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10 power-packed tips for writing high converting landing page copy:
Tip #1: Write Benefit Oriented Headlines
If you haven’t heard it before, your headline is the most important part of your copy. Your headline will make or break your whole sales process.
A strong headline will have your visitor drooling and ready to buy. On the other hand, a weak headline will have your visitor hitting the back button, leaving your site confused, never to come back. You obviously don’t want to be in that situation.
Your headline really starts with your PPC ( Pay Per Click ) Google ad , which, is really a headline in itself. This headline is the first impression that the user has about your site. And you want to ensure that it’s hard hitting and power packed.
In many cases, matching the verbiage in your headline with your PPC ( Pay Per Click ) Google ad , is a really effective tactic. This way, the visitor immediately knows that your landing page is relevant to what they’re looking for. After all, they click on your Google ad, didn’t they?
Moreover, your headline should be clear and simple to understand. Don’t try to be smart or clever. The headline needs to convey the BIGGEST benefit of your offer, and it needs to do this in clear and easy-to-understand language. Think 5th-grade reading level.
Tip #2: Benefits vs. Features
How do you find the biggest benefit of your offer?
Let me walk you through an example to which I know you can relate. What are most people who are interested in affiliate marketing looking for? In other words, what are the biggest benefits of affiliate marketing?
Here are a few:
-Work from home
-Work from anywhere around the world
-Live a great lifestyle
-Make loads of money
-Quit your day job
-Make money quickly (compared to other business opportunities)
- Less investment compared to traditional business
- Low barrier to entry (to get started as an affiliate)
A lot of these are emotional hot buttons for a lot of people. (I know they were for me!) How to set up a campaign, or do keywords research, did NOT motivate me. Making money online working from home a few hours a week did motivate me.
That’s the difference between a feature and a benefit.
Benefits are the net (promised) result of your offer that emotionally drives people.
Features describe what your offer is and what it does.
Let’s say you’re promoting an ebook on affiliate marketing that shows you how to do market research, keyword research, and set up and optimize your campaigns for profitability (all features).
Then you DON’T want a headline that only talks about features. Let’s take this headline as an example: “A Step by Step System to Researching & Launching Profitable Affiliate Campaigns.”
What’s wrong with this headline?
In so many words: It’s BORING. It doesn’t address any of the benefits of affiliate marketing we discussed above.
Here’s a benefit-driven headline:
“Discover How I used This Embarrassingly Easy-to Follow System to Flush My $90k/yr Job & Triple My Income, All Out of the Comfort of My Own Home in Under 9 Months!”
Do you see how this headline would be WAY more effective than the first one? In one sentence, I mentioned about five benefits.
Should you talk about features at all in your copy? Absolutely. People need to know exactly what they’re buying.
Here’s the key: Always LEAD with benefits. That is, in your copy, focus on benefits first, then later get into the nitty gritty of what your product’s features are, and why those features will deliver the promised benefits.
Tip #3: Relevancy and Copy Length
Relevancy :Your copy should be highly focused and as concise as possible in presenting your offer to the visitor. The more you digress, the worst your conversion will be.
Every element on your PPC (Pay Per Click )landing page , should work towards the goal of converting your visitor to a sale or lead. There should be no links, above the fold, that lead away from the main sales page.
You need to narrowly define what your visitor’s path is on your landing page:
- Seeing hero shot and reading headline
- Reading and skimming rest of the copy
- Clicking on your call to action and making a purchase, filling out a form, performing a search, downloading software, etc.
Length
The less expensive your offer is, the shorter you should make your copy. In almost all cases, your PPC (Pay Per Click )landing page copy ,should be SHORT, unless you’re trying to sell a $1,000 product. If you’re promoting a free offer, such as a pay per lead, where you get paid when the visitor fills out a form, you want to keep your copy really short.
Tip #4: Trust Factor
Let’s face it, a lot of scams are out there on the Internet, which makes trust a BIG factor when you’re trying to sell anything online. How can you improve the trust factor on your landing page?
Here are a few tips:
- Have a clean, professional-looking PPC (Pay Per Click )landing page. Most landing pages have very sloppy pages that they throw together with FrontPage. If your page looks like someone threw it together in 10 minutes or less, how much trust do you think it will elicit?
- Have links to Privacy Policy, About Us, and Contact Us pages at the bottom of your landing page. Think about it. Would you trust a site that didn’t have any of those three pages?
- Add 100% Guarantee buttons and security logos to your site. Adding a 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee-type logo can help you build trust instantly. Also, consider adding a HackerSafe logo on your site; while this will cost you some money, it will really pump up the trust factor.
- Has the product or service you’re promoting won any rewards? Place any reward logos prominently on your landing page.
- Add testimonies to your landing page. A little social proof goes a long way as far as building trust AND improving conversion rates! Ask your affiliate manager for customer testimonies you can use on your page.
Tip #5: Paragraph Lengths
This issue deals more with readability than anything else.
Here’s the bottom line: for copy, you want to keep your paragraphs SHORT, no more than 4-5 lines. This makes it MUCH easier to read and skim. Most visitors will read certain parts of your copy and skim the rest.
Bullet points are another way to improve readability for someone who wants to skim your page.
Tip #6: Bullet Points
If you’ve read more than one sales page in your life, you’ve probably seen bullet points with checkmarks next to each point. You don’t need to use checkmarks, but do use bullets in your copy to list the top benefits of the offer you are promoting.
For landing pages in which only short copy is required, you can basically have a headline and a handful of bullet points, and you’re done!
Tip #7: Summary
Having a summary (above the fold), explaining what your PPC (Pay Per Click )landing page copy , is a quick and effective way to assure your visitors that they’re in the right place.
Visitors should be presented with the summary the second they hit the page (along with the headline). After they read the headline and the summary, they should know EXACTLY what your site is about.
Only after this step will the visitors:
- Skim your page to make sure the site is trustworthy.
- Make sure the product or service offers everything they’re looking.
- Once they’ve confirmed this, they’re ready to make a buying decision.
In other words, the more effectively you can do the following, the better your affiliate landing page will convert:
- Hit their emotional hot button with a big benefit (headline).
- Concisely explain to them what your site is about (summary).
- Demonstrate that your site is trustworthy (trust factor).
- Provide them with the detailed benefits and features they may be looking for.
- Present them with an effective call to action.
Tip #8: Detailed Copy
This is where you get into the nitty gritty details of what you’re offering. This part is actually pretty easy to write; all you want to do is expand on the summary and your bullet points. Be sure to expand on BOTH the benefits and features.
Tip #9: Leading Paragraph
The first paragraph of your copy is probably the only paragraph the visitor will read line per line. So it’s critical that your first paragraph is well written and persuasive enough to convince the visitor to read on.
You may even consider making your summary the first paragraph.
Here’s a tip: Try reading your landing page copy as if you were a visitor. Read the headline, summary and first paragraph line per line, and then skim through the rest of your copy.
Based on this, ask yourself these questions:
-How well does your copy flow?
-Are you conveying all the necessary information in the headline, summary, and first paragraph?
-Are you hitting on the key benefits/emotional hot buttons of your offer? If so, do these benefits stand out as you skim the page?
- Do you feel you can trust the site?
- Is your site answering common objections/concerns your visitor may have?
- Is it clear what action to take as you skim over your copy? That is, do you have effective calls to action throughout your copy?
Tip #10: Call to Action
Have you ever seen a PPC (Pay Per Click )landing page on which you were unable to find an order or signup button? Well, can you imagine how that impacts the conversion rate of the landing page?
This is something that could have been easily remedied with a prominently displayed, big fat green call to action button that says: “Click Here to Order” or “Sign Up Now.”
Now, believe it or not, it’s not as simple as having a highly visible call(s) to action on your landing page. The text you use in your call to action and where you position your call(s) to action are both critical.
Text to Use in Your Call to Action
You want to be direct as possible and command your visitor to take action towards the conversion goal.
If you’re using a call to action button, I recommend using text such as:
-Click Here Now
-Sign Up Now
-Click Here to Download
-Search Now
-Click Here to Discover More
-Click Here for More Info
- Visit Site Now
Points 1-5 are for landing pages on which either the visitor can take all the required actions on your page (i.e., download), or the visitor is taken right to the merchant order page. This is my preferred method of affiliate marketing; that way, YOU are in control of the conversion process (to the greatest degree possible).
Points 5-7 are for landing pages that either serve as review sites or lead the visitor to the merchant landing page.
Studies have found that green call to action buttons tend to get the highest click-through rates. (I’ll share with you some examples later.) The only drawback to using a call to action button is that you cannot fit a lot of text in it. That’s why I recommend that you place several benefit-laden text calls to action several times in your copy.
Now what do I mean by “benefit-laden”? I mean a call to action that includes a major benefit of your offer.
Let’s use the dog training example. Here are some text calls to action you may consider:
-Click Here to Secure Your Copy and Stop Dog Barking Now
-Order Today and You’ll Be Able to Stop Destruction Dog Behavior within Minutes
-Secure Your Copy Now and Be Amazed at How Easy It Is to Stop Puppy Biting.
See how I inserted a juicy benefit in the text calls to action?
-Call to Action Placement
It’s a good idea to have one call to action above the fold, one somewhere in the middle of your copy, and one near the end. This way, it’s easy for your visitor to click through your call to action on your PPC (Pay Per Click )landing page copy ,whenever they’re ready.
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