The Other Way to Boost E-Commerce Sales: Copywriting

Selling products online is tricky. Potential customers can’t touch, smell, or see the products. Instead, they rely on the copy the text marketers write to describe product features, the problems it solves, and how it makes buyers feel — all to earn more sales. 

Successful content starts with understanding your target audience. Know your demographics, interest, and behaviors to craft messages that resonate. We all know that acquiring new customers from scratch is hard, People are busy and it's getting harder and harder to generate a “Wow!” reaction. There's no “one-size-fits-all” formula. Twitter is not Facebook. Websites and apps are a different ball game. The goal is always the same: to write words that pay you back and even if it is not always an easy task, it's worth it. And, the best part is that it's sustainable.

Here’s a guide with 14 tips for generating conversational copy that converts to more users and more sales:

1. Copywriting is selling: Being creative is important but don't romanticize it. The goal is to inspire action. Think “call-to-value” not “call-to-action.”

2. Be real: Write how you talk, casually and colloquially; in other words, replicate your customer’s tone of voice, the use of pronouns always helps. On the other hand, avoid the excessive use of adverbs and adjectives. The best brands feel “real.”

3. Tell stories, not facts: Stories make you memorable, when potential buyers read stories, they forget they’re being sold something. Remember: transparency is always appreciated.

4. Don't exaggerate: An honest line always feels warmer. We know how incredible your product’s features are, but please, focus on the benefits.

5. Formatting matters: You have only about 5 seconds to catch and hold a reader’s attention; write scannable copy. You are about to read about 800 words and the idea is that you can find in this article what might be relevant to you. Write small paragraphs, use titles, subtitles, bold letters, and go to the point.

6. More periods, fewer commas: Periods mean short sentences. We like short sentences. Commas mean long and sometimes boring sentences.

7. Use SEO: So far, we have been talking about potential clients as readers, but search engines are another type of audience that you need to keep in mind. Intriguing SEO copywriting could be the difference between a potential customer clicking your  website or a competitor’s. The goal is for your e-commerce to rank No. 1 on Google, you want to be found. 

8. Find the right balance between SEO and copy: Users want to read less every time and a good SEO strategy might demand a lot of keywords, which might mean long text. The best copywriters love both aspects, but this is the hardest part about content marketing. 

9. Run A/B testings: Good e-commerce copywriting is relatively easy to learn, but hard to master. Great copywriters test and measure their copy to ensure it’s driving real results. It takes time to be great.

10. You don't need to know everything: There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Research is an important part of the improvement. So, what types of qualitative data should you collect? This type of copywriting research can be done using these four methods:

    1. Internal interviews

    2. Surveys

    3. Customer interviews

    4. Testimonial and review mining

    5. Reports and research

11. Listen: Talk to your suppliers, existing customers, and, why not, old users. The more you listen and learn, the more stories you have to tell. Feedback is always a given, and applying it to copywriting is no exception. 

12. Everything is changing, all the time: To keep your e-commerce relevant, once in a while you should revisit and update your copy, content, and SEO. 

13. Respect your competitors: To get ahead of your competition, you have to know all you can about them, but never speak ill of them, and even less on your own channels. Remember that this could also be a way of advertising them.

14. Copywriting is more like math than you suspect: Using data and numbers is a great way to convince your potential customers to buy a product, build trust and a compelling narrative.

Quick extra tip: Like in this note, it is better that you write the data with numbers and not with letters, so it will be easier for users to identify your value proposition.

And last but not least:

Always keep in mind that great copywriting is a mix of  great research, great editing and creativity. It’s only when you reflect existing customer stories and provoke emotions in your copy (without being corny) that you create words that do their job: Sell.

And remember, text content isn’t the only way to describe the products of your online store. So, if you feel that you are getting too wordy, consider alternatives (visual or interactive content options) that will explain to customers precisely what you want to say.