One of the best website copywriting tips I give to clients is how to make the copy on their websites more “readable” to their prospects.
Very often they have the “sales points” in a piece of copy correct, but they do not do a very good job of making sure the copy is written in a way that is easy to read and conversational to their prospects.
So here are 5 copywriting tips you can implement right away to make sure your web copy is conversational to your prospects. Remember, a piece of copy is a sales pitch in writing–so implementing these tips could boost your conversions.
1) Read the piece of copy out loud to yourself and edit accordingly.
Most beginner copywriters have what I call “Ernest Hemingway Disease”. They learned how to write English papers in high school and learned how to write with perfect grammar.
However, when it comes to writing for sales, you have to throw out all those grammar rules you learned in high school. Because people do not talk in perfect grammar!
When it comes to excellent web copy, you have to write like people talk. And people talk in incomplete sentences and even start some sentences with, “And…”.
…things that your English teacher would have a fit over while grading your paper!
One way to determine if your sales copy is written in a conversational manner is to read it out loud to yourself. You will notice parts of the copy that are not very conversational, and parts that read like they are from a William Faulkner novel.
When you notice these parts, you have to edit to make them more conversational. To the point that you can read that section over and over again and feel like you are talking to someone in person.
Which leads me to my next point:
2) Pretend you are talking to someone in a bar or restaurant when writing your web copy.
This tip is very important. When I write a piece of web copy, I pretend my prospect is sitting in front of me in a bar or restaurant. I pretend I am taking to that person and selling them on my product or service.
Imagining this will improve your writing immensely. It will shock you out of your “English term paper” mindset and allow you to write like people talk. And this is what is going to give you more sales!
3) Keep sentences short.
Many people do not talk in long sentences. So you have to make sure you keep sentences short when writing your web copy.
If you have a run-on sentence, or a sentence that is separated with a comma, just split that long sentence with a period and leave it at that. This will make your copy easy to read and more conversational.
Also don’t be afraid to write paragraphs that are only one sentence. Speaking of paragraphs:
4) Stick to one idea per paragraph.
The best way to make your copy more conversational is to make sure you stick to one idea per paragraph. This is another website copywriting tip most people do not implement and it leads to a piece of copy that reads like a Ernest Hemingway novel.
Further make sure your paragraphs are short. One of the things that keeps people from reading a piece of web copy is seeing large paragraphs. It makes the copy appear extremely intimidating to the reader and, as a result, they might move on to another site.
5) Don’t use big words.
Most people online read at a sixth-grade level. So you do not want to use big words when writing your web copy.
Large words your target audience will not understand will serve as a “speed bump” in the copy where your prospect will hit the brakes wondering what the word means. And when they do this, the chances of not getting the sale go up.
People online are distracted all the time with pop-ups, email notifications, and other modalities that only serves to distract the prospect from your copy. And any word that serves as a speed bump will boost the chances your copy will not get read.
Until next time,
Kevin Hill
“The Professor Of High Response”