Are You Writing Persuasive Sales Copy?
Writing persuasive sales copy can change the way your online business is perceived, as well as increase your bottom line. Learning how to write in this way is a skill that can be learned and I will share some tips on that here with you.
- Storytelling – We all grew up listening to and learning from stories, so it just makes sense that storytelling would be the magic ingredient in writing persuasive sales copy. Your stories enable you to take complex or abstract ideas and present them in a simple and easy to understand format.
- Write Like You Speak – Writing your sales copy in a conversational tone is key. Instead of writing to impress your reader, simple write the way you would naturally speak to them. Writing persuasive sales copy is about communicating one to one through your words.
- Features and Benefits – No one really cares about the features of what you are selling; it’s the benefits those features will bring to your prospect that will make them more likely to buy. I have found that by presenting the benefits first, and then relating them to the features, your reader will understand exactly what’s in it for him if he takes the action you are suggesting.
- Sub-Headings, Bulleted Lists, and Short Paragraphs – Most of us are “scanners” when it comes to reading through large chunks of writing. If you take the time to break it up into sections and divide the text into short paragraphs, your reader will be able to work their way through your sales copy more easily. They will also be far more likely to purchase. I also recommend sub-headings for each section and bulleted lists that explain exactly what you are offering and what will be included.
I hope this post has been helpful and that you have more clarity when it comes to writing persuasive sales copy.
Great tips. I find it takes practice to write like I speak. Probably because in school we were punished with poor grades if we wrote like we spoke.
This is so true, Ron. We all started out as great writers, I believe. But as we went through school, and were conditioned to think of writing as writing rather than as simply communicating, we got progressively more self-conscious about it—and progressively worse at it.
Connie Ragen Green
A very helpful summary Connie and yes, I see great value to a Really Simple Sales Copy Course.
Thanks for stopping by, Claire. I appreciate your comment on this topic of writing persuasive sales copy.
Connie Ragen Green
Connie Ragen Green recently posted…The Art of Writing Persuasive Sales Copy
Short Story telling works the best for me, then a quick call to action. Having just returned from a trip to Finca Vigia and Cojimar in Cuba, I’m presently reading The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway and then writing them out to get a solid feel for how they work. Fine exercise from a master.
Yes, the storytelling aspect of writing persuasive sales copy may be the best of all.
Connie Ragen Green
P.S. My favorite short story from Ernest Hemingway is “Hills Like White Elephants”.
Wonderful tips Connie and every one is important. I would like to add something that has always been helpful to me in my writing.
I have personally found that it’s important to write specifically with your “perfect customer” in mind. Targeting your audience by focusing on speaking to one person, like a trusted friend, allows the reader to feel like you’re writing directly to him/her. People appreciate the acknowledgment of their individual worth. Whether it’s an ebook, a report, a blog post, an email, or a product, when you do business online you should be addressing an audience that wants to hear from you. You can do that best when you understand what that audience needs/wants/desires.
Don’t focus on the general online crowd – get specific and include valuable information relevant to one individual who is in your targeted marketing pool (whether prospect or customer) i.e. your perfect customer.
Thanks for the tips and the best to you and all your retreat students.
Steve
You make many excellent points here, Steve. Thinking of that “perfect customer” while we are writing can be extremely helpful, indeed.
Connie Ragen Green
Connie Ragen Green recently posted…The Art of Writing Persuasive Sales Copy
I appreciate your thoughts. Sales copy is one of my shortcomings and I need all the help I can get. Thanks for all the good ideas.
Faylee,
Thanks so much for your feedback on this topic.
Connie Ragen Green
Concise, accurate, complete! My kind of article! Good job!
Courses from the heart with intent to give value to others, are always beneficial!
Blessings
I love the fact that you mention storytelling as the first thing, Connie, since people can easily relate to stories. Stories immediately create an emotional bond. #3 answers the what’s-in-it-for-me question that makes readers want to hear more.
Thank you for these valuable tips and reminders!
Thanks for your comment, Yvonne. You are so right, storytelling definitely creates an emotional bond when we are writing persuasive sales copy.
Connie Ragen Green
Very helpful, Connie – the Features vs Benefits factor is especially critical, yet so often overlooked and misunderstood.
Some nice tips there, and remember that the same persuasive copy tips apply to emails as they do to sales letters. I especially get drawn in by copy that has an interesting story.
Great tips, Connie. I also try to write as I speak but sometimes trip over my tongue!
Excellent tips. I’m a no-frills kind of writer. When writing anything, I have a hard time finding a place to start. Once I just pick something, I tend to spew bullet point and short sentences as idea pop into my head.
Then I splice and edit until all the fluff is gone and the point is short and sweet with barely any extraneous words.
Not the best for selling, but it’s definitely short and sweet. I’d be interested in learning how to do short and sweet better 🙂
All good points, Connie.
People want to know the benefits they will receive from their investment. I love it that the hard sell doesn’t work anymore and that the emphasis is on the customer rather than on selling the product. For me, that makes it much easier to market things.
Diane
Great article on writing persuasive sales copy, Connie. As a speaker, I use storytelling to relate to my audience while enlightening them on my topic. As a writer, I find that I use storytelling more often than I let myself believe.
As Ron said, writing like you speak is more of a challenge, because I am also an editor! We often speak “less grammatically” than we write.
I agree with Steve that keeping your reader in mind is very helpful for really writing persuasive sales copy. And your reader will feel like you wrote it just for them.
Great post and conversation.
Connie, the image of the man typing reminds me of back in the day when I typed on the same type machine. I resonate with the suggestion to write like we speak…just need to watch how we speak! I like to read information written like dialogue instead of stilted grammatical language.
Thanks for tip.
Connie, one of the things that I struggle with when writing sales copy is the features/benefits section. I like the idea of writing out the benefits first.