You spent hours and hours writing product descriptions and copy for your e-commerce website, but you aren’t seeing the sales you thought you would have. What could have possibly gone wrong? Other than having patience, it might be time for you to revise your copy.
According to Oberlo, nearly 90% of consumers refer to reviews before purchasing a product. Your customers are searching for value, and there is value in copy – whether you write it or not.
If you want to show your customers what they want, you need to incorporate strong and effective copy in every area of your business – from product descriptions to email marketing.
In today’s blog post, my friend and copywriting expert Anika Watkins will give you 8 conversion-boosting copywriting tips that will increase conversion and drive sales for your e-commerce business! This isn’t one you want to miss, so keep reading!
What is Copywriting?
You might be wondering what exactly copywriting is and why it’s so important for your e-commerce business. Customers are more likely to buy a product if they know what it is, how it works, and how it can help them. Understanding this fact, marketers utilize copywriting as the key that encourages customers to make a purchase.
A copywriter takes your business goals and turns them into content that speaks directly to your target audience – helping customers see why they should buy from you rather than your competitors! Along with Facebook ads, landing pages, and product descriptions, copywriting is also used for email marketing, which is a critical component of staying in touch with existing customers and attracting new ones.
8 Conversion-Boosting Ways to Increase Conversions and Drive Sales for Your E-Commerce Business!
1. Stop Marketing Your Product for Everyone
“If you’re trying to appeal to everyone, your copy will appeal to no one,” Anika, founder and CEO of Moxie Copywriting, states. It can be hard to pinpoint your target market when you want to reach as many people as possible, but marketing your content to everyone isn’t an effective way to increase sales.
The best type of content is personalized for a specific audience because it speaks directly to their needs and pain points. Your copy should provide value. By marketing to a specific audience, you can get better conversions than if you try to market to everyone under the sun!
Anika recommends that e-commerce businesses have at least two to three customer avatars, as it might be a bit too risky to put all of your eggs in one basket.
When you’re writing more targeted copy, such as Facebook ad copy, this is where you will cater to your separate, unique audiences.
2. Don’t Write Your Own Copy
You might think you can get away with writing your own copy, but this isn’t necessarily the best idea. Even if you’re an expert in your industry, you could benefit from hiring a professional copywriter.
“If you want the best, hire the best, you know? All of these things add together to make your product sell online,” Anika says.
A professional copywriter can analyze your products and target audience inside and out, understand the value of your e-commerce business, and communicate that value through their words alone!
Anita warns against slapping some copy together and expecting your products to sell. Copy should not be an afterthought. It is a core step to drive sales in your e-commerce business, so don’t hesitate to invest in a copywriter!
3. Always Have Brand Voice and Content Guidelines
Having brand voice and content guidelines is the difference between having copy that works, or copy you’re just throwing at a wall to see what sticks.
If your marketing efforts are all over the place, without any consistency, then it’s going to be difficult for customers to understand who you are as a business – making them more likely to shop somewhere else. You don’t want that, and I don’t want that for you either!
Your guidelines should include your brand voice, tone, and style of writing – including preferred verbs and adjectives that you want to be used in your copy. “Once you know who your audience is, all of the copy needs to flow from that,” Anika says.
4. Understand Your Target Audience
“Are they spending time on Instagram? Do they follow influencers? Where do they shop?” Anika begins. “You really want to do your research and get in their head to figure out what are the things that matter to them.”
Anika stresses the importance of painting a vivid picture of your ideal customer. You want to know exactly who you’re talking about when you’re writing copy so that it resonates with them!
This is why research and understanding how they spend their time online are crucial steps before putting words on the page. Once you have an idea of what your target audience cares about, it makes writing copy so much easier!
5. Convert Features into Benefits
Anika discusses how important it is to sell benefits, not features, in your product descriptions. “A lot of the time, e-commerce store owners might really want to focus on the features,” she says. “However, you really want to lead with the benefit. How is your customer going to benefit from having your product?”
Focus on what matters to customers and how having your product can solve their problems! “If I’m buying a mattress, I don’t care as much about the coils being made of rubber fabric. I just want to know how I’m going to benefit from that.”
Let’s not misunderstand the message here. Feature-focused copy is fine to include in your product descriptions, but don’t lead with that! Leading with the benefits makes sure you’re communicating what’s really valuable about your products.
6. Write Descriptive Headlines
Headlines are often overlooked in favor of the body of your copy, but they’re just as important (if not more important!). “You’ll want to use a product title that will hook your audience,” Anika suggests.
“As an e-commerce store owner, you want to personalize it so much for yourself, but at the end of the day, it’s not about what you like or think is cool. It’s about what your audience is going to be drawn to.”
Starting with your ideal customer in mind is the first step to writing a headline that grabs their attention! For example, who’s searching for “Dawn’s Eyelashes”? Even if your brand is so recognizable that people search for your specific brand name, you should still lead with a product title that explains what your product will do for your consumers.
7. Refer to Other E-commerce Brands for Inspiration
You can definitely see what’s working and not working in the market by looking at other brands for research and inspiration. Once you start analyzing different stores in similar niches, you’ll get a sense of how people are responding to different marketing strategies.
You can start doing this by going to your competitor’s websites or using the Facebook apps library, which is a free tool available to business owners that allows you to see the kinds of ads your competitors are running. Anika explains, “When we’re writing e-commerce ads for clients, one of the first things we do is look up at least three to five competitors for that brand.”
Remember to place a huge emphasis on inspiration! Don’t snatch someone else’s copy word-for-word. You should take what you like from other brands and create copy in your own unique style.
Don’t forget that it’s okay if something doesn’t work. You probably won’t be able to use every marketing strategy that works well for another brand. It’s all about trial and error!
8. Create Compelling Email Sequences
Email marketing is one of the best ways to drive sales for your e-commerce business, yet email is one of the most underutilized tools for e-commerce store owners. For example, a really awesome abandoned cart sequence ensures you have continuous email marketing. Anika recommends that e-commerce business owners have a minimum of four sequences in place for their customers.
“New customers will actually respond quite well when you send them really good content as a follow-up and drip that out over a certain amount of time,” Anika informs.
If you don’t have a reactivation sequence, that’s something you should consider including in your email marketing. Anika explains, “If someone hasn’t purchased anything from you in three or six months, have a sequence in place for those people to get them to come back and check out what’s new.”
The beauty of email sequences is they continue in the background without you having to do anything! “It’s just like free money.”
From compelling headlines that will get people hooked from the start all the way to email marketing sequences, these tips should give you a starting point no matter what’s going on with your business right now.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or don’t know where to start, reach out to the team here at Digital Dawn Agency! Our team of e-commerce experts is here to help answer your questions and provide guidance as needed.
Interested in how to create a great abandoned cart sequence? Click here to check out my full discussion with Anika Watkins on the Ecomm Profit Podcast!
BIO
Dawn Sinkule, the Founder of Digital Dawn, is an MBA graduate, Strategy and Business Growth Consultant as well as a Certified Online Business Manager with more than 16 years of corporate experience working for a Fortune 50 company. Dawn and her team work with passionate six figure business owners who want to grow, expand, and explode their businesses. Dawn and the DD team provide your choice of self-implementation or fully done for you solutions, and both include detailed business strategies, automation, systems, and most importantly the satisfaction of knowing your business is heading the right direction. Her clients get not only the experience of a Fortune 50 leader, but also a personalized and customized strategy as well as an implementation team: AKA your secret weapon for success.