You’ve got about 10-12 seconds to convince your reader to scroll down the page. [NN Group] Now that attention spans are reducing, it’s becoming even more important to hook at first read.
If you own a site or you’re a copywriter, you know how important your messaging should be to hook the reader. But if you can’t communicate the right message to the reader, then you’ve lost them.
That’s where strategic messaging comes in your copy. Messaging is the words you say that make your target customer want to work with/buy from you.
The point of your message is to sell your prospect the best version of themselves. It works especially well when you target the people that have bought or are interested in your solution.
Your reader should know these things first, especially if they’re new to your brand
There are four things you must communicate first, especially to new visitors:
- Your company/name
- What solution (product/service) you offer
- What benefit 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! What’s it like to work with you? are you silly, smart, classy, or chill?
When they see that, you should direct them to:
- What they should do next, and tell them why e.g “Head over to our About Page to learn more about our origin story“
But you’ve done that, and barely anyone’s scrolling down!
High converting copy builds authority in the eyes of your reader. If you can prove that you understand their problems more than your competitors do, honestly you’ve got a leg up. Especially in a highly saturated market where people say almost the same thing.
We’ll take a look at common reasons why that happens:
- 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, 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 is not a well-crafted value proposition.
Or engaging headline.
Or a headline that tells them exactly what you do and how you do it.
It's a paragraph dedicated to showing off your clients, work experience, and emphasizing that you're trustworthy. With a vague, fluffy headline with no benefit.
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 are they supposed to do now?
Leave the page and find someone else that can solve their problem.
It's a fluffy waste of space that provides no reason - or motivation - for the prospect to go further down the page.
And unfortunately, the rest of the page is similar to what's in the hero section.
Sadly, this is the reality of many business websites.
Failing to get your value across fast and clearly leaves you with crickets, high bounce rates, and no conversions.
Because you have bad messaging.
Good messaging get prospects, leads, and even your customers to:
- Stop questioning what you really do
- Resonate with your copy and change their perception of your band
- Get excited about your offer
- Convert and/or make the sale
Messaging helps you properly communicate your value to your audience, and help them realize the transformation your solution provides.
And if it doesn’t stick, you’re saying the wrong things to the right target audience.
First impressions matter the most. 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. I made a LinkedIn post expanding on this.
Some positive perceptions from your audience are that:
✅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 perceptions could be that:
✅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
Then how do you improve your messaging? Let me show you two things you can do:
Identify your prospect’s stage of awareness and how your offer can address it.
Knowing how aware your prospect is about your industry and solution will help you approach what to say to them.
That’s where the five stages of awareness come in. The Stages of Awareness is a spectrum that guides you on how clear your prospect is about their problem, needs, and readiness to buy. Growth Marketer has an excellent diagram explaining each stage a customer is in:
It goes from Unaware to Most Aware.
So if you have an Unaware or Problem Aware customer, you’ll spend more copy fleshing out their problems and introduce 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.
Know your prospect’s tipping point - and what’s motivating their problem.
It’s not just talking 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 to 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 motivation are:
- Earning lots of money with minimal efforts
- Creating programs without hard & complicated coding work
- Providing for their families & loved ones without stress
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!
Final Words
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.
-
Know 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 means little to no sales & conversions.
Copy in its basic form is just words. The conversions come when you can properly communicate your value to your reader, and enlighten them so they’re interested in & choose your offer.
Also, connect with me on LinkedIn?