by They’re your ideal customer…
But they didn’t buy from your site.
What went wrong?
For entrepreneurs selling their services or products online, finding out an ideal customer has seen their offer on a landing page or elsewhere on their site – but passed on it – can feel like a real kick in the teeth.
You know how it plays out:
You’ve checked your analytics and noticed that leads – qualified, warm leads, with a problem YOU can solve – have visited your page from an offer you included in an email campaign…
…or from a guest post about a specific issue…
…or from a long-tail Google search…
…but they didn’t buy.
They read at least part of your sales message, but they clicked away and disappeared.
You had that fish on your line, but it got away.
I know how it feels – this has happened to me too. And it sucks.
Like my uncle Alan returning from a fruitless fishing trip, we’ve all got tales of “The one that got away”…
But the good news is:
Even if you’re not a ‘natural salesperson’ (they don’t exist, btw) there are steps you can take in your sales copy to stop this happening again.
We’re not talking here about converting every single visitor into a customer – but we can focus on grabbing the low-hanging fruit…
The people you KNOW have come looking for exactly what you’re offering.
For these warm leads, it’s a case of making sure they don’t leave empty-handed.
You just need to ensure your message ticks a few fundamental boxes that help your ideal customer make the buying decision that will solve their problem.
It’s all about clarity
Despite what you may think, you don’t have to be a smart-pants when selling your services online.
Your prospect is looking for a solution – they’re not scanning your copy to see how clever you are. They’re attracted to an offer that fixes their problem, not one that highlights your vocabulary.
So focus on making every aspect of your message as clear as possible, so that no reader above school age could fail to understand:
a) what it is you’re offering, and
b) why they’ll benefit from having it.
When an ideal customer appears, there’s really no need to greet them with Shakespearean prose or multi-level messaging…
Just make the connection between a) and b) as clear as possible, and people will recognise that what you have to offer is the same thing they came looking for.
Don’t make them look around for an explanation
Your choice of language is crucial.
Mention a phrase or term on your landing page that might require your prospect to go look it up to understand what you meant, and you can be sure they’ll do just that.
It’s not like speaking to a prospect in-person at a bar or a conference, when they’ll just nod knowingly to save face (c’mon, we all do it)…
And then maybe they’ll catch the rest of your drift and figure it out with more context…
It’s different online.
Because it’s too easy to go looking for explanations, even if it’s just Googling that unfamiliar term you just dropped –
(“Google, what the hell is an ‘inverted yield curve’ anyway?”)
And once they get sucked down in the Google-hole, you can kiss that sale goodbye. Suddenly they’ve found a whole bunch of online distractions instead.
So don’t feel the need to flash a bunch of ‘impressive’ jargon in their face – unless you’re CERTAIN it’s a relevant term they’ll understand without it affecting the flow of your message to their brain.
Instead, make your message a smooth slide they can follow all the way to the end, when they’re grabbing their credit card or entering their email.
One step at a time
I heard marketing mastermind Dean Jackson talking the other day about the sheer simplicity of one of his recent successful campaigns.
He stressed the importance of only ever asking your reader to take the next, logical step…
You don’t need to explain what they need to do in two or three steps’ time – just give one simple, clear instruction.
Your headline should just encourage them to read on (NOT to buy or make any kind of commitment yet)…
Then, your copy should only ask them to do one thing:
Sign-up to your list, or click ‘add to cart’, or ‘call’ or ‘click here’… whichever you choose, make it one simple instruction, with no friction, no frightening feeling of commitment and no possible confusion.
Check the messaging on each of your sales pages and emails: are you outlining more than one step at a time?
Try reducing your prospect’s steps to becoming a customer to one single step at a time and see how much more likely they are to follow along.
Ok, so far we’re doing a good job of plugging that leaky sales message… now it’s time to really get your ideal customer imagining themselves with your solution.
Make an offer that’s results-focused, not YOU-focused
Again, this seems like a simple concept, and it is. Simple AND effective…
But it’s soooo simple that it often gets forgotten about when entrepreneurs and service professionals write to their prospects. And that’s when you can lose your reader in a flurry of self-promotion.
So, instead of telling them how you’ll do x, y and z…
Explain what they’ll get out of it…
…what the result will be…
…and how their life will be different from that point on (yes, even in a small way).
By all means, demonstrate your authority elsewhere in your message, highlighting your relevant experience and skills that will help your prospect…
But when you come to the core of your offer – the part that should really tempt your ideal customer to part with their money or their contact deets…
Don’t brag. Make it all about them.
Specifically, the version of them that only exists AFTER they’ve accepted your offer.
Focus on the results, not the mechanism… and watch those sales come rolling in.
To re-cap:
As an entrepreneur, coach or consultant, your copy’s main job when a prospect arrives at your offer is to make yourself understood.
That comes before being clever, creative or even persuasive (as a Conversion Copywriter, I can help you with this).
Here’s the four key takeaways to remember when crafting your offer copy:
Be clear – show them you have what they want
Use language they’ll understand instantly – don’t make them stop to think about a phrase
Give them one step to complete at a time
Focus on the result – not how great you’ll look while you’re helping them achieve it.
Get these basic principles right and your ideal customer may just stick around after all…
