Too often business owners forget the importance of conversion in their quest for traffic. You may win the bidding wars over click rates or even the battle to get to the top of the search engine, but that is not all that matters. Your website could be getting thousands of hits every day, but none of this matters if you don’t have people converting from visitors to buyers.

Even if you aren’t selling something for money on a page, you are selling your business. And when they are sold on your business, they keep coming back for more. When you do offer something for sale, even if they are not interested at that time, they may tell someone who needs what you are offering, or come back later. This is the ultimate goal of conversion… getting your visitors sold on your business.

To improve conversion, you may push yourself to create new and different copy. But there are tried and true techniques that work. Even if you are converting, there is always room for improvement. Imagine doubling your current conversion rate by your clients buying more, and recommending you to more people!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”

~ Leo Burnett ~
Advertising Executive who created the Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger and many more

High Converting Copy Starts with the Right Approach

By Scott Martin

One of the keys to turning website and landing page visitors into clients and customers is what the visitor sees ‘above the fold’, or specifically what’s on the screen before someone (hopefully) scrolls down. When the copy addresses an interest or need, the visitor will keep reading. Strong copy starts not with a headline, but with the approach.

Let’s go through a few approaches, each of which can be extremely effective depending on what you’re selling.

The News Approach

You see this more in newspapers and magazines but the approach is to make an advertisement look like a regular article. The most famous example is the John Caples advertisement:

They Laughed When I Sat Down to at the Piano…But When I Started to Play!

If the advertisement looks like an article, which it should, the newspaper or magazine publisher will feel it’s essential to put the word “Advertisement” at the top of the ad. A good problem to have.

(A quick side note: we all know that copy set in reversed type is harder to read. The really intelligent direct marketers set the word “Advertisement” in reverse type on ads in newspapers and magazines. Brilliant.)

The approach is to make the advertisement seem like an article. The headline must simulate a newspaper or magazine headline, so it must offer news. Let’s say we’re selling a fishing rod. A tepid headline would read: The Snapper Rod Helps You Catch More Fish! Here’s a more newsworthy headline:

10 Year Old Girl Breaks State Fishing Record at Lake Snails. Her Secret? The New Snapper Fishing Rod.

Stories can be extremely powerful in copy, but be careful. A boring story is like a bad joke and will turn people away.

If you want to see great examples of newspaper headlines, forget the serious newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times. Instead, look at the tabloids, especially the English and Scottish tabloids like The Sun, The Daily Record, The News of the World, The New York Post, and The Daily Mirror. Headlines equal sales for these newspapers.

It’s harder to use this approach on the web because the visitor knows they’re going to a page that’s advertising something. So use the news approach for banners and buttons on news and information sites.

The Empathy Approach

“I know your job or life is terrible and difficult! I’m here to help.” When the product or service is targeted at a highly defined audience, this approach is worth trying. And you don’t need a headline so much as a series of sub-heads. For example:

Being a Marketing Executive is a Tough Job…Especially Today…

Just keeping up with Internet technology is a full-time job, AND THEN you have to run all the marketing.

We’re going to make your life a lot easier…

Very soon, your CEO will praise you for being totally up-to-date with everything in today’s eCommerce universe and staying on top of things will only take you 30 minutes a week—or less.

It’s a good way to state a problem then tease the reader about the solution. You will almost always get someone’s attention when you make them feel you understand their troubles and issues.

The Straight Ahead “Here’s the Benefit” Approach

It’s basic, perhaps, but there’s a reason so many successful direct marketers use this ‘default’ approach. If you’re not certain one of the other approaches will work, use the straightforward approach. In most cases, you’ll see a “How to” or “Are you…?” headline.

How to catch more fish with less effort.

Are you ready to avoid traffic jams?

Are you ready to pay 50% less for tires?

“How to” and “Are you” headlines can be used, but headlines that state the benefits even more directly are fine.

With The Ultimate Guide to Increasing Wedding and Banquet Business, Your Club Will be Swimming in Tens of Thousands of New Revenue in Just Three Months.

Specificity is mandatory: a set time frame…an increase in distance…a number of extra fish…be specific when detailing the benefit.

The “Successful” and “Unsuccessful”

There’s a famous direct response advertisement for The Wall Street Journal. In the ad, the writer details two students who went to the same university. The one who reads The Wall Street Journal is now a successful top-level executive while the other has not been very successful. Martin Conroy wrote the original letter.

Here’s the first paragraph:

“Dear Reader:

On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men.”

And later in the copy…

“About those two college classmates, I mentioned at the beginning of this letter. They graduated from college together and together got started in the business world. So what made their lives in business different?

Knowledge. Useful knowledge. And its application.”

The comparison approach includes significant quantities of empathy…always a powerful ingredient. There’s a book using this approach: Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

The Offer/Bonus/Discount Approach

Perhaps the most direct approach of all…go straight to the offer.

Order before December 15 and you get FREE next day shipping PLUS a FREE pair of goatskin slippers.

Buy THREE tires, get one FREE.

Often, with this approach, there’s no need to get into pages and pages of copy, especially with a widget or commodity. With a country club membership asking for a $15,000 initiation fee, you need more copy.

This approach can be effective in email marketing.

The Guarantee Approach

Absolutely one of my favorites. Maybe it’s just me, but I often think the guarantee comes too late in most direct response copy: a solid guarantee can be the clincher, especially when a potential customer is on the fence. I’m not alone in this thought, which is why a number of copywriters use the guarantee approach: detail the guarantee immediately.

“I guarantee my seminar will increase PROFITS at your lumber yard by 25% in just six months or I will refund your investment, cover your travel expenses AND send you a check for $1,000 for wasting your time.”

It’s not enough to leave the reader with just the guarantee. The copy MUST pound away with the guarantee.

The Fear Approach

Fear, as we know, is a powerful motivator, especially when combined with major issues, like death or parenting. For example, you may have a product that will help parents keep teenagers from starting to smoke. The fear approach provides an opportunity to use the WARNING headline.

WARNING: If your teenager starts smoking now, there’s a 70 per cent chance they will be addicted by age 18 and will smoke at least two packs a day until they die from lung cancer…

What keeps your potential clients awake at night? If it’s a powerful motivator, the fear approach might work.

The most popular direct response copywriting strategy is AIDA, which stands for

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

The approaches listed above have one goal: to get your attention and lead the reader to the facts, figures, and benefits they will find interesting.

And test like crazy to see which approach starts to get the best results. One of my clients used to write copy for a company in Japan that sold products through newspaper ads. They kept trying different approaches before they found the one that generated the best leads. Once they had the approach they liked, they continuously tweaked the copy until just one minor change produced an advertisement that brought them a ton of sales.

By Scott Martin

Scott is a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Reach him through his website, www.scottmartinwriting.com where he offers a free direct response copywriting checklist.

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Secret Sauce Checklist

Great Approaches for High Conversion Copy:

• The News:   The headline reads like an article
• Empathy:  Provide help
• Straight Ahead:  Start with the benefit
• Comparison:  A Successful versus Unsuccessful
• Offer/ Bonus / Discounts
• Guarantee:  The clincher at the end
• Fear:  Tell them their fears

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Where Is Your Focus?