How to Increase Conversions on Your Landing Page (Without changing a word)

Here’s the issue…

There are 2 types of people that will read your Landing Page:

• The Analytical Reader: the one who will read your content from beginning to end
• The Scanner & Skimmer: the one who will look for something that catches their eyes

Scanners and skimmers don’t read your text

The big idea is that you need to write your texts for BOTH the analytical and the scanner…
To make the trick, some marketers use 2 different Landing Pages:

• a short copy landing page
• a long-copy landing page

But, this trick doesn’t work, because you cannot know in advance who is the analytical and who is the reader…

Sad truth is: we are ALL skimmers.

• We scan pages to see what matters to us.
• We don’t read every word – unless we are motivated to do so by the headlines.

No worries, there is another trick that copywriters use to drive readers through your copy making it easier to consume. AND, more importantly, you will have both texts on the same Landing Page.

Same page for skimmers & analyticals! Is that magic?

No, it’s simply something that’s called Dual Readership Path — a different style of writing copy that will suit both the analytical reader and the skimmer…

Of course, we need to focus our copy on the skimmer, because, the “Analytical Reader” isn’t going anywhere. They are not going to be lead astray by anything that stands between him and your content. It’s easy to write for them because they are focused, they have decided that what you are talking about is very interesting and they will drink any word, phrase, concept that you’ll put in front of them.
On the other hand, the “Scanner & Skimmer” needs a little more copywriting skills on your part. Let’s describe them as people with ADHD.

If it looks boring, your readers WILL be bored and thet will stop reading.

So, you’ll lose them very quickly if your text looks too “academic.”
That’s why the “scanner & skimmer” requires, your content to be scannable.
They’re looking for exciting elements to lock in on first — which requires proper formatting.
That’s why formatting (or typographic enhancements) are essential – because we’re all scanners.

Here’s How Scanners Are Reading Your Page:

• They concentrate on what’s obvious
• They concentrate on what’s PAINLESS to read
• They don’t care about anything that’s concealed in plain text.

For them plain text is just another “small prints.”

Do You Read The Small Prints?

The big problem for copywriters is that “scanners” do not read the parts of your text that look visually identical as all the other words or phrases on the page because it looks like a pack of marbles: they are all the same for them.

Is your copy like a pack of marbles?

In a pack of marbles, scanners focus on:

• Headers
• Spacing
• Bolding
• Underlining
• Imaging
• Font Size
• Capitalization
• Italics
• Colors
• Bullets
• Listicles
• Boxes/Circles
• Shading/Background Color

If they don’t find those differential elements, they will scan without stopping and you will lose them

Your Landing Page will be skimmed… plan for it.

Here’s the truth: most bloggers think their readers see the Landing Page on the left… they’re wrong.

How to Write Scannable Content to create a Dual Path

Achieving the dual readership path requires something called “Chunking.”

To do this, you’ll need:

• Compelling Headers & Subheads: they allow readers to quickly scan your content
• Line Breaks: forget what you learned in 6th grade! Line breaks prevent your content from feeling too wordy and intimidating. Don’t be afraid of one sentence paragraphs.
• Bolding: bolding crucial points can help the scanner or skimmer zoom in on significant points.
• Relevant links: they guide readers to other content that is relevant & contextual (and back up any points you’re making).
• Different Font Sizes:
• Bulleted/Numbered lists: bullets are an excellent way of breaking down a complex thought. Who doesn’t love a nice list with lots of white space around it?
• Numbers There’s power in numbers! they can call out compelling statistics and aid in information processing. remember the listicle type of blog post? Numbers make headlines boast astronomical click-throughs.

Writing Website Content takes a New Approach

Writing regular content (the one that looks academic) and scannable content are 2 separate skills. You need first to be able to write perfect academic content before being able to write scannable content.
Academic writing can be done with any (good) writer, but you need to have copywriting skills and technique to write scannable content.

This landing page is the perfect example of a dual path. If you scan the page you will read:
“This is the Fastest, easiest Way to Become a Professional, Six Figure Copywriter, Guaranteed.” Note the focal point is on “Guaranteed.”

If you are a traditional writer and never studied scannable content, you’ll feel like raped at first, because it will go against everything you learned at school. Writing scannable content, and using the dual path, goes against traditional writing thinking and practice, but it works.

And copywriters are not there to make beautiful content, but content to make people taking action…

Don’t forget that the Web’s context is:

• speed
• accessibility
• convenience.

The image above shows how a regular text can be enhanced for reading by a Dual Path method.
The text on the left is boring. The text on the right has repeated headlines patterns for scanning readers. You can read only the headlines and still understand what it’s all about.

That’s how you write for everybody!

We are in a new age of accessing the world’s information. Websites are not books, so it requires a new approach to writing itself, and that’s why you need a copywriter trained in scannable content if you want to improve your website readability.

Now is your turn

Here’s a test for you to apply this concept to your blog…

This 3-step routine is quick and easy…

• Step 1 – Copy & paste your Landing Page, Blog or Sales Page text into a Word doc. Make it all plain & unformatted.
• Step 2 – Highlight, bold, underline or otherwise enhance ONLY those words and phrases that convey the point, the benefits, and the offer.
• Step 3 – Delete what’s left of the text.

Will the remaining text make any sense?
If not, go back to the drawing board and enhance what you MUST convey to the reader.

Don’t be afraid to enhance entire phrases if that’s what’s necessary.
Most of the times, highlighting or bolding single words is a recipe for over stimulating readers with visual noise.

Make sure your typographic enhancements are purposeful. You will both engage and sell to many more readers.

Has this be useful to you? There is much more to this than meet the eyes…
Are you interested in copywriting? I have a full training in Copywriting which that show you more…
So, as always, you can DIY (go and buy the training) or I can DFY (Do it for you) if life gets in the way and you don’t really have 4 hours to spend fine-tuning and enhancing your text.
What will you choose?