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The Amy Porterfield Show
#752: The Art & Science of Sales Page Copy: Tips From Pro Copywriters
00:36:56
Simple strategies for writing irresistible copy and selling more of your product instantly.
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People buy with their emotions, but justify with their reasoning. So your copy needs to address both of these phases that your reader will experience as they engage with your promotional content. I'm Amy Porterfield, ex corporate girl turned CEO of a multi seven figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget and the time to focus on growing my small but mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned and you'll see the business I have today. One that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible. One that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur or one in the making who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started. Hey, real quick. Before we get into this episode, I wanted to let you know that I'm hosting a free list building masterclass this week. Given that 72% of buyers self report that they prefer email as the primary way they hear from your business, and given that businesses see an average of 760% email increase in revenue by introducing focused email marketing campaigns. Yeah, you heard that right. I can't imagine a better way to spend our hour together. All you have to do is go to amyporterfield.com forward/list Building this masterclass is totally free and full of value. I cannot wait to show you how to get started with your email list again. Amyporterfield.com forward/list Building choose the date and time that works best for you and I'll see you there. Well, hey there. Welcome back to Online Marketing Made Easy. I'm your host Amy Porterfield and today I'm bringing back another gem from the podcast archives to share with you. This episode was an easy choice to re air because I truly believe and have seen firsthand in my business over the years that nothing impacts your success online more than your messaging. Good messaging makes your audience feel seen and understood and really ready to say yes to your offer, leading to of course, more sales, greater impact, and the revenue growth that you've worked so hard for. And I think now is the perfect time to bring this episode back because with AI generated copy everywhere, having a strong messaging framework is more important than ever. If you spent any time using AI to generate copy, you know that the quality completely depends on the guidance it receives. So without a clear understanding of great messaging. It's easy to prompt AI in a way that produces copy that sounds fine, it's okay, but it doesn't convert. That's where the two frameworks I cover in this episode story, Brand and Pastor come in. They'll help you craft messages that not only connects with your audience, but also makes AI a more effective tool in your business. So when you understand how strong messaging is actually structured, you'll know exactly how to guide AI, refine what it gives you, and ensure your words truly resonate. So even if you've heard this episode before, I want to encourage you to listen again with free fresh ears. This time, ask yourself, how can I use these frameworks to improve my AI prompts and fine tooth the messaging it generates? So let's jump into this replay because my hope is that after listening, you'll feel more confident in your messaging, whether you're writing it yourself or using AI to help. So no more second guessing, no more wondering if it's good enough. You'll have the tools to create messaging that truly connects and converts. So enjoy, soak it in and most importantly, put it into action. Now, to make sure I provide you with the most valuable up to date copywriting information. Of course, I had a consult with my amazing copywriter, Emery, who lives and breathes sales copy for all of my courses and offerings. She's been with me for many years. She is an incredible human being and incredibly skilled. Now, she's mastered the art and science of selling digital offers through copy and after a lot of testing has gathered valuable insights into the purchasing behaviors of our different audience segments based on how we present our offers to them. I'll share more on that later. And it's juicy, so be sure to stick around to the end. But before we get into all the copywriting tips, strategies and frameworks, there is one thing you must do before you begin writing any copy for your sales page or email or social media or whatever it is, and that is to define the single most important problem that your offer solves. I'm going to repeat that one more time because before we start any of this, I want you to think for a moment of a product you want to write really good copy for. Okay? Think of that product. A digital course, a membership, a mastermind, group, coaching, consulting, whatever it is, think about the offer and then go with your gut here. Define the single most important problem that your offer solves. Now, if you're not sure, you can start by asking yourself, what is my audience's pain point? What keeps them up at night. Identifying this pain point and then writing it in a statement is a first really good step. So for example, let's use my signature course, Digital Course Academy as an example. When I think about one of the biggest pain points that my students come up against when they think about creating and launching a digital course, this is what I typically hear. Creating a digital course will take so, so much time and is so overwhelming. That's the pain point. So see how this statement is very high level and straightforward. It's not super detailed or complicated. Creating a digital course takes a lot of time and is overwhelming. That's what my students think before they work with me. And also that statement is very relatable and something I know many of my students are thinking because I've listened to them for the last 14 years and I know that that statement there is holding them back from creating an online business. So once you've pinpointed your audience's pain point, you'll be able to easily use your messaging to create what I call the invisible bridge. To remind you, or if you're new to my show, the invisible bridge is how you address your audience's pain points or desires to create a bridge that your audience must cross to get to where they are right now, to where they need to be in order to take action with you. Whether that be getting on your webinar, which is the action, or buying your course or buying your product or coaching services, whatever that might be. So in order for them to take action with you, they're in a place right now that they're not ready. What do they need to know, be aware of, believe before they're ever ready to take that action. You're helping them cross that invisible bridge by really meeting them where they're at. And usually you meet them where they're at by addressing their pain point, helping them understand. I get you. I know you. I know what you're thinking. I know what you need. Follow me. All right. So from there you'll identify how your digital offer directly switches solves this problem. So for Digital Course Academy, our solution to that problem I just mentioned is Digital Course Academy helps you create and launch a successful digital course from start to finish, step by step by step. That step by step by step takes that overwhelm away that they are faced with. Now, I know that your offer solves a lot more problems than just one. So does Digital Course Academy. For example, DCA is what we call it. It also takes the guesswork out of how to write course content, how to record modules, how to market a digital course, how to grow your email list, among several other things. I solve a lot of problems about building a business inside Digital Course Academy, but if I stuff all of those messages into my sales page, I am instantly going to throw the reader into a state of confusion. That's the last place you want people to be, right? And as Donald Miller says, confuse and you'll lose. So the reason it's so important to work on this exercise before you do anything else is because you'll present your offer as the obvious, specific, and immediate solution to their problem right off the bat. Meaning your writing will feel focused and your reader will be clear on what you're promising them. Then the rest of the copy on your sales page simply backs up how you'll do it and why they can trust you. It'll paint a truly aspirational picture of what life is like on the other side of your offer and their pain. And when you give someone a peek into their future and it's looking bright, you're well on your way to earning that sale. But without understanding the problem your course solves or your product your offer solves, you'll waste a lot of time writing and marketing with copy that won't convert. And you'll drive people away because you've either confused them or made their decision to purchase just too difficult. They throw up their hands and they're like, I'm just not even going to make a decision. So I want to share some simple tips with you to remember as you write the copy for your sales page or any other promotional asset. The first one, which we've pretty much covered, which is to stay out of the weeds and avoid throwing every detail about your offer at them. Remember, confuse and you'll lose. When it comes to your copy, focus on the single core problem that you have the solution for. Next avoid wordy sentences or long paragraphs. Very difficult for me, for the record. And instead, write in a concise and easily digestible way. Avoid using jargon or industry terms that might not be universal knowledge. Assume your audience is smart, but also write for the average Joe or Jane. We don't want readers to feel like they need to Google search the definition of a complex term. Smack dab in the middle of deciding if they're going to buy from you. So a great way to know which words to use is to listen to your audience. I've said this before, but when you use the words that they use, they'll feel like you're speaking directly to them in your Sales and promotional copy. They'll say, oh my gosh, she's in my head. She knows exactly what I'm thinking. Because you are in their head, you have taken the time to listen to what they're thinking. Another tip is to always write in first person. I am such a stickler for this one. I do this in this podcast as well. I try not to say hello everyone or listen, I know you guys and gals think this or whatever. I just like to talk to you. Yeah you my friend, right now. I just like to talk to one person every time I record a podcast, every time I write a sales page, every time I do anything. Now sometimes I slip and mess up or forget, but it's very important to me. So again, saying things like you and your to make it feel like an intimate one on one conversation is important. No one wants to be part of a group when you're trying to hone in on your own. Let's say marketing copy and message. You want to feel like, I've prepared this for you. You and I are in a room right now. We're studying copy and I'm helping you. So talking to one person, writing to one person is so important. The next one is a big one. Remember that people buy with their emotions but justify with their reasoning. Do I need to say that one more time? I think I do. Here we go. People buy with their emotions but justify with their reasoning. So important for you to hear. So your copy needs to address both of these phases that your reader will experience as they engage with your promotional content. And then next, Never neglect statistics and stories. This is something that we've gotten really good at over the last year or two. Where I was weak in this a few years ago. Statistics and stories, they go a long way no matter what type of messaging you're creating. And this personally has become my favorite copywriting strategy. Stats and stories are highly compelling and highly converting, so use them as much as you can. One way you can do this is by sharing a testimonial of the success that you've helped someone else achieve. Or if you're not there yet, you tell your story in detail and make sure that it means something to the reader. But telling stories and using statistics, it's a must. And on a side note, if you need help collecting testimonials, this is something that I have perfected over the years. I want you to check out episode 370. It's called behind the Scenes How I Collect Money Making Testimonials. So anytime I tell you an episode like 3 370, you just plug in amyporterfield.com 370 now if you're a first time course creator and you don't have any testimonials to share, you can instead utilize industry statistics to give you a compelling argument to an objection your reader might have so you could tell your own story. Of course. But also when you use industry statistics, they appeal to the reader's rationale and they serve as proof that the time and money they're considering investing with you is well worth it. So remember, they're buying with their emotion, but they're justifying with reason. And so when you use statistics, that's where that reason comes in. Let me give you a real life example of how to use a statistic in your messaging One of my digital courses, List Builder Society. It gives students the step by step process to build an email list from scratch that will support their business. When I'm selling this course, a perfect statistic to share is this one from Litmus Research center, which states that an email list is the only business asset with a return of $36 for every dollar spent. That's a 3600% ROI. The runner up is social media at a very distant 28% ROI and paid ads at 25% ROI. Those are impressive stats from a reputable source. So when someone who has already been wanting to build an email list reads that, they might immediately say to themselves, okay, this is definitely catching my attention and I'm convinced that an email list just might be worth my energy. But I have no clue where to start. And because List Builder Society shows them how to build their email list from scratch and solves their problem, that they're having a problem selling online because they don't have an audience, then they feel very good about enrolling. Okay, the last copywriting tip I have for you is to call out what's at stake if they avoid taking action. Always compare what's at stake to what's possible for them if they do take action. So statistics can be used to do this as well when there's a quantifiable loss that happens if they don't take action, like losing muscle mass due to lack of exercise or a lower likelihood of promotion without a certain set of soft skills. That's like an example there. You get the picture. But remember, you want to call out what's at stake and what's possible for them. Okay, so I love all these tips for effective copywriting. I use all of them, but just as Important as how and what you are writing is the order that you are writing in. And I have two frameworks that Emory, my copywriter, and our team utilize to ensure that we are addressing our audience's problem and the solution to their problem in the right place and at the right time. This is the most artful element of copywriting because what you say to the reader and when you say it is going to either reel them in and keep them engaged or it's going to confuse them and push them away. So let's talk about how to lay out your copy on your sales page. As I mentioned earlier, I have studied, tried and tested two frameworks that my team and I absolutely love. And to this day, we use both of them. The first is storybrand, which you likely have heard of, you know, Don Miller and his team. And for those of you who want to dive in deeper to the Story Brand Framework, he's got a book, you can get it on Amazon, highly recommend it. And the second is Pastor P A S T O R which is an acronym that I'm going to share with you in a moment. So for now, let's start with the Story Brand framework and what that looks like when it comes to the copy on your sales page. So Story Brand was created by my dear friend Donald Miller, as I mentioned earlier, and Don's been on my show a few times. I'm a huge fan and he's a dear friend. Now, if he's new to you, he's also a writer turned marketing genius to say the least. And he took his knowledge of how to tell a compelling story and developed StoryBrand to help businesses literally market their brand through Story. I've read all his books and binged his podcast. Highly recommend you do the same. So first things first, I want to make it clear that that I am not teaching this entire framework to you. I mean, it's his, not mine. However, I do want to give you a very brief high level overview of what it is so that you can get an idea of why we use this in my business. And I highly recommend you do go deeper because you can understand how to really apply this framework specifically to your business. So I'm going to put a bunch of links in the show notes. So again, amyporterfield.com 645 I'll link to everything that you might want to check out. Okay, so the Story Brand framework is meant to create clarity in your marketing message and leverage storytelling, which is one of the most powerful tools to compel the human brain. There are seven basic elements to a story. And to quote storybrand, they are a character 1, with a problem who meets a guide 3. Who gives them a plan 4, and calls them to action 5. Which either results in success or failure. 7. Think about your favorite fictional book or movie. I bet each of these seven elements is presented throughout the story. Take note on this the next time you read a book or watch a movie, like think about character, problem, guide, plan, action, success, failure. You're going to see it all in some of your very favorite movies and books. So the key to storybrand is to remember that you are not the hero, your customer is. When I first learned this, I thought, yeah, of course my customer's the hero. I'm the guide. But then I looked at my copy and I was making myself the hero. That was the mistake I was making before working with storybrand, I was the hero. I'll save you, I'll help you. I'll solve your problems. I had it all wrong. So you are the guide that will get them to where they desire to go. And when you lean into that, that role of the guide and get clear on the problem that you solve for them, you'll be able to write high converting copy. So we have seen the story brand method seriously increase our sales page conversion. And you can start learning and implementing the storybrand method by reading Donald's books. So I'll link to them in the show notes. But it kind of blew us away the last time we launched Digital Course Academy. That was all storybrand and it was our best launch ever. I gotta back up. I gotta tell you something. I just told you that we used storybrand for the last time. We promoted Digital Course Academy to really make sure we are attracting the right audience and delivering the message that made the most sense for them. I have launched Digital Course Academy multiple times since January 2019. And we just did our biggest launch yet, launching the same course over and over and over again. But we tweaked our framework and boom. So never, ever give up. You can always do better, even if your product has been out in the market for years and years. Okay, switching gears, we're going to go into the second framework that we utilize, which is the pastor formula created by my friend Ray Edwards, who is a copywriter and expert in the field. I've known Ray since my Tony Robbins days. I'm such a fan of this beautiful man. Okay, so the same thing goes here that I'm not going to teach you everything you need to know about this formula. It's not mine. It's Ray's, but I want to give you a high level overview of what it is so that you can understand how and why I use it in my business. So to learn more about this, you can buy Ray Edwards book. It's titled Read this or Die Persuading Yourself to a Better Life. Yeah, that's the book. Read this or Die Persuading Yourself to a Better Life. Pastor, I feel like I'm saying that word wrong. I say a few words weird like the word open. Cannot say it to save my life. So that word and this word Pastor, I feel like I'm saying it weird. But it's P A S T O R and it's an acronym that again details the flow of your copy from top to bottom of your sales page. So let's review it. P is for the problem this framework really focuses on directly naming your customer's problem and writing your copy as such. Same with storybrand, right? We're getting really clear on the one problem. The A is for amplify or some people use the word agitate. In this stage you're going to point out why the problem is particularly bad and detrimental to the reader. And if they don't take action, they're in trouble. So here you'll present the negative stakes. Essentially, what's at stake if they don't take action. Remember when I mentioned statistics as a copywriting tool? This is the perfect place to share one. Moving on. S is for solution Here you'll describe how your course or offer solves the problem. T is for transformation. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your credentials and how you have helped solve other clients problems. Testimonials are a highly effective way to enrich this portion of your copy. O is for your offer Describe your service offerings here as well as the specifics of your offer. What do they get and for what price? And then R is for response. What should the client do next? So this copy should be super actionable. Something like enroll now or save your seat. So you'll notice that each of these two frameworks have very similar strategies. They're just arranged in a slightly different order. That's because these strategies, like presenting your offer as a direct solution to a specific problem and introducing costly stakes, are proven high converting strategies. So that's why they're similar, because both of these strategies work really well. The difference of order is simply a matter of what your audience needs to hear first. And I think I've cracked the code on how to know what your audience needs. So I'm going to get to that in a second. Because we use storybrand and Pastor in different ways, but I'll get to that in a second. But generally StoryBrand takes our reader hero through a narrative, painting an aspirational picture of how good life can be on the other side of your digital offer. Pastor, on the other hand, gets to that good life eventually, but starts by capturing the attention of your audience with the risk of inaction. Okay, so for example, there are some situations in life where you want to lead with the dream. Like if I'm going to text my group of best friends and I'm going to lead with a Vegas trip and tell them all about why this Vegas trip is a great idea. But then there's other times where I want to lead with some words of warning. Like when I'm texting my 21 year old son warning him that too much tequila tonight is going to be a very bad morning tomorrow. So, you know, just life. Sometimes you lead with the dream, sometimes you lead with the warning. Same applies to your copy. So overall, the Story Brand framework places a larger emphasis on the bright future that your course or offer can give to someone. By introducing the solution right away, Pastor leads into playing up the problem and the consequences someone can face if they don't take action. Now that we've reviewed the two copywriting frameworks that my team and I love, I want to share an interesting conclusion that we came to after testing both methods. So I said, I think I've cracked the code on which works where, but at least for my business. But you could take this and try it in yours. Using the sales page for this digital course Academy Masterclass I recently did, we rewrote and reordered the copy to create two versions, one that used the story brand technique and one that used the pastor technique. All in all, both worked really well. But to our surprise, for different audiences, the Story brand sales page had a higher conversion rate for our cold audience, the people who don't really know me well that we reached through paid advertising such as Facebook and Instagram ads. As a reminder, this copy led with the solution casting a vision for the dream life that this masterclass in a digital course can offer to the reader. While this audience doesn't know me, they are very familiar with the life they want. So because this copy led with that dream, we grabbed their attention and showed them how this masterclass is the thing to help them get there. On the flip side, the Pastor page worked for my warm audience. The people who follow me on social media frequent my podcast. Hey there friends, if that's you, or subscribe to my email newsletter. Emory's take on this is that there's more trust with my email list and my social media following, so they're able to hear more directly from me on the issue. The problem? They actually prefer that I tell it to them straight. Here's the problem, here's the consequences, here's the pain without a lot of fluff so that they can swiftly make their decision. So my warmer audience wanted the consequences, the pain right up front because they trust me. Learning this information has been so valuable for how we sell our digital courses and to who we sell those courses to for all of our launches. And because of this, I always recommend testing your copy. Was it more work to create two sales pages? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Tenfold? Absolutely. So copy is very fluid and can be updated quickly and you can start day one of your launch with the first iteration of your sales copy. But if you're not seeing the conversions you had hoped for, then tweak it in real time and see how that new version performs. So this is a great reminder to say you can be changing copy during a launch. It's never too late, but you've got to pay attention to the data. All right, we are near the end of this episode, but the last piece I want to touch on is how to write sales copy on social media and in emails. There are two types of promotional content, direct and indirect. Now here's how you can set yourself apart and make sure no matter how often you mention your offer, it's never ignored. And that's through a direct and indirect approach within your messaging. Direct messaging is 100% focused on driving traffic to your landing page. It's straightforward and completely obvious that you're promoting your offer because it leads your audience directly to your offer. For example, you would do this maybe in a cart close email that you're writing. You might say something like this, is it your final chance to join Digital Course Academy until this time next year? Are you coming? Click here and let's do this. And then you link to the sales page or the checkout page. Now, on the other hand, indirect posts are more subtle. They might start with a story or a tip or insight. You can still promote your offer after you add value, or you don't have to promote it at all and use this instead as an opportunity to nurture your audience and continue to build a relationship with them. So here's an example of an indirect post that I posted with an image of my dog, Scout, just When I was about to dig into a new book. Look who wants all my attention. Do you think I resisted? Hardly. I'm a total pushover when it comes to Scouts demands. Anyone else a total softy for their furriest friend? Now that's an indirect post because I'm not selling anything or telling them, click this link and go buy now. Or click this link and go opt in. However, I could do that and it would still be an indirect post if I talked about Scout, and then somehow I tied it back to, let's say, a freebie I have, and then I'll say, hey, if you want the freebie, go click here. I started with something casual, fun, and then I led into to grab this certain freebie, go click this link. So it's a little different than, hey, I've got this offer, go buy. And sometimes you could just do an indirect post and you don't tell them to go click anything or don't do anything. So indirect, there's kind of two phases. Indirect, no link, no action, or indirect with a call to action. But both of them are different than just saying, hey, I've got this offer go by. So you can take that indirect post where I talked about Scout, and then you can link to some content inviting them to sign up for a freebie. And then eventually, once they get on your email list, you can invite them to go buy your product. So you see how that works. So two different types of post, indirect, indirect. I think they are both important. You shouldn't have one without the other. And during a promo, you definitely want to be mixing it up. And the reason for that is, especially on social media, your audience wants to connect with you. They don't want to always be sold to, but they also want resources and they want to learn from you. So. So mixing up direct and indirect posts is always a great way to do so. All right, my sweet friend, we've made it to the end of today's episode. And as we wrap up, I wanna leave you with a few key takeaways to reflect on. First, focus on the exercise I shared to find the single most important problem that you are solving for someone. Write it down, understand it, lean into it with your copywriting. What is keeping your audience up at night? What is their biggest frustration as it relates to to the offer that you have and ask yourself, how can I make my students lives better? What goal can I help them achieve to get there? And what problem are they currently facing that is preventing them from getting there? All good questions to journal on then lead with facts and truth. This will eliminate any uneasiness that you have about selling to your audience, especially if you fully believe in the digital product that you're selling, which you do, I know you do, and the effectiveness of the content within it. Next, study up on the story brand and pastor frameworks. Create a version of your sales page for each technique and then test them both so you can see which method resonates with who. Now, to support your sales page, I want you to craft both direct and indirect social media posts and emails that will engage your cold and warm audience. So mixing those up is a must. So I hope this episode showed you some clear tips and steps to tackle your sales page copy Effective copywriting isn't dressed up with silly hyperboles or jargon that no one understands. Instead, it speaks on a human level. So thanks for joining me for another episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast. I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.