Conversion copywriters \u2014 the people who write landing page copy that converts readers and delivers sales \u2014 are wonderful human beings. Their writing pulls in readers, generates conversions, and ultimately produces buckets of cash.<\/p>\n
Wouldn’t you like to have that gift?<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n There’s good news here: It\u2019s only partly<\/em> gift. The rest is just technique \u2014 technique that you can learn and master. You \u2014 yes, you!<\/em> \u2014 can unleash the same wizard-like conversion copy powers, as long as you understand the techniques at play.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n You see, conversion is very much a science of the mind \u2014 how your prospect\u2018s mind processes information, makes decisions, and decides to convert. In this post, I\u2019ll describe eight writing techniques that are proven to work.<\/p>\n After putting your time and resources into generating traffic, here\u2019s how you can turn traffic into revenue by creating copy like a conversion pro.<\/p>\n Here are the landing page<\/a> copy best practices we’ll cover:<\/p>\n\n This isn\u2019t the best news you\u2019re going to read all day, but someone needs to say it: People don\u2019t meticulously read your landing page copy<\/a>. They scan, they skim, and they allow their eyes to flitter across the page, but they don\u2019t (usually) read every word.<\/p>\n So, what’s a copywriter to do? Go find a job where someone appreciates our hard work?<\/p>\n No. We adapt to the customer and produce copy that will compel them to convert despite their skimming habits. Here\u2019s what customers do<\/em> pay attention to:<\/p>\n The headline. After that, customers may or may not read the following:<\/p>\n Major section headings. That should give you an idea of what to focus on as you write your conversion copy.<\/p>\n The most important piece of content is the 10 or 15 words in the headline. Nail that<\/em>, and you\u2019ll have come a long way.<\/p>\n To help convert the non-readers, you should:<\/p>\n Make your headline big, strong, and clear. Stuck? HubSpot\u2019s Campaign Assistant<\/a> can help you generate copy, and it\u2019s free to use.<\/p>\n\n One of the most powerful conversion copywriting techniques isn\u2019t about writing at all; it\u2019s about letting happy customers write your copy for<\/em> you.<\/p>\n Testimonials produce conversions like nothing else can. It\u2019s impossible to write copy as good as your customer. Why? Because good copy isn\u2019t just style and substance \u2014 the source matters, too.<\/p>\n Testimonials are compelling because they show the customer what they will experience if they use your product or service.<\/p>\n Zapier\u2019s landing page is a great use case for these customer testimonials. A key to its successful, high-converting landing pages is that it places testimonials front and center, featuring a picture of the customer alongside a quote. It also uses the customer\u2019s full job title and company along with a company logo, which really bolster the testimonial\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n\n Remember, your best conversion writers are your customers, so let them speak for themselves. Social proof is a powerful addition to your copywriting and marketing strategy.<\/p>\n One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in online marketing is that customers don\u2019t really care about your products or services.<\/p>\n In other words, they don\u2018t care about the “solution” you\u2019re trying to sell to them. A group of Harvard researchers conducted a study<\/a> of 1,400 B2B customers in a variety of fields and concluded that we\u2019d reached \u201cthe end of solution sales.\u201d<\/p>\n That study was from 2012, but its findings have been supported more recently \u2014 McKinsey & Company\u2019s 2024 study<\/a> confirms yet again that B2B customers are acting more and more like individual consumers, completing a significant part of the buyer\u2019s journey before ever interacting with a sales rep.<\/p>\n\n Traditionally, sales was predicated on the \u201csolution-selling method<\/a>.\u201d Aja Frost, HubSpot\u2019s senior director of global growth, says that solution selling \u201crests on a pretty simple premise: Prospects want to be solved for, and salespeople are uniquely equipped to be the ones who solve for them.”<\/p>\n That approach has declined in popularity for one very simple reason: Customers already know what solution they\u2019re looking for.<\/strong> They are capable of learning virtually anything thanks to the internet and search engines.<\/p>\n In fact, not only do customers know<\/em> the solution, they also know the features they are looking for, the requirements the product must meet, and even benchmark pricing.<\/p>\n If you are only pitching your<\/em> solution, you\u2019re not giving your customers what they need and want. You need to pitch benefits.<\/p>\n It\u2019s okay to mention your solution, because that signals to the customer that they\u2019re in the right place \u2014 but don\u2019t push that solution. Instead, push the benefits.<\/p>\n Let’s look at an example from Unbounce, which successfully emphasizes the benefits of its product on this landing page: \u201cmore conversions,\u201d \u201cinstant optimization,\u201d and \u201cbanish writers\u2019 block.\u201d<\/p>\n\n GetACopywriter.com leads with benefits on its landing page, pictured below. Its ideal customer is looking for copywriters, so it simply pitches the benefits of using its service to find one \u2014 like human (not AI) writers and SEO optimization.<\/p>\n\n Benefits trump solutions every time.<\/strong> If you want to take your landing page copywriting to the next level and increase conversion rates, put customer benefits at the forefront of your marketing efforts.<\/p>\n The best conversion copy you\u2019re going to read will come in the next two words: Be simple.<\/strong><\/p>\n You may be as good of a writer as Stephen King or Joan Didion, but that doesn’t matter so much because literary prowess is useless in conversion copy. Your most powerful writing skill is simplicity. Simplicity sells.<\/em><\/p>\n Take Optimizely, for example. It produces brilliant landing pages for its clients, but take a look at its own landing page:<\/p>\n\n Is that it? Yes, yes it is. And it’s very effective. Why? Because it\u2019s so incredibly simple.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s visit another landing page service \u2014 Get Response. Its landing page has a little more to it, but not much:<\/p>\n\n Simplicity again. Did whoever wrote those landing pages sit around for hours brainstorming, testing, tweaking, standing in front of a whiteboard with a fistful of colored markers, thumbing through a thesaurus, taking long walks in nature, and meditating on the meaning of life in order to produce such brilliant simplicity?<\/p>\n Nope. They just wrote the simplest, clearest statements they could.<\/p>\n But simplicity doesn’t mean replacing creativity with meaningless buzzwords. ConversionXL created a list of words<\/a> that marketers should do their best to avoid:<\/p>\n \u201cOn-demand marketing software\u201d Those clich\u00e9s don\u2019t work anymore \u2014 you need to keep it simple. (And if you need inspo on how to do it right, we\u2019ve got 31 great marketing tagline examples<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Here are a few tips for keeping your landing page copy simple:<\/p>\n Use a simple sentence structure. If you can be simple, you can write great conversion copy.<\/p>\n There\u2019s another technique that will help you crush your competition: Sound like a human being.<\/strong><\/p>\n At some point, a bunch of copywriters decided it would be great to produce copy that sounded strained and robotic. Who\u2019s writing this stuff? And who\u2019s reading this stuff? I don\u2019t know, but I do<\/em> know that no one is converting on it.<\/p>\n Now that AI is a common step in marketing workflows, including writing content, the human touch is more important than ever. That doesn\u2019t mean you have to avoid AI, it just means you need to edit it and make sure it sounds human.<\/p>\n People prefer to connect with other people, not with robots. That\u2019s why your copy needs to sound like a human wrote it. Here are some specific things you can do to make your writing more personal:<\/p>\n Write the way you speak. Ramit Sethi<\/a>, a personal finance advisor, entrepreneur, and author of the blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich<\/em>, has sky-high conversion rates and a powerful personal style. His blogs read like a personal email to a best friend. He doesn\u2019t even mind tossing in a word or two that he would use if he was hanging with his buddies.<\/p>\n Check out this excerpt from one of his blog posts about whether you earn enough money<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n Sethi is conversational but still authoritative. Try to get yourself away from the idea that you\u2019re writing \u201ccopy,\u201d and think of it more as a conversation. If you do that, you\u2019ll write better. You\u2019ll sound like a human. Your conversion rates will go up.<\/p>\n The more specific you are, the more believable and persuasive you will be. Which one of these claims is more persuasive to you?<\/p>\n \u201cYour conversion rates will explode!\u201d The second one is far more specific, and therefore more believable. Anyone can make blanket claims about awesomeness, but not everyone can cite statistics and detailed metrics.<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at an example. Check out this landing page from Calendly, which combines customer testimonials and specific numbers that promote Calendly\u2019s benefits:<\/p>\n\n How effective would it be if Calendly claimed to have \u201cmillions of appointments scheduled?\u201d It\u2019s certainly much less compelling than something as specific as \u201ca 160% increase in customers reached\u201d or \u201ca 20% decrease in scheduling errors.\u201d Attaching each of those numbers to a particular client makes this even more specific.<\/p>\n The number makes a big difference. Customers want specific information about benefits other customers are seeing, and they want specific examples of what they will experience. Specificity is a powerful tool.<\/p>\n The final killer technique of a conversion pro is the call-to-action. If you don\u2018t ask for conversions, you won\u2019t get them. That\u2019s why I suggest that you start with the end goal in mind \u2014 and the whole point of your landing page is that conversion. All of your copy should be building up to that conversion. Don’t be shy!<\/p>\n Similarly, writing CTA button copy is just as important, if not more so, than the rest of the copy on your page. Remember how I mentioned that CTA buttons are copy that people actually read? It matters. Simple changes in wording can create huge conversion increases \u2014 just remember to conduct A\/B tests.<\/p>\n For more ideas on CTA copy that drives clicks, check out these 14 real-life examples of great CTA copy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n A good conversion copywriter isn\u2019t just writing \u2014 you\u2019ve got to be testing, too. How else will you know what kind of writing converts higher or lower for your audience?<\/p>\n There are all kinds of A\/B tests<\/a> you can do on a landing page \u2014 images, placement, flow, layout, etc. Rebecca Hinton, a CRO strategist at HubSpot, ran an A\/B test in 2024 that tested a tiny layout tweak<\/a> \u2014 and it led to 20% more conversions on one of our landing pages.<\/p>\n Usually, however, the biggest gains come from changes in the copy. If you want to gain higher and higher conversion rates, you\u2019ll need to test your copy along with the other elements of your landing pages.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t expect to hit a home run on your first at-bat. You will succeed by carefully, methodically, and intentionally testing every variation. Here are some of the things you can test:<\/p>\n Headline variations Test small things, too. Changing a single word in the headline could make a huge impact on your conversion rates. You won\u2019t know unless you test it out. (Don’t know how to run an A\/B test? We\u2019ve got tips<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, HubSpot tested different copy on CTA buttons for some of our free downloads. We tested three variants against a control, and found that “Download for Free” got more clicks than “Download Now” or “Download the Free Template.”<\/p>\n\n You can use HubSpot’s free landing page builder<\/a> to test page variations against each other.<\/p>\n8 Tips for Writing Great Landing Page Copy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Spend time writing a killer headline.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n The subheading (usually).
\n Pictures.
\n CTA buttons. <\/p>\n
\n Bullet points.
\n Short paragraphs.
\n Image captions. <\/p>\n
\n Use a compelling subheading that pushes your product\u2019s benefits.
\n Show large pictures that demonstrate the benefits of your products and explain your message.
\n Use strong copy in your CTA.
\n Break your copy up into major sections, led by a headline in large type.
\n Use bullet points to discuss the benefits of your product. Short bullet points. Not long ones.
\n Use short paragraphs rather than long blocks of text. Any paragraph over five lines long can be hard to digest.
\n Use captions on your images. <\/p>\n\n2<\/strong>. Use customer testimonials.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n\n3. Emphasize the <\/strong>benefits<\/em><\/strong> \u2014<\/strong> not the product\/service.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n4. Keep your writing simple.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n \u201cIntegrated solutions\u201d
\n \u201cFlexible platform\u201d
\n \u201cWorld leader\u201d
\n \u201cOnce-in-a-lifetime opportunity\u201d
\n “Changing the way X<\/em> is done”
\n \u201cParadigm shifting\u201d
\n \u201cExceeding customer expectations\u201d <\/p>\n
\n Keep sentences short. Only one idea per sentence.
\n Use short words. Short words are easy to understand and skim.
\n Don\u2019t get fancy with your wording \u2014 don\u2019t use a $5 word when a 50\u00a2 one will do.
\n Be clear and succinct. Use the most basic words to describe what you\u2019re trying to say. <\/p>\n5. Write like a human.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n Use normal words, like the ones you\u2019d use if you were talking to a 10-year-old. For example, why use \u201cconvivial\u201d if you can use \u201cfriendly?\u201d
\n Use short sentences.
\n Break grammar rules if the writing still sounds good and natural.
\n Be funny.
\n Use first person.
\n Use contractions. \u201cYou\u2019ll be amazed\u201d sounds far more natural than \u201cYou will be amazed.\u201d
\n Use expressions you\u2019d use in a normal conversation. \u201cSeriously.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m thinking\u2026,\u201d \u201cWait a second.\u201d \u201cIt was crazy.\u201d \u201cWow.\u201d \u201cIt was pretty awesome.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s like\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n6. Use numbers and get specific.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n \u201cIn the last 90 days, customer conversions have increased by an average of 78.2%.\u201d <\/p>\n\n7. <\/strong>Ask<\/em><\/strong> for readers to take action.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n8. A\/B test your copy.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n
\n Subheading variations
\n CTA copy
\n Lists of benefits <\/p>\n