[Marketing Must-Read] A Great Headline Can Double Conversions

A compelling headline paired with a clear call to action can double your conversion rate without adding a cent to your ad budget. Focus on storytelling and the call to action, and you'll find yourself doing marketing very differently.

What's the Difference Between Content Writing and Copywriting?

Many people assume content writing and copywriting are the same thing, but they differ in clear ways:

Content Writer

Focuses on laying out the details and delivering informative, educational and entertaining content that "meets the reader's needs." Content writers know online marketing well and can create content for many channels, such as websites, blogs, social media and email.

Copywriter

Has a vision for what form content should take and where it should appear, and shapes the strategy behind a brand's writing as a whole. A copywriter's job is persuasion — getting someone to buy a product, download a report or engage with a company. It's about using words to move readers to act, including testing which phrasing works best on each channel to lift click-through rates.

How Can Good Copy Double Revenue? Dan Lok's Conversion Math

Entrepreneur Dan Lok, billed as the "King of High-Ticket Sales," defines it like this:

Copywriting is the ability to use the written word to persuade your target customers to take action.

He once gave this example: suppose an online store makes $100K a year with a 1% conversion rate (1 in every 100 visitors buys). If the store tweaks its ad copy — a new headline, a better product description and the indispensable CTA (call to action) — its conversion rate could rise from 1% to 2%. That means the store doubles its revenue without spending more on ads.

Example 1: Tim Ferriss Used Ads to Pick a Bestselling Title

New York Times bestselling author Tim Ferriss's first book had the working title "Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit." Before publication, rather than relying on opinions, he turned several candidate titles into Google AdWords headlines and A/B tested them by click-through rate.

The winner was "The 4-Hour Workweek" — a title that was more appealing and captured the book's theme more accurately. It became an international bestseller with more than a million copies sold worldwide, proof of how much a great title matters to sales.

Example 2: Old Spice Reinvented Its Brand With Humorous Copy

Another example is Old Spice's 2010 campaign, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like." Before it, Old Spice was seen as a dated brand — losing market share, with falling sales and a customer base of mostly older men.

The strategy: introduce a new character, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like," played by Isaiah Mustafa, in a series of quirky, unforgettable ads. The copy was clever and funny, and it grabbed viewers' attention instantly.

The result: according to Nielsen data, Old Spice body wash sales rose 125% within six months of launch. The ads racked up millions of views online, and the brand successfully repositioned itself. Related reading: "4 Reasons to Drive Your Marketing with Video."

Both stories show the same thing: understand your audience's needs and interests, express them with playful, well-chosen words, and click-through and engagement follow. In an age of information overload, an effective headline captures attention in an instant — and that is enormously valuable to any brand.

Copywriting Is a Learnable Skill

With so much information competing for attention, copywriting matters more than ever. It helps you get your message across and improves your overall marketing results. Fortunately:

Copywriting is a learnable skill.

Anyone can master it with steady learning and practice. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a marketer or simply someone who loves to write, investing in your copywriting will pay you back many times over: you'll understand your audience more deeply, express your brand more precisely and inspire customers to act.

Put Copy to Work on Every Page of Your Funnel

If you know how a marketing funnel works, you know it's made up of several pages, and each page is a chance to talk with a prospect. The most important moments are the first landing page and the welcome or event-confirmation email sent automatically after someone submits a lead form — the message they're most expecting, right after they've acted, and a prime chance to communicate.

Write that copy with care and every sentence carries weight; a simple, warm conversation can move a sale. That's why copywriting is an essential piece of the puzzle in turning pages into sales. To learn the funnel stages from the ground up, see "What Is a Marketing Funnel? Stages, Types & How to Build One."