Conversion is the point at which your reader takes the action you want them to take.
Click, buy, whatever. If they were something before you started, and you changed them into something else, congratulations… You’ve got a conversion on your hands.
Maybe you knew that.
But did you know there are four C’s of conversion?
Without them, you won’t get anywhere with your copywriting.
Your link will go unclicked.
Your buy button, unpushed.
And your sad little wallet will be lighter for it.
Captivated
To get anywhere with anybody, you first need to get them to pay attention.
This is what your headline is for.
Without promising a captivating reason to keep reading, you’ll lose your reader.
(And your conversion, obviously.)
Did you know that 80% of readers don’t make it past the headline?
Kind of puts in perspective how important those few words actually are.
Connected
All things being equal, people buy from those they know, like, and trust.
This KLT relationship is harder to create online, which is why your copy has to work overtime to make readers feel connected to your message.
And to do that, you’ll need to answer a LOT of unspoken questions they have.
Who are you?
What are you offering?
Why should I pay attention?
Why should I believe you?
What happens after I do what you want me to do?
All of these questions that are getting in the way of your conversion. Ignore them at your peril.
Committed
There’s one more question readers have that I didn’t mention above:
“Why do I need this now?”
And you’d better answer it. Fast.
Because unless your reader is committed to the idea of change—or you can get them committed before they leave the page…
You guessed it. Bye-bye, conversion.
Maybe they need to act because time is running out. Maybe because you only have 12 spots left. Maybe because your product costs $100 and you’re offering $10,000 worth of free stuff with it and they’d be DUMB not to take you up on your offer.
Here’s the bottom line: your reader won’t convert until you stack the pain of taking action against the pain of not doing anything—and it makes perfect sense that taking action would hurt less.
Convinced
Finally, your reader needs to be convinced that what you’re asking them to do is simple, sensible, and safe. (The 3 S’s of the 4 C’s?)
For this reason, you need to build a lot of proof into your offer.
Proof that it’s simple to get the value they want.
(Use benefit-driven language here, in comparisons that are reframed against the alternative to converting.)
Proof that your product or service does what it says on the box, and that buying it is a sensible thing to do.
(This is easy to establish with testimonials from other happy people like your reader.)
And finally, proof that it’s safe to take action.
(Here’s where your guarantee comes in.)
Simple, sensible, safe—these three things by themselves won’t guarantee a conversion.
But without ticking these boxes, you can be sure to lose one.