Her wide-eyes open, my new friend went toe-to-toe with me.

“Copywriting won’t actually sell my product any better.”

“Will better words really mean more sales?”

We were speakers at Inspired Retreat last fall, working through an exercise in a session all about how to write product awareness campaigns for our little small businesses.

My Simply for Creatives financial-savvy biz bestie Brittany and I were swapping misconceptions about the other girl’s business, and it was GOOD stuff.

I told her things like “I don’t ACTUALLY know the difference in an accountant, bookkeeper, and financial planner,” and she told me things like … well, see above. ????

So let’s explore that today.

Can copywriting ACTUALLY make you more sales?

Well, if I didn’t believe yes, I’d have a hard time getting clients now, wouldn’t I?

So I’m goin’ lawyer on you: laying out the evidence.

Read on to find …

• How Kat sold out her conference in 12 hours with copywriting
• How Kadie got booked out for 6 months & grew her list to 600 with copywriting
• Some quick-win ways to ramp up your creative biz copy in the next hour to make more sales

Let’s go (& don’t forget your free worksheet!)

 

 

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How Creative @ Heart Founder Kat Schmoyer Sold-Out Her Conference in 12 Hours

I admire my girl Kat Schmoyer beyond words. She’s dynamite: the kind of bubbly blonde that’s equal parts dig-in-do-the-work and grace-filled-rest as a business woman.

I met Kat about 2 months after I started Ashlyn Writes: seated next to me under Austin, Tex. twinkle lights at my first creative conference dinner, I probably said 3 words to her: Kat in her hot pink jumpsuit, 1 business, and 6 rounds of a conference she founded under her belt (oh, and a year younger than me) wasn’t the LEAST bit arrogant … but I was intimidated to pieces.

Illume Retreat in April 2016!

Little by little, my nerves chipped away as I got to know her, and by the end of the conference, I was a die-hard Kat fan, chiefly because how I watched her, like so many other women I look up to, model her business with gospel-truths and a missional-mindset.

SO, when it Kat was test driving some Copywriting for Creatives modules for me, we decided to put the sales & services page module of my program to use on one if it’s biggest challenges yet:

A live launch to sell 75 seats to the seventh Creative @ Heart conference.

No big deal, just like, a HUGE part of her business model.

I was PUMPED to help Kat, because sales pages & pricing pages are.my.jam. I’m head-over-heels for how they give the RIGHT person for the offer a peek at the value that awaits, shoo off those who may not be a fit, and then … the best part … magically make your HoneyBook account cha-CHING like gangbusters.  ????????

“Before the Copywriting for Creatives program, I thought my message wasn’t THAT important,” Kat said. “But C@H Round 7 sold those 75 seats in 12 hours because of the sales page I wrote through Ashlyn’s course,” Kat said. “WHAT!? I still pinch myself! That’s a BIG ONE. Ashlyn was amazing. She was like my copy-fairy-godmother in my back pocket!”

Hurrah!

The Copy

Kat had an audience primed for her offer, so she & her team knew exactly what she wanted to do.

She set her launch schedule in place, opened up the sales page we co-wrote on right before the launch, whipped it into a gorgeous Showit design With Grace & Gold made, and not even 12 hours later, it had generated more than $105,000 in conference revenue. (Click here to shop WGG Showit templates, and enter ASHLYN10 for 10% off!)

There was a LOT of back-and-forth editing and psychological copy hacks that went into the website page, but Kat really got it. She wrote copy that connected with her audience and outsourced any questions she had to me, which I loved. ????

Another key to Kat’s copy was shuffling it into a copywriting formula that lead with the problem first, so we could then introduce the solution.

I *still* love this page & website! Click here to go see what copy we landed on.

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DropCap Design’s Kadie Smith launched her site & booked out for 6 months

I first met Kadie way back when we were both scrawny & awkward in our teen years: my Samford college roommate picked her up after school when Kadie couldn’t even drive yet … who. stinkin’ knew that she was going to become this elegant, WAY-cooler-than-I’d-dream-of-being, minimalist designer in Texas with more style in her pinkie finger than most of us have in our entire wardrobe.

Kadie’s the coolest.

Seriously, visit her website for proof.

She’s also as nerdy as I am about random resources, learnings, and factoids, so there’s that (wink).

We started working together right before her website rebrand (moving from her name to DropCap Design), we had some work to do.

And now, DropCap sounds every bit achingly cool as the editor-in-chief herself.

It’s hard to believe she said this:

“Before I joined Copywriting for Creatives, I had put off copywriting for a really, really long time. If I’m being honest, I always thought I was a ‘good writer’ but would blankly stare at my screen every time I wanted to write an email or a blog or even a description of my services and draw a complete blank. It felt like this dark cloud that was hovering over the growth of my business and keeping me from genuinely connecting with my audience”

The Copy

Kadie launches website designs for a living, but cobbler’s-children-have-no-shoes syndrome is a thing.

Through the 10 Modules in the Copywriting for Creatives program, she pulled out her brand voice and personality, as she says “I finally figured how to explain what I do clearly + quickly, and how to infuse that mission and MY voice throughout every aspect of my business.”

After we got THAT nailed down, we started partnering on her website copy to go alongside her visuals.

And then she launched the website.

Oh, but girlfriend launched *the* website … I want to like, print it out in a buttery smooth magazine for my desk.

And booked out for 6 months immediately … but that’s not all …

“I started writing blog posts and emails again, and now I get between 10-12 direct replies to every newsletter with heartfelt responses. I’ve genuinely connected with a larger portion of my audience and gotten to know them on a personal one-on-one level. I’ve grown my team from 3 to 10 designers and maintained consistency in our communication and message. I’ve never felt happier to be doing what I do (and knowing exactly what to say at a cocktail party!) Oh and my email list grew by 600 people in the first 2 months of launching my website without ANY other marketing efforts.”

Touchdown!

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So what are quick-win ways to ramp up your creative biz copy to make more sales?

Ok. You want in on the $ales goodness that smart copy that sets you apart in a saturated industry can bring?

I got you, bud! Give these a whirl during your next launch or Marketing Monday (just me?), and grab your freebie worksheet for a bit more of a dive into tip #3.

1. Write a welcome sequence to your email list. Time? 2 hours.
2. 30% of the workforce is freelancers. You’ve got competition. Draft your unique selling proposition (my students know it as your onlyness factor) and put it on a sticky note by your desk until it’s part of how you do business. Time? 45 minutes.
3. Making a list of 100 features of your next big product or service. Then, list the benefits, and outcomes. Time? 1 hour. Want the worksheet? Click here!
4. Go back to your welcome sequence and add in your latest/most popular blogs. Time? 30 minutes.
5. 90% of info is exchanged visually. The other 10%? Words. So, they’ve gotta be GOOD. Write something that’s easy to read by …
   • Cut long sentences in two.
   • Kill unnecessary words like really, very, and actually.
   • Upset your high school teacher. Start sentences with And, But, or Or.
   • Be generous with one word sentences.
   • Replace long with short words.
6. Update your shop product descriptions. Visit ModCloth.com for inspo on a killer descrition. Time? 1  hour.
7. Update the call-to-action buttons on your website to be first-person and benefit-oriented to increase your conversion rates. Time? 30 minutes.
8. 8 out of 10 people read your headlines. 2 out of 10 people KEEP reading. Solution? Write ultra-short first sentences. Such as:  Imagine. /// I admit it. /// It’s an easy mistake. Time? 10 seconds.