In today’s competitive marketplace, crafting persuasive sales messages is more important than ever. Your sales copy needs to resonate with prospects and compel them to take action. Otherwise, you risk losing out to competitors who are more adept at conveying the value of their offerings.
The good news is that with some strategic planning and copywriting best practices, you can create compelling sales messages that convert. In this article, we’ll explore how to craft persuasive sales copy that gets results.
Understand Your Audience Deeply
The first critical step is getting crystal clear on who you’re speaking to. Your prospects all have unique needs, challenges and motivations. The more you understand what makes them tick, the better you can tailor your messaging to resonate.
Start by building detailed buyer personas based on extensive market research and insights from your existing customers. Determine their demographics, common pain points and goals. Also look closely at how they consume information and make purchasing decisions. This will allow you to craft copy that speaks directly to their situation.
For example, if you’re selling software to busy HR managers, focus on how your solution can save them time and hassle with recruitment and onboarding. Use words like “streamlined” and “efficient” to emphasise the benefits of automation and simplification. Really get into the nitty gritty of an HR manager’s day-to-day frustrations and how your product alleviates these.
Lead With Relevance to Show You Understand Their Reality
Once you intimately understand your audience, ensure your sales messaging leads with relevance. Demonstrate how you clearly understand their challenges and can meaningfully help.
For instance, an email promoting project management software could say:
“Are you struggling to juggle multiple projects and meet tight deadlines? Our solution’s intuitive features help busy project managers like you prioritise tasks, collaborate seamlessly and deliver projects on time.”
This shows prospects you get their pain points and have a solution. Leading with relevance establishes credibility and gets their attention.
Rather than focusing on generic corporate benefits, put yourself in the shoes of your intended reader and speak directly to their needs.
Articulate Benefits Clearly – It’s Not About You, It’s About Them
Don’t just explain what your product or service does. Focus on the tangible outcomes and benefits it enables for customers. This shows the “what’s in it for me” value.
For example, a sales page for encryption software could say:
“Our real-time encryption platform enables your business to secure sensitive customer data and prevent costly data breaches that erode trust and profitability.”
This quickly conveys the key benefit – protecting customer data and avoiding financial and reputational damage from breaches. The features are secondary to the benefit.
A common copywriting mistake is emphasizing how great your company or product is, rather than spelling out what the customer will gain. Write from their perspective and focus on the advantages.
Back Up Claims With Concrete Proof
Persuasive sales copy provides concrete proof to back up claims about your product’s advantages. This builds trust and belief in what you’re selling.
For example, don’t just say your project management software improves team productivity. Back it up with a statistic like “Customers see on average a 23% increase in team productivity within 6 months.”
Or reference a case study showcasing how a customer achieved specific results. For example, “Company X reduced their project delivery times by 2 weeks after implementing our solution.”
Social proof elements like customer testimonials, reviews and ratings also lend credibility. Just make sure to only highlight verified, authentic content.
Statistics, case studies and testimonials are immensely powerful to demonstrate you deliver what you promise.
Use Language That Connects Emotionally With Readers
Technical jargon and generic claims don’t forge an emotional connection with prospects. To craft copy that resonates, incorporate language that speaks to their desires, frustrations and motivations.
Words like “innovative”, “quickly”, “easy” and “proven” evoke positive emotions tied to benefits. Phrases like “cutting-edge”, “peace of mind” and “regain control” also appeal to prospects’ deeper needs and goals.
Avoid overusing industry buzzwords that hold little meaning. Instead, use vivid language that paints a picture of achieving their goals and relieving their struggles.
Compare Your Offer to the Existing Alternative
When prospects weigh purchasing decisions, they compare options based on trade-offs. Your sales messaging should highlight how you stack up against competitors or the status quo.
Emphasise where you excel and they fall short. If your software has more advanced features, highlight what key capabilities competitors lack to convey your superiority. If you offer faster implementation, use hard numbers to showcase how much quicker you can onboard customers compared to alternatives.
Spelling out how you outperform competitors and the old way of doing things can powerfully sway decisions in your favour.
Clearly Spell Out the Next Steps
Finally, clearly tell prospects what you want them to do after consuming your sales messaging, and make it as frictionless as possible. Don’t just say “Contact us today!”, provide a clickable link, phone number, email address or chat pop-up.
Removing barriers to take the next step increases conversion rates. Tell them exactly where to go and what to do to get started with your solution.
Optimise for SEO With Keywords to Reach More Prospects
When crafting sales copy, also optimise it for SEO by seamlessly incorporating relevant keywords. This helps your pages and campaigns rank higher in search results so they reach more prospects.
Research keywords prospects are searching when looking for solutions like yours. Then strategically work these into your copy as naturally as possible.
For example, for HR software focused on recruitment, target keywords could include:
– recruitment software
– applicant tracking system
– recruitment management system
– online recruitment platform
Strengthen headlines and opening paragraphs with primary keywords. Then sprinkle secondary keywords throughout body copy smoothly. This balances optimising for conversions and SEO.
Test and Refine Your Messaging for Continuous Improvement
The final step is rigorously testing your sales messaging and refining based on results. Send A/B tests of email subject lines, headlines and calls to action to see what resonates most.
Analyse open and click-through rates to identify high-performing messaging. Testing enables you to continually optimise copy that boosts conversions.
Treat your copy like an ongoing experiment, with a goal of incremental improvement over time.
Crafting persuasive sales messages that convert takes work. But with the right audience insights, benefit-focused copy, emotional language and optimised keywords, you can resonate with prospects and drive more sales. Focus on conveying relevance and value rather than promoting features and you’ll see results.