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AMY PORTERFIELD:
Well, hey, there. Welcome back to another episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast. I’m your host, Amy Porterfield. So, today we are talking about copywriting. Specifically, I'm going to share with you a copywriting technique that I have learned from one of the best in the best, Ry Schwartz, who happens to write a lot of my copy as well, but he teaches copywriting. And, essentially, what I'm going to teach you today is a style of copywriting that makes the whole process a whole lot easier, because let's be real—writing copy can be tough.
In my early days, the first few years of building my business, I would sit down to write copy, and when I was writing it from scratch, I wanted to come out of my skin. Can I get an “amen,” if you can totally relate. Like, I felt scratchy and anxious and overwhelmed and totally unequipped to write copy like I had seen everybody else writing copy. And little did I know, they'd been writing it for 10 years, and I was just starting out. Again, you can't compare your business to other people—ever—but especially not those who have been doing it for a really long time. But I used to do that all the time, and I could never match up to what they were doing.
But here's the deal. When I started to study copywriting—I think we all should be a student of copywriting—when I started to study it, and then started to do it more and more and more, it did become easier, just like everything else in our business. So if you're struggling with it, I want to let you know that it does get easier.
Now, today I'm going to talk to you about writing copy in a non-traditional style. The method is called Coaching the Conversion, and it's all about writing copy in a way that will resonate with your ideal customer avatar at a really high level and will meet them right where they're at. It will help them feel as though they know you see them and you hear them. So again, it's called Coaching the Conversion, and this was created by Ry Schwartz, who has written a lot of my copy, and again, he teaches copywriting, and people in my audience absolutely love him.
So it's going to help you with the flow as well as help you convert more potential customers into paying customers. We use this copywriting method in all of my promotions, and it has directly contributed to millions of dollars in sales. You'll see: it works, and it's easier than you think.
So today I'm going to break this copywriting method down into four steps so you'll be able to take what you learn and immediately apply it to your next round of promotional emails, Facebook ads, sales pages, whatever it is that you're working on.
But before we get there, a quick listener shout out. This one is from someone who signed it Entrepreneur with Sparkles. So, she said:
“Amy is an incredible and relatable teacher. I absolutely love this podcast. Amy has taught me so, so much with all of her free and invaluable content. I apply many techniques suggested by Amy, and I am now officially a student in her new Digital Course Academy®️. Thank you for teaching me all the things marketing.”
Well, Entrepreneur with Sparkles, first of all, love your name. Thank you so much for being a part of my community, being a loyal listener to the podcast, and taking it up a notch in joining Digital Course Academy®️. I am delighted that you are part of our community inside of that course as well. So, shout out to you. Keep moving forward in doing what you’re doing to reach those big, bold goals that you’ve set for yourself.
Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into the Coaching the Conversion method. Now, my students of Digital Course Academy®️, you've already gotten a taste of this because, as you know, in module five, Ry Schwartz teaches you how to write copy for your sales page so that you can promote your course. So inside Digital Course Academy®️, there are multiple videos about how to write copy for a sales page, and it definitely does include this method of Coaching the Conversion. So whether you're my student or not, you're going to walk away today with golden copyrighting nuggets that will have the power to transform your next promotion.
Okay, so, to be fully transparent, I'm in a place now in my business where I hire copywriters, obviously. I've already told you that Ry has written much of my copy. But I want to be really clear. In my early years, years one, two, three, even moving into four, I wrote all my own copy. And I think it's important that you do for at least the first two years of your business. I don't think you should hire a copywriter in the first few years of your business. The reason for that is you need to truly understand your ideal customer. Writing copy for your ideal customer, it's an intimate experience, and it really should begin with you. And you can bet that it's going to make you a better entrepreneur and a better communicator overall if you really take the time to perfect this area of expertise. So, first, I just want to put that out there, that I think you should be writing your own copy before you hire a copywriter. Now, let's move into the magic of Coaching the Conversion to help you do so.
First of all, when using this method, you've got to understand that the person that is reading your Facebook ad, your promo email, or your sales page, in essence, is different than the person who is ready to buy. So, you heard me. The person that is reading your sales page is different than the person that is ready to buy. Why? Because in order for you to move someone from being a potential customer to an actual paying customer, they've got to come to the point where your copy is actually eliciting statements, like, “I can do this. This is doable. This is precisely what I've been looking for. I really need this.”
Now, that's not going to happen right from the get-go. So that's what I'm talking about in terms of a transformation. This transformation process begins the minute that a person enters your funnel or lays eyes on your Facebook ad or starts to scan your sales page. And it's your job as the coach of the conversion, a.k.a. the transformation—so conversion and transformation, they go hand-in-hand here—to guide them in making important mindset shifts around what they currently believe and also making some small commitments along the way to themselves, in order to move from perspective customer to paying customer. So think of it this way. What's the one thing your ideal customer must ultimately know, understand, want, or believe in order to buy your program? Let me say that one more time, and really take a few minutes to think about this. What's the one thing your ideal customer must ultimately know, understand, want, or believe in order to buy your program? Because if we went out there and ran a Facebook ad to a cold audience, you're likely not going to grab the attention of a bunch of people that already believe that they need your product, or already have a full understanding of what they need and what they want and where they're going, or ultimately what they're going after. That's the Coaching the Conversion. It takes a little time to get them there.
Okay, so, as you know, I'm a step-by-step kind of girl, and that's how I like to teach. So I'm going to walk you through this process of Coaching the Conversion in four steps, and I'm going to give you some examples along the way. Ultimately, at the end, I'm going to read to you one of my most successful Facebook ads that I used in my recent Digital Course Academy®️ launch. It was the best of the best in all the ads that I ran, and I want to share with you how we wrote that copy in the style of Coaching the Conversion. And on my show notes, if you go to amyporterfield.com/266, you can actually see that ad, if you want to go back and read it yourself. I'm going to read it here and walk you through it, but also, I put it in the show notes. Amyporterfield.com/266.
Okay, so, step number one, get your mind right. So this is about you, not about your potential customer. In order to actually put this method into action as a copywriter, you've got to shift your mindset around how you feel about being a copywriter, because we are all copywriters in our own business. We don't have to be professional copywriters like Ry Schwartz, but we all are copywriters. And so if you're telling yourself, “I am terrible at writing e-mail copy,” or, “I am terrible at writing any copy for a sales page,” or, “I can't write. I'm just not a good copywriter,” if you continue to put that out in the universe, you are fostering fear and overwhelm and a crippling, limiting belief that is very hard to turn around. Believe me. It's a new day when you look at copywriting as a means to coach your ideal customer through a transformation by using words that make them feel seen and heard. That's what Coaching the Conversion is all about. Let me say it one more time. When you write copy as a means to coach your ideal customer through a transformation by writing words that make them feel seen and heard, you are coaching the conversion. This is doable, my friend. You can do this. It just takes a little time to get used to. So, this style of copywriting is intimate, and it’s super helpful to your ideal customer avatar, and it can actually be a lot of fun.
I want you to write your next batch of copy, and afterwards, I want you to think or feel like, “Wow. That actually flowed pretty easily. That actually was a lot of fun to write.” You can get there, I promise you. So let's take the phrase “I am not good at writing copy” out of your vocabulary. Deal? Okay. Instead, I want you to replace it with something like this, “I am capable of understanding my audience and talking to them in a way that resonates deeply with them. As long as I stick with this new style of Coaching the Conversion and keep experimenting and learning how to write good copy, it will become a powerful tool in my marketing tool box.” I think you need to use that as your mantra. Just repeat that every single day. Guys, when you understand how to write for your ideal customer avatar, everything becomes easier, because, think about it, everything is copy—social-media posts, emails, sales pages, opt-in pages, thank-you pages, video scripts, everything is copy.
So I really hope you embrace this. Even if you're just getting started with writing copy for different things in your business, this is a really good place to start. Okay, so, mindset is always the first thing to tweak, and it's powerful, my friend. So we've got to get our mind right around writing copy.
Number two, know your ideal customer avatar like you know your best friend. I know, I know. You've heard me say this a million times. I wouldn't say it a million times if it wasn't something that I know you're struggling with. I know you don't know your ideal customer avatar as well as you could. The reason for that is we never stop learning. So if you feel like you do and you're good to go, you can learn more. If you feel like you're struggling, you can definitely know more.
So, as I mentioned, the copy you're going to be crafting will help your ideal customer avatar feel seen and heard. In order to do that, you've got to really know them well. We're talking, knowing those intimate details that they don't typically share online. It's not necessarily black and white; sometimes you need to read between the lines. So let me give you an example.
When writing copy for my own ideal customer avatar, somebody who has not purchased my program yet, when I'm writing copy for them, I often tell my potential customer that it's okay that they’ve likely purchased training programs in the past that they've never finished or they haven't even cracked open. I tell them that they need to just shake that off and that it's normal, and it happens to all of us, and they should not let that stop them from going after what they truly want to make happen in their business. It’s almost like I give my ideal customer avatar permission to forgive themselves for buying programs in the past and getting zero results from them because they actually didn't put the effort to do them. And I also take away the shame and the embarrassment of that, because although my ideal avatar might not write, “I am so embarrassed for buying courses in the past and not doing anything with them,” they might not write that exact sentence, although, for the record, some of my students have. But even if they don't write that, they'll talk about, like, “I don't know if I have time for another course,” or, “This is really expensive. I just don't know if I have the money.”
And I know that if they've been around for a while, they've laid down money for a course and they never got results from it because they never did the work, not because the course didn’t work. I know this about my audience because I've listened for many, many, many years. So I say, “Let's forgive ourselves for the courses we've purchased in the past and done nothing with. Let's just know that that is normal. That happens to all of us. And today is a new day. And I will not let that happen to you again when you join my course.” So I put it out there.
So, before you write a single word of copy, you’ve got to clearly understand their pain points, their desires, and what makes them tick. And also, when you get really good, what they're not saying but you can read between the lines, because once you do that, they will feel seen and heard at a whole new level.
Now, if you're not certain, I want you to go back to my episode that I've done in the past. It was episode 235 on identifying your ideal customer avatar. I help you get started with really understanding their pain points and reading between the lines and just really getting who they are. So amyporterfield.com/235. If you feel like you don't know your audience and you can't use the words they use and get into their head, we’ve just got to do some work, and that's okay. So episode 235.
Okay. So, now we're going to move on to step number three, use their words. So, remember when you were little and your mom would say, “Stop whining. Use your words”? Okay, maybe that was just me, but my mom would say it all the time. Now, I’m telling you as a marketer, you need to use their words, of your ideal customer avatar. It’s important that you reflect back to them what they are feeling and what they are saying. So what words do they actually use when they talk about their pain or their challenges or what they really want, their desires? Keep a running list of these words on your smartphone, in a Google Doc, wherever you want, because if you use their words and their phrases, it’s like pure gold for copywriting.
So when you hear someone respond to something you've written, and they say, “Oh my gosh. It's like you're in my head,”—ding, ding, ding, ding, ding—you just did it. You were able to communicate in a way that you used the words they use, whether they're thinking it or saying it out loud, you did that so much so that they're like, “Are you in my head?” My favorite DM I get on Instagram is someone will say, “Amy, your podcast episode today, it's like you're in my house, listening to me complain about where I'm struggling in my business.” Guys, I hear that all the time. So when you start to hear that, you know you're on to something, so pay attention. Cool? Okay. So you've got to use their words. When you're Coaching the Conversion, when you're saying, “Look, I see you, I hear you,” you've got to use the words that they're using, or it won't resonate. See how that works?
Okay. Step four, remember that Coaching the Conversion walks your potential customer along a path from where they are now to where they could be or where they want to be. It's not one and done. This is not a one-and-done kind of thing. Here's a good visual to show you a snapshot of your coaching path and where your ICA is entering in along the way, because it doesn't just happen from the first word you write.
The first part of the path is through your weekly content, your weekly original content—your blog, your podcast episode, or your video show. So that's what I call the content platform, whatever one you're choosing to use, that's where Coaching the Conversion should start. And so you're building that know, like, and trust factor.
And then, when you go around the bend on that path just a little bit, you begin, let's say, a promotion. Maybe you're going to start putting out pre-launch content, and then you're going to invite people to a webinar, and then on your webinar you're going to sell your digital course. So in that pre-launch content, maybe your Facebook ads or your Facebook Lives or Instagram Stories, where you're starting to talk about the topic you'll eventually sell, that's where you start to even-lay this in deeper.
And then, of course, when you’re going around that bend even more and you’re on the path of Coaching the Conversion, you’re going to kick up that coaching because you’re going to invite people, let’s say, to a webinar. This is how I teach, so I'm just using a framework of how I teach. So when you're inviting people to a webinar in a Facebook ad, you're kicking up that Coaching the Conversion method. And on a webinar, you're really doing it. You will be amazed how many coaching opportunities you have on a webinar, Coaching the Conversion opportunities, I mean.
And so, you all know inside Digital Course Academy®️—I've talked about this a bunch; my students know this, module five—I walk you through the profitable webinar framework. There's a lot of Coaching the Conversion methods inside how I teach it, in module five of Digital Course Academy®️. So during the course, you know where it is. Okay, so, on a webinar, if you're not learning from me but you're doing webinars, think of this Coaching the Conversion. Think about how you can put their words back on them in a webinar. Think about how you can really bring to light that elephant in the room, something they're thinking right now that could be an obstacle in the actual conversion. When you're Coaching the Conversion, you're bringing up those obstacles, and you're making them known. You're talking about them. So, just something to think about there for your webinars.
And then, of course, the all-important post-webinar follow-up emails. So after a webinar, I encourage all my students to send out emails to anybody who has not yet purchased. If they didn't purchase on the webinar, they'll likely still purchase after a webinar. So there's a lot of Coaching the Conversion in the email copy after a webinar as well. So I wanted to put that out there so you kind of could see where it shows up. It shows up everywhere. It shows up everywhere. And as you get better at this, it's going to become more natural.
Okay, so, to really make things clear about how to implement these Coaching the Conversion strategies, let me give you a concrete example from an actual Facebook ad that I used during my last promotion for Digital Course Academy®️. So it was one of the highest-converting ads that we've ever ran. And I'm going to read the Facebook ad through once, and then I'm going to break it down for you. So listen carefully as I read it, and then, let me walk you through kind of chunk by chunk to show you what I did there. Good? Okay. So here we go:
“How long have you been waiting to finally have the confidence to go all-in on building and selling your digital course? Six months? A year? More? It took me a while to get started, too. I was scared I'd fail. And guess what. I pretty much did. My first course only made me $267. But I stuck with it, and seven courses; 42,000 students; and $8.7 million dollars in revenue later, I’ve learned a thing or two, and I want to share all that with you. Join me at my upcoming free master class, The 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Digital Course Success in 2019 and Beyond. I'll teach you the right way to get started and how to produce more profits if you already have a course of your own. Register for free here.”
and then I give the link. Okay, so let's kind of break this down. First sentence, “How long have you been waiting to finally have the confidence to go all-in on building and selling your digital course? Six months? A year? More? It took me a while to get started, too. I was scared I'd fail.” So right away I am saying, “I get you. I know you don't have the confidence to jump in. I know you've been waiting, and I know that you've had this on your mind for a long time.” And then I say, “I've been there, too. I totally get it.” So not only are they seen and heard, but also, they are not alone. And that's important. If it's true—you have to stay in integrity here—but if it's true, you let them know that you've been there with them.
And then from there, I gave proof. I said, “Look, my first course, I only made $267.” So I let them know, like, “Let me tell you, in the early days it was rough. I totally get it. But I stuck with it.”
So now, in this next section, I move into telling them what's possible, because I say, “But I stuck with it, and seven courses; 42,000 students; and $8.7 million dollars in revenue later, I have learned a thing or two.” So I let them know here's what's possible: $267 on my first course, millions of dollars later. So that is important as well that you move them into “Look, it doesn't have to be this hard.” And also, because I've had big results, I can share with them, “Look, I can be your guide. I've gone before you. I've been in the trenches. I get it.”
And then from there, I invite them to learn through some behind-the-scenes secrets to get them started with creating their courses and launching their courses online. And then when my ICA signs up for my webinar, they, of course, get pre-webinar emails where I continue to coach the conversion. This is just a little blip, just a little start, and I wanted to show you what it would look like. Again, this entire ad is at amyporterfield.com/266, if you want to read it one more time.
I love what my copywriter, Ry, shares about this process of Coaching the Conversion. He says, “No one wakes up with their credit card in hand, excited to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars. It requires a shift in belief, attitude, and understanding to break through the inertia and catalyze that transformation between prospect and buyer.” Ry, so well said, friend. So well said.
So where are you as a guide on the Coaching the Conversion path? Maybe you're just starting out. Maybe you're just starting to create your weekly consistent content. Keep putting that out there. This is where little by little you'll start to learn more about your audience, and you can experiment with the Coaching the Conversion method in your weekly original content. You're in such a great place because you get to listen to what your ideal customer avatar is sharing with you, how they're engaging with your content, what they're saying on social. This is your playing ground. This is where you start to learn the words they're using, how they're talking about their pain points, their desires, their challenges, and you get to put that back on them when you start to write your copy.
Now, maybe you're about to launch or you just finished a launch. How can you take what you learned today and tweak your current or future promotional copy to coach the conversion? Wherever you are in your journey, if you really pay attention to this method of Coaching the Conversion when you're writing your copy, I promise you, it makes it easier, the flow becomes second nature to you, and you actually could enjoy the copywriting process. All you need to do is keep experimenting, keep trying it out, and keep listening to your ideal customer avatar.
Okay, so, there you have it. Next time you sit down to write copy, I want you to really, really dig deep and ask yourself, do you understand your ideal customer avatar? Do you know where they are right now in their journey, what they're saying, what they're feeling? And what do you need to do, what do you need to write, in order to let them know, “I see you, I hear you, I understand you, and I know what you're thinking right now”? Remember, we're coaching the conversion. That takes some time. So give yourself the space and time to walk them through that path to get to the point that they want to buy.
Okay. If you haven't done so already, subscribe to this podcast. iTunes, Spotify, I Heart Radio, wherever you listen, just click that subscribe button, and you won't miss an episode.
And finally, for next week's episode we're going to talk about how to get clear on what you're known for. I think it's important that when someone says, “What do you do? What are you known for,” that you have absolute clarity. Surprisingly, most people don't, especially if you're just starting out. So many times, I'll go to a networking event, and someone will come up to me and they want to just introduce themselves, say hello or maybe take a selfie. And afterwards, I'll say, “So, what do you do? What do you do in your business?” And sometimes I get total blank stares or just like nervousness around the topic. And I thought, “I've seen this enough times that I think we need to address it. I think I need to give you some tips and tricks so that you're very clear what you're known for and how to communicate that to your ideal customer avatar so that they can share what you're all about with other people that need to know what you are putting out there.” So it's going to help you get more traffic to all of your content if others in your audience can talk about you easily and suggest you to their friends and to their peers and to other people that need to find you. So it's going to help you attract more traffic to your website, to your content, to everything else you're doing. So I will see you here, same time, same place next week, and let's talk about what you're known for and how to best communicate that so we can get more traffic to your website. All right, guys, I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now.
