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10 Tips on How Better Copy Boosts Customer Confidence

September 29th, 2010 · 4 Comments

©iStock.com/BocosB

By James Adams

When customers feel confident about your product, they will buy it. Each word you write for your website should bring your viewers closer to purchasing that product.

Whether it be through stories, list articles or article marketing, that confidence and comfort that you create will carry through to conversion.

How do you create dynamic copy that instills confidence?

Here are ten tips:

  1. Benefits, not features. The best copy is written with benefits in mind. What benefits can your product offer the potential customer? How will purchasing your product make their life easier? Focus on saving time or money. What makes your product different from similar products on the market? These benefits assist your customer in making their decision.
  2. Resist the negative. Using negative words like ‘don’t’ and ‘can’t’ diminish the strength of your copy. Focus on yourself, rather than the competition. Instead of phrases like, ‘Brand X can’t compete,’ instill the thought that your product is more professional. Give your customers something to do, rather than something to avoid.
  3. Absolute honesty. The claims that you make about your product need to be absolutely honest. Highlight its advantages, but don’t promise something that your product cannot deliver. Your copy should be overwhelmingly persuasive. It should provide exactly what you claim.
  4. Formatting. Customers do not want to slog through giant blocks of text to find the benefits of your products. They want to skim your advertising, discover the salient features of your product and make their decision. Give them bullet pointed text, highlighted copy and the option to read more underneath the bold headlines.
  5. Call to action. Provide multiple opportunities for your customers to purchase the product within the copy. When you have shown the benefits and features of the latest and greatest, encourage them to do something with the information. Use multiple calls to action. Entice your customers with a newsletter. Ask them to purchase your satisfaction guaranteed product.
  6. Reduce perceived risk. A customer may be hesitant about purchasing your product, and reducing that perceived risk can make the sale. If you back your products with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, that means that there is no risk to the consumer. They are more prone to buy your products because you have instilled the utmost confidence in them. If you don’t like the products, send them back.
  7. Put a face with the product. Give your customers more insight about you. With that insight, they will feel more confident about your product because they see you as a real person. That ‘about me’ page should give the reasons why your product was created, answering to any unwritten objections. By seeing you as a real person, your customers will feel that they have someone in their corner.
  8. Focus on your customer. Use ‘you’ instead of ‘us’ in your copy. You do not need to persuade anyone within your company to buy the product, but what can your product offer the customers? Your copy should be written in second person to offer a more personalized experience.
  9. Use testimonials. Testimonials increase confidence by allowing potential customers to read the opinions of people just like them. Use two or three testimonials about your product so your visitors know you have more than one customer. Solicit testimonials about your product on your website’s blog.
  10. Simplicity. Keep your copy simple and concise. Use white space on your site. Action verbs keep the word count low. Your customer should have reasons to buy your product within a minute of coming to your website. Use many small sentences rather than one or two large ones.

Your company’s copy should inspire confidence within its readers. Take the time to look at your web site from a customer’s perspective. Do you feel inspired to buy your product? Confidence and comfort are the key to conversions.

Today’s guest article was contributed by James Adams, a tech writer working at a leading printer cartridges store who are specialists in franking machine supplies. When he isn’t reviewing new printers he writes about improving sales and business promotional strategies.

Tags: Guest Posts · Writing Tips

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