Your business could be the best in the world at what it does. But no one will care if you can’t communicate why you are the best at your work.

This is where copywriting comes in!

Copywriting is when you create compelling content that motivates people to take action.

After helping hundreds of business owners create high-converting lead generation campaigns, I’ve seen what works (and what doesn’t) when creating content that converts. See the results for yourself.

And in this article, we’ll do a deep dive into how to write content that converts strangers into leads, sales appointments and clients.

This guide will cover creating content that converts on the following channels:

  • Blog content
  • Landing pages
  • Paid ads
  • Search engine results pages
  • Lead magnets

Let’s dive in!

How to write high-converting content (summary)

Here’s a quick summary of the top ways to write content that converts:

  • Start with a great offer
  • Be specific 
  • Keep things simple
  • Use illustrations
  • Use AI

Creating high-converting high-quality content isn’t as difficult as it might sound.

It’s less about using smart sophisticated words. It’s more about authentic writing that follows a few simple marketing psychological principles.

For a deeper dive into how to create content that converts leads into appointments and clients, check out ‘Step 1’ and ‘Step 2’ of my free 5-Step Masterclass training.

How can I write content that converts?

1. Start with a great offer

Great offer

You could have the best copywriting in the world, but it won’t convert well if your offer isn’t appealing. You must solve a big, painful problem for your niche.

So…

What is it that YOU are offering to help your target market with?

Identifying and conveying this clearly in your content marketing efforts is critical to making your audience want to work with you.

This is known as your value proposition.

You can see how to create a highly effective value proposition in ‘Step 2’ of this video.

Pros of starting with a great offer:

  • It helps your audience identify your product or service’s selling points fast. 
  • It makes your audience aware of the benefits of patronizing your business.

Cons of starting with a great offer:

  • It’s not easy to convince every member of your audience.

2. Be specific

VSL

The more specific you are with a solution to a problem that your prospects have, the more likely they’ll be to take action in the next step of your sales process.

For example, using words like “better” or “increase” does not explicitly explain the tangible results your potential clients can expect.

That’s why, in my marketing, I usually say I help business owners get 10, 15, 30 or more high quality sales appointments with their ideal clients each month.

Being specific in your content allows people to visualize the result.

When potential clients visualize the result, your marketing content is more likely to form an emotional connection that motivates people to take action.

Not being specific enough could be a big reason your content doesn’t convert as well as you’d like.

If your potential clients can’t imagine their situation after working with you, they’re less likely to take action.

Pros of being specific:

  • It helps your audience to visualize how your product or service can benefit them. 
  • It helps them know you understand their needs and how to meet them.
  • It persuades them to engage with you and patronize you. 

Cons of being specific:

  • Being specific about one or two needs can make it seem like you’re neglecting your audience’s other needs.  

3. Keep things simple

Simple graph

Keeping things simple helps you massively increase conversions in your marketing strategy.

Keep your writing at a fifth-grade level or lower to ensure your content is as simple as possible.

To do this, you can use the Hemingway Editor or Grammarly.

These are great writing tools that evaluate your content and give you suggestions to simplify your writing. If you have a budget, you can even enlist seo content writing services to help you get faster results, instead of doing it yourself.

Another way to increase your conversion rate is to ensure your landing pages are simple. Avoid distractions on your landing page that could distract people from taking action.

Pros of keeping things simple: 

  • It helps you communicate your message better.
  • It helps your audience read and understand your content without hassle.

Cons of keeping things simple:

  • Generating content that is as simple as possible to understand requires a lot of time and work.

4. Use Illustrations

Illustrations

Illustrations are another great way to help people easily see how you can help them. Using visual content adds a storytelling element to your content, making it more exciting and relatable to your audience.

What’s an easy way to do this?

You can use AI illustration generators to create images for you.

When explaining something, embellish it with examples that help them better understand your point. I’ll give you a quick example.

When I help people generate leads with one of the channels we use, LinkedIn, I say it’s similar to networking.

But instead of networking with people face to face, you’re networking with people online. And instead of meeting people at random networking events, you can choose who you speak to, saving a lot of time. 

Networking

That’s how I compare generating leads and getting more business on LinkedIn with going to networking events.

By saying to people, “It’s kind of like networking,” and doing it online instead of face-to-face, it’s easier for people to visualize how it all works.

Tip: A picture often paints a thousand words.

Pros of using illustrations:

  • It helps your audience to grasp the message of your content.
  • It helps them visualize how your product or service can solve their problems. 

Cons of using illustrations:

  • If the illustrations are challenging to understand, your audience may become frustrated and discouraged from reading your content. 

5. Use AI

Jasper

If you’re stuck with how to make your existing content more engaging, plenty of AI tools can help you.

For example, ChatGPT is an excellent free AI tool to help you create conversion content.

However, for best results, I’d recommend using an AI copywriting tool specifically trained for creating marketing content.

Surfer would be my number 1 choice for creating high-converting written word content that converts using AI.

The difference between free copywriting AI tools like ChatGPT and paid AI tools like Surfer optimize the article for you using SEO.

ChatGPT has limited training on creating engaging content that’s optimized for SEO, but it’s still a great free option if you’re on a budget.

Check out my list of top AI SEO software tools here.

6. Understand your target audience 

Target the right leads

Your content is directed at your target audience; hence you need to have good knowledge about their interests and needs, among others. 

It is essential to address your audience’s needs and wants in your content, not just what you assume they are. 

Knowing this difference will help you effectively communicate to your target market that you know their pain points and can fulfill their needs.

To understand your target market, you need to conduct extensive research on them. This will help you gain knowledge of their behaviors, the common problems they face, their pain points, and their interests. There are various ways to conduct your research, including:

  • Keyword research;
  • Communicating with them via online forums and social media
  • Conducting surveys
  • Utilizing data and analytics.

Pros of understanding your audience:

  • It helps you curate content specifically targeted at them.
  • It makes your target market feel important and connected to you.
  • It makes them see value in your marketing and encourages them to engage with you.
  • It builds trust and persuades them to patronize you. 

Cons of understanding your audience:

  • Generating content that all the members of your target audience can relate to requires a lot of work.
  • You may focus on some members of your target audience or particular areas and neglect others.

7. Connect emotionally

Sales

After learning about your target audience, it’s important to connect with your audience on an emotional level.

To connect with people emotionally in your lead generation campaign, you’ll need to:

  • Incorporate storytelling: Telling a story with the right emotions infuses life into your content and helps your audience connect to you. By using analogies and personal experiences, you communicate to your audience that you empathize with them. This will make them feel understood and important. 
  • Expand your vocabulary: Include wide-ranging references in your content, including linguistic, monetary, and seasonal ones. This lets your diverse audience know that you recognize and appreciate them, hence, improving the lead nurturing process.  

It’s advisable to be aware of cultural differences and sensitive areas to avoid writing content that a particular country or ethnicity may find offensive.

  • Let your audience see you: Add your picture or a brief author’s bio at the end of your content. This personalizes it and boosts your credibility and familiarity with your audience. You could also use YouTube to boost your conversion rate even further with existing new new leads.

8. Use third-party validation

You need to sound credible when you tell your audience what they stand to gain from patronizing you. So using third-party validation to increase trust is a superb way to do this.

Third-party validation methods can include:

  • Testimonials
  • Case studies
  • Reviews
  • Being featured on relevant industry publications
  • Being featured on large authoritative websites such as Forbes or Yahoo

It’s advisable to give solid proof about past clients that have seen the promise fulfilled. If you can, add individual testimonials from them, as people appreciate reviews from others and tend to believe you more.

You can see some reviews of my lead generation services here.

Pros of third-party validation:

  • It lets your audience know how your brand can help them.
  • It makes them more willing to check out your product or service by patronizing you.

Cons of third-party validation:

  • It’s not easy to convince every member of your audience. 

9. Structure your content properly

Writing

It’s important to structure your content to make it easy for your audience to read through and understand. 

Your content’s structure goes a long way in making impressions on your audience.

Even if you have awesome content, a bad structure will make it hard to understand what you’re saying and discourage people from reading. 

To generate content that is appropriately structured and keeps your audience captivated, here are some key points to follow:

  • Start with a catchy introduction highlighting your target audience’s needs, and let them know what you’ll be addressing in your content. 
  • Keep your paragraphs and sentences concise that is, short and sweet. 
  • Add relevant and creative photos, videos, and other graphics to increase your content’s visual appeal. Seriously, your audience will love it.
  • Make your Call-to-Actions (CTA) clear and compelling so they’re encouraged to comply ASAP.

10. Track your content’s analytics

Google analytics

Consistently tracking and measuring your content marketing results is highly recommended. You can assess the effectiveness of your content through the use of Google Analytics or the analytics provided by different social media platforms.

For example, if you use YouTube for lead generation, it’s a good idea to go to your YouTube Studio to check out your video engagement stats.

If you use funnel building software, you can track the success of your lead generation campaign in more detail.

Here are some additional factors to consider:

  • The headlines that attract the most traffic.
  • The content that brings in the most conversions.
  • The similarities between your best-performing content.
  • The content that doesn’t generate good results.

Tracking your content’s performance provides detailed insight that will guide you in enhancing your content’s quality, and keep writing better ones as you go along!

The bottom line

Generating content that effectively communicates with your target audience requires hard work, research, skill, and tact.

If you need help with this, watch my Free Masterclass training.

Oh, and if you don’t want to do everything yourself, I have an option where I can set up your whole lead generation campaign for you.