In the world of marketing, copy is persuasive content that does one of three jobs: Build awareness, drive sales, or increase brand loyalty. Copy is a form of written content, but it’s not the same as what you’d read in a blog post or social media update. Copy is what you find on home pages, landing pages, product pages, and ads. It drives the reader to make a specific decision right now, no turning back, without delay, or they’ll miss out.
Copy is emotional. It’s urgent. It doesn’t take the reader on a leisurely stroll. Instead, it hurries the reader to a specific end goal. If you’re reading copy and don’t feel an urge to make a decision right away, you’re not reading copy. It’s just salesy content. Copy must drive.
So, how do you write effective copy?
Writing copy may seem tricky and intimidating, but don’t worry. Copywriting is mostly a science. You can learn how to do it. In this post, we’ll share tips on how to write engaging copy for your SaaS that converts.
Identify the Problem
What problem do you solve for your target audience? You must truly understand the problem that your customer has, and why it’s a problem for them. It’s also important to understand what the customer’s ultimate goal is.
Let’s use Stunning as an example. Losing money is a major problem for our customers. Their ultimate goal is to grow their SaaS. To do that, they must retain customers and add new ones. We help our customers by providing a dunning solution that recovers failed payments and reduces churn.
Identify your customer’s basic problem and how you solve it. It’s important that you connect the dots. Think about specific problems, not just your solution. You may offer an incredible resource, but if you’re not able to think of the problem from the customer’s point of view, you won’t be able to write copy that moves them to act.
Define Your Audience
Before you type a single word, you need to understand your audience. Who are they? What do they know about the problem? What motivates them to act? What’s stopping them from acting right now?
In order to answer these questions, you must define your audience. Start with the basic demographics, such as age, gender, location, educational background, and job type. Then move on to their psychographics. What are their values, goals, interests? Where do they hang out?
Use what you know (or believe) about your audience to create customer personas. When you understand goals, frustrations, as well as backgrounds for your target audience, you’ll be able to craft copy that speaks directly to that group.
Listen to Your Audience
After creating a basic customer persona, your next step is to find out exactly how your audience describes their problem. This allows you to create content that meets them where they are, whether that’s at the beginning of understanding their problem or at the end when they’re comparing solutions.
Here are a few places to listen in on your target audience:
Social media
- Look at the comments section in your competitors’ feed
- Search for relevant groups
- Use hashtags to discover what terms your audience may use
Competitor blogs
- Check out, but don’t copy, your competitors
Industry forums (such as Quora and Reddit)
- Find out what your target audience complains about and how they attempt to solve the problem
Survey your current customers
- Ask your current customers to describe the problem that caused them to seek out your services
Use an SEO tool (such as SEMrush and Ubersuggest)
- Beyond providing keywords, SEO tools can give you insight into what content is resonating with your target audience
Make a List
Make a list that contains the exact words and phrases your target audience uses to describe their problem. Then, for extra points, convert the list into a spreadsheet and sort by frequency. You’ll use these same phrases when writing the following:
- Headlines for your home and landing pages
- Subheadings with your sales copy
- Copy for your product pages
Remember to speak with their terminology and not yours. That’s the easiest way to get into your reader’s mind and convince them to buy what you’re selling.
Make a Game Plan
Now that you’ve discovered the problem and the words your audience uses to describe it, it’s time to make a game plan for your copy.
Copy, like educational content, should pop up at different stages during the customer’s journey. Also remember that copy isn’t just about getting people to buy. It’s also about getting people to act. That action may be to sign up for a trial or webinar. It’s generally focused on sales, but not always. Sometimes, its goal is to inch the prospect a little closer to completing the sale.
For this reason, you need to create copy at every stage that requires the prospect to make a decision. Use what you know about the prospect and what they say about their problem to construct a strong argument for your call to action. Here are a few points along the buyer’s journey where copywriting is necessary:
- Awareness – The prospect needs help identifying and understanding the problem. Through copywriting, you push a webinar when you demo your service.
- Consideration – The prospect understands the problem and is looking for a solution. Through copywriting, you convince the prospect to sign up for your free trial.
- Decision – The prospect must choose between you and your competitor. You share a persuasive comparison guide and a final incentive that causes them to act right away.
When writing copy for your buyer’s journey, keep both your immediate and end goals in mind. Ultimately, your goal is to sell, but your immediate goal may be to sign up for a free trial.
Tell a Story
Just because you’re writing copy, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to tell a story. The best copy is story-based. But remember that your customer is the hero of the story, not you. You offer a tool that helps your customer solve their problem and live happily ever after. Frame your copy in those terms and you’ll win over the customer every time.
Include Reviews, Testimonials, and Case Studies
The best copy is infused with elements of social proof, like reviews, testimonials, business logos, and case studies. You need to convince your prospect that your offer can be trusted. And the best way to do it is through the endorsement of others. Add a testimonial or two to every copywriting piece to increase your credibility.
End With a Call to Action
Every single piece of copy that you write should end with a call to action. A call to action is a word or phrase that tells your reader what to do next (i.e. sign up, buy now, etc.). Your call to action should be simple but descriptive.
Also, don’t use more than one call to action. That can confuse the reader and cause them not to act at all.
Edit and Spellcheck
Spellcheck, while useful, can only go so far.
After you’ve written your copy, let it sit and marinate for a few hours or even days. Come back to edit it with a fresh set of eyes. This gives you the ability to spot obvious errors that you’re likely to overlook if you try to edit while you write. It also gives you the chance to tighten up your writing so that it flows better.
Do It Again
This is the secret to your success. Unless you only serve one type of customer (which is rare), you need to create copy that speaks directly to every one of your customer types. Even if your product can solve problems across the board, every customer type has a unique pain point. For your copy to be effective, each customer type needs to be addressed directly.
So, rinse and repeat all of the steps listed above to create unique copy that will motivate each of your customer types.
Final Thoughts
To market your SaaS effectively, you must write engaging and instructive copy that gets your reader to act. Use the above tips to improve your copywriting skills and grow your SaaS. If you need additional help, check out these related posts: