Copywriting

Copywriting is the process of writing the text that goes on a website to increase its conversion rate. The process includes selecting fonts and font colours as well as the positioning of words and the use of other web page features such as bullet points and other graphics. Good copywriting can make a sales page highly profitable whereas poor copywriting will result in very low conversion rates.

Copywriting skills also include understanding SEO because the words that appear on a page will have an impact on where that page ranks in a search engine for a particular search.

Copywriting is a skill that can be learnt to a degree but there is no doubt that some people are naturally talented as copywriters whereas others struggle. Some basic techniques include focusing on benefits rather than features, using attention grabbing headlines, making effective use of testimonials, providing credible guarantees and addressing the copy to the desires of the reader. Copy writers recognise that people tend to buy for emotional reasons rather than strictly logical ones and so they focus on reaching out to those factors that drive people to take actions.

On the internet, copywriting needs to address the fact that attention spans are incredibly short. This means that you need to get your message across to your sales prospect very fast indeed. An effective way of doing this is to state your biggest benefit in your headline. But you also need to test things out, perhaps by doing A/B testing.

Small things make a big difference. Placing inverted commas round a headline will have an impact on your conversion rates, as will the colour of the words and the fonts you use.

And don’t forget that you need to use copywriting skills in emails to and especially in the Subject line: a good subject line will get your emails read. A dull subject line is likely to mean that your email will be deleted before it gets opened.

PS

Never forget too that PSs in emails nearly always get read! You read this. Use this fact about copywriting.

Copywriting resources