Do you say this on your copywriter website? (Ps – don't!)

An edited version of this content originally featured on my LinkedIn page. To read these tips as I release them, come and connect over here!

If you’re a freelance copywriter, I bet somewhere on your website you use the immortal words:

‘Copy that converts’

It appears on almost every copywriter site I’ve ever reviewed.

🙋Sound familiar?!

Think back to your last 3 clients.

How many of them asked you for ‘copy that converts’?

❌ In 14 years, I’ve never heard those words from a client.

When you’re writing your own website copy, ditch the clichés! Stop sounding like everyone else!

(Particularly if you’re not actually applying the research/measuring/testing techniques of true conversion copy and instead are writing blogs.)

Approach your own copy the same way you would a client project: Research your customers, understand their voice, and use *that same language* in your copy.

What if your clients do ask for copy that converts?

It’s fair to say that when I posted this on LinkedIn, a few people were rattled. They said, ‘But all clients want copywriting work to lead to increased conversion rates.’

Sure. But if the best way to connect with prospects is joining the conversation already in their mind, in my experience, nobody is thinking ‘I want copy that converts’. To them it’s jargon.

So why do we say it so often? Because it’s become a reassuring, well-worn phrase that everyone uses. And when your website copy has already taken 3 years to write, it feels like a safe option (and less cringeworthy to simply follow the crowd). It’s not laziness as much as a fear of standing out.

A huge caveat to this, of course, is if your clients are asking you for ‘copy that converts’. If that’s the phrase you’ve discovered they’re searching for, or that’s the language they use when they first get in touch, then YES that’s exactly the right phrase to use.

But if they’re not, what do you say instead on your website? Look back at what your last few clients asked for in their initial enquiry.

For example, of the last two companies I’ve started working with, one started by saying, ‘[Our current copy] doesn’t sound like us at all’.

The other said ‘Prospects often don’t understand what we do, and we think we’ve already explained it properly’.

Those were the reasons they were looking for a copywriter, so if they’d seen that language on my website, it would’ve connected with them. Offering them copy that converts would’ve meant nothing.

Only you know what your clients ask for though! That’s where the research comes in.

Looking for extra support in your freelance copywriting business? I’d love to help – just get in touch for a chat.