Most marketers are fairly insecure about writing copy. They’re concerned that if they don’t use the magic sales words needed to hypnotize their readers, no one will ever take action. Add to that the pressure of short deadlines and you have a recipe for some major blood pressure issues.
The truth is, you don’t need magic words. You don’t even need a lot of time to think about what you’re going to say. All you need is a framework for writing copy that is good enough to get the job done.
On this Web clinic, we reviewed a test from our Research Directory in which researchers at MECLABS were charged with increasing the conversion on a landing page by simply changing the copy. While they certainly have experience with what we call “offer/response optimization”, they wouldn’t consider themselves expert copywriters.
But, the result of their copywriting test was a more than 103% increase in conversion on that landing page.
How did they do it?
They worked from a simple but highly effective framework.
If you can determine the thought sequence of your audience as they are exposed to your copy, you can write copy that has a higher probability of resonating with your audience.
Broadcasted live on June 6, 2012, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, managing director, MECLABS, taught how to write copy that doesn’t need to be flashy to work in this Web clinic. To do that, he outlined a story framework that you can use to get the copywriting part of job completed effectively under tight deadlines.
To give you a better sense of the content of this Web clinic, here is feedback we received from the audience:
I appreciate the creativity in your webinars. –Bill
I always learn from your webinars. This one was very needful. I’m a technical writer for a global oil/gas service company. Often, I’m required to write copy. I don’t have formal training in copywriting, but I read books and follow copywriters and marketing pros (like you) via blogs, Twitter, etc. Sometimes, I think my copy is not flashy or persuasive enough. This webinar gave me more confidence because I focus on clarity and layout/organization when I write anything, technical or not. –Marsha
Thanks again – your webinars are the best, and I even stated that in an answer to a LinkedIn question about who offers the best webinars. One suggestion: I would love to see what y’all can do for a small business. Most of the live optimizations you offer are for very large companies with big budgets, whose websites are already picture-perfect. –Maria
The presenter spent a lot of time establishing the structure of a story and how the parts of the story affect storytelling, and then seemed to rush through the way these aspects apply to an LP. I was able to grasp the story stuff very quickly, so my attention drifted during those parts. (I have a creative writing background, so my experience may not be typical.) Then, when we got to the sections that apply to writing copy, the information was delivered too quickly for me to write down or absorb. Thanks! –Amelia
Credits:
Presenters
Dr. Flint McGlaughlin
Paul Cheney
Jon Powell
Writers
Austin McCraw
Paul Cheney
Technical Production
Luke Thorpe
Selena Blue
Eric Nopanen
Steven Beger
Jessica McGraw
Dave Garlock
Cliff Rainer
Makeup
Aimee Thompson