How to write great copy to handle objections

Writing creative copy is challenging. Standing out from the crowd and presenting the key value proposition in as few words is not an easy task. As I was contemplating on what a good structure of copy would look like, I came across this case study by Harry Dry from Marketing examples.

A simple change in the copy got a whopping ~13% increase in conversion. It all boils down to 3 elements in the copy.

• Objection Handle - Free & 5 mins
• Social Proof - 100k+ people 
• Actionable outcome - become better crypto investors

I deep-dived into the objection handling part and looked at how multiple brands handle objections through their copy. One place where there is uncertainty and trust issues is booking a vacation rental or hotel. Airbnb does this very smartly. In their ads, they place words that demolish the objections customers have in their minds. 

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All the possible objections are handled: the possibility of getting scammed (Certified owners), any problem during my travel (aircover), how warm my hosts are (5-star hosts), will there be problems for my pets (Pet-friendly Airbnbs) and more. This is on the consumer's side. 

They do something similar on the host's side also. To encourage people to host their homes, Airbnb runs ads to encourage people to connect with super hosts and asks them to chat with one another and clear their apprehensions. 

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The Hosts' Side Copy

This enables the start of a conversation. For especially high-ticket purchases, it is essential to enable the customers to talk to real humans frictionlessly.

The key to copy that converts is to handle the customer objections and to understand the customers and target audience thoroughly. Without proper audience understanding and segmentation, you cannot write proper copy.

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How to handle common customer objections in the copy?

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• ‍Don't need this: Communicate clear value of the product, and specify how the customers can arrive at the desired result sooner or easier.
• Too expensive: Show the value and the ROI people can get by investing in your product or service.
• Would this work?: This objection can be handled with social proof. For high-ticket products, make them talk to a human where the job is to understand the customer’s needs.
• Confused about why I must choose you: Do a competitive analysis and enhance the advantages that you have compared to your competitor.

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Did you know?

To reduce churn (i.e. increase retention), send loyalty rewards (e.g. two months of free phone calls or a free sample product) to customers that have been with you long enough.

Don't make this offer to recent customers. A good amount of testing must be done to figure out the right period to make the offer.

Source: Henderson, C. M., Steinhoff, L., Harmeling, C. M., & Palmatier, R. W. (September 2020). Customer inertia marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1-24.