Copywriting.
Sure, once upon a time, you may have done some essay writing or creative writing in school.
But, because your conversions and your revenue rely on your content, this is a little different.
And plus, in the meantime, you’ve been busy launching brands, managing business processes, and a whole bunch more.
Those days of learning the ins and outs of writing can sometimes seem like they were forever ago.
So what do you do?
You could hire a dedicated copywriter.
Or you could sign up for a refresher class on writing.
By all means, these are acceptable choices that can help expand our brand.
But when it comes to our sales funnels, do we really need to spend all that time, effort, and money to get a copy that converts?
There’s an easy answer to this question: you have an alternative, one that’s quick and cost-effective.
What could it be?
This extensive list of expertly-crafted hacks straight from the copywriting industry.
Scan it, grab what you need, and go!
They’re all designed to be easy to understand, easy to apply, and even easier to get your copy converting in the ClickFunnels Editor. Turn regular copywriting into conversion copywriting right away.
Make It Human for More Engagement
It might sound incredibly simple, but there’s plenty of content out there that might sound good, even if it lacks a human touch.
People are conversational, they use trending words, and they sometimes say plenty without saying many words at all.
This tip adds personality to your copy, which boosts its likeability.
Go Shorter… Much Shorter
If you’ve never seen it before, writing pro-Ernest Hemingway even wrote an entire short story that was only 6 words long.
Imagine that! In today’s world, people want smaller, easier-to-digest pieces of content.
This ensures that your copy is read and conveys its intended meaning to your audience.
Funnel Scripts is a great tool when it comes to creating short-form scripts for any marketing purpose.
Skip the Exclamation Marks
Amongst professional copywriters, there’s a rule: whenever possible, do not use exclamation marks.
Instead, craft the content in such a way that your reader naturally hears the excitement and the energy.
And if you do use the occasional exclamation mark, whatever you do, only use one at a time and only in one single sentence. Anything else will turn off your leads.
Also, Keep Underlining and Bold to a Minimum
This one is similar to our rule about avoiding too many exclamation marks.
It’s not that using some bold or underlined copy, especially for a headline, is a mortal sin.
But when you mix tons of bold and underlined copy throughout, say, a paragraph, it tends to dull the effect and be confusing on the eye.
Avoid Compound Sentences
More complex sentences, ones that drag on and on, aren’t easy to consume.
Instead, break them up.
How do you accomplish this task?
It might make your grammar school English teacher a bit angry, but here’s a great example: you can write more complex sentences.
But divide them up with a period between “and,” or “but.”
Take a look at any ClickFunnels article, and you’ll see that we actually use this strategy too, so that our articles are an easier read.
Include Your Audience with 2nd Person
Make it personal… your copy that is.
If you’re using phrases like “our clients” or “people who choose my brand,” stop and consider whether your content is focused toward your audience.
Even worse, some brands just use “us,” “us,” and “us” throughout their copy.
Remember, to convert your leads, you have to address them, not make the copy all about you or your brand.
Go with “you” and “your” as much as possible.
Use Your Audience’s Profile
Let’s say that you’re targeting wives who are shopping for their husbands for your next funnel.
(If you need a refresher on targeting, take a look at this article for some perspective).
Who says you can’t tailor your copy specifically for them?
When you refer to their relationship with their husband or the stress of finding a gift, you’re boosting your copy’s relevance to your leads a hundred fold.
One of Funnel Scripts greatest feature is that it lets you target your leads based on their profiles, needs, problems, etc. This feature lets you create copy that your audience can relate to, thereby increasing the opportunity to convert.
Jazz Up the First and Last Part of Your Copy
This is just a fancy way of saying that humans remember the first and last part of sentences for longer.
Yet, copywriters have learned to use this trick to their advantage.
By using our adverbs and adjectives (or maybe our brand name even) at the beginning or near the end of our copy, we change the game.
When you retarget that same group of leads, they’re more likely to remember how you created an impact.
That equals more conversions.
Whether it’s for PPC or Facebook Ads, you can make use of Funnel Scripts to create copy that gives off a great impression to your visitors.
Avoid Industry Jargon
Maybe it’s acronyms like AIDA and BANT. Or big data and gamification.
(These are all vocab from the marketing industry).
When regular people see jargon, they run for the hills.
Now, keep this hack in context. If your audience comes from the industry, and you know they know terms, a little jargon might be fine.
But for most potential leads, jargon is sure to drop your conversion, because they simply don’t know what those things are.
They’re also not going to take the time to find out.
But Absolutely Use Trending Ideas
At the same time, you don’t want your copy to sound like it’s from another era.
It’s actually preferred for SEO purposes that you use some trendy ideas.
You don’t want to go too cutting-edge and risk alienating the majority of your leads.
But, whether it’s LOLs or Keks, consider how your audience might appreciate a trendy word or two.
Some of Funnel Scripts generators help you inject trending topics and ideas into your copy letting you humanise your copy and give your visitors something to relate to.
Go with the Active Voice
You might remember this writing tip from grammar school days as well.
But pro copywriters also love to use it.
And the active voice is, well, all about action.
It’s more dynamic, more interesting, and more engaging overall.
As an example: instead of writing, “our brand is loved by many customers,” try “many customers love our brand.”
It’s a small change, but it’s sure to affect your conversion rate.
Add a Little Redundancy
Humans aren’t the best at remembering things unless we’re exposed to them repeatedly.
While you want to be careful with this copywriting hack, it’s worth considering.
Using just a bit of repeat information helps to remind your audience of important aspects of your copy.
This is especially true in those few cases that you need to have a copy that’s longer form.
Try Your Hand at Literary Techniques
There’s simply a ton of different writing techniques that have grown around literature.
And these became popular because they don’t just make language prettier.
They also captivate our minds. Although you don’t want to sound cheesy, copywriters mine literary techniques constantly.
Whether it’s Super Sales (alliteration) or a price made for paradise (rhyming), look for subtle ways to use these techniques in your own copy for added benefit.
Go with Some Curiosity
Is your copy revealing every last little detail?
If so, it’s not conversion-maximized.
This copywriting hack relies on being just a bit vague.
By doing so, we interest our readers to go further and learn more.
This is a good hack to use when you need to push a lead through to the next, more powerful step of your funnel, like an individual consultation, for example.
If it’s curiosity you’re trying to trigger, Funnel Scripts can help you with that. Use the Curiosity Ad Copy Scripts generator to create curiosity-triggering copies.
Watch Your Tone and Intent
On the Internet, it’s very easy to misinterpret tone-of-voice.
You would think this would make people more hesitant to read too far into things.
Yet, this isn’t the case.
For copywriters, this means paying extra attention to the multiple ways their copy can be interpreted.
Reflect for a moment on how people from different backgrounds might understand your copy.
This way, they won’t be offended or upset by the message.
Watch Out for Danglers
Here’s our quick grammar lesson for the day: dangling modifiers cause confusion for readers.
It’s a simple mistake, but it is guaranteed to reduce conversion rate.
Why?
The fact of the matter is that there’s plenty of people who love to correct grammar on the Internet.
And when they see a dangling modifier, they simply can’t handle it.
They’ll close the page and move.
If you’re not sure if your modifier is dangling, consider running it by a proofreader.
Proofreader, Proofread, and then Proofread More
On that note, there’s no easier copy hack than proofreading.
Even the pros suffer from missing basic typos in huge advertising campaigns.
This hack, which only takes a moment, is one of the most important ones that professional copywriters will stress to you.
Read Your Content Aloud
And finally, a great hack for copy is to read it aloud.
This is important because, while it might sound perfect in your head, you never truly can tell.
Once you read copy out loud, you’re checking to make sure there aren’t any clunky or funny-sounding phrases.
You’re also able to gauge the natural pauses better to take advantage of spaces where a more dramatic word might do.
Protip: Our protip for these hacks is truly an effortless hack: get to know a professional copywriter. They love to share their individual secrets that experience has taught them that you won’t find anywhere else.
So that’s our list of online copywriting hacks. We stepped away from basic questions like, what is a copywriter or what is copywriting and went straight to the tips that will get you more conversions.
From quick and dirty hacks to elegant and simple solutions, what copy tricks do you have up your sleeve?
Which ones have increased your conversions the most?
Thanks for the tips!
Fantastic study! My spouse and i found it all definitely interesting…