Unpopular opinion, the copywriting formulas you learn
don't mean jack, until you master the art of formatting.
If you wanna peek behind the scenes
of what my sales pages look like
before pushing publish, keep watching.
(happy music)
What's up guys, it's Alex.
I'm so glad you're here,
because this week I am doing something
I have never done before.
I'm gonna share my screen,
and let you look over my shoulder,
as I show you how I edit, present, and format
all of my sales pages.
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So, you've been studying copywriting tips,
techniques, and templates for months now,
and maybe you've even started writing some landing pages,
emails, or sales pages.
But there is just one thing that's holding you back
from adding that final piece to your portfolio,
or sending it over to your new client.
Your copy looks like a hot mess,
a brain dump of stories and headlines,
and benefits and bullets that, albeit genius,
follow no real format or flow.
And you're wondering how to make your final copy
glossy, saucy, and Posse approved.
Well, that is exactly what I'm gonna show you today.
But first, do not get me wrong,
you guys have heard me say before
that copy is queen, and should always, always, always
come before design, and that is still 100% true.
But what I'm talking about today is not website design.
We're talking about the visual structure
of your raw copy document,
which is just as important as the words you write,
because in order to make an impact with your copywriting,
you need to strategically highlight certain elements,
increase readability, and use typography design
and layout to your advantage.
So if you wanna know exactly how I format and structure
every single piece of copy that I write,
for both myself and my clients,
then come along with me as I give you an insider peek
at my Write & Ignite Challenge sales page
before it was published.
Okay guys, so here we are, this is the raw format
of my Write & Ignite sales page document,
before it magically looked like this,
with the help of an awesome design and development team.
The great thing about being a copywriter though,
is that you don't need to worry about
the final website design.
This is not your job.
All you have to do is send your copy over to your client,
or design team in a simple document, like this.
No need to get fancy, your job isn't to make it look pretty.
Your goal is to write powerful words
and phrases in a way that flows,
and doesn't confuse or overwhelm the reader.
So, I write all of my copy in Google Drive.
It makes it super easy to format, share, and edit.
Plus, Google auto saves everything you type in the cloud,
which you know, is a freaking godsend
if you've ever lost any of your work
due to an unexpected computer crash, or an internet glitch.
All right, so let's go through this little number,
step by step.
So first things first, remember to keep your font simple.
Use Arial, or something similar, that Sans Serif,
and really easy to read.
Yes, I am calling out all of you Comic Sans fans out there.
(laughing) To keep things simple,
I'm gonna break down my formatting tips into five sections,
headlines, section breaks, buttons and boxes,
readability, and final editing.
Okay, so first up, here are my headline tips.
So, I like to follow a maximum three headline rule,
a pre-headline, main headline, and sub-headline.
Now I'll often have only one or two headlines,
but I will never have more than three.
That is just overkill in my opinion.
So you wanna make sure you size your headlines
larger than the body text of your copy,
to make them, well, headlines obviously.
So the pre-headline, which is the text
that comes before or above your main headline,
should be around a 14 point font.
Now the pre-headline is great for opening a loop,
with a rhetorical question,
or a curiosity peaking statement.
Then underneath your pre-headline comes your main headline.
This is your core hook,
the big idea that communicates a strong benefit,
pain point, or mechanism, so you want it to stand out.
I usually make this about 20 point font.
And then underneath your main headline
comes your sub-headline,
which I like to size at 16 point font.
So the sub-headline is a great way to give the reader
a short and quick explanation
of what the page is all about.
Without a good sub-headline,
the readers might not have enough context,
or interest to keep reading the rest of the page.
So in this case, my sub-headline
really sets up the call to action below,
which I will talk about in just a second.
As for the rest of your copy,
anything that isn't a headline section opener,
or CTA, should be in 12 point font.
And in case you don't know,
what I call section openers,
are basically the sub-headlines
that you place throughout the copy,
to yes, you guessed it, open each new section.
You can see a section opener right here,
and to make things simple, I've highlighted them all
in green below.
So, section openers are important,
because they're what keep your readers engaged,
and interested in reading more.
They open loops as to what's talked about
in the next section,
but they also make your sales page more skimmable,
and easy to read.
Just like my sub-headlines, I use 16 point font
for section openers.
They're gonna have to stand out, and draw your attention in,
but it doesn't overwhelm the eyes.
So, as I'm scrolling down the page here,
you can see that these really stand out,
capture attention, and keep you reading.
Okay, so I know I just throw out
a bunch of different font sizes at you guys,
and I know that trying to remember all of those
can be overwhelming, but if you're using Google Drive,
there's actually a super simple and easy trick.
They have something that's called a heading menu,
right here, with plenty of options available
for formatting headlines.
So for your pre-headlines, use heading three.
For your main headline, use heading one.
For your sub-headline, and section openers, use heading two.
And then for the rest of your copy,
just use normal text at a font size of 12.
So, if you can just remember those four heading options,
you will be all set.
All right, moving on to the next section, section breaks.
All right, so another thing that's really important
when formatting your copy,
is to make sure that you're visually breaking up the text.
I cannot stress enough how important this is, you guys,
especially if you're passing your copy to a web designer,
because it really helps convey the vision you have
for your sales page.
And as I said before,
while your job isn't to design the page,
you definitely write it with a specific flow,
look, and feel, in your mind,
whether you're aware of it or not.
And trust me, nothing is worse than seeing your final copy
designed on a website, and you realize,
"Oh my God, that is not how I wanted it to look."
So don't leave any room for confusion.
You wanna make it as easy as possible
for your client or your web designer
to understand the intended layout of your page,
so it can make the biggest impact possible.
So one of the best ways to do this
is to visually break up the sections of text.
And I like to do this by adding horizontal lines
throughout my copy,
which is super simple to do in Google Drive.
All you have to do to add a horizontal line
is go up here and click insert in the menu,
and then select horizontal line, like so.
So, if we scroll through this page,
you'll see that I added a line
between each section to signal to the web designer
that these sections should and can be
visually distinguished from one another.
And you'll notice on the live sales page,
that this is where all the obvious section breaks happen.
All right, moving on to the next section, buttons and boxes.
All right, so let's talk about buttons real quick,
because your sales page must have at least one button,
or else what is the point of it?
Now, once again, your job is not to design the button.
However, it is your job, as the copywriter,
to decide where the buttons are located,
and what they should say.
So to mark my buttons, I actually just put square brackets
around the CTA like this.
And by the way, you guys, when it comes to CTAs,
I like to follow the sandwich rule.
I like to have a CTA at the top,
for all of those eager beavers,
a CTA at the very bottom, for all those fast scrollers,
and a few CTS sprinkled throughout the rest of the page,
but obviously only where, and when it makes sense.
So on this page, I made all the CTA buttons pink,
so that you can see them really easily.
You can see that we have a CTA at the top, above the fold,
and then we have a few more throughout the page.
So, there's one right here, after the indoctrination.
Another one right here, after the program breakdown.
And then another one further down,
after we presented the offer.
And then of course, we have an order box,
after the social proof, value stack,
and bonuses are introduced.
And then we have one more final CTA,
down at the very, very bottom, after the FAQ,
because so often, you guys, the very first thing
that people do when they decide it's time to buy,
is scroll right to the bottom.
So you really wanna make sure a CTA
is the last thing they see on the page.
All right, now let's talk about boxes.
I like to highlight testimonials, bonuses,
and the order section in boxes like so.
Now that way the web designer knows
to add a little extra design element here,
to make it stand out from the copy above and below it.
So to add a box it's really easy,
you just go back up to insert, select table,
and then select the single one by one box,
and then voila, you just simply type your copy inside of it.
So this little step is so simple, you guys,
but it really goes a long way
for making sure that the copy and design mesh well together.
All right, so let's talk about tips
for increasing readability.
All right, so we just talked about the basics
of formatting your sales page in a Google Doc,
and it's ridiculously easy, right?
But now I wanna talk about a few more things
that you can really do to skyrocket the readability
of your sales page, and make a huge difference
in your conversion rates.
So when it comes to readability,
big walls of text are never a good idea.
It's overwhelming to the eye,
and most people won't get past
the first couple of sentences,
or like me, they'll just skip over it altogether.
So notice how basically all of my text
is broken up into small paragraphs,
and each paragraph only has really a few sentences in it.
So, I always try to keep the total number of sentences
in any paragraph, to a maximum of three.
So you go from something like this, to this,
which, as you can see, is 100 times easier to read,
and way less intimidating to the reader.
So as a copywriter, you wanna keep in mind
that the human brain has a lot going on inside of it,
like all the time.
So, it's really easy for people to get distracted,
and just completely lose interest in what they're reading.
So remember, we are in the attention and retention business.
So it's really your job to keep your reader, well, reading,
by helping guide them through the rest of the page.
This is why I love coherence markers, ellipses,
and a well-placed bolded word.
Now, if you're like, "Oh my gosh, Alex,
what in the heck are coherence markers?"
They're basically bridge words, or transition sentences,
that connect two ideas or concepts together,
and keep people engaged
with a more conversational tone and flow.
So, using coherence markers like and, but, in fact,
that's why, you see, here's the thing.
All of those add clarity
and contribute to more persuasive messaging.
So multiple studies have shown
that using coherence markers
actually improve cognitive fluency.
And even though they might not have the nicest syntax,
or be grammatically correct by academic standards,
they make copy clear and easy to understand.
So here's some examples of coherence markers
that I used throughout this sales page.
And again, to make it easy for you,
I have highlighted them in yellow.
And yes, you can see that I use a lot of ellipses,
or dot dot dots, rather than full stops,
to keep the flow rolling, and the reader scrolling.
So let's talk about bolding for a second,
because obviously when you see something in bold,
it really grabs your attention.
So it can and should be strategically used
to convey key messages, or takeaways
that you really want your audience to see and read.
But, just like anything else,
there is such thing as too much.
So do not go crazy with bolding anything and everything,
otherwise it really loses its effectiveness.
See what I mean?
All right, so let's move on to my final editing tips.
So after you finished your sales page,
and you formatted it using the tips I shared above,
you are not quite done just yet.
There are a couple of extra steps that you can take
to make sure that your copy
is looking legit enough to call a final first draft.
The first thing I always like to do
is double check my copy's readability,
with yes, you guessed it, the Hemingway Editor.
You guys have heard me talk about this tool
a million times before.
Hemingway Editor rates the readability of your page,
based on grade level, and you should always aim to be
at a grade eight or below, because believe it or not,
the average person reads
at the seventh or eighth grade level.
Now that is, of course,
unless you're writing to a more professional audience,
that you know has a higher level of education.
Then, of course, you can aim
for a higher grade level readability.
Now, if you have any run-on sentences,
big walls of texts, or excessive adverbs,
the Hemingway Editor will highlight it accordingly.
So, just head over to hemingwayapp.com, it's free to use.
You copy and paste your entire sales page
into the editor like so.
So you can see that the readability of my page
is at a seventh grade level, which is great.
Now, if you do score higher,
just make some adjustments to your page as necessary,
to get that readability score down to an eight or below.
And once you've done that always, always, always
view your document on your mobile device.
Trust me, the majority of people
will view your sales page on their mobile device.
So, you might think that you have great readability,
and you don't have any big sections of text,
but you might be typing your document on a desktop,
and the formatting won't look the exact same on mobile.
So there's actually two ways
you can check the readability of your mobile version.
The first is just to view the document on your actual phone.
You can download the Google Doc app,
and open the document directly on your iPhone,
and give it a once over.
Or, you can do the margin trick,
just change the margins of your document
in the Google Doc on your desktop.
I usually go to four or somewhere,
around the midway mark, to get an idea
of how this might look on mobile.
And the very last thing
that I definitely always do, is proofread.
I move very fast when I write copy,
which means I often make typos, or skip words,
which is why I absolutely love using Grammarly.
I actually have it installed right on my computer,
and it automatically checks the document
for spelling and grammar errors.
And when it does notice an error,
it just underlines it in red,
and then all you have to do is hover over the word
to see the suggested substitution.
All right, so now that your sales page
has fire formatting, rad readability,
and checks out on the spelling front,
you are done and ready to share your document with your team
or your client for feedback.
So you can go ahead and share your document with them.
And whatever you do guys, do not forget to give them access.
Otherwise, if you send them the link,
they might not have access to it.
And then they have to request access,
and then it's super annoying,
and it looks pretty unprofessional.
All right, guys, so there you have it.
The formatting tips and tricks that I always follow,
anytime I'm writing copy for myself, or a client.
Give me a thumbs up below if you found this video helpful,
and if you're ready to put
your new found formatting tips into practice,
following a proven high converting sales page formula,
that breaks down everything I just talked about,
into a super streamlined writing process,
be sure to check out my five day Write & Ignite Challenge,
by clicking the link below.
And as always guys, I will see you back here next week,
with a brand new copywriting tutorial.
Until then, I'm Alex, ciao for now.
(gentle music)
Then come along with, bleh.