5 Quick and Easy Ways to Make Your Copy More Conversational Nick Usborne © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. 5 Quick and Easy Ways to Make Your Writing More Conversational Nick Usborne © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. Introduction Welcome to the conversation! Stick with me for a few short pages, and you’ll learn some powerful ways to make your sales and content writing more conversational. Of course, being conversational isn’t the final outcome we’re looking for. Being conversational is just the starting point. It’s your springboard to building more engagement with your audience, increasing levels of trust, and driving more sales. It’s about building relationships. If you think about it, all strong relationships begin with a conversation… whether you’re at a job interview or on a first date! Let’s jump in and get started. Nick Usborne ConversationalCopywriting.com © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. 1. Visualize yourself in conversation with one person. On the road to being more conversational, step one is simply to change your mindset. Close your eyes and visualize yourself in conversation with an individual in your audience. Imagine you’re talking to them one-on-one, eye-to-eye, across your kitchen table. So instead of writing AT a broad, anonymous audience of strangers, imagine you’re close enough reach out and actually touch a single reader. How would your language change? How “salesy” would you be? Or would you dial that back if you were in a room with someone? And what else might you change? Do This Now: Find some sales copy on your website, take a close look at the language, and ask yourself if you’d use the same kind of language one-on-one over the kitchen table. If not, change it. Find out more about the Conversational Copywriting course… © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. 2. Stop trying to write persuasive arguments. The harder you try to change your reader’s mind, the greater the resistance you’ll encounter. We’ve all experienced this when we get into an argument with a friend or colleague. The harder we push, the greater the resistance and pushback. And there’s a ton of neuroscience to support this. When you sell AT someone, it triggers a response in the amygdala, the fight or flight part of the brain. And when that happens, your readers back off and stop paying attention. This means you should rely less on the supposed power of “persuasion”. Instead, present your product or service in a way that shows how it can add value to the life or business of your reader. Do This Now: Find text in your sales materials that is particularly pushy and salesy. Now find a way to rewrite that so it feels less like selling and more like being of service to your audience. Find out more about the Conversational Copywriting course… © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. 3. Help your readers feel included. You probably have a friend or colleague who’s really bad at holding a good conversation. He rarely stops talking. And when you do manage to get a word in edgeways, he ignores what you say and keeps pushing his own ideas. You feel annoyed and disrespected. Well, the same thing happens with written sales copy. Bad copy just charges forward, leaving no space for readers to feel themselves included. Conversational copy does things differently. It invites the reader to participate… through her own imagination. How can you do this? Here are a couple of quick ways. Ask more questions. Questions invite the reader to think and become part of the process. Or tell stories the reader can relate to. “Yep, that’s happened to me too.” Do This Now: Review your sales copy and make it less dogmatic. Add questions and relatable stories, so your readers feel more included and respected during the sales process. Find out more about the Conversational Copywriting course… © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. 4. Make your paragraphs and sentences shorter. This is one of those quick and easy tips you doubtless already know about. At least, you’ve heard about it within the context of using shorter paragraphs and sentences to make your text easy to read. But writing in shorter blocks isn’t just about readability. It’s also about being conversational. When you’re talking with a friend you don’t talk in long, compound sentences. You don’t use fancy words, jargon or overly salesy language. You talk in short sentences, with short words. You keep things simple. In fact, using simple language is how we connect best with one another in the real world. It’s how we get to know each other and build relationships. Do This Now: Go through all your digital sales materials and look for places where the sentences and paragraphs look too long to be conversational. Then dig in and start editing and rewriting. Find out more about the Conversational Copywriting course… © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. 5. Stop freaking out about grammar. This follows on from the last tip. While you’re making your paragraphs and sentences shorter, go easy on some of the more formal rules of grammar. You don’t have to overdo it. And no, this isn’t about dumbing anything down. This is about sounding conversational. Grammar can be incredibly helpful when writing for business. It helps us communicate clearly and accurately on paper. But when we’re in conversation? Not so much. Loosen up a little. Remember, being conversational is all about engaging with your reader and building trust. And that isn’t going to happen if you come over as being overly stiff and formal in the way you write. Do This Now: While you’re shortening your sentences and paragraphs, give everything a second pass with an eye to being less obsessive about the rules of grammar. Find out more about the Conversational Copywriting course… © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. Wrapping it up… None of this has been rocket science, right? Nothing too complicated. Nothing that we can’t do if we make the decision to get it done. Just by making these 5 simple changes to your sales copy and web content, you can create a cascading effect that will have a huge impact on your business. Without conversations there are no relationships. Without relationships, there is no trust. And without trust, there are no sales. It all begins with conversation. That’s why I created a full course on Conversational Copywriting... with 21 video lectures, a growing list of bonus materials, and an active community of students and alumni. Take the course and you’ll become a conversational ninja, for you own business, or for you clients. I hope to meet you on the inside! Find out more about the Conversational Copywriting course… © Copyright Nick Usborne. All rights reserved.
