Why Conversational Copywriting?
First of all, what is Conversational Copywriting? It’s a unique copywriting style designed to do one thing:
Increase your sales.
As we’ve discussed here before, consumers are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages daily. Your message needs to break through the noise and grab their attention. It needs to engage your web visitors, so they stay on your site longer. And it needs to keep their attention until the offer and the close.
You do have something to sell, right?
The best way to do this is with Conversational Writing.
Conversational Writing, or more specifically, Conversational Copywriting, connects with people. It’s the best voice to use when getting your message out, because it speaks to your reader as a regular person.
Conversational Writing stays away from big, fancy words. This isn’t The Atlantic Monthly or The Economist.
The purpose of Conversational Writing is not to impress people. Aside from pretentious people and intellectual academics, no one speaks in paragraph-long sentences sprinkled liberally with $5 words. Average folks speak in sentences that are about 7-12 words.
First trust, then a sale.
Conversational Writing puts web visitors at ease, because they’re not intimidated or bogged down in prose. It shows that the writer is a regular person, too, someone your readers can easily relate to. When there is trust, a sale is much more likely to follow.
The conversational voice is key to writing strong, compelling web copy. It understands what keeps your readers up at night, and what they think about when they first wake up. It addresses their concerns in an honest and sincere way. Understands their worries, needs, hopes, and fears.
Coffee, anyone?
Conversational Writing passes what I call the “coffeeshop test” (yes, it’s a term I coined.) Picture two friends hanging out at Caribou Coffee, drinking coffee by the fireplace, having civil conversation about local sports or even politics. Conversational copy sounds the way one of these friends would talk to the other if he was trying to convince the other of his point of view.
Natural conversation with good flow. Thoughts and ideas connected to each other in a logical way. An easy-flowing, conversational tempo.
Conversational Copy is a respectful, intelligent, convincing style of winning people to your way of thinking.
24 years of direct sales experience
Since 1986 I’ve been in direct sales, dealing one-on-one, face-to-face with consumers. The majority of people under the age of 30 have no idea what I’m talking about. (Yes, even in this age of social media, VOIP, texting and tweeting, there is still a need for communicating your ideas in person.)
I figure I’ve given over 25,000 sales presentations in my career, and that was before I became a copywriter five years ago. It’s taught me a lot.
I’ve found that people buy when they feel they know you and trust you. When there’s a reasonably good offer. And when they feel they aren’t being “sold”.
That’s not as easy as it sounds.
Most copywriters are more concerned with writing “killer copy” and bombarding the reader with one benefit after another.
Other copywriters promise “hypnotic writing” that will mesmerize your readers.
My approach is more subtle, more genuine, and more often than not, gets better results.
That’s the bottom line, right? Results.
Conversational copy always convinces web visitors to take action. It just does it in a very skillful, conversational style (versus a heavy-handed, “telemarketer-ish” way.)
You’ll have a lot easier time convincing your readers if your copy is upbeat and easy to read. And that can only happen if they’re comfortable with the tone of your copy. And if they like and trust the person who’s writing to them.
Give Conversational Writing a try (either do it yourself or hire someone proficient in it.) Your prospects will like you. They’ll trust you. And most important, they’ll buy from you.
