Here's How to Write Ecommerce Copy That Sells

Growth hacking isn’t real.

You can’t 100X your revenue with a few simple tricks. Meaningful growth takes time, and a whole lotta experimentation to find out what your audience really wants.

But, if we had to choose one thing that could dramatically transform your marketing, we’d go with *drumroll please* copywriting.

Because great copy sells.

It’s what got Layla, frustrated with hair accessories that can’t handle her hair, to buy your claw clip.

It’s what got Mo, stressed about buying his first home, to click the ad for your real estate business.

And it’s what got Sam, struggling to get a promotion, to sign up for your newsletter on career growth.

In every single one of these cases, your copy is what made each person convert — taking a desired action like buying from your site, clicking your ad, or signing up for your newsletter.

But what was it, exactly, that made this copy so persuasive?

‍Its ability to make the reader feel seen, their problems understood, and like a solution (aka your business) is right at their fingertips.

Because your claw clips “won’t break in thick, curly hair.”

Because your real estate business “works with agents who’ve sold hundreds of homes despite this economic downturn.”

Because your newsletter “is made for ambitious people to find mentors and grow their careers.”

Now that you know what makes copy great, let’s break it down with some examples from our Founder, CEO, and all-around-copy-wizard, Sarah Stockdale.

Here’s how she takes “meh” copy worth reading, with copywriting principles you can put to use right away.

Let’s get into it.  

Your ecommerce copy should show customers you get them

One of my favorite apps as a new mom is called The Wonder Weeks. It's an app that tells you when your baby is going through cognitive leaps (when they're going to *freak out*) and what skills they're developing in the process. It's so great.

I pulled some copy directly from their website, and it needs some lovin', so let's get to it.

First off, friends, copyediting is key. Here we have a grammatically distressing word salad. Editing work aside, this is a stark example of copy written by and for the product team. No customer cares that you rebuilt the app, or that you updated code.

All customers want to know is, will this thing help me solve a real problem?

Let's use the formula:

1. Identify what the customer is going through

2. Bring the customer back to a moment they experienced that pain

3. Use your product or service to kill the pain

*magic wand wave* voila!

Kill your customer’s pain

Most copy is missing one key thing: pain.

People pull out their wallets to solve problems in their lives. Your copy needs to first identify the pain, then build some tension to remind your customer of how much that thing sucks, and then swoop in as the solution to their problem.

Here's a quick example for my friends at Good Food (a product I use every week and love):

‍Keep it simple, and kinda stupid

Wealthsimple takes the fear out of your finances by keeping their copy simple + clear.

When you’re writing copy for your customers, you want to talk like a real person — which, for most of us in casual conversation, is around the sixth grade level.

There’s no “we” in “customer” — but there is a “(yo)u”

I'm not gonna name this agency because all of their copy looks like this.

First off, we’re basically getting a whole laundry list of work that they do that's relatively unspecific to a user demographic. They're just talking about themselves and it's not focusing on a type of user pain. It's not even focusing on a specific niche or industry.

A landing page is a one-on-one conversation with one individual who's reading it. With this copy, you're not talking to me. You are also not telling me anything that’s unique to your marketing agency. This is what everybody says.

So let's rewrite it.

Now we’re speaking directly to why people are landing on the website of a marketing agency in the first place: because they need to sell stuff. They need marketing campaigns that bring in real revenue.

They also probably feel like they don't have enough resources, enough people or help to get things done. That could be a business owner feeling unsupported or a CMO feeling like their team is a bit thin, which is going to happen a lot right now. So we're going to identify that we are here to help these folks, the clients.

Taking that and coming back to that problem statement, I changed it to: We're here to help you sell at scale. This is what this audience will want, this is why they would come specifically to hire us for.

Talk benefits, not features

Le Tote is a clothing subscription company. This is such a fun business, but it’s struggling to communicate its value on its homepage.

By switching things up with some fun vitamin copy (aka the antidote to your pain), I wanted to really connect to a millennial demographic — giving them an instant visual that makes them feel like this is something they’ve wanted since they were a teen.

We’re also getting right into the benefits with this copy. These aren't features. This isn't explaining that you're gonna send your clothes back, which will cost this much in shipping.

‍Features are what your business does. Benefits are how you’re making your customer’s lives better.

I've also rewritten their call to action, so it connects directly to what their customer is going to want to do next. If I'm going to get clothes from you, I want to know what kind of style you got going on. I want to know what's in the closet. So show me the clothes.

This CTA is also not forcing the customer to say that they're actually going to buy something, whereas “get started” felt like I was making more of a commitment. “Show me the clothes” feels more fun, enticing and it tells me exactly what’ll happen when I click it.

Start fixing your ecommerce copy right away

Now that you know the fundamentals of powerful conversion copywriting, it’s time to put these lessons to work.

This activity is one of our favorites at Growclass, because it’s such a quick and simple way to start writing great copy that’ll actually make your customers feel seen.

And it’s as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Go to your website and copy all the text on your landing page, pasting it into a document
2. In the document, hit ctrl + F (Windows) or command + F (mac) on your keyboard to search your text for any use of the word “we”
3. Highlight those bad boys, and get to changing each of them to “you”, making your audience the star of your story (where they belong)

Copywriting is just one of the practical marketing skills you’ll learn at Growclass to build strong, focused ad campaigns that connect with your target audience and drive real sales.

It’s time to get more out of your marketing.

Visit Triple Whale for more information, tips and tools to make informed decisions for your Ecommerce business.