8 Quick Tips for Writing Converting Content

It doesn’t matter if your spelling and grammar skills are top notch; without a certain spark, your copy won’t make it in a commercial environment.

Too many copywriters overlook the factor that matters – ROI.

If you have writing aptitude but aren’t that sales orientated, how can your text get potential customers reaching for their credit card?

In this article, I’ll be sharing with you some starters on how to make your text a tangible asset to help your sales figures.

8 Quick Tips for Writing Converting Content

1 – Know your environment

Getting that initial thread of inspiration is often the trickiest part of conjuring up new copy. Multiply that challenge tenfold if you’re working in an obscure field of industry.

That’s where BuzzSumo comes in. Search for a topic, or better yet, a competitor, and you can see an index of webpage links. Each of them is related to your search, based on recent social sharing.

You don’t have to dig around for long. BuzzSumo also highlights the people sharing this content, helping you uncover key influencers in your industry.

Now, BuzzSumo covers the social sphere very well, but going beyond that, Google is well known for being a one-stop shop, and for good reason too.

If you haven’t already set this up, now is the time to do. Google Alerts are crucial for brand and reputation management. Set them up now for your brand name, product, service and industry. Ensure they’re going to an active email address; you don’t want to be the last to know about breaking news that affects your field of work.

2 – What do they want?

You can discover which keywords and phrases are doing well on your website by using the Google Search Console. This helps in understanding your users’ search patterns. There are options to see various factors in how searches perform and you can use filters to see a lot more context around each search.

3 – It’s all about personality

It’s been easy so far, but this step requires a deep delve into your analytics and sales data. We’re going to divide your buyers into personas. This means generalising a fair bit and thinking up fictional profiles to apply to your customer base.

Experienced marketers start this process in very broad areas, such as age and gender. Spending capabilities will naturally be need to be considered, as well as industries. We’d expect locations to be a prolific signifier too.

The rest really is up to you, as you’ll need to identify divergences in interest categories relevant to your business.

4 – Brevity is better

That previous tip was a fair bit of hard work, but here’s something you can get behind. Keep your content short.

The reason behind this is that the vast majority of people skim-read your content. You may feel very passionate about your subject and your brand, but the fact is, nobody is going to want to read a novel about it.

Thankfully there are a number of ways to shorten your content and keep your reader engaged…

Bullet points such as this one, never underestimate them.
Listicles are simply collections of numbered items with a snappy heading, they work for Buzzfeed and you’re reading one right now.
Carefully remove redundant adjectives.
Tighten it up further, common words like “very”, “that” and “really” don’t often need to be there.

5 – A thousand words

Here I’m venturing outside of copy and asking you think about the visual design where your text will reside. First impressions seriously count and it’s vital you have pleasing graphics and enticing images to draw in the reader.

Studies show a relevant image paired with text helps keep the campaign’s points in the mind.

Also remember the first 50 milliseconds of a user seeing a page, are vital. (Yes, that’s half a second.) It’s an unconscious assessment we humans carry out rapidly. Ensure your page looks great.

6 – Build that reader relationship

An issue we touched on in our six copywriting tips to generate more sales leads, is the need to personally connect with your audience. Two of our tips covered this area, explaining how a simple three-letter word was crucial in crafting a ‘one-to-one’ tone and why writing marketing copy in an ‘instruction manual’ manner establishes a subconscious bond between the reader and your product.

Now, did you do the groundwork outlined in our third tip? Those buyer personas are vital here. Knowing your customers is essential. When you write, you need to be targeting their way of thinking.

Think about your customers’ pain points and why your product/service will deliver satisfaction.
Drive home how your offering will add value to their lives or professions.
Speak as if you’re one of them.

7 – Expire to inspire

One of the most effective ways of making a reader reach for their credit card is to create a sense of urgency. Tweak your copy to instil an urgent need for your product or service. The sense here is that your site visitors and email readers are missing out on great benefits if they’re without your offering.

Words can only go so far, of course. To really drive home the impact of urgency, you may need to speak to other people in your business about the possibility of time-limited special offers. It’s quite common on the web to see those countdown clocks, telling the reader this offer will expire in 57 minutes and 43 seconds, 42 seconds, 41 seconds…

A big reason as to why these do so well, is that it discourages the reader from visiting your competitors to see if they can get a similar deal for a lower price. Do give this idea some serious consideration. Buyers already do!

8 – The final thing

Over three-quarters of British online shoppers will check product reviews before making a purchasing decision. Positive reviews on websites lift up sales.

Not everyone has reviews, so it’s worth talking to other parts of your organisation about testimonials. Ensure you have a positive quote from a satisfied customer.

A simple move like this is a bedrock of trust. You’re also reducing the urge for the customer to research the competition. It’s quite simply an obvious win for everyone, yet you’d be surprised how many brands ignore this sales-boosting strategy.