Sales copy is perhaps one of the most essential elements for the success of your digital marketing strategy. While the general content you produce will be doing its job of getting you exposure and growing your brand’s online following, sales copy is meant to do exactly what its name suggests – actually sell your products.
But while the importance of good sales copy is undeniable, many marketers and entrepreneurs still don’t know how to create engaging and effective sales copy. Hence, here are the critical elements for writing compelling sales copy and how you can use them in your own strategy.
Copywriting vs Content Writing
Before we begin, it’s good to get something straight: the difference between copywriting and content writing. Content writing i.e. writing content for content marketing purposes is used to get more exposure, raise brand awareness, provide value to your audience, and entertain or educate your readers.
On the other hand, there’s copywriting which is used to sell your products and/or services by convincing your audience to buy them. Content writing can contribute to your sales, but it’s copywriting that’s actually doing the job. Both content writers and copywriters work closely with your target audience’s needs, but they have different goals in mind.
Understanding this difference will help you grasp the main goal any piece of sales copy has: selling. Your sales copy needs to convert your leads into customers which is more difficult than simply getting a like on your post or having the person subscribe to your email newsletter.
#1. Identify the Problem
Perhaps the most important step for you when writing your sales copy is to identify the problem. This is something your target audience is struggling with that you want to offer a solution for. Throughout your sales copy, you will be constantly going back to this very problem to show that your product/service will be able to deal with it successfully.
The key here is to focus on the pain this problem causes. If you can clearly draw an image of this pain for your target audience to feel, they will start yearning for a solution. That’s when you transition into describing your product/service which will solve the problem and eliminate the pain caused by it.
#2. Provide Product Details
Speaking of describing your product/service, you need to provide as many details about it as possible. Remember that you aren’t simply offering a solution for this one big problem. More likely than not, your product/service has other features which your customers will find useful. This is exactly why you need to describe these features and explain why they will be useful.
Providing product details is especially important if there are no alternatives to your offer. If this is a completely new invention (or a new service) that nobody else has sold before, then it’s up to you to explain what it does, how it works, and why your customers need it. You can even get into some history and explain who created your product/service and what role this product/service plays in your brand.
#3. Craft an Eye-Catching Headline
Without a doubt, no sales copy can be effective if it doesn’t have an eye-catching headline. If there is nothing that will attract the audience and make them want to read your copy, then how is your copy ever going to be discovered? There are so many other businesses just like yours putting out sales copy just like you are, so a good headline will help you stand out from the crowd and find your target reader.
So, how exactly can you craft an eye-catching headline? Any good headline, no matter how you word it, needs to persuade your audience to read on. This means that you should give them a reason why they should care and why they should proceed to reading your sales copy. It can be anything from an exclusive offer to an insider’s piece of information to anything else you find fitting.
#4. Reduce Redundancy
As much as you’d like to go and on talking about the benefits of your product/service, you still need to understand the value of time and accept the fact that most of your readers don’t have time to read lengthy texts. This is why you should keep your sales copy as brief as possible by reducing redundancy.
Avoid using sentences that will only postpone the message you are trying to convey. Cut out anything that feels excessive. Try to use shorter sentences and have each of them carry a single argument instead of filling them up with lots of points you want to make. In other words, be concise and deliver information in smaller bits and pieces.
#5. Focus on Structure
Just like with any other text you write, sales copy needs to have structure. It doesn’t matter which format you are working with (be it sales emails or landing pages or something else) because every time you write some form of sales copy, you will be structuring it to convey one message after another.
A good way to ensure that the structure of your sales copy is logical is by creating an outline beforehand and then following it step by step. While writing the sales copy itself, you can use headings, bullet-point and numbered lists, quotes, and other similar elements to make the flow of your copy easier to give it visual structure which will make reading it easier for your target audience.
#6. Create Urgency and Scarcity
Have you ever heard of FOMO? FOMO stands for the Fear of Missing Out. To put it simply, FOMO can be used to your advantage to persuade people to purchase your product/service. If you create urgency and/or scarcity with your sales copy, the reader will often be unable to walk away without purchasing the product/service because they will feel like they are turning down a great offer.
Urgency and scarcity can also be integrated with exclusivity for a greater effect. Most of the time, to create urgency and/or scarcity, you can include a limited-time offer, a limited number of available items, and so on. It doesn’t even have to be about the product itself. For example, you could be offering free delivery only if the order is placed within 24 hours after the person has read your sales copy (e.g. on a landing page).
#7. Back Up Your Arguments
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t lie to your audience, but even when it comes to truthful claims, you need to back up your arguments in some way. This adds authority to your copy and will even help you build trust in your audience. Any statistics or quotes you include need to be linked to their original sources, but what about claims about your product/service?
A great way to back up your arguments about the product/service itself is by including social proof. Seek out success stories, testimonials, and reviews from your past customers and add them to your sales copy. In addition to that, you can include a short FAQ section with the most common questions your customers have and include some good sources for your claims there as well.
#8. Have A Unique Selling Point
While it’s absolutely essential that you identify the problem at the very beginning, there is one more thing you should keep in mind: your unique selling point. How good your selling point is will define how well your sales copy works. Ask yourself these questions:
- Why is your product/service better than anything else on the market? Why should your reader choose this product/service over others?
- How is your brand better than your competitors? Why should this matter to your audience?
- Are there any additional things you can offer?
Of course, the most important thing here is to have something of value to offer to your audience. However, you need to be looking at the bigger picture as well. Moreover, you can include extra perks to further drive your point, including discounts, gift cards, exclusive sales, freebies, and so on.
#9. Utilize Page Design
One thing many marketers and entrepreneurs forget about when writing sales copy is the platform where readers will see it. The text obviously matters, but the environment it is displayed in could have an impact as well. This is why you need to actively seek out ways to utilize the design of the page where your sales copy will appear.
Try to make the design simple to avoid distracting your reader from the text. However, you can still experiment a bit and make the text interact with the design in some way to spice things up. Besides, you can even add some elements to your text that could serve as mini design pieces themselves… ellipses, for instance.
#10. Add A Call to Action
Last but not least, you should add a call to action at the end of your sales copy. A CTA is as important as the problem you identify and the unique selling point you use. The CTA is what prompts your audience to act.
To make your CTA work even better, try to mention it throughout your sales copy multiple times. Just make sure that you don’t go overboard with it or you will seem too sales-y. Word your CTAs in a way that isn’t too obvious but try to be precise with what you want anyway.
Final Thoughts
To summarize, having good sales copywriting skills is crucial for the success of your digital marketing strategy. If you want to start selling your products and services, you absolutely have to have compelling sales copy. So use the tips in this article to help you improve your sales copywriting skills and start creating better sales copy for your business.
About the Author!
Frank Hamilton has been working as an editor at review essay writing service Ratedbystudents. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.
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