HOW TO WRITE COPY FOR STARTUPS & TECH

You do NOT need an expensive copywriting course to learn how to write effective copy for your startup site. (Despite what all the people selling copywriting courses for $197 suggest.)

And although you may be able to purchase an impressive-looking set of DVDs about copywriting for $300, you definitely don’t need to spend weeks in front of your TV learning the art of copywriting.

Unless, of course, that interests you.

And you absolutely don’t need to spend your money on some low-budget ‘kopy-riting’ video presented as a slick course but shot with a webcam in some random apartment.

No, if you’re searching for how to effectively write copy, you’re probably looking for ways to improve your Web site conversion rates.

So let’s start there.

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]DO YOU KNOW WHAT DRIVES PEOPLE TO[/typography]
[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]CONVERT FROM BROWSING TO BUYING ON YOUR STARTUP SITE?[/typography]
The answer to that question is actually not a big mystery. But it FEELS like a well-kept secret.

Why? Because it’s something most marketers (and even writers) don’t know about.

Only a select few know this one thing: There are exactly 5 easy-to-grasp elements that work together to move your site’s visitors from browsers to buyers.

Those 5 elements comprise the recipe – if you will – of key ingredients that, when mixed in the correct proportions and baked at the right temperature, produce an amazing + tasty dish.

Now, what exactly is that dish?

Conversion!

Here’s an idea that should blow your mind: [highlight]Once you know the ingredients and how important each one is to the conversion process, you can reliably move people to purchase whatever you’re selling.[/highlight]

And you can think of your copy as the set of measuring spoons and mixing bowls that enable you to create the dish.

 

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]The Ingredients in High-Converting Copy[/typography]
Marketing Experiments has developed this recipe – or “heuristic” – to describe how conversion works.

And it’s the same recipe you can use to increase your conversion rates by 10%, 50%… or more than 100%. No joke. That sounds like crap. But it’s totally proven.

Once you understand the formula, you’ll have a significant edge over your competition. A ridiculous edge. The sort of edge only the highest paid conversion consultants have.

Ready for it?

Here, without further ado, is the secret recipe for converting more of your visitors:

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”28″ size_format=”px”]C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) – 2a ©[/typography]
…What exactly is that? Great question.

Here is a breakdown of the key ingredients:

C = Probability of conversion
m = Motivation of user
v = Clarity of the value proposition
i = Incentive to take action
f = Friction elements of process
a = Anxiety about entering information

The 5 key components for boosting your conversion are, in fact, these seemingly neutral things:

  1. Motivation
  2. Value prop
  3. Incentives
  4. Friction
  5. Anxiety

Once you see how conversion can actually, truly be influenced with the above formula, you are on your way toward writing high-converting copy. And guess what! You’re going to learn exactly that right on this page.

Let me repeat the recipe for you:

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”28″ size_format=”px”]C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) – 2a ©[/typography]
The numbers shown alongside each ingredient describe how important each one is to your site’s conversion rate.

In other words, motivation (m) is the most important ingredient, followed by your company’s value proposition (v).

The difference between any incentive you’re offering and the amount of friction you create for your site visitors (i – f) is slightly less important, as is the amount of anxiety (a) that people feel while exploring your site.

Now, you need to get a quick grasp on what the ingredients really mean. So you can apply them ASAP.

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Ingredient 1: Write Copy That Reflects “Motivation”[/typography]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Show Visitors How Relevant You Are to Their Needs![/typography]
Let’s start with motivation, since it carries the most weight in the formula.

Your site visitors arrive with varying degrees of motivation, and tapping into their motivation is simply a matter of connecting what you offer to the visitors’ needs or goals.

How about a real life example. What motivates you to go looking for new shoes?

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  • Is your existing pair of shoes worn out?
  • How you decided to take up a new sport?
  • Do you have an important event to attend?

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When you arrive at the shoe store, you are already motivated to find a solution to your problem. You want to find a solution to your ‘pain’.

But the type of shoe store you visit — department store, boutique, athletic, outdoors — depends on the type of shoes you’re looking for.

And that’s known as relevance.

Now, here’s the key to delivering relevance on your startup site: Your home page or landing page should describe exactly what you offer, so that people can tell whether they’re in the right place or not. This is less about persuading people to stay, and more about explaining what product or service you provide.

Seems insanely simple… but it’s something that 9 in 10 startups forget to do.

High-converting “copy hackers” tap into people’s motivation by communicating their product’s relevance to a particular problem, pain or situation.

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Ingredient 2: Amazing Web Copy Showcases Your Value Prop[/typography]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Do You Know How to Write a Value Proposition? Read On![/typography]
Unlike people’s motivation for visiting your site, your value proposition is actually something you control with your copy.

It’s where you should plan to spend some time. After all, your value proposition permeates throughout your Web site and marketing materials.

Getting this right will have a huge influence on your site’s conversion rate!

Back to the shoe store analogy. Let’s imagine that you’ve decided to take up the sport of racquetball, and that you need a pair of athletic shoes suitable for the indoor court. There’s your motivation.

So… which athletic shoe store do you visit first?

As you explore the various athletic store options online or in the phone book, there are things you’ll use to determine where to go.

Where is the store located?
What is their selection like?
How late are they open?
How knowledgeable are the sales staff and how much help can you expect when you arrive?
And how are the prices?

All these things feed into a company’s value proposition and help you decide where to start shopping.

Applying this approach to your Web site means crafting a value message that shows people that they’re in the absolute best place to find whatever they’re looking for.

And I’ll soon show you a set of tools to help you quickly and easily craft that all-important message.

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Ingredient 3: When You Write Web Copy, Highlight INCENTIVES[/typography]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]You Don’t NEED Incentives – But If You’ve Got ‘Em, Flaunt ‘Em![/typography]
You likely already know plenty about incentives (e.g., discounts, special offers, etc.) and how they influence people to buy, so I won’t go into much detail about them here.

But the final two conversion formula elements – friction and anxiety – can’t be overlooked.

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Ingredient 4: Reduce Friction to Boost Conversion[/typography]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Why Are You Letting Your Copy Get in the Way of Selling? It Should Help![/typography]
Back to that fictitious shoe store… you’ve decided to look for running shoes at a nearby racquet sports store, because they specialize in everything related your new sport, they have awesome hours of business, and they talk a lot about personal service and attention to detail.

(Motivation and value proposition are working their magic.)

So you decide to drive to the store after work one day.

Now imagine this ugly scenario:

It’s raining and parking spots are at a premium. You reach to open the door to the store and it’s extremely heavy and stiff. Upon entering the store, you wander over to the wall of great-looking shoes, but you notice there are no prices displayed, and the shoe sizes are nowhere to be found. And after 45 minutes of trial and error, you finally select a suitable pair of court shoes, only to learn that the debit and credit machine is down.

Now that’s friction.

The scenario above may seem like a stretch, but this stuff happens all the time – especially on the Web.

And as Web marketers, so much of it is within our control.

Effective site design and copy can work wonders to reduce friction for your visitors. But you need to know what to look for and how to eliminate it.

We’re getting close…

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Ingredient 5: Relax Your Anxious Visitors[/typography]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Why Aren’t Your Buttons Getting Clicked? Could It Be Anxiety?[/typography]
The final ingredient in the conversion recipe is anxiety.

And like motivation, it’s something visitors arrive at your site with already firmly in place.

Now imagine that the horrific in-store experience I described earlier was actually very pleasant, devoid of any friction, and that you thoroughly enjoyed the store and the staff.

Sounds delightful, but it doesn’t mean you won’t have any anxiety about your purchase.

  • What if the shoe doesn’t hold up in your first racquetball game?
  • Will the return process be painful?
  • Can you get a refund or just an in-store credit?
  • Heck, will the store still be in business if you need something down the road?

There are so many sources of anxiety in real life and on the Web.

In the online world, your copy can have a huge positive impact on the anxiety of your site visitors. The right words in key places can seriously minimize your potential customers’ worries.

It’s just a matter of anticipating their key stressors and writing copy that will make those stressors vanish.

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]…Did You Know Any of This Before Arriving Here Today?[/typography]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Imagine If You Held ALL the Copywriting Secrets in Your Hands…[/typography]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]And Imagine If Those Secrets Were Targeted to Startups[/typography]
Now you understand that motivation, value proposition, incentives, friction, and anxiety all play an important role in your site’s conversion rate.

Next, you’ll need a system for pulling these elements together in a way that makes sense to your site visitors.

The system is Copy Hackers, a brand new, easy-to-read, science-based series of ebooks that was developed with the Marketing Experiments’s conversion recipe at its core.

The 4-book series is targeted at start-ups and tech-focused entrepreneurs.

Why did I focus on start-ups? Because you need to convert every visitor possible in order to get traction. And funding.

You’ve only got so much time to turn your startup into a success – before another startup comes along to compete with you.

Startups depend on copy. Because startups depend on attracting users. And they depend on doing all of the above quickly, before someone swipes the rug out!

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Copy Hackers Launched Oct 18, 2011… And Over 2500 Copies Have Already Sold[/typography]
Written by professional copywriter, conversion expert and co-founder of Page99Test.com and Meetalytics.com – yours truly, Joanna WiebeCopy Hackers includes worksheets that will spark your thinking and get you started immediately on the path to higher conversion.

Best of all, they’re written with startup needs in mind.

  • At fewer than 55 pages each, they’re short – because you’re so busy
  • They’re filled with examples from startups… whose founders you may know!
  • They target what startups need, like exactly how to get buttons clicked & demos watched

How do I know what startups need? Well, I’m not only a cofounder… but I’ve also worked with startups like ClassParrot, WakeMate and Gemvara.

Here’s a look at what’s included in each of the ebooks (all available as PDF):

 

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px”]BOOK 1: Where Stellar Messages Come From – INCLUDED![/typography]

[threecol_one]

[/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]

[unordered_list style=”tick”]

  • Great Copy Follows a (Simple) Messaging Strategy
  • Get to Know Your Customer Before You Write a Word
  • Write Copy for 20 to 35% of Your Visitors – Not 100% of Them
  • How to Find & Document Your Features & Benefits
  • Should You Write Copy in the Positive or the Negative?
  • Create Smart Messages with Keyword Research & Content Audits
  • Always Have a (Simple) Messaging Hierarchy in Mind
  • 8 Messaging Tips Too Small for Whole Chapters

[/unordered_list]
[/threecol_two_last]

 

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px”]BOOK 2: Formatting & the Essentials of Web Writing – INCLUDED![/typography]

 

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[/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]

[unordered_list style=”tick”]

  • Format Your Copy to Be Scanned
  • The Essentials of Formatting Copy
  • The Great Big List of Little (But Critical) Web Writing Details
  • Avoid These 17 Copywriting Pitfalls
  • Debunking the Most Deleterious & Crippling Web Writing Myths

[/unordered_list]

[/threecol_two_last]

 

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px”]BOOK 3: Headlines, Subheads & Value Propositions – INCLUDED![/typography]

 

[threecol_one]

[/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]
[unordered_list style=”tick”]

  • Spend 90% of Your Copywriting Time on the Headline
  • The 7 Secrets of Attention-Grabbing Headlines
  • 9 Formulas You Can Use to Write Headlines Today
  • Subheads: The Mini-Headline
  • Quick Power Tips for Headings and Subheadings
  • The Value Proposition
  • BONUS! Headline Hall of Shame

[/unordered_list]

[/threecol_two_last]

 

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”22″ size_format=”px”]BOOK 4: Buttons & Click-Worthy Calls to Action – INCLUDED![/typography]

 

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[/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]
[unordered_list style=”tick”]

  • Create Crystal Clear, Butt-Kicking Calls to Action
  • Swipe This Copy for Your Own Buttons
  • To Get Buttons Clicked, You Need to Stomp Down Objections First
  • Before They Click, Reduce Their Anxiety and Increase Their Love for Your Company
  • The Undiscussed, Much-Coveted Secret: Click Triggers
  • How to Get People to Fill In Your Sign-Up Fields and Watch Your Demos

[/unordered_list]

[/threecol_two_last]

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Learn and Then Act… With End-of-Chapter “Next Steps”[/typography]
Ever notice how you read a great DIY book… and then totally fail to act on it?

People do this all the time. It’s normal – but it’s not helpful.

That’s why almost every chapter in every Copy Hackers ebook ends with a “next steps” section that tells you exactly how to implement what you’ve learned.

So you can put these strategies into practice!

At no more than 55 pages per ebook, Copy Hackers teaches specific topics (with tons of illustrations and examples!) that you can apply as your time allows. Read all 4 on a plane. Or read one during your morning train ride.

Plus, because these ebooks are PDFs, you can read them on your iPad! If you still have a day job, you can even put them on your PC and read while pretending to do work. 🙂

And while most copywriting courses (that only touch on writing for a 2.0 world) cost $147 to $300, each Copy Hackers ebook retails for less than $15!

At least, that’s what the average person pays.

But for the Reddit community – which is filled with startup founders I’ve had the pleasure of working with – you can instantly save on all 4 ebooks. The whole bundle.

I have a coupon code just for you. It’s right below…

 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]Save $17.54 Instantly When You Buy 4 Ebooks Together[/typography]

The complete set of 4 ebooks is valued at $53.96 – but, with the 4-book bundle, you get instant 10% savings.

All 4 books are just $48.56.

PLUS! [highlight]Reddit readers receive an additional discount of 25%[/highlight].

That brings the TOTAL price of ALL 4 EBOOKS down to $36.42.

For less than a quarter of what most copywriting courses cost, you’ll get:

[unordered_list style=”tick”]

  • Book 1: Where Messages Come From (INCLUDED!)
  • Book 2: Formatting & the Essentials of Web Writing (INCLUDED!)
  • Book 3: Headlines, Subheads & Value Propositions (INCLUDED!)
  • Book 4: Buttons & Click-Worthy Calls to Action (INCLUDED!)

[/unordered_list]

No tax. No shipping (obviously). Full money-back guarantee. Instant download. Instant savings – no rebates required. Pay with PayPal or credit card. All that good stuff.

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”21″ size_format=”px”]10% Off + 25% Off the Cover Price[/typography]
[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”19″ size_format=”px”]The First 4 Copy Hackers Ebooks… Bundled Up for Extra Savings![/typography]
With these savings, it’s like you’re getting a WHOLE EBOOK for free.

[button link=”https://www.copyhackers.com/product/how-to-write-copy-for-startups/” size=”large”]Enter Coupon Code REDDIT to Save[/button]
 

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]What Startups Are Saying About Copy Hackers[/typography]

Copy Hackers Ebooks Are Less Than 55 Pages Each and Available as PDFs for Instant Download

INFO YOU’LL UNDERSTAND
Really excellent writing, easy to read and gives tons of valuable information. – Arvydas Ciupaila, Founder, SendFlow

YAY FOR HEADLINE FORMULAS
I read the first 3 Copy Hackers books and headed to my site to make tweaks. The headline formulas alone are worth the cost of a whole copywriting course. Every page is filled with info I plan to use right away. – Syed Shuttari, Founder, LetsLunch

INCREASE YOUR CONVERSION
Joanna does a great job of presenting the art of copywriting to hacker types. She not only focuses on the how, but also on why certain techniques work. By reading her guides and putting the tips she outlines into action, you’re bound to increase the conversion rate of your startup’s sale page. – Antonio Cangiano, Founder, AnyNewBooks and Author, “Technical Blogging”

SIMPLY AMAZING
Okay, you’re really good at this. Seriously. This is amazing stuff. Can’t put it down. – Shereef Bishay, Founder, BetterMeans and ClassParrot

[typography font=”Days One” size=”24″ size_format=”px” color=”#850c38″]I Personally Guarantee You’ll Be Wowed by Copy Hackers[/typography]

Here’s my guarantee to you: If you’re not satisfied with your purchase of the Copy Hackers ebooks, just let me know within 30 days of buying, and I’ll give you your money back.

No questions asked.

So there’s actually no risk!

You save $15 today… and if you don’t think the books are completely satisfying sources of copywriting genius, you email me for a refund. Done!

Why would I offer a 100% money-back guarantee? I’m just 1 copywriter, after all. I don’t have a massive corporation with endless cash behind me. If you ask for your money back, it comes straight out of my pocket.

So why would I even suggest it?

Because I’m POSITIVE that within an hour of reading Copy Hackers Book 1, you’ll have the know-how to apply proven and tested techniques to your copy, like tapping into your visitors’ motivation.

Book 1 alone will be worth the $36.42 you spend today. …So when you factor in that books 2, 3 and 4 will help you completely overhaul your value proposition and dramatically reduce the anxiety your visitors feel, you’ll get TONS more than your money’s worth.

Which means I have every reason to believe you’ll only be emailing me to share your great results!

After all, these ebooks are the product of nearly a decade of hands-on web writing expertise… and conversion consulting expertise.

That’s 1000s of hours of writing. Trial and error. Testing. Studying. Practicing.

All the power-packed, conversion-boosting knowledge can be yours today. With massive savings to boot!

[button link=”https://www.copyhackers.com/product/how-to-write-copy-for-startups/” size=”large” style=”tick”]Make Copy Writing as Easy as Cookin’ Up a Stirfry[/button]

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]REMEMBER: Enter code “[highlight]REDDIT[/highlight]” to save a total of $17.54 instantly.[/typography]
Be sure to click to ‘cart’ so you can enter your code.

Yours truly,

 

 

 

 

Joanna Wiebe (Chief Copy Hacker)

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”18″ size_format=”px”]P.S. Don’t forget to enter coupon code [highlight]REDDIT[/highlight] to get instant 25% savings on the already low cost of the ebook bundle. This offer may end without notice, so please act now to protect your savings on the entire Copy Hackers ebook bundle (books 1 – 4).[/typography]

[button link=”https://www.copyhackers.com/product/how-to-write-copy-for-startups/” size=”large” style=”tick”]Learn More & Add to Cart[/button]

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