Let’s skip the intro and go straight to the point.

Element #1 — Refine the messaging of your landing page

Let me ask you a question.

Were you able to determine the context of your landing page and felt attracted to the offer the moment you land on your page? If the answer is no, you have a message mismatch.

Your landing page is incongruent to your ad…or wherever you’re driving your traffic from.

It’s like opening a door to a shop which the signboard says it’s a toy shop and they sell clothes. That’s how people feel when your landing page has a message mismatch.

Message mismatch usually comes from the lack of industry keywords or overly creative and confusing headlines.

Those are the biggest reasons for low onsite conversions. A message mismatch confuses your prospects. And they become indecisive when it comes to taking action.

People don’t invest in something they aren’t sure about. It’s human nature. We fear the unknown.

You don’t have to scrap the entire landing page and start over from scratch. Let’s say you’re offering an SEO tool. The tool helps bloggers to improve their Google ranking.

Make sure you include keywords like SEO, traffic, ranking, and blog in your headline and subheadings.

Here’s an example to clarify my point.

Bad and confusing headline: Visitors will swamp your blog like bees to honey!

Clear, benefit-driven headline: Ranking on the first page of Google has never been easier with our all-in-one SEO tool

Can you see the difference?

The second headline didn’t include every keyword but you can still tell what it’s about. Use more industry keywords, and your conversions will improve significantly.

A compelling message is clear and persuasive.

Writing for online conversion isn’t about winning a Pulitzer prize (it’s a prize for outstanding literary or journalistic achievement).

It’s about giving enough buying information and writing it in a persuasive way. The goal is to compel prospects into taking your desired actions.

Element #2 — What’s the emotional value of your business?

It’s one thing to write clear headlines. It’s another thing to make it compelling. You NEED to offer emotional value above the fold.

Value and benefits give your visitor a reason to scroll down. And find out more about your offer.

The scroll is the most crucial part of your landing page conversion. Period.

Successful and qualified conversions start with the scroll. Then, the copy. If you can’t get your prospects to scroll down, don’t even think about capturing their email address or making a sale.

The design, headline, and visual of your landing page clarify what you offer to your prospects.

You want to add emotional value (by clearly stating pain points and the solution) as your prospects browse through your page.

From the headline to the subheads to the actual copy, every single word MUST clarify and sell your main offer.

Clarity leads to value. And value leads to persuasion. Finally, persuasion leads to conversions. Selling online starts from your offer presentation.

The clearer and emotional the presentation, the more persuasive your offer becomes.

The emotional part of your copy takes effect after you’ve articulated your prospects’ pain points in a concise manner and offer them a solution.

It pays to cut the fluff in your designs, copies, illustrations. Go straight to the point while maintaining emotional excitement as much as possible.

That’s why clear and concise copywriting is critical to conversions. And readability too. Here’s one of my favorite tips when writing copy for clients.

Aim for simplicity and clarity then supercharge the copy with emotions.

For example…

Instead of writing “Our SEO tool will help your blog article rank higher in Google”. You can write “Ranking your blog in Google is a piece of cake with this all-in-one SEO tool”.

First, be clear about what you want to communicate. Then write your copy in a way that excites your audience. It takes practice but you’ll be a god of conversion once you mastered it.

Conversions aren’t about button colors and landing page designs. It’s about psychology. Consumer psychology that taps into the deeper levels of human needs.

This is the part of the brain where conversions happen. Deep within the subconscious mind.

That’s also the place where emotions rule over logic. They say people buy with emotion and justify with logic. It’s true to some extent.

You’ll be leaving money on the table if selling features based on logic is all you do.

Element #3 — Offer something better to your prospects

Before you invest in copywriting or design or anything, make sure you’re offering something your prospects would want to buy.

A validated offer won’t just guarantee a higher landing page conversion but sales in general. What’s the point of selling something no one wants to buy, right? It’s a waste of money.

The offer is the tip of your spear. No copy can sell a shitty offer.

If you’re reading this right now, chances are, you have an offer to sell. Your most “value-packed offer” (not being offensive) is ready to disrupt the market.

You’d probably have a sales funnel if you have been doing business for a while. But here’s why I think you’re reading this article.

Your funnel, or should I say, offer isn’t converting as you have expected. Before going back to the drawing board to design your funnel from scratch, take some time to re-evaluate your offer.

Your offer is the deal-breaker of your business, especially if you’re doing business online. I don’t care what industry you’re in or what your business model is.

The offer will make or break your business.

What B2B businesses fail to realize is that a demo or a free audit is actually a commitment, not an offer. It’s telling the prospects to put one foot at the door.

That’s why prospects are hesitant to take action. They aren’t ready.

Here are 3 crucial tips you can apply right away to make your offer more compelling to your prospects.

#1 Add more perceived value to your offer

Perceived value isn’t rocket science. Perceived value is about your visitors. It’s the subtle shift you make from all about you and your business to your visitors and their pain points.

It’s how you present your business that lets them see the value in their commitments. Thus, the name “perceived value”.

Before we dive deeper into how we can increase perceived value, one thing you should know. Perceived value is relevant.

We have different perspectives on how we see the world. The world exists purely in our minds. It sounds philosophical but it’s the key to successful marketing.

If you want to make perceived value work in your favor, you need to tap into the worldview of your visitors.

What they like, what they don’t like, and how they respond to certain marketing messages. It can be done with good old market research.

Now comes the question, how do you increase perceived value? 1) Experience, 2) price, 3) exclusivity, and 4) risk.

High perceived value means good experience, higher price point, exclusive, and low financial or commitment risks. You can increase the perceived value of your offer by playing around with these elements.

#2 Micro-commitments work their way up to the big sale

Number one relationship rule — never ask to marry the person on the first date. The same goes for your business.

Never ask for the sale or ask your prospects to get on a discovery call with you on the first touchpoint.

A better alternative to that’s a micro-commitment.

And here’s where most agencies and service providers make mistakes — they tend to jump steps with their ask for commitments.

They go from free lead magnet download to consultation call in one click. That’s not how you do things.

Let your prospects read your lead magnet, content, or your nurture emails. It’s even better if they follow you on social media. You’re accelerating their buying decision through social selling.

These little steps your prospects take nurture them to the macro commitment. Remember, never ask from your prospects.

Offer help to solve their problems.

It’s the subtle shift in your presentation that produces the greatest conversion lift. Bring the focus from you to them by offering help instead of asking for commitment.

#3 Frictionless funnels convert the highest

Whoever doesn’t know funnels will have trouble doing business. That’s a proven fact. Whoever knows funnels but isn’t doing it right is losing money.

That’s also a proven fact.

Funnels are systems. They work for your business. Unoptimized funnels are a huge problem for most businesses.

Whatever or wherever the problem lies in your funnel, follow these 3 marketing funnel best practices.

• Offer instead of asking — It’ll compel the audience to take up your offer and initiate the first step. The first step is the doorway to opportunities.
• Logical next steps — The next steps should be congruent and natural to the previous step. E.g. A free report should lead to a free consultation call offer.
• Education-based marketing — The funnel should educate the audience about the cost of putting their problems on the back burner and why they should act now.

Once you optimize your funnel around these three aspects, your funnel will perform 10 times better. Your prospects slide down your marketing funnel like a watery slide in the theme park.

It sounds simple because it is. A funnel should always be simple.

Element #4 — Brush up your landing page design

The market nowadays has raised the bar on design. It’s not a luxury to have great designs anymore. It’s a must-have.

Design is one of the unique selling propositions in online business. Poor designs hold you back from competing.

Successful companies know that persuasive copywriting is a cash-generating tool. Pairing that up with slick designs is like pouring gasoline into fire.

Great designs, especially on websites and landing pages, make a good first impression.

It also builds trust with the audience. And trust eventually leads to conversions. There’s another reason why page design is important nowadays.

Excellent page designs put the focus on the copy. If you don’t already know, your copy is the “salesperson” of your business.

Without the audience reading the copy, you sell nothing.

Speaking of design, I do have some knowledge of how to make your copy pop out so it gets read. I’m not going to focus on in-depth design work because that’s not the purpose of this section.

In my experience, the simpler your designs, the better your copy converts.

Contrast

Contrast is a good use to highlight certain parts and blocks which are important to the structure of your copy. It improves the readability of your copy.

Contrast adds visual hierarchy to your page blocks. It helps your audience to consume the copy easily on your website or landing page.

The way this article is contrasted through headings and paragraphs is a perfect example to illustrate my point.

One thing to take note of is that copy leads your designs. Not the other way around. Good designs maximize the persuasive impact of your copy.

Illustrations

A lot of marketers and advertisers misuse illustrations in their creatives. It often results in a high volume of unqualified leads and signups.

Illustrations and videos are only meant to support and enhance the unique selling proposition. No such thing as video or copy that sells.

The only thing that sells is the offer.

So the best way to use illustrations is to embed your USP into your creatives and copies.

For example, when you sell an online course, you don’t talk about anything else other than the pain points and the solution your course offers.

You then structure your creatives to support your USP.

Marketers and advertisers use video or image templates in their creatives which often miscommunicate what they’re trying to sell.

A good practice is to first structure your USP and messaging.

Then work on the creatives. That’ll ensure your marketing assets are attracting the right audience to your business.

Colors

It’s subtle and theoretical but it makes a huge difference. I don’t get why many designers hate white backgrounds.

Maybe they want something creative or different when it comes to colors.

As a copywriter, my default is white backgrounds because I emphasize readability and visual hierarchy more than colors in designs.

But some parts would require extra attention such as buttons or bonus sections. That’s when colors come in handy.

The only purpose of using colors is to direct the audience’s attention.

You can use colors to present to the audience what’s important about this section. It’s the perfect way to enhance your copy’s persuasive power.

I’m fully aware that colors are great for branding. In fact, they are crucial. But using too many colors kills conversions.

And that’s the last thing you want for your business. I would suggest you use colors sparingly so they don’t clash with your copy.

Fonts

Did you know that fonts communicate different concepts and feelings?

They do. San-serif fonts are slick and modern. Great for aesthetics-focused brands.

Serif fonts communicate authority and credibility. Great for authoritative brands such as Mercedez.

It’s a little advanced if you don’t have a background in design. You can always hire a designer to do the heavy lifting so you maintain brand consistency in all of your marketing assets.

Keep in mind that readability is your priority when choosing fonts for your branding.

It pays to keep your copy readable because it impacts your sales, directly. I couldn’t stress this enough. It hurts my eyes to see flashy designs with low copy readability.

Element #5 — Provide only one offer per landing page

The problem with having more than one offer on a landing page is audience hesitation and confusion. You have many things to share. I get it.

I wanted to give you more than just an article to be honest. But I know that’ll shred my pop-up conversions into million pieces.

The reason for this comes down to how our brains work. We can only focus on one thing at a time. We aren’t wired to be multitaskers.

If you provide more than one offer to your audience, they can’t decide. Once confusion and hesitation kick in, you lost them.

“What if they take up every offer?”…you asked.

You lost them too. One that takes up several offers means they aren’t clear on what they want. It’s the same as being in a state of confusion.

You have too much information until you can’t decide which direction to go or what action to take.

To fill your funnel with your dream audience, narrow down your targeting.

Offering only one thing your dream audience wouldn’t miss out on is guaranteed to make your business successful. You need to be mindful of your messaging and your offer.

It’s not about selling more. It’s about selling right.

Having this mindset will save you headaches in the future. Because the right audience is worth thousands of dollars to your business.

Present your offers alongside these elements to make them ultra-compelling:

• Testimonials or reviews
• Achievement, statistics, or results
• User-generated content
• Guarantees (optional)

Testimonial or reviews

They work because of good old social proof. We follow the crowd. What’s selling hot in the market means people like it.

And there’s no reason you shouldn’t buy it.

The offer is proven to be in high demand. Social proof attracts and sells without needing to write a wall of copy. The offer sells by itself.

There’s a catch, however. Testimonials and reviews aren’t the main selling point. They are conversion boosters like vitamins to your body.

Vitamins don’t produce immunity. They boost it.

You still need to work on your sales message despite having stellar testimonials and reviews on your page.

Achievement, statistics, or results

There’s a difference between social proof and results. Social proof gives assurance while results give confidence.

Assurance helps when people are making buying decisions. Confidence helps when people are looking for solutions.

They might appear the same but are totally separate in reality.

Results are usually applied to audiences who are in the middle of your funnel. These people are looking everywhere for a viable solution to their problems.

This is where you come in to show them the results your solution generated. Assurances are applied to sales pages where your audience is pulling out their credit card to make a purchase.

Be precise with these two elements. They are applied differently.

User-generated content

This type of social proof is the most effective in my opinion. It’s proof that people like your products or services.

You can never go wrong when people approve your products and explained how they benefited in real-time.

User-generated content has the highest impact among these three.

User-generated content is best used at the point of purchase. It serves as social proof and a conversion booster.

You should use user-generated content on sales pages, landing pages, subscription pages, etc.

Keep in mind that user-generated content is not a selling point. It’s a conversion booster.

Final words

That’s all I have for you. You’re ready to crush the conversion game in your digital marketing. These tips are simple and straightforward.

That’s the way it should be. Overcomplicated tactics and strategies would only hold you back from getting the results you desire.

Simplify and optimize relentlessly. You’ll see significant results once you embrace simplicity in your digital marketing.