PRODUCT MESSAGING – A CXL COURSE REVIEW
In this second part of my review of CXL’s Conversion Optimization Mini-Degree Program, I will share with you highlights of my learning in this week’s lessons and how I plan to use what I learned in the future. One of the major benefits of the courses in this program is that you are provided with all the information and tools you need to implement what you learned immediately after you complete the course.
Product Messaging
The first course I completed this week was Product Messaging. This is an in-depth overview of how to create strategies that are research-based and customer-focused effective conversion-focused product messaging. In this course, I learned:
- How to conduct a conversion-focused copy teardown of a sales page
- How to quantify the persuasive power of the existing copy
- How to identify & prioritize — in just a few minutes — what you should change to improve your sales page
What is most important to remember is that a teardown is not a copy-rewrite guide. It’s a method you should use as a gap-analysis tool to identify what’s not working and should be based on persuasion principles.
Teardown Element #1 MecLab’s Elements — Tested CRO Principles
The instructor based her teardown framework on MEClab’s Conversion Sequence Heuristic: C=4M+3V(+2(I-F)-2A. This formula is not a scientific one, but a mix of key components in trying to make a persuasive argument.
The first letter C is the probability of conversion: the probability that your prospect is going to say yes to your offer. Then on the right, you have five principles components key to a persuasive argument:
- M, for motivation. The why and when someone is looking for a solution. You need to understand what your prospect’s motivation is, and make sure that your messaging is aligned with that motivation.
- V for the value proposition. The what is, what’s the payoff? What are you giving your prospect they can get from you that benefits them and that they can’t get elsewhere?
- I and F are for incentive and friction. The more friction you have the lower your probability of conversion is going to be. Friction is basically how hard it is for someone to convert on your sales page. Are they clicking multiple links, going to several pages to convert? Is it easy to understand what action needs to be taken? Can people understand what you’re trying to say on the page? The incentive is something that you can do to motivate and incentivize people in that moment of action to get through it. An extra reason to get them to act NOW.
- A is for anxiety. This is the objection and perceived risk. It’s like psychological friction. Does your page address these objections and fears?
Teardown Element #2 Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion — Tested Psychological Principles
Once the principles above are addressed, the second framework the instructor uses is Cialdini’s Principals of Persuasion some of which you’re probably are aware of and have used before:
Social proof: basically how other people are talking about your product and solution
Authority: a third-party authoritative statement like press, media that confirms that your offer or product is great
Likability: it’s easier for people to say yes to you when they like you.
Scarcity and urgency: these are a huge element in terms of incentivizing people to act. When expressed, prospects are going to be more motivated to act fast.
Reciprocity: build rapport by giving something away without expecting anything in return. prospects are more likely to say yes to you.
Commitment and consistency: getting someone to small action now will increase the likelihood that they will say yes to a bigger ask later.
Unity: can you make a prospect feel part of a group if they say yes?
Teardown Framework #3 Claude Hopkins’s Scientific Advertising — Tested Copywriting Principles
Claude Hopkins was the first conversion copywriter. He tested a copy to figure out what worked and what didn’t back when there was no internet. A couple of the insights that he comes up within his book, Scientific Advertising:
- Be specific. The more generic the copy is the more it summarizes things and it lacks really fine, specific memorable details, the more likely prospects going to completely forget about it.
- Offer service: if you can craft your messaging around offering service prospects are more likely to convert.
- Tell the full story: make sure that you tell the full story of your prospect: Where you were, where you are now, and where you need to be.
- Be a salesperson: if a particular piece of copy is not doing the work to convert the prospect to a customer, then it’s not helping the objective of your page.
In summary, when creating or reviewing copy always think about how it’s helping you reach your objective of generating revenue. Is it persuasive enough to convey your product offering and convince people to take action?
Mining Copy, Creating a Draft, and Formatting Copy with Conversion in Mind
The rest of the lessons explain in great detail how to construct impactful value propositions for your product with strategically collected voice-of-customer data, and how to transform this data into a complete messaging hierarchy for any sales page. Once you complete the teardown process, you want to start looking at what your target customers are saying about your product (if your product is new, look at your competitor’s or a similar solution to yours. Conducting this research will help you gather statement, opinions, and ideas which you can then use to generate killer copy and messaging about your product.
The remainder of the course is focused on is conversion-centric formatting and layout of your copy. You MUST know you audience’s awareness level first, to figure out how extensive you messaging flow needs to be. Low awareness audience requires more copy, whereas, high awareness audience requires less (get straight to it).
All the lessons I took this week will have a direct impact on the work I do daily. I learned valuable concepts to create sound, conversion-driven, and customer-centric strategies to craft impactful copy that will drive conversions on the landing pages I built. Most of all pages I built are sales pages. I am not usually involved in product messaging, but I have enough knowledge now to pin-point what works and what doesn’t work and help create copy A/B tests to optimize for conversions. The first project is going to start with are the PPC landing pages. I plan on using the framework offered by the author to improve the conversions of my PPC landing pages and test this framework.
If you’re looking to become a product messaging expert and learn how to create killer copy for sales pages, then this course is what you’re looking for. You will be provided with an easy-to-use, repeatable method backed by science and research, resources, and tools that will ensure your process success, and real-life examples to confirm the success of this framework.
