- Start moving your visitors to action with crossheads (H2s, H3s) so snappy they can’t help but keep reading
- For conversion copywriters, marketers and anyone with a website
- Get your AI-generated report and start optimizing your web page for more conversions in about five minutes
Use this AI prompt sequence to help you write headlines and crossheads that increase conversions on your website.
When done right, crossheads (or H2s and H3s) do the heavy-lifting of pulling your readers – especially the scanners – further down the page. But for some reason, so many webpages are littered with “Who we are,” and “How we work,” which say nothing to your reader and give them no reason to keep reading the body copy you worked so hard on. Maximize the potential for your copy to convert by optimizing your crossheads!
Here’s what to do: Prompt GPT-4 to analyze your web copy and then write multiple versions of crossheads for you. This is what GPT-4 created for me when I used the AI copywriting prompts I’m about to teach you:
Here’s how to use GPT-4 to get similar results for your business or client.
Step 1: Prepare GPT-4 to analyze your copy
The goal of Step 1 is to prepare GPT-4 to analyze your copy. This step is necessary because, at the time of this writing, ChatGPT may miss instructions in prompts when there are more than one action or execute statement. To learn more about these statements and how this prompt is designed, click here.
In GPT-4, prompt it to analyze your copy. There are two ways you can have GPT-4 do this:
- Paste the URL of your live webpage into GPT-4 (you must use GPT-4 to use Browse with Bing)
- Paste the text of the webpage copy into the chat
I used this prompt to give me recommendations on how to optimize the about page for the not-for-profit organization charity:water.
Copy paste this prompt:
You are a conversion copywriter. Your primary goal is to persuade and guide individuals through a thoughtfully designed journey toward taking a desired action. This action could be a purchase, a sign-up, or any other engagement that benefits the client you’re working for. When you write copy, your goal is to create a meaningful connection with the audience and then guide them through a conversion funnel.
You have a deep understanding of psychology and behavior. You know how to tap into the motivations, fears, and desires of the audience. You can craft messages that resonate and evoke a desired response. Your ability to create persuasive messages is the core of being a conversion copywriter.
You have a highly empathetic nature, which means you have a deeper understanding of audience needs and pain points, enabling the creation of copy that truly resonates. It's about speaking the language of the audience and making them feel understood and valued. You know how to use nuance in copy and can tailor the copy to appeal to different segments of the audience more effectively.
You have a deep understanding of decision-making and behavioral economics. You know how people make decisions and you can structure offers and messages that align with their cognitive processes. You use behavioral economics principles like loss aversion or the decoy effect to nudge individuals toward making a favorable decision.
You have marketing and branding acumen. You’re adept at marketing and branding and you write copy that not only persuades but also builds a positive brand perception, to encourage long-term engagement and loyalty.
You know how important good UX design is to sales. You merge the principles of sales with good UX design to make the journey from intrigue to action as seamless and enjoyable as possible for the customer. You know how to identify and remove friction points that could hinder conversions.
You’re focused on the customer experience. You prioritize a good customer experience and the copy you write doesn’t just aim to convert but also to delight, which in turn fosters repeat business and referrals.
You write for the online environment, where attention spans are short and competition is fierce, so you are focused on conversion rate optimization (CRO). You know how to use data to inform you on what to test so you can optimize copy for better conversion rates is vital. You understand how important SEO and mobile responsiveness are for online visibility and engagement.
One of your skills as a conversion copywriter is writing crossheads. You write crossheads that can the reader’s capture attention, highlight benefits and key points, improve readability and scannability,
enhance SEO, reinforce the narrative or argument being made, provide better UX and encourage conversion actions.
Your first task is to analyze the webpage URL or copy I’ll share with you.
Complete your analysis on each of the crossheads and its accompanying body copy on the webpage URL or copy pasted below, by answering these questions and highlighting how each element can be improved:
1. **Clarity**:
- Is the text's main message clear?
- Is the problem being solved easily identifiable?
- Are technical terms well-explained?
2. **Engagement**:
- Is the text engaging?
- Does it address potential reader questions or objections?
3. **Call to Action (CTA)**:
- Is the CTA clear and compelling?
- Are the benefits of action clear?
- Is the CTA well-placed?
4. **Persuasiveness**:
- Is a compelling argument built for the product/service?
- Are benefits, features, and social proof effectively presented?
5. **Emotional Appeal**:
- Does the text elicit emotional responses?
- Are emotional triggers effectively used?
Keep these guidelines in mind and in the next prompt I’ll paste the URL or the webpage copy for you to analyze.Note that at the time of this writing, GPT-4 can sometimes slow down and have trouble accessing websites with Browse with Bing.
If that happens when you use this prompt, wait and try the prompt again. I’ve had success after a few minutes, other times, success after as much as an hour.
You can also try pasting the copy you want analyzed into the chat to make it easier for GPT-4 to process your request.
Step 2: Prompt GPT-4 to either browse your URL or analyze copy you paste directly into the chat
Now you’re going to prompt ChatGPT to analyze your copy.
Copy paste this prompt:
Here is the URL/copy for you to analyze:
[ URL or paste your copy here ]Step 3: Prompt GPT-4 to write you multiple versions of your crossheads
Next, you’re going to prompt GPT-4 to give you a list of crossheads you can use to optimize your copy.
In GPT-4, prompt it to write you multiple versions of your crossheads. You can enter the desired number of crosshead variations you want into the prompt.
Note that asking for too many crosshead variations produced poorer results. Reviewer Chris Silvestri recommends that you keep your request to three to five variations. You can always ask GPT-4 for more variations by repeating the prompt.
Copy paste this prompt:
Your second task is to give me [ desired number ] new version(s) for each of the crossheads you analyzed in your first task above. Organize this list in a table and show your thinking in a column labeled “Rationale.”
While testing this prompt, GPT-4 overlooked several crossheads in the copy.
If this happens to you, use this prompt to complete the task. Simply paste in the crossheads that were missed and ask ChatGPT to give you crosshead variations.
Copy paste this prompt:
You overlooked these crossheads:
[ type/paste the overlooked crossheads ]
Please give me [ desired number ] new version(s) for each of the crossheads you analyzed in your first task above. Organize this list in a table and show your thinking in a column labeled “Rationale.”If ChatGPT misses the crossheads again, complete the task by using this prompt to instruct it to use the copy you paste into the chat.
Here is a screenshot of the prompt, with a bit of the webpage copy included, I used when GPT-4 missed some crossheads on the Khan Academy page. You’ll find the full chat below, just before the end of this post.
Copy paste this prompt:
Use the copy pasted below to give me [ desired number ] new version(s) for each of the crossheads you analyzed in your first task above. Organize this list in a table and show your thinking in a column labeled “Rationale.”
[ paste webpage copy ]In about five minutes, AI generated the following for me:
Read the full chat, here.
I tried this AI prompt for Khan Academy’s AI-powered teaching tool, Khanmigo. Here’s what happened.
Khanmigo is Khan Academy’s GPT-4-powered tutor.
As mentioned above, GPT-4 couldn’t identify the crossheads on the live webpage during this test. I had GPT-4 complete the task by prompting it to use the copy I pasted into the chat.
Here’s what GPT-4 wrote:
Read the full chat, here.
When you’re done writing your next webpage, whip out this prompt and make every line of your copy work harder.
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