Persuasive Techniques for Website Copywriting

Do you remember that scene in Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope when Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi arrive in Tatooine with R2-D2 and C-3PO? Imperial Stormtroopers immediately stop them and begin asking about the droids, but Kenobi subtly waves his hand and tells the troopers, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” Much to the surprise of everyone, the troopers agree and let them go.

While Jedi Mind Tricks like this are impossible in the real world, it is possible to incorporate certain persuasive techniques into your website copywriting to achieve similar results. Plus, there are specific keywords you can use to trigger emotion in your audience.

Let’s take a look at a few techniques and keywords you can use to write more persuasive copy for your website.

Connect with Your Audience

Personal messaging is one of the keys to a good customer experience. By writing your website copy with a single reader in mind – like one friend to another – you draft language that is more engaging and personal. But to connect with them, you need to understand them.

Before you begin write a single word of copy, create a description of who they are, what they care about and the pains they’re going through. Then use this profile to write copy that resonates with them by using their language, addressing their pains and offering a solution to solve their problem. And remember, your audience doesn’t care about you or your business. They only want to know how you’re going to help them, so tell them what’s in it for them.

Persuasive trigger words that create connection and empathy include:

• You
• Join
• Help
• Discover
• Create

Build Trust

Once you’ve connected with your audience, you need to build up their trust. No one likes to get ripped off or made to look foolish. So if they’re going to invest in your solution, you need to give them assurances they’re getting a good return on their investment.

Convince them by providing proof you can do what you say you can do. Satisfy the logical side of their brain with statistics and data from experts to support your claims. For the emotional side, use social proof like testimonials from satisfied customers or partners to explain how you helped them achieve success.

Persuasive trigger words that build trust include:

• Guaranteed
• Proven
• Research
• Results
• Tested
• Secure

Address Their Objections

While people are generally trusting, skepticism still plays a significant part in our decision-making process. And since you only have so much time to reach your audience before they leave your webpage (62 seconds!), you need to address their objections before they get a chance to realize they have them.

Talk about reasons a prospect would be willing to pass on your solution and refute them by explaining how your product or service works. Then offer them a guarantee so they know if your solution doesn’t work as expected, they get something back. It gives them reassurance that you won’t be wasting their time or money.

Persuasive trigger words that address their objections include:

• Because
• Quick
• Easy
• Instantly
• Immediately
• Guarantee

Create a Sense of Urgency

Remember when you were in school and all your friends decided to go to a restaurant you didn’t like? You probably still went because you didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to be present if something fun or amazing happened. The same thing happens when you buy something just because it’s an exclusive or available for a limited time only. This is because we share a common experience known as fear of missing out.

When we feel pressured to act now or miss out on something new, most people leap before they look. They want be one of the first – part of the small, exclusive group that uses a product before anyone else. Use this desire to create a sense of urgency by leveraging your product’s exclusivity or limited availability and you’ll motivate them to buy it now.

Persuasive trigger words that create a sense of urgency include:

• Now
• Limited Time
• Limited Edition
• Short Supply
• Exclusive
• Latest
• Only Available
• Today

Tell a Story

Ever since humans learned to express themselves, we’ve been telling stories. In addition to entertainment, stories explain the world around us and teach valuable lessons. When done in copywriting, you can highlight one of your customer’s challenges and show how your solution solved it.

In addition, by using sensory adjectives like dark, bitter, fragrant, smooth, loud, etc., you bring your audience into your story by making them see, taste, smell, feel and hear the experience you’re describing, helping them relate to it on a much deeper level.

Persuasive trigger words that help you tell a story include:

• Imagine
• Picture This
• What if…?

By utilizing these persuasive techniques and using trigger words, you write copy that has a much higher chance of engaging your audience. Then you can easily convert them from prospects to customers.

If you’d like to talk about how persuasive copywriting improves your website’s ability to pull in more customers, drop me a line. I’d be happy to walk you through some basic steps.

And if you need help writing website copy that connects with you audience, just click here and send me an email.

Until next time,