immediately recognize what should be stopped and what should be reinforced — sending with Mailberry.
Capitalization and Bold/Italics:
When you look at that image, the first thing you see is “Meet ClickFunnels”.
(Which, if you haven’t already given it a try, click here to start your free 14-day trial.)
But the big, bold letters in the center of the page draw your attention in.
While the small, gray letters underneath are a bit more concealed because emphasis doesn’t need to be drawn to them. They’re a nice little benefit — but not the core benefit that’s being promoted.
Now, take a look at this example from The Tonic.
It combines quite a few different elements to help make the message easy to read.
Ellipses, capitalization, italics, hyphens, question marks.
What comes out the other side is a short, hard-hitting message that’s easy to consume because it’s broken up and doesn’t come across as a massive wall of text.
When it comes to proper formatting, there are a few things you want to avoid, too.
Avoid:
- Using too many different fonts or colors
- Choosing style over readability
- Ignoring the platform-specific typography guidelines (for example, email vs. web page)
Because, remember, your audience is on your page to figure out what’s in it for them — not to marvel over your amazing design or essay writing skills.
This leads us directly to our next copywriting hack…
Hack #4: Ditch the English Degree
This one may seem like blasphemy to a lot of folks, especially English majors.
But when it comes to writing high-converting copy you want to cut the poetry in favor of writing how you talk.
As a general rule of thumb, your copywriting should be written at a 6th-grade reading level — or better.
(I told you — blasphemy.)
Remember, though, the key is to grab attention and then KEEP attention.
If you’re making people think too hard while they’re reading, you’re going to lose their attention.
The exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve.
Content, by itself, is a bit more forgiving. But when it comes to direct response copywriting and driving conversions, keep it as simple and as basic as possible.
You can use a tool like the Hemingway app to determine how hard it is to read.
It’s not always easy to do, either.
But practicing writing at a lower grade level will improve your conversions by keeping people engaged as they’re reading your message.
The higher the grade level goes, the more opportunities you’re giving them to lose attention and bounce back to whatever they were doing before they landed on your message in the first place.
Use the Hemingway app as a guide to help you figure out which parts are hard to read and then get creative with lowering the grade level — and the number of people that read through to your CTA will skyrocket.
Final Thoughts
If you want to grab attention and keep your readers engaged long enough for you to get a chance to convert them into new subscribers and customers for your business, honing your copywriting sword is a requirement.
What you don’t have to do, though, is spend years becoming a master copywriter just to increase your conversion rates.
Using the hacks we’ve given you in this guide, you can immediately improve your copy and messaging so you get more opportunities to convert the attention you worked so hard to get in the first place.
And if you want to sharpen your sword even more, check out Copy Quick Start Secrets.
(It’s packed FULL of copywriting hacks, formulas, frameworks, and templates you can use right now.)