95: How business owners can boost sales by 40% with a simpler message
Want to turn your complicated and confusing copy into simple, powerful messages that create sales? I have you covered.
This episode of ill communication is the final episode in the mini-series on simplicity in sales and I share some powerful insights and trends I'm seeing in online marketing and sales.
In particular, you'll hear about the curse of TMI (too much information) and how that alone can hinder your sales.
I also share with you a few simple changes I made in some sales copy that led to a 40% boost in sales, which brought in an additional $100,000 in revenue for a client.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
A true example of how simplifying your message can give your profits a powerful boost
The simple rule that will stop your readers from suffering from TMI
How a simpler message helped me generate a 40% increase in revenue for my client
It takes time and effort to make things shorter and simpler, but when you do, you will have a more powerful and effective message.
It is not easy to do, but my friend, that's why I'm here! If you want help crafting a simpler, but more effective message that drives sales, email me to explore the different ways I can support you at hello@kimkiel.com.
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[00:00:03] Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and change makers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hello. Hello and welcome back to the Ill Communication Podcast. It's episode 95. What the what? I can't believe we're inching our way closer to 100. Anyway, today is the final episode in the mini series on simplicity in sales and copy. Now, just to remind you, episode 93 gave you a copy quickie to simplify sales. It was a simple sales copy recipe that packs a punch. Episode 94 I shared how a simple and ugly Google doc helped my client make $150,000. In just a couple of weeks, I broke down why? We chose a simple Google Doc as your sales mechanism and the other simple elements that led to easier sales. And today I'm sharing some powerful insights and trends I'm seeing in online marketing and sales. And in particular, you'll hear about the curse of TMI, too much information, and how that alone can hinder your sales. I'm going to share with you a few simple changes I made in some sales copy that led to a 40% boost in sales, which brought in an additional $100,000 in revenue for a client.
[00:02:01] So this particular client came to me after launching their online program for several years. It was a proven offer. Lots of happy customers. They'd previously sold hundreds and hundreds of seats in their program every time they launched. But last year, their sales slumped, which I mean, honestly happened to many of us. But their sales emails in particular were not converting. When they looked at the data in ConvertKit, they could see they got zero sales from the 10 to 15 emails they'd sent during a launch. Their sales page wasn't converting as high as it could either. Now, the first thing I do when I work with a client is I dive into customer research. I want to find out what the customer is saying they want. I want to find out how they explain their problems and struggles. Now, when I dug into the research for this particular client, I discovered their customers were looking for a blueprint, a roadmap, a simple plan. They wanted more sales and they wanted those sales to come more easily. They struggled with trying too many things all at once, and they were overwhelmed by all the different aspects of running a product based business. They wanted more ease and more simplicity in their life. And then I looked at my client's sales page, and it was pretty obvious to me what the big disconnect was.
[00:03:26] Their solution did not appear simple or easy. The sales page was drowning in too much detail and too much information about each module inside the curriculum and all the bonuses. And yes, it had lots of testimonials, which are great, but it also included testimonials from their podcast which truly wasn't needed, especially for a proven product like this. The sales page was missing the focus on the outcome of what the customer wanted, which was more sales and more ease, and instead it was focusing on all the different channels or all the ways you could get more sales. So focusing on all these different channels and revenue streams rather than on the bigger picture, created a feeling of overwhelm. It did not feel easy or simple. To optimize the sales page, I opted for simpler language. I honed in on what the customer struggled with and presented the offer as the solution to that. I painted a picture of what life would be like for the customer after they were in the program. And in each section where the curriculum is described, I shrunk down the copy from about ten bullets per module to just 3 or 4. Because here's the thing the customer already feels overwhelmed. That's why they're on this page looking for a solution. But if I'm on a page and I'm feeling overwhelmed by looking at your offer, I'm not going to buy it. This customer is time strapped, and the way the modules were presented made it appear like you'd need so much time and energy just to get through the content.
[00:05:13] So I simplified how they presented the curriculum and course content and focused on the outcomes of the content rather than the details of the content itself. Just that change alone made the sales page and the offer feel easier, breezier, and more effective. I took out the unnecessary podcast testimonials and stayed focused on the testimonials and case studies from the offer that you were selling, and I highlighted that the offer would give the customer the blueprint, the roadmap, the plan that would create those easy sales and growth. Once. I was happy with those few updates to the sales page. Then I tackled the sales emails. These sales emails had been written over a number of different launches by a few different writers, including the two founders, which meant that each email was a mish mash of different ideas. A single email would talk about the details of the offer, and then all the bonuses, and have a case study and tackle an objection, and then have lots of emojis and GIFs. And each email was trying to do too many things at once, and as a result, they weren't effective. And they weren't effective because they weren't following the rule of one. The rule of one is an important principle to keep in mind in copywriting, and especially sales emails, because it reminds us that the copy we're writing should have one big idea, one reader, one promise, and one call to action.
[00:06:46] One email should do one thing, not seven things. I did record an episode all about the rule of one, so I'll link to that in the show notes. You can go back and listen to it. My strategy for these sales emails was to really follow the rule of one and let each email do one job really well. Whether that one job was to tackle objections or share details of the offer or future pace, or reduce risk, or to share new bonus by simplifying the emails, the reader wouldn't be suffering from TMI. Each email had a simpler but more powerful message, and when stacked together, all the emails would create a persuasive arc that led to the sales. So what happened in this launch? Well, sales went up by 40%. The data showed people were clicking from the emails onto the sales page and making a sale. They even had a few sales before the doors even opened, because I also helped them create a strategic pre-launch content plan to further drive home these simple messages that 40% translated into an extra 100 K in sales by leveraging a simpler, more powerful, more focused message. But my friend, make no mistake, writing simpler, more straightforward messages with less copy is actually harder than writing a longer copy. Mark Twain is often cited as saying, I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. Side note the origins of this quote is actually attributed to the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, whose original quote translates to I haven't made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.
[00:08:37] It takes time and effort to make things shorter and more simple, but when you do, you will have a more powerful and effective message. It is not easy to do, but my friend, that's why I'm here. If you need help to turn your complicated and confusing copy into simple, powerful messages that create sales, please reach out to me. There are a few different ways I can help you do just that, and make sure you go back and listen to episodes 93 and 94. For practical and tactical ways, you can apply this simplicity principle to your sales copy. That's it for me today. I'll be back here again next week with another simple copy hack, writing prompt or sales strategy. I'll see you then. And that's a wrap on today's episode of Ill Communication. Hey, if you're picking up what I'm putting down, I would love if you would leave a rating and a review to let me know. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss out on the tips, prompts, and strategies I share in every episode. They're designed to make you an ill communicator too. As always, you can check out all the links and resources from this episode on the web page. Just head over to Khimky compered cast. I'll chat with you again next week.
Resources Mentioned
Listen to episode 93 for a copy quickie to simplify your sales
Listen to episode 94 and learn how you can make $150K with an ugly Google Doc
Listen to episode 15 to learn how to simplify copywriting and get more sales
Additional Resources
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