How to improve your conversion rate with copy and design

There are two proven ways you can improve your Conversion Rate Optimization: Copywriting and design.

Copywriting tips:

Know your audience. Writing only works if you’re speaking your potential customer’s language. So consider who they are and what excites them about your business.
Messaging hierarchy is all about determining what comes first, second and third - most important to least important. And remember, people don’t read, they scan, so get your points out in the most concise way.
Features and benefits of your product are conveyed in an exciting way. Try to tell a story. Mix your facts with relevant details. Learn your audience’s language and go from there.

Design tips:

To see if your site is doing its best job, do a scroll through page by page and evaluate your experience on: motivation, friction, distraction, relevancy, clarity.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Get ready to move the needle because today, we're talking about conversion rate optimization, or CRO, which is all about getting more people to purchase your products. And I've got two proven ways to get you there. You don't have to be a New York Times best-selling writer to craft the right language for your business, but you do have to be persuasive. See, copywriting is part creative and part science.

Words can be your biggest selling tool, so they're worth fussing over. Before you put pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard, here are some useful tips. Writing only works if you're speaking your potential customers' language, so consider who they are and what excites them about your business. Research can involve surveys you send to customers, reviews they leave on products, and comments they post on social media.

If you're just starting out, look at a competitor's social media to get a sense of how your future customer talks about the products. You may have a lot to say, but customers aren't ready to digest it all at once, so devise a hierarchy of messaging-- what comes first, second, and third, most important to least important. And remember, people don't read. They scan.

So get your points out in the most concise way. When you're writing, try to tell a story. Mix your facts with details and how the item will be used. So instead of just saying, green sweater, say something like, [CLEARS THROAT] this fall, when the leaves change and the weather chills, go for your new favorite emerald green sweater inspired by the rich spruce forests of North Carolina.

But again, your first step is to learn your audience's language and go from there. Remember, we're talking about conversion rate optimization here. The design of your site decides how customers move through and interact. Having a simple, usable, and friendly design can keep customers engaged. To see if your site is doing its best job, do a scroll through page by page.

You can evaluate your experience on motivation. Are you influencing your visitors to take action? In general, a good rule for your site is that your top-selling product should be two clicks or less away from the home page. Friction. Is there anything that's causing confusion, difficulty, roadblocks? Distraction. Are there any items distracting users from taking action?

Often business owners pack their home page menu with lots of options. Just keep it simple. Stick with navigation items people know, like shop and about us. Relevancy. Is there content that's out of date or irrelevant? This is about trust. Would you feel comfortable purchasing from an online store that had a blog that abruptly stopped publishing three years ago?

I know I wouldn't. Clarity. Is anything unclear or too complex? Choice is great, but too many options can lead to purchasing paralysis. It always helps to get a fresh perspective from a friend or family member. Have them conduct the same review to get a second opinion. Do it in person if you can on a laptop and on a smartphone. Keep an eye on their facial expressions and where they stop to think.

More often than not, your site will need some simplification. Achieving a higher conversion rate comes down to how you speak and how your site flows. Be objective when reworking your experience. And remember, websites are almost always a work in progress. Thanks for watching. All the links mentioned are in the notes below, plus some extras. Bye for now.

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Want to dig deeper into how to improve your CRO? Check out this course on how to use data to increase conversion rate.

Take a look, or start writing, your product descriptions. Are you telling a story? Are you speaking your audience’s language? Are you mixing facts with relevant details?