Selling? I would highly recommend that you hire a copywriter. But for those of you who like to go at it alone this article is for you.

Lately, I’ve been sharing how to set up your evergreen products and that you should use ThriveCart to help you launch.


I shared a case study about my work with James Laurin who made thousands of dollars with a simple PDF and ThriveCart all from my conversation with him in the LinkedIn DMs.


I feel, though, I would be doing you a disservice if all it took was just a ThriveCart sign up and a PDF document. There is one part that’s missing that could get you results like James did. And that’s using direct conversion copywriting on your landing page to get the readers to click the purchase button.


I'm no expert

As you may know, I’m not a copywriting expert. I would highly recommend that you hire a copywriter for this kind of job. It would save you time and money (yes, money). To me, if you go with talent, they will bring in the revenue for you. If you do it yourself, without an expert, you could be spending a lot of time and wasted dollars trying to figure it out.


But for those of you who like to go at it alone or not in a position to invest at the moment. This article is for you!


A conversation with Doug

I asked one of my friends from LinkedIn to help me with this article, because I’m not a copywriter. Doug Lawson is a content marketer who helps small businesses and entrepreneurs scale with content. And he’s got a lot of background in direct response copywriting (which is a fancy way of saying: writing for the purpose of influencing people to buy right at the moment they read the copy).


Here is what he had to say…


Formulas

Most of copywriting is following formulas  (time tested formulas) and using them to leverage human drives (love, money, security, time, pain/pleasure) to get them to take action on them. The key here is that copywriting doesn’t make a desire, it drives what you’re already feeling to a particular place (i.e. the purchase button).


(You need to know exactly what your avatar desires before you write. Don’t make assumptions. Look at reviews of similar products, look at DM questions you’ve gotten in the past, look at what people are complaining about or expressing dissatisfaction with)


For landing pages, the goal here is to get them to buy your product within minutes. Not to have them leave and come back, or even worse, leave and forget.


Here’s a simple formula that copy rookies can follow to make your landing page work for you.


AIDA


Attention. Interest. Desire. Action.


This is a formula that must go in order. Rearranging the formula kills its effectiveness. Each step in the formula is building up their desire quickly so they can feel compelled to act today.


Attention.


Your headline must have a strong hook. It needs to grab the reader’s attention right away. Without their attention, they are not going to read the rest of the copy.


Hooks can be provocative. They can be curiosity drivers. They can give the “huh?” factor. They can go straight to exactly what the reader wants.


The point is to get them to stay on the page and move on to the next sequence.


For the sake of time, I’m going to promote a bookkeeping course for SMBs who want to understand their metrics so they can scale.  


A good hook looks like this:


“Can $47 outperform a CPA?”


This is a curiosity hook. I know my avatar has experience with QuickBooks and bookkeepers. They are debating onboarding an overpriced CPA because the other two things didn’t work.  


Interest.


Next is to pique their interest in what you have to say.


Most people get this part so wrong. They start talking about themselves. Their qualifications. Their years of experience. Their product. Their passion.


Newsflash: no one cares about you… yet!


People, by and large, care about themselves first. They need to hear about their problems/desires first before they will consider you or your product.


Typically, now is the time to talk about their current undesirable situation. Validate their current state of mind. (This is where researching your avatars' pain/desire points come in handy).


Here’s what the interest section would look like:


“I know. You must be rolling your eyes now, wondering how a course can outperform that CPA you’re considering.


But…



Your profit margins are a mess. You can’t make heads or tails of your cash flow. Your last bookkeeper  knows that you don’t know anything about business metrics. So they get a little lazy or don’t think strategically with your books - help you make future decisions.  


And QuickBooks was like running your brain through a maze. It was confusing, maddening and sometimes… terrifying. “


Notice I didn’t talk about the product. I didn’t brag about years of experience. I’m simply validating their current state. Peaking their interest to read my pitch.


Desire.


Now your audience is feeling their undesired state, we must now take them across the bridge to a desired state.


“I know…


You just want to grab control of your metrics so you can finally feel empowered to make decisions and move the business forward. Without the confusion, the time wasting, the bookkeepers who just put numbers on a spreadsheet.


You want to use that control to help you leverage your assets to take the next step in your business. To finally expand and take on even more revenue.


And with that revenue comes the exhilaration of what you dreamed of launching this business of yours. “


See… still no mention of your product or service, or your qualifications, yet.


All we are doing is peaking their desire, getting the sweat glands pumping, heartbeat raising a bit.


Action.


Since they are emotionally in a good state (their desired state) they want to pay to stay here. We must now drive them to action.


“Here’s what I have for you.


For $47 dollars I will teach you everything you need to know about understanding your business metrics.


Lag times.

True profit margins.

Asset allocation.

Why more sales is not needed to scale

Predicting the future of your business.

And more.


Everything your bookkeeper can’t tell you and everything your CPA would tell you for a premium price.


My name is Bobby John and I’m a CPA who is tired of the small businesses struggling to live their dreams. I want you to get to the place in your business where you could afford someone like me (which is not that far off).


For a limited time, before the price goes up, you can get your business in tip-top shape TODAY.


Smash that button now. “


I have properly driven a very real desire they have to take action and didn’t mention the product or bio until the very end.


There you have it.


AIDA is an easy formula for people who have no copy background to implement today.


Summary


Thanks to Doug for taking the time to share his insights with us.


I hope now you have what you need to finally launch your evergreen product with ThriveCart and open up new revenue streams for your business because it is so hard to scale trading your time for money.



If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.