6 Copywriting Secrets to Turn Your Underperforming Website Into a High-Converting Machine…

How many times have you heard that a website was the fast track to more leads, sales and revenue?

If you’re like most business owners, you expected your website to be the missing link in your marketing. The stepping stone that would help you scale your business and create the lifestyle you’ve been dreaming of.

That’s why it can be frustrating when your website underperforms, fails to turn leads into sales, or becomes a monument to the money you’ve spent without ROI to show for it.

So in this article, we’ll show you how to say goodbye to that frustration by turning your website into a high-converting sales machine. Plus, we’ll break down specific case studies so you can mimic what’s worked for other business owners.

When you can identify the signs of underperforming copy and improve the words on your website, you’ll have new, ideal clients demanding you take their money – and we’ll show you how you do it.

Does the quality of my copywriting affect my business?

Whether you’re a coach, consultant, service provider or online business owner, odds are you’ve wondered if the exact words you’re using are having an impact on your conversions and sales.

If your products or services are awesome, they’ll practically sell themselves, right?

The truth is… probably not.

So we’ve got good news and bad news.

The bad news is YES, the words you use have the potential to help or hurt your business.

And the good news is YES, the words you use have the potential to help or hurt your business.

Your current copy might be sinking your sales, but if you can find the holes in your copywriting, you can patch ‘em up.

It’s not always easy though to spot your own underperforming copy. So if you recognise any of the following headache-inducing scenarios, then your copywriting may be to blame:

✗ Your conversion rates are consistently low
✗ Your website receives traffic but sales don’t follow
✗ Your website bounce rate would put a trampoline to shame
✗ Your customers don’t see you as an authority in your field
✗ You’re not attracting the right clients (but you get PLENTY of time wasters)
✗ Your competition is outperforming you despite having an inferior product or service

Chances are you’re experiencing some (or many) of these problems.

The truth is, you can’t spend your way out of this hole by pumping money into paid ads or a flashy website design – but you can escape these nightmare situations by improving your copy.

Why you need to improve your website copy to improve conversions (the leaky bucket analogy)

Imagine you’re filling a bucket with the trusty garden hose.

The longer you stand with hose in hand, the more water rises to the top of the bucket. But there’s a problem – the bucket is filled with holes. Now, no matter how much water you pour in, water runs out.

That bucket is your business.

Great copywriting plugs the holes and prevents you from losing customers. Without great copy, you’re leaking potential business and spending time and money generating traffic – only for it to waste away.

It’s a common mistake for brands to try and plug the holes in their bucket, sorry, business, with website design, but this is a band-aid solution. We’re talking about:

• Flashy colours
• High contrast fonts
• Eye-catching videos
• Funky chatbots

These design improvements can help make your site more user-friendly. But studies from the smart peeps at Unbounce show copy is TWICE as important for conversion rates.

Copywriting can be the single biggest marketing lever you can pull in your business. So let’s quit with the theory, get into the lab, and break down a few high-converting websites and six copywriting secrets you can use to improve your website immediately.

Secret #1 – High-converting sites put the spotlight on their visitors to build money-making relationships

Do you know what your customers care about more than anything?

Themselves.

Focusing on your audience is a crucial feature of great copy that too many businesses get wrong.

When you only talk about your business or services, your audience won’t feel like you understand their challenges, pains and problems. They’ll either continue to suffer in silence or find someone to work with who does understand them (odds are this will be your competition).

Your audience is desperate to feel seen and heard. Right now, they’re hunting for someone to help them bridge the gap from where they are right now to where they’re desperate to be.

Putting the spotlight on your customers is how you make them feel seen and heard. It’s also one of the most important differences between copy that’s simply words on a screen, and copy that turns your website into a client-getting machine.

Here’s an example…

Let’s say you’re frustrated by your finances and want to start making your money work for you. Which of these examples would make you feel more heard and understood?

Example A:

Example B:

The first example is dull, dry and lifeless (we’re practically falling asleep already).

The second example clearly communicates to a site visitor that they’re not alone (and if ya hadn’t guessed it, it’s one of our clients).

This example shows that the business understands their audience and empathises with a potential customer’s problems. It also positions these finance experts as a trusted and credible solution.

Secret #2 – High-converting sites use social proof to build priceless trust and authority

88% of people trust reviews as much as personal recommendations.

That’s right, every single review you include on your site carries the same weight as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member. That’s seriously influential stuff.

Social proof is one of the most powerful psychological drivers you can leverage. More than a way to show off your awesome reputation, it’s the concept that people will follow the actions of the masses. If others are behaving in a certain way, it must be the correct behaviour!

That’s why your customers will look at the reviews of your previous clients to know if they can trust you or not.

To help you become an expert in your field, check out the six categories for creating social proof:

• Financial – Amount of money earned, saved or processed for customers
• Sales – Number of sales made, books sold, money generated
• Experience – Number of years in business, industry or combined experience
• Customers – Number of customers, members or students
• Audience – Number of video views, app downloads or social media followers
• Company size – Number of offices, staff, or countries they are in,

Without showcasing your authority and establishing credibility, your audience may be slow to take action, and hesitant when it comes to working with you. But with plenty of social proof, testimonials, and impact metrics to boost trust with your ideal clients, customers are likely to feel safer choosing you.

Check out another example below…

Smart Money provides unique, personalised financial strategies to help their clients do more with their money. Chances are you’ve wanted to squeeze more value from your money (who hasn’t?!), but choosing a financial planner or wealth management team is a big decision, right?

Well, Smart Money knows you’re on the fence, so they share engaging and highly watchable video testimonials from customers just like you.

There’s no need to take Smart Money’s word for how good they are, their satisfied customers will tell you instead!

Secret #3 – High-converting sites create clear, benefit-driven headlines to catch instant attention

Chances are you can spot a STOP sign on the road whether you’re doing 20km or 120km/hour.

Your brain is wired to see these road signs over years of driving to help keep you safe (and to avoid being stung with a nasty fine in the mail).

That’s what a clear, benefit-driven headline does, too.

A site visitor can be scrolling down a page at lightning speed but they’ll stop in their tracks if they spy a headline that describes their problem and offers a clear solution.

According to David Ogilvy, one of the fathers of advertising, 80% of people read headlines but just 20% read the full content that follows.

Ouch. 🤕

Take the headline of the article you’re reading right now as an example…

This headline identifies your problem (your website is underperforming) and offers a clear benefit (you’ll transform your site into a high-converting sales machine).

We could have called this article “5 Signs Your Website Sucks”. But there’s no clear benefit on offer in that example, so you’d have less incentive to read on.

Here’s another example we wrote for a client…

The team at Yosha Law helps ordinary people get the justice they deserve following a personal injury. In a world where attorneys rank somewhere around ‘Used Car Salesman’ on the trust ladder, it was crucial we quickly identified the problem (it’s hard to get justice in the legal system) and a clear benefit (Yosha Law makes sure you get what you deserve).

When your readers know exactly what they’ll get – this could be on a service page, in a blog, or on a landing page – they’re more likely to read your content and move towards a conversion.

Without delivering clear, benefit-driven headlines, your precious marketing dollars will be wasted, and you’ll find yourself attracting clients who aren’t a good fit for your business. No matter how compelling the rest of your page is, without a clear headline that captures attention and showcases the main benefit you offer, you’ll lose readers fast.

Secret #4 – High-converting sites are direct and to the point to avoid closed browsers

Great copywriting gets straight to the point.

Your audience is busy. Studies show the average person spends less than 15 seconds on a website (so we appreciate you sticking around for so long 😉). That’s why the most successful websites cut out all jargon and filler and get straight to the point.

This isn’t about deleting words to hit a magical word count. It’s about making sure every word counts in your writing.

Check out our client, dating coach Evan Marc Katz, who wastes zero time or words.

After identifying his audience in his headline, his copy tells you the situation you’re in right now and the challenge you’re facing (you’re a catch, but you can’t find a partner), and how he offers a proven solution – all in 52 words!

Every chance to communicate with your audience is an opportunity to build a connection – so don’t waste it! Your audience can close the browser in an instant. By keeping your message direct and to the point, you’ll make it easy for people to see who you are, what you do and how you can help them.

If that information isn’t available inside 15 seconds, you’ll lose the attention and curiosity of your website visitors, as they won’t realise that you hold the solution to their greatest problems.

Grab a freebie before you go… How to Stop Buyer Confusion From Killing Your Conversions

Secret #5 – High-converting sites follow a proven copywriting formula to drive consistent leads and sales

If you’ve ever sat down to write your own website copy, you know that Blank Page Syndrome is very real.

The longer you stare at the page, the harder it is to know where to start.

Chances are, once you do get started you end up with a jumbled message that doesn’t truly capture who you are, the problems you solve, or that unique magic that makes your business awesome.

Writing with a proven copywriting formula can help you avoid experiencing Blank Page Syndrome ever again.

This approach will help maximise your persuasive impact. Remember, your website has seconds (sometimes even less!) to grab your target audience by the collar, draw them in and convince them to read on, sign up or buy now.

Here’s a formula we use to write copy for every epic client we work with:

S – Situation
P – Problem
I – Implication
N – Need/Payoff

Here’s an example of how we applied this for our client, video coach Den Lennie.

Following the SPIN formula meant describing his ideal customer’s situation and showing we understood where they are.

Then, we broke down their problems and built trust through empathy. By describing the challenges they faced, we built rapport and made prospects feel like they were finally being heard and understood. We also included the implications of doing nothing in our copy to help create an emotional connection to their problem.

Finally, we showed potential customers the need, or payoff, of using Den’s services.

After describing their current situation, showing we understood their problems, and stirring up a little fear and uncertainty by painting the picture of a life where nothing changes, we hit ‘em with a glimpse at the future.

This meant including copy that described the potential life waiting for them (if they get in touch with Den 😉). This payoff included a stable, reliable video business, zero stress about getting clients, and the feeling of total control.

Without the right carefully combined words, VAMOOSH!, you’ll get visitors to your website but struggle to convert them to leads and clients consistently. Another customer gone. Another dollar lost.

No business owner wants to see their precious marketing dollars wasted, or to miss out on the kind of ROI their business deserves. By following proven formulas like SPIN, your copy will be more effective and finally able to do the heavy lifting for your marketing.

Secret #6 – High-converting sites are crystal clear on their USP to instantly stand out from the competition

“Why you?”

That’s the question every potential customer is asking when landing on your website. If you can’t answer that question, your site visitors will answer it for you – and you won’t like their thought process.

The truth is, without a clear Unique Selling Proposition (USP), you’ll have no distinguishing factor to elevate you above the crowd. And when customers are left to compare options they’ll defer to the easiest way to judge similar businesses – price.

Without a clear USP, your website visitors will compare you to your competition based solely on price instead of value.

If people are unable to quickly determine what sets you apart from your competition, it will be harder to convince your audience to choose you. On the flipside, compelling copy can help you showcase your true value and become the number one choice.

Here’s how you can identify your USP:

• Know your target audience: Who are they? What are their pain points?
• Check out the competition: What is their USP? How do they sell their services?
• Find your Value Proposition: What’s the end benefit to your customers?

A powerful USP isn’t necessarily about what you sell (you could sell weight loss programs up against dozens of other weight loss coaches) but the message you choose to focus on that your competitors don’t.

Check out an example from our client below, The Virtual Electrician.

They’re not looking to compete with in-person tradies. They stand out with a USP that makes them unique. There’s no comparing them with a regular electrician you’d find in the Yellow Pages – so they don’t have to worry about being judged on price.

The team at The Virtual Electrician will help you solve your electrical issue in 30 minutes or less, for the fraction of the cost of a traditional electrician, even if you’ve never changed a lightbulb before.

That’s a unique service. It’s a powerful USP. And it’s how they instantly stand out from the competition.

Here’s another example. Let’s say you offer a 12-week weight loss course.

Your USP won’t be that you help your clients lose weight (because all of your competition offer that too). Your USP might be 1-on-1 mentoring throughout the program. It might be 30-minute workouts designed for office workers. Or, you might offer a “shrink your waistband” guarantee or get your money back.

When you know what your audience wants and how to deliver value in a way no one else can, you’ll see your leads, conversions and sales go up.

Let’s wrap up what we’ve learned about high-converting websites

Your website has to be strategic, starting with the end goal in mind.

If you want to enjoy sky-high conversions and make a greater impact on your customer’s lives (as well as boost your bank account), you need to include these copywriting strategies:

• Put the spotlight on your customers, not on you
• Use social proof to build trust and credibility
• Add clear benefit-driven headlines to catch instant attention
• Keep your messaging direct and to the point
• Follow a proven copywriting formula to guide people to a conversion
• Include a crystal-clear USP to show people why you are one of a kind

These copywriting strategies shouldn’t be thrown into the mix as after-thoughts. They work best when planned out before you write a single word to make sure your website has the direction it needs to drive new leads, sales and clients like clockwork.

“But what if I’ve already got a website and I haven’t been using these conversion strategies?!”

Don’t panic. 😊

If your current copy is costing you sales, we can help. Book a strategy call below to chat with a Savvy Copy expert and find out we can help skyrocket your conversions.

Let’s Chat About Your Copy (It’s FREE and Only Requires 45 Minutes of Your Time)