Conversion starts by grabbing attention
You’ve got about 10–12 seconds to convince your reader to scroll down the page. In this day and age where attention spans are reducing, it’s becoming even more important to hook at first read.
If your reader is confused about what you offer, they won’t convert.
That’s where strategic messaging comes in your copy. Messaging connotes words you say that make your target customer want to work with/buy from you.
Your messaging should sell your prospect the best version of themselves or their desired outcome. When you target the people who have bought or are interested in your solution, your product becomes a no-brainer purchase.
Now that you know why messaging is important, let’s show you what to communicate. This way your reader knows who you are and how your solution helps them.
When you introduce your company, is your reader intrigued?
There are four things major things about your company your reader should know at first glance:
- Your company/name
- What solution (product/service) do you offer
- What benefit do they get/problem they solve with that solution
- Your UVP (Unique Value Proposition) and why it’s different from the competition
Don’t forget to show off your brand personality! People love to buy from others with similar interests and opinions.
- What’s it like to work with you?
- Are you silly, smart, classy, or chill?
- What are your brand values?
- Do you have any causes you support?
After your reader understands who you are and what your solution is, you need a compelling CTA so they enter the next step of your funnel.
Your CTA needs to be specific and enticing to make them click. You can do this by:
- Mentioning what they get when they click, e.g “Get your template pack here“
- Reinforcing a message from the headline, e.g “4x your lead-gen with our framework“
Now that you know how to introduce your company and direct your reader into your funnel, let’s address common mistakes you might be making that dull your messaging.
What might you be doing wrong?
If you can prove that you understand your reader’s problems more than your competitors do, your messaging seems unique and more enticing compared to your competitors - especially in a highly saturated market where everyone’s echoing the same message.
Let’s look at common mistakes that you might be making:
- You don’t specify exactly who’s supposed to be on the page, so you get uninterested visitors that don’t take any action
- You have testimonials, case studies, and customer results data (social proof⚡), but they don’t resonate with where your client is NOW
- You can’t go beyond your customer’s pain points, and you fail to understand the limiting beliefs + doubts causing/resulting from those pain points
- You have a great solution, but you can’t highlight its benefits or the transformation it provides for your prospect
- People scroll all over your site but fail to take action because they’re either confused or they don’t find the information they’re looking for
I’ll give you an example with a home page.
Say a solution-aware prospect lands on your home page, and the first thing they see isn’t a concise value proposition. Or, an attention-grabbing headline that tells them exactly what you do and how you do it.
It’s a paragraph dedicated to how many clients you’ve served and how many years of experience you have.
Something like this:
“20+ years in the B2B space”
We’re a 20-year project management company that’s served 5 of the top 10 B2B companies in South Africa. We are very trustworthy and provide a great experience for all our clients. All our clients have great results and love working with us.”
Or this:
After reading this, what will they do?
Leave the page and find someone else that can solve their problem.
The problem with both examples?
They’ve wasted precious space & time with fluff. Their messaging doesn’t motivate the reader to scroll further down the page and find out why they should get the product.
Sadly, this is the reality of many business websites
If you’re not communicating properly, your reader won’t take a second thought to bounce off the page and never come back.
With laser-focused messaging, your reader:
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Resonates with your copy and views you as an authority
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Gets excited about buying your offer/working with you
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Converts or buys from you
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Stops questioning who you are and what your solution is
When your reader understands the transformation your solution provides, they believe more in your solution’s ability to solve their problem.
And if your messaging doesn’t stick, you’re saying the wrong things to the right target audience
It’s difficult to shake off a bad first impression.
How your audience perceives you the first time will set the standard for how they’ll interact with your brand.
And if they don’t perceive your solution as valuable, then you’re going to have a hard time converting sales.
You can tell- roughly- how seriously your audience takes your copy from how they react to it.
Some positive reactions from your audience are:
✅They’re converting, i.e. they’ve signed up for your email list, opted in, e.t.c
✅They can resonate with your offer because you’ve validated what they need
✅They’re ready to purchase because your copy bashed all objections and riled them up
While negative reactions include:
✅They are confused by your offer and don’t convert
✅They don’t finish reading all your copy and bounce back into the internet space
✅Your copy can’t convince them to take the next step into your funnel
Now you know how your audience can react positively & negatively. In the next section, I’ll cover two steps to improve your messaging so you can sell your solution effectively.
1. Identify your prospect’s stage of awareness and how your offer can address it.
How much does your prospect know about your industry and solution when they interact with you for the first time?
That’s what the Stages of Awareness can spell out for you. The Stages of Awareness is a spectrum that guides you on how clear your prospect is about their problem, needs, and readiness to buy.
You’ll need the stages of awareness to understand how much your ideal customer knows about your product so you know much you need to explain to them.
Growth Marketer uses this excellent diagram to summarize the five stages of awareness:
Now here’s how you can apply the stages of awareness to your copy:
If you have an Unaware or Problem Aware customer, you’ll spend more copy fleshing out their problems and introducing them to possible solutions.
If you have a Solution aware customer, then your copy’s job is to explain why they need to choose your solution to solve their problem.
For Product Aware & Most Aware customers, your copy should help them choose you quickly. You don’t need to do much motivating; remind them about why they need your solution.
2. Know your prospect’s tipping point to buy — and what’s motivating them to solve that burning problem.
It’s not just about why your solution is different or premium. Someone can know your brand and know they have a problem, but not be aware that they need your solution. Alternatively, they are aware of their problem and other solutions, but not your solution.
Their tipping point is the situation/event that happens in their life for them to choose your solution.
Their motivation is the driving force behind their decisions. It’s not your value prop, solution, or offer.
When a visitor lands on your page, they were motivated by other elements, e.g your social media profile, a blog post, or an email. You cannot create it, but can be [and should be] reflected in your pages.
Some examples of motivations are:
- Fixing their email funnels so they stop losing leads
- Creating programs & courses without hard & complicated coding work
- Providing for their families & loved ones with a secure stream of income
When you know those motivations, you can tap into the pains surrounding them, and agitate them in your copy. There are two ways you can use agitation:
Agitating the problem:
You mention a problem your ideal customer has, then build it up (with the emotions attached to it, e.g. fear, confusion, worry) by talking about how it manifests in their life, how it impacts them, and what happens when it impacts them.
Agitating the solution:
You’re agitating the inferiority of other solutions. As long as they’re switching from something, your solution is going to be superior.
Lastly, take time to agitate the problem and really rile them up!
Over to you!
Your target audience should not feel like they’re going to waste money on your product because of your copy.
To recap, the key to having strong messaging lies in:
- Identifying your prospect’s stage of awareness and how your offer can address it
- Knowing your prospect’s tipping point — and what’s motivating their problem.
If you miss these, you’ll be looking at copy that does half the job or none at all, which often leads to little to no sales & conversions.
Copy converts when you properly communicate your value to your reader and enlighten them so they buy from you.