Subscribe to Heather’s YouTube Channel here.
You are going to LOVE today’s conversation! I sat down with journalist-turned-copywriter Nicola Moors for a fascinating and insightful chat about all things copy and launching.
We dig into how copywriting is a DATA driven process (which surprised me because I think of writing as a creative thing).
Writing copy that converts was one of the most intimidating tasks in my business when I started marketing digital programs and I immediately wanted to outsource… maybe that’s you too?
If so, you might be surprised by Nicola’s recommendation. She helps coaches and course creators have profitable launches fuelled by data and research. Her data-approach to messaging and funnels has won her clients above-industry-average results.
In this episode, we dig into…
- The things you should consider before hiring a copywriter in your business
- The importance of knowing your numbers (and why a lot of people would shy away from that)
- The real metrics your audience should be watching (hint: it’s not revenue or conversion rate)
- How to make informed decisions even if you don’t know or track your numbers
- Optimizing your launch / funnel
- Plus some tips you can do to create attention-grabbing headlines and a sales page that really converts
Be sure not to miss this one – it’s full of practical tips and really good gems that will truly shift your perspective.
Key Takeaways
Some of the metrics that you need to be paying attention to:
- Retention
If you’ve got a membership, the real key metric here is retention.
Let’s say you did great at live launch yet people are dropping off out of the membership after a few months, then you don’t have a marketing problem.
You probably have a customer service problem because there’s a reason people aren’t staying over. It’s possible that they’re not getting what they need from you or maybe the onboarding needs changing so it’s really important to keep an eye on y our retention.
- Lifetime value of customer
Lifetime value is basically the customer value times average customer lifespan.
Going back to the membership, it’d be the average. So let’s say the membership was $97 a month, it would be that value per customer and then times the number of months that they would be in the membership. That’s what would be the lifetime value and a lot of businesses don’t actually look at this.
As Nicola shares, a 5% increase in retention rate based on the membership actually rises profit between 25 to 95%. It just shows that when you look at your current customers, it can have a huge increase in revenue.
- Average cost per sale or per acquisition
To get your average cost per sale, you will look at your expenses divided by the number of sales.
For example, let’s say you’re making sales on a $1,000 course, but it’s costing you whatever amount to acquire that sale, then maybe there needs to be another way that you can acquire that customer whether it’s using organic traffic instead or pay traffic.
The key of that really is if you’re spending too much acquiring new customers, then you need to be aware of this.
How to make informed decisions even if you don’t know or track your numbers
Here’s a simple way of working out your profit margin from the launch.
Look at your previous launch and check how much expenses did you incur associated with that launch and then compare your total expenses to the money that you made from the launch.
Just looking at those expenses associated directly with it gives you a much better indication even if you don’t have the other numbers like lifetime customer value or retention rate.
That’s why knowing these numbers is really empowering to know where you actually standing in your business.
Your copy is converting and yet you didn’t hit you launch goal – what you should do?
A lot of people tend to blame the copywriter or the copy when there’s actually so many factors that go into a launch to make it successful.
Nicola shares these two lessons you need to keep in mind when the launch doesn’t convert or you don’t get the launch goals that you wanted.
- Do a launch debrief after every single launch.
This is essential because you will know which parts of your funnel or which assets whether it’s the emails, opt in page, whatever it is, that is converting. You’ll know all of these information.
If you’re not aware of these and when the launch doesn’t go as you want it to, you’ll feel like crap because you’re not sure which piece is working or which one isn’t, making you think rewriting the sales page will fix the problem well in fact it won’t.
- You need to have a lead strategy.
You can have the best converting copy in the world that would resonates with your audience but if people can’t see it, then how are they going to buy?
You need to get more eyeballs on the page. Can you use Facebook ads for this? Can you talk about it on Instagram or in your Facebook groups? Tune in to Podcaste Episode #128 – it’s a bonus episode from my final live training to learn my strategy for INTENTIONAL VISIBILITY to help you save time and get results right out of the gate.
How to create a sales page that really converts
1. When you do your launch debriefs, don’t just look at that full sales funnel for the past launch but also all of the other copy assets that you have (your welcome sequence, your opt ins, your blog posts, etc)
You want to create a flow from that very first opt in as soon as somebody gets eyes in your business. There has to be a connection, and that’s why it’s important to look at your whole funnel holistically.
2. Next is look at your audience.
How are you getting people to the sales page? Are you using Facebook ads? If you are, what’s your targeting on the Facebook ads? Is that actually who you’re targeting? Are you going in the correct way?
3. Once you’ve done this, start looking at post launch surveys.
Having a survey at every single touch point in your business, whether it’s the thank you page after an opt in, post launch with people who bought your product and even those who didn’t buy is so good for your business. You’ll be able to really know what are the objections that people have.
If you’d like to go really deep, you can look at the webinar comments or DMs thar you get during the launch.
Oftentimes, people will be in the comments either saying this really resonates or they’ll be asking questions. And if people are asking questions that means either the information isn’t on the page or it’s not easy enough for them to see, and that might be the messaging that you need to have on your sales page.
4. The next point is looking at the offers.
Once you’ve got the audience and you know how the funnel is working, you look at the offer. Is this optimized enough? Does this positioning meet the audience where they are and actually solve the problem that they actually need solving?
Remember that the problem that you solve for your audience, they’ve got to have some sort of motivation to want to solve it. Let’s say they have an objection of money. Can you offer payment plans? Can you compare the cost of this product to the cost of doing nothing?
Demos and videos in sales page actually really increase the conversions, so you might want to add a demo on your sales page to show actually what they’re going to get.
5. Lastly, it’s looking at the copy again making sure that positioning is on the page.
If your sales page is converting at 2-3%, you can tweak and change the headline section first, anything above the fold. Think how can you optimize this to meet the audience where they’re at.
People want to see what they want to see so make sure that you match the message that they’ve just seen on the email to the sales page to meet their expectations. Everything on the the message should be matching up.
Tips on creating attention-grabbing headlines
- Write the headlines last.
Once you’ve got the rest of the page down, this will give you an idea of what you’re going to put in the headline.
- Try and write as many headline options as you can.
If you know your audience well enough (their pain points, goals, etc), you can grab these and mix them up and just try different variations.
- Go over through your notes, interview transcripts or surveys when you’re doing your audience research.
Oftentimes, you will get headline ideas from your audience. You can copy and paste exact paragraphs or comments from the audience into the sales page. It’s just a case of formatting it in a really succinct way and it’s best to start with a really strong verb.
Things you should consider if you are to hire a copywriter
Here are some guidance that business owners should really be considering before hiring a copywriter:
- Make sure your offer is selling.
If your offer isn’t selling then having a copywriter come in and write copy for that offer is never going to work because the offer isn’t working in the first place. Your list size doesn’t matter as long as you have a really good offer.
- Know your audience and be ready to share your numbers
It’s good that you know your audience and even better if you have metrics that you can pass on to the copywriter. Make sure that if you don’t have the research yourself, they will probably want to do their own and actually have an actual research process to do that.
- It helps if you have authority in your niche.
It helps to have that sort of authority in your field so people see you as the expert and they want to learn from you (but this one is not necessary).
If you have this, it will make it a lot easier to get results. Remember, it’s not just the copy – it’s everything that goes into a launch as well. And unfortunately, authority is part of that. (Listen to Podcast Ep# 137: How to Boost Your Authority and Become the Go-To in Your Industry to learn the 4 drivers that I shared which define every industry authority and how to leverage them for your brand.)
About Nicola Moors
Nicola is a copywriter offering full launch strategy, copy and support to her clients. Thanks to Nicola’s analytical brain, she can spot the bottlenecks in funnels really easily, and loves to optimize her client’s launches!
Her data-approach to messaging and funnels has won her clients above-industry-average results. She’s appeared on many high-profile podcasts and stages, including The Copywriter Club podcast, CopyHackers, and Jordan Gill’s Done In A Day Virtual Conference.
Connect with Nicola via Website | Instagram
Previous Episodes Mention:
Make these 4 Shifts If You Plan on Hosting Webinars Next Year [The Webinar Series Part 1] – Ep #122
The Secret to High Converting Webinars (that Actually Deliver Value) – Ep #123
My Top 3 Scripting Secrets for Authentic and Effective Webinars – Ep #124
Did you enjoy this episode? Here is some related content that you may be interested in:
- 5 Steps to Speaking on Stages to Grow Your Authority & Audience
- How to Position Your Offer to Serve Corporate with RJ Connell
- 3 Questions to ask before seeking media opportunities for your business
- How to Audit & Improve Guest Speaking Results
- How to Get Eyes on your Biz When You Don’t Have a Following
- How to boost your authority and become the go-to in your industry
Swipe my 19 irresistible phrases to make your audience red hot for your offer. Your call-to-action will never be ignored again. >>Click here to download 19 Simple Phrases that Convert
