How to Write Copy that Sells
Christine Harrell

Every page of your website exists for one purpose and then is to sell your company, your ideas, and you products. Image-rich, action-oriented sales copy is not only for product pages. Your company profile pages should sell your company, your contact pages should convey a reason to call or visit, and your content pages should sell your knowledge while keeping readers interested.

Boost sales with a call to action

Before you write any content for your site, ask yourself what action you’d like readers to take after reading the page. Do you want them to call your number? Read more? Chat with a rep online? Visit your store? Then craft your content to lead readers to evoke readers to take that action and most importantly, place the call to action on every page with statements like “read more,” “click here to chat,” etc.

Effective sales copy speaks in terms of the customer

Your company is fantastic, innovative, and cutting edge. The founders are revolutionary thinkers, brilliant, and value customer service. You service is fast, accurate, and reliable. Excellent. But what’s in it for me? Effective sales copy focuses entirely on how your product will bring value to the customer. If your service is accurate, how does that directly benefit the consumer? The simpler it is for the reader to associate your features with their needs, the more effective the copy.

Boring:
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Bold!
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Powerful sales copy uses action verbs and present tense

Exciting, energetic people draw a crowd. The underlying tone of your writing leads potential clients to draw conclusions about how you might respond to their needs. When your text exudes a sense of action and confidence, readers associate these same characteristics with your company. Breathe life, excitement, and energy into your sales copy by speaking in the present tense and using attention-grabbing action verbs.

Boring:
The Realtor Team has sold more than 900 homes and has been serving San Diego for 15 years

Bold!
Families choose The Realtor Team time and again to negotiate the best housing deals in San Diego.

Startling sales copy avoids the passive voice

Words such as: "is, am, are, was, and were" shirk ownership of actions and lead to dull writing. Bold sales copy attaches ownership to actions.

Boring:
More than 2 billion employee development training videos were purchased in 2005.

Bold!
Companies valuing employee development consumed more than 2 billion training videos in 2005 alone.

Successful sales copy speaks in terms of benefits

One of the most common mistakes in sales and sales writing is the tendency to speak in terms of features rather than benefits. A feature is an attribute of a product or service, such as a sheer fabric or "24-hour customer service." A benefit is the result or perceived result of possessing the feature.

Boring:
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Bold!
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Start by developing a features and benefits list. Create 2 columns and title one column “Features” and the other “Benefits.” For every feature you list about your product or service, devise at least one corresponding benefit. Sound simple enough, but this exercise can prove extremely frustrating! Nevertheless, once complete, you have the heart of incredibly effective sales copy.

nGenuity Solutions is committed to helping small businesses become successful in the ever changing online world. Drop us a line if you've got an internet business success story, a horror story, or are just plain frustrated and have a question. With your permission, we will post your story below the article so that others can learn from your experiences!

Christine Harrell is a small business internet marketing consultant and the cofounder of nGenuity Solutions. nG's flagship product Easy Website Builder gives small businesses the necessary tools to build profitable websites through real time visitor analysis and push-button web publishing.