Turn your lead generation strategy from zero to hero with tried and tested sales funnel copywriting tips.
Great sales funnel copywriting ensures no leads get stuck in the top or middle stages of you sales funnel. It provides leads with the information, motivation, and recommendations they need to take the next step.
This guide will show you how to write great copy that turns your sales funnel into a well-oiled, lead generation machine.
Let’s get started.
What is Sales Funnel Copywriting?
Sales funnel copywriting is the process of crafting content tailored to every stage of the sales funnel.
Just like in a real funnel, fewer and fewer leads move through each stage until they reach the bottom. It’s up to your copywriters to craft content that pushes leads down with educational content until they make a purchase decision.
Some sales funnels also have a post-conversion stage for fostering customer loyalty and maximizing customer lifetime value. For this stage, copywriters focus on content that helps with customer success and retention.
Of course, there are other stages above the conversion and loyalty stages.
What are the Stages of the Sales Funnel?
Each company has its unique spin on the sales funnel. The stages might look different at a glance, but in most cases, the concepts remain identical.
Below is a breakdown of the typical sales funnel, along with an extra stage after the sale.
1. Awareness
Awareness is all about getting noticed.
At this point, your leads don’t have a clue about what you’re offering and what makes it so special. And, more often than not, they also don’t care.
The awareness stage is constructed to set the stage for your offerings. While you’re not knee-deep in your pitch yet, you want your reader to think “Hold on, this could be worth checking out.”
In this stage, you use hooks, intriguing facts, and unique ideas to pique the target audience’s interest. You want them to read the next sentence—and the next, and the next.
Since you’re casting a wide net at the top of the marketing funnel, the awareness stage involves a lot of flexibility in copywriting.
2. Interest
Leads that show interest in your brand will come back to your website from time to time. They may also have interacted with your brand in other ways, like watching your free webinar or answering a survey.
In other words, they’re now officially your prospects.
They’re ways away from becoming paying customers, but there’s a spark of interest that drove them to interact with your website.
It’s your job to fan those flames by delving into the specifics of your offer.
This is where you begin to talk about the product or service’s features and what makes it unique.
Get as granular as possible and discuss the fine details. Most importantly, ensure you focus on the benefits potential customers will get.
3. Evaluation
The evaluation stage is dab at the middle of the sales funnel.
During the evaluation phase, customers will scrutinize everything.
There’s your offering…and a dozen others from competitors vying for their attention.
What makes yours so special?
Some customers will pit your offering against the competition through a set of personalized criteria. This varies from person to person, but they generally include the following:
- Reputation (reviews, testimonials, ratings, etc.)
- Price
- Customer service
- Shared advocacy
- Convenience
Leaning towards your strongest selling point will help tip the scales in your favor. At the very least, make your selling point memorable and consistent as you create content throughout the funnel.
4. Decision
The decision stage, situated at the bottom of the funnel, is a pivotal moment in the sales funnel. It covers the entire stretch of the purchase process—it’s just a question of whether or not a sale is closed.
This is where your copy can hit them with discounts, trials, and other offers that sweeten the deal. It may also include points that encourage customers to upgrade their purchases.
Once the copy convinced the buyer to make the purchase. Everyone’s happy.
5. Loyalty
At the bottom of the marketing funnel is something that often gets overlooked: the loyalty stage.
This is where converted leads can take on the role of brand ambassadors.
It’s one thing to get a customer to purchase from you once. It’s an entirely different thing to retain them and get them to recommend your brand to their circles.
Nurture this behavior by incentivizing their loyalty. Offer exclusive content, provide additional educational resources, and participate in charitable acts that promote your brand’s goodwill.
How Do You Write a Killer Sales Funnel Copy?
Now that we’ve gone over the fundamentals, let’s learn how to make a killer sales funnel copy.
Step 1: Identify your goals
Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals to give copywriters a clear direction before they begin writing.
Do you need to generate more followers? How about more sales?
Are you trying to get more signups for your webinar?
This lets you identify the exact topics you need to cover in sales funnel copywriting. Without crystal-clear goals, you may waste money on copy that will never be used.
Identifying your goals will also help you determine the best content type for a particular stage of the funnel.
Here are some examples:
Top of the funnel (Awareness and Interest)
- How-to guides
- Industry news
- Infographics
- Listicles
- Display ads
Middle of the funnel (Evaluation)
- Checklists
- Newsletters
- eBooks
- White papers
Bottom of the funnel (Decision and Loyalty)
- Rewards program
- Discount offers
- Product pages
- Comparison post
- Tutorials
Step 2: Know your target market
Develop a deep understanding of your customer through an idealized customer persona.
A copywriter should know customers on a personal level, understand the challenges they face, and empathize with their pain points to the highest degree.
This allows your copywriters to press the right buttons and grab the audience’s attention from the get-go. It also allows them to frame your product in a way that brings a massive impact on your customers’ lives.
Here are some ways to extract information about your target market:
- Customer surveys
- Interviews
- Market research
- Web analytics reports
- Social media insights
Step 3: Plan for common customer contentions
Every company has a long list of leads they failed to convert.
It’s important to understand why they chose not to do business with you.
Compile a list of contentions, like:
- Lack of customer service options
- Missing certain features
- Expensive or inflexible pricing
- Lack of learning resources
- Complicated user interface
- Unclear product instructions
If your company can’t address these issues upfront, sales funnel copywriters can divert prospects’ attention to benefits that are equally—if not more—important.
For example, if leads complain about the lack of phone support, mention your live chat channel and its benefits.
Step 4: Follow the best writing practices
Sales funnel copywriters need to follow the best writing practices in order to create compelling copy.
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- Keep it short, sweet, and simple. Write sentences in less than 20 words and paragraphs in less than 4 sentences. Avoid writing fluff and get straight to the point to make every line punchy and captivating.
- Use active voice: Active voice is more concise, easier to read, and much more convincing. Unlike passive voice that sounds “weak,” active voice shows more confidence in the message you’re trying to convey.
- Edit, edit, edit. Edit ruthlessly to get rid of redundancies, mistakes, inaccuracies, and other issues copywriters may have missed the first time.
- Write eye-catching headlines. Find the balance between eye-catching and truthful. You don’t want headlines to be inaccurate, but you don’t want them to be dry either.
- Create a strong opening. Start using a statistic or an interesting story that ties in with your offer. You can also ask a thought-provoking question to engage readers.
Step 5: Experiment with your CTAs
Spell out the copy’s intent in big and bold letters. That’s what a call-to-action (CTA) is for.
Some examples of CTAs are:
- Buy now
- Sign up today
- Download here
- Reserve your spot
- Get your free copy
Not all CTAs work the same. Switch them up from time to time, or split test multiple versions of your copy—each with a different CTA.
Testing CTAs will help you unlock the best version of your sales funnel copy. While you’re at it, you can test other elements of your copy like headlines, subheadings, images, and so on.
Hire a reliable sales funnel copywriting expert
Great sales funnel copywriting will unlock the true potential of your lead generation and nurturing strategies.
Start by identifying you goals and understanding your target audience on a deeper level. Align your sales funnel strategy with the buyer’s journey while sprinkling a little bit of copywriting wizardry and just the right CTAs.
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