Become a Copy Detective to Truly Understand Who You’re Selling To
A Step- By- Step Guide to Learning More About Your Customer to Write Words that Convert
Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash
“Writing high performing copy starts with knowing what’s happening in your customer’s head.”- Jen Havice
I love true crime. It’s morose, but fascinating. I adore the storytelling behind each case, and I especially love watching a great detective dig in and uncover the truth that’s just waiting to un-earth itself (said in a mysterious Keith Morrison voice).
As a copywriter, I consider myself a detective. Looking for the right message, and digging deeper into understanding a customer. This enables me to write words that hit customers right in the heart and resonate with them so deeply that they can’t help but enter their CC number.
We forget that people buy based on emotion, they want to become a better version of themselves. In our industry—health, wellness, fitness, nutrition—especially, customers aren’t buying your product or service, they’re buying the person they can become by using it.
When you think of it that way, your marketing mindset shifts, you stop trying to sell the features and benefits of what you do and instead, sell the transformation.
How will your product or service create that transformation for the people that buy it?
To answer that question, I want to dig into the process of customer research and share my step-by-step process (with help from the incredible Jen Havice) for finding the perfect words from your customers. In other words, how to become a copy detective.
Why customer research matters in copywriting
Do you get excited when you read a product description or website that just seems to know exactly what you’re thinking or wanting at that moment?
It’s almost like that brand is inside your head and using your very own words.
Well, guess what…
They probably are!
Using your customers own words to sell to them is the best way to write copy.
Features and benefits are great, but they don’t get to the underlying needs, desires, behaviors, and actions of your ideal customer. This is especially true for customers just entering your funnel.
If you don’t hit on their pain points very quickly, you’re unlikely to get them to click and go deeper to discover the features and benefits of your product.
Here’s a good example from supplement brand, Ritual, on a recent Facebook ad. This ad does a great job of calling out that customers are skeptical about supplements, they provide immediate examples of social proof, and a link to a video to prove the point further.
Ritual facebook ad copy
Notice that the ad is not selling the product, it’s selling the solution to a problem and building confidence in the reader. This makes their ideal customer want to learn more and builds trust right away.
How to do customer research to write better copy
START HERE: ID your customer ‘why’ and ‘levels of awareness’
Knowing where your customer is coming from, both literally and figuratively, is important when writing high-converting copy. According to Jen Havice, author of, Finding The Right Message: How to Turn voice of customer research into irresistible website copy, “most people don’t dig deep enough when talking about how their offering has the potential to make their customers lives better.” Phrases like, “saves time, or, “will make you more money” are superficial “surface motivating factors.” Havice says, “the way I get to the heart of what customers want is to keep asking, “Why?” until there’s no more why’s left.”
For instance, why does someone want to lose weight? They may initially say they want to fit in to a favorite dress or their favorite pre-baby jeans, but if you keep asking the magic “why” they probably really want to lose weight to feel more confident in their body and life. That specificity will help your product stand out and impact the reader on a deeper level.
Image credit: FundingTrack.com
Levels of awareness: how aware is your customer of their problem and the available solution?
This is an entire blog post in itself (coming soon), but knowing where your customer is at in their journey will also help you ask the best questions, and in turn pull the best messages from your research. Refer to the chart above to begin to think about where your customers may be, and read this article for a deeper dive into the topic.
How to conduct customer research
You’re ready to dig in to your customer research, but where do you even start?
If possible, start with a survey (of max 5 questions) to get a sense of the overall feelings of your customers. Be sure to ask past and current customers for their feedback.
Don’t have enough customers or an email list to survey yet? No problem! Here are a few other research tips:
➡️ Ask people in your own network for a quick interview (ideally via video) if they fit your ideal customer profile
➡️ Put up a short survey in a Facebook group you’re part of or ask friends/family to do so
➡️ Put a short survey on your purchase page to find out what ultimately made them buy your product or service
➡️ Ask existing customers what motivated them to look for you, what their struggles are, and what they want to achieve
➡️Ask past customers why they left and what solutions they’re using now
Not-so-secret customer research gold mines (especially for products)
★ Quora
★ Competitor blog posts
★ Amazon review mining
★ Testimonials from your customers or competitors
★ Customer support logs
★ Blog comments from your posts or competitors
What about research for service brands?
It’s true, service providers may have a harder time mining for reviews from the sites above, but it’s still possible! Havice recommends asking this question to find answers: “If I was trying to solve, {insert your prospect’s problem}, where would I look online to find the answers?” Asking this question will help you think more deeply about searcher intent and in turn identify long tailed keywords (search terms with multiple words).”
If you’re a wellness coach that specializes in women’s hormonal health, for instance, you may brainstorm common search terms that your audience uses, those will lead you to great data about others who may be looking for the same thing.
One more pro-tip. Even if you have plenty of your own research, it’s still worthwhile to spend time looking at competitors reviews as well just in case their customers are highlighting something that you hadn’t thought of.
Research done, now what?
Ok, you’ve put on your detective hat and uncovered some awesome voice of customer. Good work! Now it’s time to put that to work in your website copy.
Step 1: Start a new doc to compile customer quotes: Pull out full phrases that key into hesitations or concerns about purchasing, pain points and their deeper needs and wants.
Step 2: Go through all of the quotes/phrases and find the top messages your prospects or customers are saying and prioritize them based on how often they appear.
Make a list of words that are coming up over and over, hesitations, anxieties, motivational triggers, and repetitive words. Common words/phrases I hear in customer interviews for my health and wellness copywriting clients include: “fearful,” “overwhelmed,” “unsure,” “lacking information,” “tired of trying solutions that don’t work working,” etcetera.
Again, use your judgement here and if a quote seems weak, or doesn’t go deeper than surface likes and dislikes, scrap it!
Step 3: ID your top 10 most compelling customer quotes and use them to think more deeply about what you’ll need to say or include in your website copy to answer those objections.
For instance, in the women’s health coaching example, and you saw that many women had said they want a more customized approach to hormonal health, or that they get overwhelmed with information, you’ll want to address in the copy how your offering is customized for them, and also how you distill the information they’ll receive so that it’s very digestible (pun intended).
Step 4: Now it’s time to craft your website pages. Start with the home page and your value proposition. Nailing your value proposition by stating clearly what you do, who you do it for, and how it’s valuable to your ideal client is critical to your success.
Use the quotes you pulled on audience pain points, to answer these questions and package them into a header and subhead, like this:
- “Helping women finally overcome their hormonal health challenges with coaching customized to you.”
- We’ll work one-on-one to uncover the root of your symptoms and in turn bring long-lasting change, so you can get back to feeling like yourself.
Step 5: The rest of your copy should work off of your value proposition. Dig deeper into what your ideal client wants/needs most from your research and explain how what you do will benefit their lives.
Always lead with benefits — which prove the value of what you do— and solidify you as the right choice. Not sure what the difference is between features and benefits? Learn more here.
Now you’ve got the basics of conducting customer research to learn about your customers in order to write better website copy and in turn, get more sales. There is so much more inside Jen Havice’s book that I referenced throughout the article, if you’re doing your own research, I highly recommend you read it!
Finding the right words takes time and patience, but it’s so worth it! If you’re having trouble finding voice of customer for your website and email copy I’d love to help, feel free to ask questions in the comments below and I’ll chime in.