Picture it. You’re driving down the street, minding your own business, when all of a sudden, you’re hit with an idea for a blog post. Or perhaps, you’re scrolling through Twitter and see an article that piques your interest. You click the article, and before you know it, you’re reading an entire article, enjoying every word, and wishing there were more. That’s what happened to me. It was a sunny day, and I was driving to work when I saw a tweet about conversion copywriting.
What is conversion copywriting, you ask? Glad you asked. I’ll tell you.
Simply put, conversion copywriting is the process of converting website visitors into leads, which eventually turn into customers. As the name implies, this stage of the funnel is all about getting someone to make a purchasing decision and completing the journey from awareness to purchase.
While many aspects of running a website contribute to its success, none are more vital than its copy. For a website to attract, engage, and retain users, its content must be carefully crafted to be both useful and entertaining.
A few years back, Google made a finding that 90% of people aren’t exactly sure what is meant by the term SEO (search engine optimization). In other words, they don’t know what results to expect when they search for something. So it is with copywriting.
When it comes to SEO, people often think about keywords and creating content that is optimized for search engines. While those are all crucial to getting your content to show up in Google searches, you’ll also need to consider the following aspects to get the most from your SEO efforts:
Audience
Just because you have a lot of experience doesn’t mean you’re ready to jump into writing copy for clients. Before you begin, you must first determine who the target audience is for your copy. Simply put, SEO is a combination of both keywords and the reader’s experience with your copy. A quick Google search will tell you all kinds of stories about SEO companies that provide bad service with over-promising results. So, it’s best to be wary of SEO consultants who claim to be able to work magic for you.
Having a clear idea of your target audience will go a long way to helping you create content that they will value and remember. To learn more, check out the following resources:
Landing Pages
A landing page is a webpage that is designed to capture a visitor’s interest and bring them back to your site for more. When somebody visits your site and doesn’t immediately find what they’re looking for, they’ll usually leave your site unhappy and possibly even frustrated. In that case, you’ll want to create a landing page that answers their question or solves their problem. A/B testing is a great tool for determining the effectiveness of different landing pages.
If you had a simple landing page explaining what conversion copywriting is and how it can help your business, you would have a chance of turning that visitor into a paying customer. But chances are, you’ll just get more website visitors because you have a popular blog that attracts a certain type of audience. So, rather than trying to convert these visitors, you may want to consider focusing on growing your audience so that you can eventually sell more products or offer more services to them.
Conversion Rates
While many businesses try to keep their conversion rates a secret, don’t worry. You don’t need to. The truth is that you can learn a lot about the effectiveness of your website by tracking the conversion rates for various products and marketing campaigns. For example, you’ll want to see how many visitors you get when you run adverts or promotions for specific products compared to when you don’t. By comparing these numbers, you can determine whether or not the adverts and promotions you’re running are effective. You can also use this information to find out which adverts and promotions bring in the most customers.
Knowing how to measure and improve your conversion rates can help you create content that will bring in the most customers. For example, let’s say that you’re an adult entertainer website and decide to promote a fitness product for women. Based on the data, you can see that women between the ages of 18 and 29 generally visit your site, so you know that this is the audience you need to focus on.
User Behavior
Did you know that Google has a whole team of people whose mission it is to study human behaviour and how to improve their experience on the internet? It’s true. And that’s why you should always consider what actions your users take while on your site. Do they navigate your pages easily with no trouble finding what they’re looking for? Are the call-to-actions clear and consistent throughout your site? Are there any broken links that lead to dead ends or error pages?
The answers to these questions will determine whether or not your users have an experience that is worthwhile or effective. In the example above, you would want to make sure that people know exactly what to do when they visit your site to purchase the product. The last thing you want is for them to become frustrated because they can’t figure out how to make the purchase.
Product
The product determines the content you should be promoting. In other words, what is the specific thing that your users want to buy? The product will dictate the type of content you should create and what keywords you should use. When somebody wants to buy a laptop, for example, you can tell that they’re probably looking for information about different models and brands. Even though all laptops function the same, the details about each one will help the consumer make the right choice.
Creating content for your product doesn’t have to be hard. All you need is a good idea of what your product is and how it works. Then, all you need to do is find online communities that correspond with your target audience. Using these platforms, you can engage with potential customers and answer any questions they might have about your product. This content will also form the basis of the SEO strategy you’ll use for your product.
Pro-Tip
If you’re looking for a simpler method of getting traffic and leads from visitors to your site, check out HubSpot’s blog post on how to build trust with your audience.