Most digital marketing is inefficient because businesses drive paid traffic to landing pages (or worse, home pages) that are poor. Here’s a guide for you to learn how to write a one-page website or landing page copy that converts better.
While the design of the landing page is important, this article focuses on the landing page copy. While there are lot of copywriting frameworks you can follow, this article follows the principles of the P.A.S.T.O.R Copywriting Framework developed by Ray Edwards.
Step 1: Person, Problem and Pain
Begin by identifying the person you want to reach. Next, show that you understand the problem they have. Then address the pain this problem causes.
Example of a headline you can start with.
Attention Homeowners: Keep Your Family and Belonging Safe With Our 24/7 Home Security Service
The more accurately you can describe your reader’s problem in the body text, the more they instinctively will feel that you are the right business to solve their pain.
Step 2: Amplify Pain and Show Aspirations
In the next step, your landing page has to amplify their pain and magnify their gain. You can do this by describing the consequences of not solving the problem and painting the picture of their aspirations they hold for the future. This part is crucial, as you will have to make them feel that they need your business to solve their problem.
Example:
You can probably see why it makes sense to look for alternative investment options in the current low interest environment. If you are keeping your money in the bank account, you are only getting 0.9% return on your capital. Inflation being higher than that, at 1.5%, you are actually losing money every day.
Step 3: Solution & Story
It’s now time to show your reader how the problem can be solved.
It can either be a story from your own experience or a case study of a similar business that had the same problem to your client – and how it was fixed.
Step 4: Transformation & Testimony
In this step, it’s time for you to sell the transformation, not the product or the service you are selling.
What do I mean by transformation?
When people buy something, they don’t buy the product. They buy what the product does for them. Whatever you are selling, focus on describing the end result, how they can achieve it, and how fast.
And to do this, use testimonials and real-life stories and testimonials of people who have used your services.
Remember, if your client has never dealt with you before, there’s still a level of scepticism that you need to overcome.
According to Edwards, there are three questions people will ask if you are selling coaching, consulting or instruction. These questions are:
- Has this person been able to do what they are describing for themselves?
- Has this person been able to teach other people to achieve the results they are describing?
- Will this person be able to teach me how to achieve these results?
Provide them with proof that the answer to all three of these questions is “yes!”
Step 4. Offer
So far, you have defined your reader’s problem, clarified the consequences of not solving the problem, presented the solution and helped your reader to visualise the transformation through testimonials from people you’ve helped before.
The next step is to build an irresistible offer on what you are offering for sale.
If your landing page is for lead generation, your offer is usually ‘Free Consultation’. But that’s not enough. You have to describe exactly what the free consultation includes.
You can start it with a subheading: “Here’s Exactly What You Get.” Again, be as specific as you can and don’t stop describing the transformation.
For example, if you are selling personal training and your first consultation is free, your offer could be:
During your free consultation you will receive a tailored 12-week plan that will help you achieve your fitness goals. We’ll also provide you with meal plans & easy recipes that will help you burn fat & lose weight faster.
Or If you are selling IT solutions, your offer may look something like:
For a limited time only, we are offering a Free IT Health Check for businesses who want to reduce their IT costs. During this audit we’ll inspect all of your computers, phones, printers and any hardware and we will give you an action plan on how to improve your business.
Step 5. Response:
This is the last step of your landing page copy. It’s time to request a response from your reader. At this point, you shouldn’t be shy about asking for a sale. Describe the steps that the reader has to do in order to get his/her hands on your offer. Remind them once again what they will get.
You can request a response like this:
You’ve read this far and now it’s time to make the decision. If you want to change the direction of your finances, request your free consultation with us today. To get started, fill out the form and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Please make sure that the form submission goes through. It should take you to a Thank You page after a few seconds. You will also receive a confirmation to your email.
Bonus Tips: How to ensure your landing page copy resonates with your audience
Get to know your customers
If you want to write better landing page copy, get to know your target audience. Learn what problems they have, what they have tried to do to solve it, and what goals and aspirations they want to achieve. And then write your landing page copy based on this information.
For example, you could send out a questionnaire to people who have already bought from you and use their direct quotes in your sales copy.
Speak to them like your speaking to a person
Are you speaking to a stadium full of people or to an individual? Write like you are having a personal one on one conversation with your customer.
Instead of writing:
“We offer a free consultation for companies who want to solve their IT problems.”
Try addressing them more directly.
“If you want to fix the time-consuming IT problems in your company, claim your Free IT consultation with us.”
Be specific:
If you want your reader to take action, use highly specific language with clear, concrete details. Don’t leave any question about what you want to see happen. And don’t be afraid to be a little “too obvious.”
The bottom line:
While it’s important to ensure that your landing page design is on point, improving your conversion rates starts with a killer copy. With the right structure you can ensure that your landing page keeps bringing you more sales and leads.
