Today's tutorial is a rather straightforward sort of thing that we rarely address in a tutorial because it's not a thing that you can really demonstrate or teach in a tutorial sort of way. And that is talking about what conversion copywriting actually is. So we talk about conversion copywriting, we teach it, but a lot of people when it comes time to practice, you don't necessarily know.
where conversion copywriting comes from and how it's different from other forms of copywriting. So we want to talk about that today and we're going to share a little diagram with you that will hopefully be useful. We started thinking about this because we're redoing our conversion copywriting 101 course for anybody who is in that. It's from my...
first copywriter mastermind that I ran years ago. It's got Leanna Patch in it and Joel Klecki and people like that, which is cool and it's good and kind of like old school feeling. But we're redoing that with some different content to kind of help flesh out what conversion copywriting is for people who are new to it.
So let me share my screen. Okay, so you should be seeing my screen right now. Um, so we're talking about conversion copywriting and what it really is. Okay.
So a lot of you, you may know what the conversion copywriting process is, and it goes a lot like this. We've got research and discovery, writing wireframing and editing, and then validation and experimentation. So research and discovery, these are all showing as the same size right now, and they're not ever going to be the same size in the project. When you're first working with the client, you'll probably have a huge like purple bucket thing there that's research and discovery, you have to do so much. And then writing wireframing might be a little smaller and validation might be much bigger because you have to validate because you don't know anything about this client and their audience yet.
You're making a lot of assumptions. So yeah, Joel's process, Joel was, yeah, it's a conversion copywriting process. It's pretty straightforward. And then you color it with your own stuff as you go.
So everybody has their own pieces. Inside of each of these phases, so research and discovery, you might finish that with a synthesis that turns into a strategy. Okay.
And that would then lead over to writing, wireframing, and editing. Some people won't put a formal synthesis or strategy together at the end of R&D, and they'll just move right into writing and wireframing. And oftentimes they'll kind of back up and go like, oh, probably should have put some more thought into my process or into taking the research.
before I moved on. So it's just a good note that research and discovery doesn't just mean do the research and then go do the work. Part of that is cleaning up what you have found so you can develop hypotheses. And then writing, wireframing, and editing. Great, that's where you write.
If you're writing something that needs to be wired, where the message hierarchy needs to be very clear, then you'll want to wireframe that. And editing is The last thing before you went to validation where you're really at that point cleaning up things and doing your Your seven sweeps really editing in the awesome then comes validation and experimentation and validation There's lots of ways to validate if you guys aren't familiar with usability hub go check out usability hub You want to test or validate for clarity? Sometimes if you're redoing something without a be testing it you want to do a preference test as well So there's lots of different ways to validate experimentation of course is the split testing side of it so we've got these three parts there's more to it than what we're seeing here and the more you do the work the more you'll start to flesh these sections out but as a conversion copywriter this is the process you should be following people expect you to jump into step two and forget entirely about step three you need all of them you need to start with research because that's where voice of customer comes in and you can't write great copy without it and validation will help you make sure you don't F things up for your clients. But that's the process. And it feels like everybody who's been practicing conversion copywriting knows the process.
So if you don't take a screenshot, you've got that process now and you should be adjusting it, not changing this core of it, but adding to it as you go. Okay. Which then brings us back to, okay, well, what really... is conversion copywriting because that's not the process. It's not just the process.
The process is one part of this. When we're talking about conversion copywriting, we're talking also about everything that feeds it. So, um, Everything showing here on the left is what goes into conversion copywriting. So we want to think about all of this stuff.
Usability Hub, Mark, is just what it sounds like. So go Google Usability Hub and you'll get there. So you've got on the left side, UX, interaction design, and human factors.
So when I'm walking you through these components, this isn't... Exactly. exhaustive.
This is just what you need to know to be a strong conversion copywriter. If you're looking on the left side of this conversion copywriting, like beaker thing, uh, VS it's Joel Kletke. Uh, so Carrie, can you look up Joel Kletke's rate latest article and just carry, we'll pop it in there for you.
Okay, cool. Cool. So we've got everything over on the left that you want to know about.
You want to know how to do it. So if you're like, okay. I feel like I need to take training, but I don't know what it should be on. Sometimes it's going to be on conversion, on actual copywriting. Other times you'll want to flesh out more of what's going on on the left here.
Like, do you know anything about interaction design? When I say human factors, do you know what that means? So that's like, go Google it. Google is your friend, obviously.
So go check that stuff out. You probably know about voice of customer research because we talk about it. all the time.
But we talk about voice of customer research, and there's a lot behind the scenes there. So voice of existing customer versus voice of future customer. Sometimes it's not voice, sometimes it's other things that hint at a voice.
And then of course, things like developing your voice, you need to be aware of SEO, you need to be knee deep in direct response. If you're not learning direct response copywriting, as you grow as a copywriter today, you are going to miss out. Your copy will not be as strong as if you go back to the really old school stuff and start zeroing in on what they were talking about back there.
I'm talking about, yes, Gene Schwartz, but even further back to Capels. Just go back. Go back to the 20s. Study that stuff. That's where all the great clickbait comes from.
So you don't have to use it for clickbait. Just because you know that it can be used for evil doesn't mean you use it for evil. but you do need to know about that stuff.
So don't just zero in on the copywriters who are talking today, but go way back. Okay, then we've got message mining. We talk about that a lot when we're doing VOC, but there's other reasons to do message mining. Creative, part of our job is creative still. So you need to still be good at, need to have an ear for good creative.
And that means paying attention to ads that are more creative and taglines and things like that. and like the frameworks around that sort of messaging so that you can better use everything else showing here to write copy that not only converts, but that gets that first customer to say yes. And that first customer for us is always our client. You have a client who needs to be sold on the car on using the copy you're recommending. So showing them the data, telling them where it comes from is great, but it'll go a lot.
better if it sounds good too. So knowing about creative advertising, that will help a lot. Being able to talk value propositions. So we did a book on value props for copywriters, but there's so much more where that came from.
Copy formulas, messaging developments, being able to do audits, being aware of what conversion rate optimization is and everything inside of it, which is part data analysis and audits and everything else that we're talking about as well. And then persuasion and human decision-making. And that is why we talk.
about. Get a membership to deepdive.com. It's D-E-E-P-D-Y-V-E.com.
That's deepdive.com. You'll want to read what people are studying, what academics are studying about how people make decisions. There's so much on how they make decisions on mobile, on how they make decisions in...
bricks and mortar stores and how that converts over to the digital space. Like there's so much that you need to be learning that all of this over to the left will feed you and make you a better conversion copywriter. So know that, screenshot that, keep it handy.
If you're like, I don't know what to learn next, choose one of these, at least one of these, and then move on from there. That then leads us to what the output is of conversion copywriting. So you should be crafting...
and hypothesis when you develop something. thing for your clients. That's copy where people better understand if you have a research question or hypothesis that you've actually done the work.
That's more of making sure that we're grounding ourselves in the science of conversion copywriting. So everything doesn't feel up in the air and guessed at. So what's your hypothesis for that new landing page you wrote? Like, what do you believe is the reason it's going to convert better?
And if you're like, I hate hypotheses because chemistry or whatever sucked when I was in high school. Okay. What's your research question? If you're not sure, just go ahead and Google how to craft a research question.
Use that and ask that with your clients when you're presenting your copy. Conversion copywriting, all of the stuff on the left, also makes you better able to talk about personalization, segmentation, and help your clients understand when it's time to consider that. That we can't always just go out of the gate with whatever we think we heard that's great from voice of customer research because we do have our own biases that get in the way there. So what can you do with different copy variations that you should be presenting and segmentation and personalization within that? And then comes, of course, validation and iteration and all of the things that you need to do, creative direction to make sure that your copy is implemented appropriately, not stepping back or just throwing it over at the designer and hoping that something great will come of that because they're not copywriters.
It's your job to know this and it's your job and responsibility to stay involved. as someone implements the work that you do. And then of course, you need to be cool with experimentation and actually measuring results. Okay, so this is what you're looking at here is what you need to start thinking about when you're thinking about conversion copywriting.
It's one part, the process, and we talk about the process. Copywriters talk about it a lot, and that's good. It's a very good starting point.
Next comes actually really understanding what's behind it and when. you know this stuff, then you're better able to charge more, to feel better about the work that you do. Juliana says it feels overwhelming.
She's had to that just to the panelists, just to us. And it should feel overwhelming. It should feel like a big undertaking. And when you look at it, it should challenge you. Do you want to do this or don't you?
Because if you don't, you can make 20 bucks an hour writing creative copy for somebody and make 40k a year. And hopefully that's enough. Okay, fine.
But if you want to go further and do more, if this is overwhelming, but it challenges you in a good way, then this is what you need to start aiming for. You need to start knowing, just choose one. Just go over to deepdive.com, put it in your calendar.
Every month you're going to read one new article from, pick a journal. You're going to read one new article from it and that's it. By the end of the year, you'll have read 12 articles written by academics on a thing you're interested in. That's important to you. And you will be a better conversion copywriter because of it.
It'll make you stronger in all the other things showing here. Maybe not all of them. Probably will make you better at SEO, but it'll make you better as a conversion copywriter. Don't feel overwhelmed. Like if you have to do all of this at once, sure, that would be overwhelming, but you don't.
You just have to start chipping away at the things that you don't already know. Chipping away at not doing it all at once. Okay, so that is it.
Thanks, y'all. Hopefully you are going to be able to use what we've discussed today to talk to your clients with more confidence about not only your process but everything that goes into being a conversion copywriter. Thanks for your awesome chats. Thanks, Carrie, as well, for taking care of chat and everything as we did this today. We will see you next week in our next Tutorial Tuesday.
The one at the very end of July is going to be canceled. um because i'll be speaking in new york at that time so i just can't make it unfortunately but next week we will be here and we will see you then okay thanks guys have a good one bye it's the 90s