If you’re a wellness business owner, you will know that, while your service may be sales-worthy, the real sales-driver is your messaging. Without emotional, client-focused copy that inspires people to take action, your service will sit on the shelf.
Fact - your ideal clients have become more discerning. They demand more from brands – more connection, more passion and more tailoring to their exact needs. The way you communicate with them will make or break your business growth. But, the power doesn’t just lie in your chosen words.
Copywriting is about persuading your ideal clients to take action and, while your words do carry most of the heavy lifting, the WAY you use them can take their meaning and power up several valuable notches.
These are 4 of the best-kept secrets of powerful copy. In all of the examples, the words are the same – it’s the WAY I’ve used them that differs and takes them from average to sales-worthy words.
1. Grammar and punctuation
Copywriting isn’t a test of how well you can express yourself in the English language. It is about persuasion and impact and using precise punctuation is an underrated way of achieving more power and emotional connection, without changing any of your words.
Consider:
Better for you and better for the planet.
Vs:
The way you use punctuation will differ according to your brand voice. For example, a brand with a calm and reserved tone of voice might use dashes and colons, but never exclamation marks. In contrast, a bold and provocative brand might use a lot of short sentences and full-stops to convey confidence and exclamation marks to up the volume of their words.
2. White space
There is something about white space on a website. Perhaps it’s because many of us have always been told to reduce the number of times the user has to scroll or click, that we’ve now gone in the opposite direction and pack as much as we can above the fold.
But, white space is good. It not only makes your copy easier to read (immediately increasing its impact), but it also aids certain aspects of brand voice. Calm, confident, certain and professional tones of voice can all be communicated through more white space.
Consider:
Better for you and better for the planet.
We're passionate about sustainability. That's why we do our best to make sure all our services are as wholesome as possible. Click here for some of the ways we're making a change to health of our clients and our planet.
Vs:
Better for you.
Better for the planet.
We're passionate about sustainability.
That's why we do our best to make sure all our services are as wholesome as possible. Discover some of the ways we're making a change to health of our clients and our planet.
If you take anything from this post today, let it be this – go to your website and spend 2-minutes spacing your sections out a little. Don’t worry about the extra scroll. Packing everything in is more likely to make things more overwhelming and difficult to read for the user than encourage them to read on.
However, if each section of your website is clear, easier to read and compelling, your user won’t mind scrolling to find out more.
3. Font
What if I told you that the impact of your copywriting could be improved or degraded immediately because of your font choice?
It’s true.
Consider:
Vs:
The simple, hand-written nature of the second font type conveys youth and honesty, while the first font is more aggressive and cold. Your chosen font communicates a lot about your brand voice. Are you a luxury brand of smooth chocolate, but your font is angular and uneven? There’s a dissonance there and this clash creates mistrust in the mind of your ideal clients. When your font doesn’t look like what you’re saying, it seems like you’re not well put together. You’re hiding something or not being your authentic self. The same would be the case in real life. If you met a doctor dressed as a clown, could you take his advice seriously?
Taking this point one step further, your font styling can also improve the effectiveness of your copy. Using italics, bold and underline can add emphasis in certain areas and mimic the way that we would naturally speak. This improves the quality of your written conversation with your ideal clients and makes you sound more human. As people buy from people, this benefits your copy and as a result, your business too.
4. Sentence structure
I shared a post on Instagram about this particular point here. Sometimes it’s more about the order of your sentences or words, than the actual words themselves. A simple switch-around can make your copy more interesting to read and hold the attention of your ideal clients for enough time that they go on to scroll for more.
Consider:
Better for you and better for the planet.
Vs:
Better for you.
Better for the planet.
OR
Consider:
Hi, I'm Anna and I'm a nutritionist, specialising in helping people with food allergies live a healthy and empowered life. You're probably here because you're frustrated with food - I've been there too.
Vs:
You're probably here because you're frustrated with food - I've been there too. Hi, I'm Anna and I'm a nutritionist, specialising in helping people with food allergies live a healthy and empowered life.
The second version instantly emotionally connects with the ideal client. This is more likely to encourage them to open up to your introduction and actually feel curious to understand how you can help.
Sentence structure could mean anything from breaking one sentence up into two, switching words around or whole sentences in a larger paragraph. But for the most effective copy, make sure you write first and edit later. Write your whole paragraph as it comes to you in the flow – don’t go back and correct typos or think of a better word. Then once you’ve done that, go back and edit your words and sentences until it’s just right.
If you need help implementing any of these into your copy, just drop me a line – we can chat about any or all of these on your free 30-minute discovery call.
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