Health and wellness copy is the lifeblood of your online wellness business. Whether you’re an ND, functional medicine provider, a nutrition expert, or an acupuncturist — you need words to sell your services and products. But online marketing and wellness copy wasn’t exactly part of your training in school, right? Well, keep reading, because I’m going to teach you how professional health and wellness copywriters convert browsers and followers into buyers.
Health and wellness copywriting is a skillset that will pay dividends in your business for years to come. I always like to say copy is an investment, not an expense. This is because once you nail wellness copywriting, you’ll always be able to generate more income in your business.
Use the 5 techniques I’ll show you below to cut through the noise, make your health and wellness copy stronger, and start seeing the sales you deserve.
#1 Leave the Doctor speak behind
Most of us learned a very formal way of writing in school. We were trained to write complex, long sentences — and the bigger your words, the better your grade was, right?
Problem is, most people don’t actually respond well emotionally to those kinds of words. And at its core, buying is an emotional decision. We tend to make buying decisions emotionally and then back up our purchases with rationale and data.
That means if you’re speaking to your prospect in a way that doesn’t make them feel emotionally charged, you’re leaving sales on the table.
When you’re selling a product or service, ideally your most effective sales will come when you write on an elementary school level. So you’ve got to put away that habit of trying to sound smart in your writing.
We already know you’re smart! So try writing in short sentences and easy-to-comprehend words. Your sales numbers will definitely thank you for it.
#2 Enter the conversation in your prospect’s mind
When your prospects are be-bopping around the internet, they’ve got some concerns that are floating around, either in the forefront or back of their mind.
Your copy’s job is to make it clear as Waterford crystal you’ve got the solution to their problem, and/or remind them of their pain and then offer them a solution.
Here’s the problem a lot of health and wellness pros run into when they’re writing copy. They don’t speak directly to what their prospect’s pain points are.
It’s tempting to try to be clever and write copy that would please your English Lit professor. But it’s much more effective to jump into your prospect’s head and speak to that instead.
Check out this article for easy ways to find out what your prospects are worried about.
Think about what your clients regularly say to you…maybe it’s things like:
I’m so tired of feeling tired all the time
I want to cook healthy meals but I’m no good at cooking and who has the time?
My new pants are already too tight for me
After I eat I look like I’ve shoved a balloon under my shirt
When you’re crafting copy for your emails or your website, these are the kinds of things you need to touch on.
#3 Speak to every type of buyer
When you write sales copy, you typically write in the style that you are most likely to respond to.
But that’s a huge mistake.
Because there are several types of buyers. The way you buy is probably not the way your entire audience buys. Which means you’ve got to step outside your comfort zone when you’re writing copy.
Some buyers are confident, quick decision-makers. They know if they want to buy immediately. For these guys, you just need to run down the benefits and features quickly and they’re ready to jump in.
Then you’ve got the fence-sitters. They need more convincing. They may want to buy, but they’ve got objections and fears. They have to be shown more social proof, and they like to see and feel how their lives will change if they buy your thing. It may take several touch points to convince these people to smash that buy button. But that’s not a reason to give up on them. Great copy that elegantly reassures them, encourages their dreams and justifies their failures can bridge the gap and help them feel good about purchasing.
You’ve also got to consider the price shoppers. These are the ones that want to see the value in your work. Price anchoring is a great technique for these guys. Show them how your pricing is really a no-brainer by telling them how much they’d spend for supplements, doctor visits, and time taken off of work to address their health problems. And don’t forget to remind them of the ultimate price to pay — compromised health means a compromised life, and we don’t get a do over. Life’s too short to live feeling unhealthy and unhappy!
#4 Address objections
It may seem counterintuitive to inject your health and wellness copy with objections. After all, if you bring it up before they do, aren’t you jeopardizing the sale?
In fact, research indicates the *opposite* is actually true. If you address your prospect’s objections, they feel more comfortable investing in your product or service.
Why? Because it shows you understand and empathize with them.
People buy from people they like, and empathy is a very likable character trait, my friend.
So go ahead, make those FAQ lists. Make your emails and sales pages objection-crushing machines and watch your conversion increase.
#5 Don’t make health claims about your services or products
One of the first rules of health and wellness copywriting is that you have to showcase the benefits of your product or services, NOT the features.
That means instead of saying how many modules your course comes with, you talk extensively about the problem your course solves. You focus on outcomes. You regale the reader with success stories and showcase how your course changes lives. You say things like “lose weight without counting calories ever again” or “regain the energy you had in your 20s.”
The problem here is that sometimes, the outcomes of a health program or product may actually be medical outcomes. And you can’t legally say that you can help produce medical outcomes.
You can’t say that your product lowers blood sugar. Or helps cure insomnia. Or eliminates acne. You’ve got to be a little more creative than most marketers and talk around these kinds of outcomes.
But that’s OK! It’s not really that hard to do — and I’ve got a whole blog post for you here on how exactly to go about writing claim-free copy.
Running out of time and need more help with your health and wellness copywriting?
That’s cool too. I’m happy to whip up professional, results-driven health and wellness copy in as little as a week.
Check out the Griffin Copy VIP Experience here.