sales copywriter – Express Writers

13 Glorious Tips & Tricks For The Aspiring Sales Copywriter

December 31, 2020October 5, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Picture this.. You have a natural knack for writing. You can string words together and create something fun and engaging. But, when it comes to sales copy, writing those pieces that are meant to convert every time, you can’t seem to convey what you’re thinking into the right words. Is that you? I get it. Writing content is not the same as writing sales copy. As a sales copywriter, you need to speak to your reader, compel them, and force them to take action. Think of that infamous hypnotist trick. You have a group of people the hypnotist gets to cluck like a chicken, dance funny and do just about anything they want. They are the puppet master. You want the same power, but via words. You want someone to read your sales copy and feel entranced. Without thinking, they will click through, sign up, or call. While we can’t teach you how to make readers cluck like a chicken (or can we?), we can share some insight and tools that will help you transform your marketing drivel into compelling copy. Might take a little time, and practice, but once you use these tips, you will be well on your way to sales copywriting mastery. 13 Ingenious Tools And Tips To Improve As a Sales Copywriter 1. Learn How To Build Trust No one is going to do anything you ask if they don’t trust you. You don’t have years to gain that confidence; you have seconds. So, every word on your sales copy has to count, and it has to compel the reader to believe what you’re saying. Tossing in a “you can trust me” statement isn’t the way to go about this either. Instead, you need to be authoritative and savvy. Georgina Morshdy at Copyblogger shared her ten tips for building trust with the audience, and it’s quite compelling. How Does A Sales Copywriter Build Trust? Give away Be reliable and don’t disappoint the audience on what is promised. Be consistent in quality. Incorporate customer testimonials that are genuine. Use case studies to show success. Do not plagiarize the ideas and styles of others. Avoid jargon. Give an apology when it is due, such as correcting errors if they’re present. Offer guarantees to customers (i.e. a money back guarantee). 2. Be A Virtual Salesperson You have a goal to make a sale, so you need to act like a salesperson. Put on your suit and tie and pretend you are on the sales floor talking to that customer. What would you say if you were face-to-face? What features, benefits, and reasons would you be throwing at them to get them to buy? Whether you’re selling a car, washing machine, or a service, you need to picture yourself talking to one customer (not a mass). According to Demian Farnworth at Copyblogger, all it takes is one bad salesperson to ruin the company; and you certainly don’t want to be that guy or gal. So, picture yourself talking to one, but selling to many. 3. Use Compelling Headlines A great headline is one that touches on a person’s spiritual, emotional, and intellectual levels. What sounds great to you might not sound so great to others, and it is hard to tear yourself away from your copy and look at a headline as an outsider. Luckily, you don’t have to. There are tools out there that help you analyze the quality and power of your sales headlines. Take Advanced Marketing Institute’s free headline analysis tool. They don’t just give you a score; they tell you what you should aim for as a sales copywriter, why you’ve received the score you did, and how to improve. CoSchedule also has a headline analysis tool that is also worth trying. They break down your headline based on the number of words, keywords, emotional value, type of headline, and even preview it in the Google search results. They dive into your headline, tear it apart, and let you know how it performs at every angle. Do you have to use all of this information? No. But, if there is a particular group or emotion you’re trying to strike, they may help you identify how successful you are in doing it. Why does all of this matter? According to Neil Patel, 90% of your advertising dollars go to the headlines. All it takes is a single word to change the click-through rate by as much as 46%. That’s rather important. A Few More Tips For Attention-Grabbing Headlines Include numbers Add a creative adjective Use call-to-action-worthy words When you’re struggling, HubSpot’s Marina Barayeva has shared her formulas for crafting better headlines. She shares six formulas (i.e. Call-to-Action + Keyword + Promise = Headline), which help you create a compelling headline from scratch. Give them a whirl and see if that improves your headline creation. 4. Give Readers A Reason To Act A great sales copywriter doesn’t just tell people what to do; they give them an overwhelming reason to do it. Your content is designed to make someone happier, healthier, richer, more successful, etc. So, use that when creating your call-to-action statement. Tell them what they’re getting from you for taking the action you’ve requested of them. Example: You want people to sign up to receive your free ebook on marketing. You’ll use those email addresses to send out your monthly newsletter and hopefully receive click-through purchases later on. Sure, you could say “sign up to get a free marketing book,” but what reason did you give other than a free product? Instead, focus on what that free marketing book provides the user. “Sign up to receive a free marketing book and use these tips to transform yourself into a sales expert.” Now, you’ve provided them with their benefit and reason. 5. Quit Being So Cute With Your Words You’re all about the cutesy phrases and words. You love to be buzz worthy and toss in a few clichés. Too bad your readers aren’t a fan. Sure, you can toss in … Read more

How to Create an Awesome Sales Page for Your Business Website

January 1, 2021January 4, 2014 by Adam Oakley

On day 4 of this New Year, we’re discussing a powerful customer conversion tool. What do sales mean to you? Are they not the pulse of your company, the very lifeblood of your livelihood? After all, without marketing that converts to sales, your business might as well be declared dead on arrival. For this reason, we are spotlighting the importance of creating an awesome sales page for your business website as our fourth New Year’s Success Tip. The Value of a Copywriter When in Need of a Great Sales Page Before diving into the how to portion of our discussion, let’s get one thing straight. There is one major don’t when it comes to creating a successful sales page, the kind that converts and actively generates business: don’t write it yourself. Now, hold up just one minute; a copywriter? Are you wondering if I’m for real right now? You’re probably thinking that you learned how to write in grade school and have only improved your skills since. Writing is a fundamental of business communication; it’s a basic skill practically every person on the planet possesses. Why on earth should you pay for someone to do something you know how to do? You’ve no doubt hired at least one of the following since launching your business: a designer, a web designer, or a marketing professional. You probably envisioned your logo design, but you needed a designer to take care of the details. You might have known exactly how you wanted your website to look, but you needed a web designer to execute the behind-the-scenes Meta tagging and website programming that made your site more than just another pretty face. You’re the President of your company, and you know exactly how to best market your product or service. But you needed a marketing professional to oversee the nitty-gritty work and stay current on industry and marketing trends. Believe it or not, a copywriter is just as important as a designer, web designer, and marketing professional. Michael Irvin, a marketing and graphic design expert, had this to say in one of his Biznik articles, “It’s a rare business owner who can write effective ad copy or web content let alone the myriad of pieces of copy that a good marketing plan requires.” It’s even harder for some business owners to understand how hiring a good copywriter makes them money. Why Copywriters Are Experts It is an unfortunate fact that far too many businesses fail to see copywriters as industry experts. Quality copywriters—the really good writers—opt for journalism degrees over business degrees. Writing comes much more naturally to them than any other type of person on the planet. What might take you days to write, takes them mere hours, which is just one reason why copywriters make you money—they save you precious time. Quality copywriters are experts who know how to craft effective copy. They intimately understand how to wield words to motive potential customers. More importantly, in today’s technology driven age, they are experts on creating quality website content. The Importance of Strong Website Content In November of 2013, we discussed how low-quality copywriting can kill your website. One of the key points highlighted is the dramatic changes Google has introduced for ranking websites. Repetitive information, irrelevant content, misused keywords, keyword heavy content, poorly chosen links, and thin content used to mean nothing. But now each of these “minor copywriting details” can wipe your website right off the search engine map. Copywriters, like designers, understand every detail of their field from microscopic to gigantic. They stay current on the ever-changing online scene, and this makes them invaluable when creating your website’s sales page. Not only will their word wielding expertise speak to and motivate potential customers, but their understanding of trending technology will save you time and make you money as your search engine rank rises. In case you’re still on the fence about hiring a professional, let’s look at the consequences of poorly written copy: Say good-bye to credibility. A copywriter doesn’t just craft opinion. They understand the importance of checking the facts, presenting supportive references, and educating your customer base. Educated customers are more likely to buy, and much more likely to be satisfied. Forget trust. In order for people to even give you lead information, they must first trust you. Poorly written copy can break trust before it’s even built. Copywriters understand how to build trust through well-written and well-formatted copy. They write not just to sell your company, but also to reach out and connect with your customer base, building a relationship on well-founded trust. Loyalty? What loyalty? Potential customers often see the quality of your web content as a reflection of your business standards, ethics, and values. The better the content, the stronger your credibility. The stronger your credibility, the more likely a customer is to trust you. Once you’ve established a trusting relationship with your customer base, customer loyalty follows. If you skimp on the copy, you can kiss this entire process and any hope of customer loyalty good-bye. The point to take away, the one you’ve likely formulated in your head by now, is that hiring a great copywriter is a necessity. If you let just anyone write your sales page, NO ONE will convert. You will fail to generate maximum sales potential, and the pulse of your business will eventually die. Need some tips for picking a quality copywriter? You’re in luck; we discussed just this topic in 5 Keys to Choosing Your Content Writer before You Start Interviewing. Creating an Awesome Sales Page Your website sales page is your primary means of converting sales. You built your website because you wanted to sell something. If you have a single product, you probably kept it simple. You have a single page website spotlighting your product, explaining the benefits, offering relevant reasons to buy and providing a means of purchase. If you offer multiple products or multi-tiered services, your website is no … Read more