Increase Conversions Using Strategic Copy

Ask any small business owner what they expect from their website and the answer will invariably be, “conversions”.

Conversions mean different things to different businesses. Some want to grow their mailing list, others want more hot leads, and some want to make a sale.

But at the end of the day, everyone wants viable prospects to take action on their website.

In this article, we’ll look at some ways to be strategic with your copy to get the highest number of conversions possible.

Look Through Their Eyes

Start by asking who you want to take action. Is your focus broad? Or super specific?

It’s hard to be objective about our own website. But try looking at your copy through the eyes of your site visitors. Then ask yourself this question:

Will they recognize themselves?

Look at the Rollpark.us website. There’s no guessing about who they want to serve!

When we write copy for a narrow audience it feels like we are excluding potential clients. And no one wants to feel like they are missing out on promising opportunities.

But in practice, being specific about who you help, and how you help them work wonderfully. When the reader understands that your solution was designed with them in mind, they’re more likely to take action. For example, the content on '10 Best VoIP Phone Service Providers' from Lucky Magazine is primarily written for small businesses searching for VoIP phone service providers. Though the content would be helpful for anyone looking for a VoIP phone system, small businesses would be more likely to make a transaction or convert, because of the way it is personalized for them.

Imagine you are a corporate lawyer searching for a search engine optimization firm. Would you be more likely to take action on a website that helps small businesses? Or at a website that helps lawyers?

Niching down is scary, but when the right prospect comes along your focus means they’ll know you’re the right solution for them.

Intentional Topics

It’s tempting to think that high traffic will generate high conversions. After all, the more visits you get from people in your core audience, the more conversions you’ll receive. Right?

While the math on that is hard to dispute, it’s less true than you might think.

The reality is that some topics are going to be better for lead conversion than others. Hubspot has more than 6000 articles on their website. They found that 46% of their blog leads came from just 0.5% of their blog content. Wow!

With this in mind, you should write about topics that relate closely to your core solutions. Conversions flow easier when the visitor’s reason to visit your site matches closely with the outcomes promised by your CTA. For example, Zomasleep is a well-known brand for selling perfect solutions for optimal rest and recovery. This content on the 'best Mattress for Shoulder Pain' is closely related to the core solution they offer.

Similarly, at Sales Higher, we’ve found that article topics like “How To Prospect” enjoy much higher conversions rates than topics that don’t directly relate to our core business development solutions.

Think of it this way, plumbers and roofers share an identical audience - they both want to meet homeowners. But if someone searching for roofing resources ends up at a plumber’s website, they probably won’t convert. The plumbing services on offer don’t match the roofing issues they are currently looking to solve.

When you focus on topics that directly relate to issues your best prospects face you’ll get much better conversion rates. Remember, conversions pay the bills, not site traffic.

Demonstrate Empathy

Your site visitors didn’t end up on your website by accident. They are trying to solve a problem or get information to solve a problem.

So, be EMPATHETIC.

Put yourself in their shoes. Why did they end up on this page? What were they trying to achieve that led them here? Help them solve their problem.

Too often websites use a Call To Action (CTA) that’s designed to further the needs of the website owner, which is why so many websites offer “Contact Us For A Free Consultation”. Unfortunately, no one wants a free consultation!

Instead, get the conversion YOU want, by offering them the outcomes that THEY want. This will vary by solution. But it’s easy for them to take your desired action if it furthers their own goals.

In short, what do they need from you in order to take things to the next step? Maybe they need a case study to prove your solution works. Or perhaps they want some pricing details. When you put yourself in an empathetic frame of mind you’ll know what to offer because you’ll know what they need from you.

Value Stacking

When was the last time you visited a website and signed up for their newsletter? I’m guessing it’s been a while!

Go to many websites and you’ll find an invitation to join their newsletter. But there’s usually no reason to take action. They seem to have forgotten that no one wants more messages in their inbox! A vague CTA like “Join Our Monthly Newsletter” just isn’t compelling because it doesn’t articulate how the user will benefit by taking the desired action.

Instead of creating a CTA with ill-defined value, do the opposite. Make your value proposition crystal clear and undeniably valuable. Offer something that will help them do their job and is hard to pass up.

But what if your visitors STILL don’t take action?

In that case, try value stacking. And keep adding value to your offer until people CAN’T say no. “Join Our Newsletter” becomes:

When You Join Our Newsletter You Also Get

• 3 proven templates that DOUBLED our business
• 4 case studies - see how one founder grew 540% in 1 year
• 8 private ‘how to’ videos with step by step instructions
• A free PRO account for 3 months
• Weekly insights from the top minds in our industry
• Priority access to industry events
• And more...

Saying no to a newsletter is easy. But it’s a lot harder to turn down a whole suite of tools and resources that’ll help achieve a target outcome.

Measure & Iterate

Writing is personal. It’s easy to get attached to our beautiful words and phrases and imagine there’s no better way to express an idea.

Sadly, that’s not the case.

There’s ALWAYS a better way. And Google’s free analytics package can help you find it.

Start by setting up a GOAL so every time you get a conversion it gets counted. If you get 1 conversion for every 100 visitors then your conversion rate is 1%. Of course, you want to get your conversion rate as high as possible.

When you can track outcomes properly, then carefully plan changes to your copy that you can test. You’ll quickly discover that some of your “improvements” are genius and others aren’t as effective as you envisioned.

There’s an old adage you should write 25 headlines for every article. This is a similar process, but you get to measure outcomes in real-time.

If you do enough testing you’ll eventually find the CTA or copy that delivers the outcomes you’re looking for.

Accelerated Iteration

The challenge for many site owners is they don’t have enough traffic to measure conversions effectively in Google Analytics.

Imagine you only get 100 site visitors a month (which is very common). It might take years before your site gets enough traffic that you can declare with confidence that 1 version of your copy gets better results than a previous iteration. This is a real problem for companies.

There’s no perfect solution to this problem. But one way to test the effectiveness of different copy ideas is to use paid ads like Google search or display ads. Write your ads in a way that’s similar to your website copy. And then run different copy variations on the ad network. Every click on one of your ads is a “vote” for one version of your copy.

Paid ads can be a bit expensive. But they’re a fantastic way to compare how different ideas perform over time. And with enough clicks, you’ll have confidence you can get the best outcomes possible.

"But before launching your paid ads, try to maximize your website performance first. For example, if you are an e-commerce store, then adding online product reviews to each product will help increase your conversion by as much as 50%. If you are a nonprofit company and you accept donations, then optimize your donation processing page, so that the process is smooth and seamless," explained SaaS coach Natalie Luneva.

Strategic Website Copy

Getting conversions the goal of every website. To get them, design and copy need to work together for optimal results.

Better copy comes by being specific about who you want to work with. The more specific you are about your audience, the better your copy will reflect what they aim to achieve. Allow yourself to be guided by numbers when making decisions. Eventually, you’ll find the combination of works that best inspires your audience to action.