What small changes can you make to your copy that could double your income?

Small tweaks matter. 

In copywriting, it’s sometimes the smallest changes that have the biggest effects. 

Changing the copy on a button from “sign up for a call” to “chat with me” can increase conversions significantly. This may sound unlikely, but bear with me. “Sign up for a call” sounds like it involves some work (in the booking process) and “a call” is a bit vague. Is it formal or informal? A sales pitch or more low-key? By contrast, “chat with me” sounds easy, casual, and unlikely to be a high-pressure sales pitch.

Which do you think would be more appealing to more people?

If your business requires all new leads to go through a discovery call, then changing those few words could mean that you’re able to do twice as many discovery calls in a year, and as a result of this, you might double your income.

One of the things that I see most often when people have written their own copy is that no thought goes into this “micro copy”. We tend to write whatever first comes to mind, and never try testing some alternatives to see whether they perform better. 

Often, as people find out a bit more about copywriting, they make the mindset shift to start writing their copy more from their client’s point of view, but they don’t follow through this process in detail.

Every button, every sub-heading, every testimonial needs to be considered from the perspective of someone who doesn’t yet know you or have much reason to trust you. How can you make them feel safe, confident, and excited to find out more?

Really, this comes back to the importance of slowing right down.

Aim to write less content for your business, but to make what you do write really count. Polish it, test it, and keep tweaking until you’re confident that it’s doing the best possible job for you.

Slowing down means stopping and breaking down every single thing, however small, that might form an obstacle to your ideal client taking your desired action (whether that’s signing up for your newsletter, for a discovery call, or buying your e-book or e-course).

Once you’ve written a draft of your page, stop and slowly read through. As you reach each individual sentence, consider it from the point of view of an ideal client who’s been burned in the past by a bad experience with one of your competitors, or who has never booked a service online and isn’t sure where to start.

Bear in mind that what seems to you like over-explaining may be exactly what some of your potential clients need to hear.

Surprisingly often, good copywriting involves taking the time to stop and explain in detail what the next steps will be (e.g. exactly what will happen if they click the button to set up a free discovery call).

We tend to forget that a potential client has no idea what our process is, and no one wants to waste time or money, or risk potential embarrassment (e.g. if they get on a call with you and then it transpires that your service is way outside their price range).

Every time you want to nudge your reader to take an action, stop and think. What do you need to explain about what the next steps will be? What might worry them about taking that action? How can you reassure them that they’re in safe hands?

Of course, it can be hard to do this for ourselves - a second pair of eyes can be invaluable. If you’d like to work with me, check out my services here.