How Strategic Copywriting Brews Success For Service-Based Businesses
As business owners, we want to see our businesses grow and thrive.
It’s what keeps us up at night, worrying about whether we’ll make payroll next month, meet our sales goals, and build a legacy for ourselves and our families.
And those stresses are time-consuming.
They convince you that you need to spend all hours working on your business.
But do you have something in your business that is working for you?
As a service-based business, you owe it to yourself, your offer, and your business to position it in the best light possible. And that starts with the words. Have doubts? You may not call yourself the best copywriter in the world, but you know when words resonate and when whatever you’re reading looks like a mess.
So how exactly does strategic copywriting transform a service-based business? And what type of copywriting should you invest in first? Let’s explore that together in this blog.
Different Types Of Copywriting
You may hear “copywriting” and think it’s all the same. But in reality, you most likely underestimate the diverse arsenal of copywriting styles at your disposal, depending on your goal.
Growth copywriting focuses on expanding your audience through compelling SEO content and lead magnets that address pain points and build awareness. This is what attracts leads to get to know you and your business. A content study revealed that long content receives an average of 77.2% more backlinks than short articles. (Backlinko)
Conversion copywriting, on the other hand, is laser-focused on turning prospects into clients through persuasive sales pages and email sequences that overcome objections. Remember, you cannot convert any leads if you don’t have any to start with. So it’s important to consider how many prospects you have the potential to actually convert. Personalized calls to action (CTAs) are 202% more effective and increase conversion. (Hubspot)
Brand copywriting crafts your unique voice and story, helping you stand out in a crowded marketplace while building trust and recognition. While branding doesn’t have an exact conversion rate, it is not something to sleep on. 86% of B2B marketers increased brand awareness through content marketing initiatives. (Content Marketing Institute Study)
Creative copywriting brings freshness and personality to your communications, making your services memorable through clever hooks and emotional resonance. Understanding these distinct approaches allows you to deploy the right copywriting strategy at each stage of your client’s journey, creating a cohesive experience that guides prospects seamlessly from discovery to loyal customer. Storytelling can boost conversions up to 30%. (BusinessDasher)
At the end of the day, you need all of this. But where do you start?
5 Ways Investing In Copywriting Grows Your Service-Based Business
Depending on the stage of your business, you may need to prioritize one type of copywriting over another. The right words at the right time can transform your business trajectory—from struggling to find clients to having a waitlist of eager prospects ready to work with you.
1. Attract Your Ideal Customer To Your Business
Wish you could have qualified leads lining up at your door? Don’t we all! Fortunately, strategic growth copywriting can make this a reality by producing the right words to generate the exact leads you want.
For example, a business coach who previously used generic messaging like “I help businesses grow” transformed their homepage headline to “I help service-based entrepreneurs escape the 60-hour workweek while doubling their revenue in 90 days.” This specific promise attracted precisely the overwhelmed but ambitious entrepreneurs they excelled at helping, resulting in a 40% increase in qualified consultation bookings.
Remember, people love seeing numbers to communicate a transformation. Give it a try!
Copy Tip: Identify your ideal client’s top 3 pain points and incorporate their exact language into your website headlines, social media bios, and ad copy.
Need help to brew up the right copy to bring the leads you want into your “shop”? Let’s chat over a hot cuppa.
2. Engage Your Prospects Until They Are Ready To Buy
Just because you attract prospects doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy immediately. With conversion-focused copywriting, you can convince them that waiting is no longer an option. Effective copy communicates the opportunity costs associated with delay and creates a sense of urgency without being pushy.
For example, a financial consultant created a “Cost of Waiting Calculator” landing page that showed prospects exactly how much money they were losing each month by postponing their investment decisions. This tangible demonstration of opportunity cost increased their service adoption rate by 35% among prospects who had been “thinking about it” for over 3 months. This type of messaging communicates a sense of urgency.
Copy Tip: Create a sequence of 3 educational emails that address common objections while highlighting the hidden costs of inaction in your industry.
3. Build Long-Lasting Relationships
The best client relationships aren’t one-and-done transactions. It takes time to build trust and rapport, so how do you do that? Through relationship-focused brand copywriting that makes multiple emotional deposits into the account. This means telling stories, pulling emotional strings, and reconnecting on a regular basis with content that provides value.
If you find yourself constantly hunting down new customers instead of finding opportunities to do repeat business with your existing client base, then you may want to investigate how you’re building relationships through your communications.
For example, a web designer implemented a “Client Success Story” email series that showcased the journey and results of past clients every month. By highlighting these stories and including personal notes about their work together, they maintained warm connections with past clients, resulting in a 65% referral rate and 42% returning customer rate for website refreshes and additional services.
Copy Tip: Launch a variety of targeted email campaigns – from monthly newsletters with industry insights, personalized networking follow-ups, and strategic nurture campaigns that gradually reveal your expertise and methodology. Even a simple quarterly “checking in” email can keep you top-of-mind.
4. Convert Your Ideal Customer On Autopilot
Sales shouldn’t be so hard. Yet it often feels that way if you don’t have the right words to communicate your value. Craft conversion-focused copywriting that clearly articulates your:
- Value proposition
- The transformation you offer
- How you handle common objections
- Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)
All questions and answers should emphasize the severity of the pain points you address to prime your target customer for conversion.
For example, a corporate wellness consultant who struggled with long sales cycles created a detailed case study page showcasing exactly how their program reduced employee sick days by 32% and increased productivity metrics by 27% for 3 different company sizes. This concrete demonstration of ROI allowed prospects to self-qualify and shortened their sales cycle from 5 weeks to just 12 days on average.
Copy Tip: Create a comprehensive sales page or proposal template that follows the PASTOR formula (Problem, Amplify, Story, Testimony, Offer, Response) to systematically walk prospects through the decision-making process. Explore other copywriting formulas here.
5. Retain Your Customers For Additional Or Repeat Services
You’ve converted them once, but can you convert them again? Investing in retention-focused copywriting reduces your customer acquisition costs and increases the lifetime value that each client brings to your business.
For example, a marketing agency implemented an “Achievement Report” email template sent to clients quarterly, highlighting key metrics, wins, and opportunities they’d identified through their work together. These personalized reports concluded with a “Next Steps Recommendation” section that naturally suggested logical service extensions. This approach resulted in a 78% service upgrade rate among existing clients.
Copy Tip: Create a “What’s Next” guide customized for each of your service offerings, outline the natural progression of work clients might need after working with you once. Send this at the 75% completion mark of your current project, paired with a case study of a client who successfully followed this path. Don’t worry about getting too technical. Focus on telling success stories naturally for more organic connections.
Ready To Say The Right Things At The Right Time?
By strategically investing in different types of copywriting throughout your client journey, you create a seamless experience that not only attracts the right clients but also nurtures them into loyal advocates for your business.
Remember that effective copy isn’t just about sounding good – it’s about saying the right things to the right people at exactly the right time in their decision-making process. Explore what to say to your target customers and start to transform your business.
