(If you're reading the "3 ultra-short tips" series for the first time, these are the tips I send out every second week to give you a break from the in-depth stuff)

Raise your hand if you're in favor of ultra-short intros that don't waste your time but let the article get staight to the point! (raises hand)

With this in mind, here are the 3 ultra-short tips I'd like to share with you this week.

Today, we'll talk about:

• one trick that makes your copy more effective
• one thing you should do to keep your prospects from bouncing off immediately
• that one time you're asking your visitors to leave (and never come back)

#1 If your prospects can't imagine it, they won't buy it.

Let's do a quick exercise. I'll tell you three things, and you'll try to imagine them.

Ready? Here goes.

Everything.

All your needs.

Any person.

How did it go? Were you able to imagine anything concrete? No? And neither can your prospects when they read your sales pages with those words in the copy.

For your prospects to get excited about your offer, they need to imagine it. They need to be able to see themselves and / or their problems reflected there.

Another perk of specificity: It increases trust.

Imagine, your son comes home later than usual. You ask him where he's been. What answer would sound more believable?

a) I've got held up at school.

b) Mr. Johnson asked me to stay after class to discuss that play we're performing on Friday, and I missed my bus.

It's b), isn't it? Because it's more specific.

Here are some examples of specificity in action on your web pages:

Want to sell more? Don't be afraid to use longer copy if it gives your prospects a concrete image they can recognize themselves in.

Because if they can't imagine it, they won't buy it.

#2 Treat page headings like a table of contents (and not like sharades)

Most of your website visitors won't read your page like a book - attentively from top to bottom.

They'll start by scrolling down scanning the headings, looking for a section that seems most relevant. Only when they find something that seems interesting to them, they'll start reading.

Suddenly, your page headings become a table contents your visitors check to see what "chapter" they want to read.

Can you guess what happens if your "table of contents" is vague, and your visitors can't tell what the sections are about?

They perceive your page as irrelevant and leave.

To keep your visitors from bouncing off immediately...

Make sure your headings (and subheadings):

1) Are unambiguous and clearly communicate what the section is about:

❌ Here's the key / What does this mean / Why?
✔ My services / About / Happy clients

2) Use typical phrasing to reduce the time and effort it takes to process it

❌ A writer turned copywriter / What I can do for you / Want to do this?
✔ About me / Services / Get in touch

#3 Remove in-text links from your sales pages

Imagine, you invited your prospects in your office.

You're giving them a presentation about your offer. While still laying down your arguments, you suddenly open the door and say, "By the way, there is another presentation going on in another room. How about you go check it out?"

This is ridiculous! You would never do this in real life, right?

Yet, this is what you do on your website when you put in-text links on your homepage, About and sales pages asking your visitors to leave for a website of the university you studied in, a website your former client or your latest guest post.

This also holds for linking to related articles on your own website.

Why? Because your homepage, About and sales pages have a different goal:

❌not to just let your visitors wonder around your website (or even worse, somebody else's website) reading whatever they like,

✔️ but deliver a mini-presentation persuading them to take one specific action (contact you, check out your sales pages, download a freebie, etc.)

So, letting them leave before you made your main point is counterproductive.

Have an important info you'd like your visitors to know at this point?

Don't link to a related page but communicate that info in plain text right there.

The only elements with a link to another page should be visually prominent calls to action (the fewer, the better). This way you have more control over how your prospects read your copy, which increases the chances of them clicking that CTA button.

***

This would be all from me for the week.

Summer greetings from Germany,

Gill

P.S. If you're still thinking whether or not to take me up on my offer to review your homepage, think fast because I have only 15 spots left at that 30% discount price.