Keep Toxic Positivity Out of Your Sales Copywriting
There's a trend I've been seeing the past few years in the online business space when it comes to selling.
Most online businesses use 'sales copy' or 'sales pages' to sell their products, courses, and services.
As an expert, when selling a course, one-on-one services, or a product, the potential customer or client has a need or problem. The potential client lands on our sales page in an attempt to solve that problem or fill that need.
Enter… pain points and pain point marketing.
Some slimy marketing tactics have tainted the term. I hear it in my client's voices when I ask, "what does your potential client struggle with?" They cringe and often say, "I don't want to focus on the negative. Love and light, right?"
No.
Toxic positivity in copywriting aims to avoid or deny negative emotions or experiences. When in reality, our customers and clients are looking for support because they have negative emotions and experiences around their problem or need.
The term "pain points" has gotten a bad rap.
Right away, when a potential customer lands on our website, we reflect their "pain points" back to them.
Often, these sentiments are inherently negative.
If your website visitors felt amazing, fantastic, and had everything they needed from their lives, would they even be on your page looking for help with their problem?
No. They'd be off living their fabulous lives.
Sometimes my clients push back when I recommend adding statements about where the client is when they find you or your offer.
"But I don't want to use pain point marketing."
"It's so negative, and I want it to sound positive."
"There's enough negativity in the world. I want to stand out."
I appreciate all of these declarations. Naturally, we don't want our writing to sound excessively negative.
If you need to reframe the idea of pain points so that they feel better, call them connection points. But really, it doesn't matter what you call them.
Empathy and compassion make for authentic copywriting that connects.
You're connecting with your reader with empathy, where they are right at the moment they land on your sales copy — when they're looking for a solution to their problem.
Let's use an example. Say you're a life coach, and Mary is looking for some support.
Mary has been having a rough few months. She was passed up for a promotion and now wants a new job — something more rewarding. Her teenager is having trouble with some friends, and if she's being really honest with herself, the bickering between her and her husband has been consuming her mind. To top it all off, she barely squeezed into her jeans this morning. She feels tired, overwhelmed, and depleted and just wants to focus on herself.
Based on what we know about Mary, here's what compelling sales copy looks like.
I include this in the "connection" section, which is intended to reflect where your reader is. Read more in this article about writing your sales page — 25 Writing Prompts for a Sales Page That Does Its Job — Sells!
You're having a rough time lately. While you're good at your job, the boss passed you up for a promotion. You were thinking of leaving anyway as the work isn't as rewarding as it once was.
At home, things aren't much better. Parenting consumes much of your time and energy, leaving little energy for your partner. At the end of the day, you're so depleted that your partner does the tiniest annoying thing, and the next thing you know, you're bickering (again.)
Life is full these days and it all has you feeling tired and overwhelmed. You just wish you had some time to focus on YOU. If you did, you know you could let go of those pounds that have been creeping on. You hate squeezing into your jeans.
Next, we'll connect with the after-state that Mary desires. We'll connect with Mary on what she wants in completely positive, uplifting language.
Imagine this…
You've made intentional changes in your career. It was challenging, and you're so proud of yourself for taking action. You love getting up for work in the morning now. Your work is rewarding.
At home, you're enjoying more time with your family. You feel closer than ever to your partner and kids.
Best of all, you're making time for yourself and putting yourself first. You're making healthier choices without even realizing it, and your jeans were loose when you slipped into them this morning.
The bolding you see here is reflecting back Mary’s pain points with empathy.
Now, we're making some details up in the interest of saving time getting to know Mary. I teach my clients to look closely at their ideal client's language.
Pretend you're someone who wants to keep their marketing totally positive. Let's look at the sales copy if someone were to skip the pain points.
You have a job you love and love Sunday nights now. You're making a ton of money and you feel valued, seen, and heard.
You love spending more time traveling with your family. You're enjoying more time and having great conversions.
You're in the best shape of your life and love feeling sexy in that black dress.
It's the same as deleting the first section of our sales page. Without meeting Mary where she is, she gets whiplash when she lands on your sales copy.
Who is this person who makes a lot of money and wears black dresses? I wear jeans and feel seen at work — I just want to enjoy it more.
When writing sales copy, 10-15% might have a negative tone.
We'll balance it out with positive copy for the other 85-90%.
Once we connect with our readers based on what THEY say they want — note this is different from what we KNOW they need as an expert.
We don't sell people what they don't know they need. There's a disconnect when we attempt to do that.
For the rest of the copy, we'll use positive forward-focused words and immerse her senses in all the ways her life will be amazing.
Here are some practical ways to write sales copy with compassion:
It connects better too!
Write fast. I recommend all writing comes out in SFD form (read more about the SFD). The same goes for sales copy. Sit down, block out all distractions and write as fast as you can without editing. These writing prompts will help.
Put your writing away for at least a day. Come back to it tomorrow with some light edits. You might decide to read what you wrote and edit later. Totally fine.
Make some light edits — and again, moving quickly. The key to intuitive writing is to write and edit fast. When we let our body guide the way, we turn our thinking brain off and let what wants to come through — come through.
Look at your entire piece of sales copy. Are all the negative statements that focus on what your potential customers want and need focused to just the first section? This will make up 50-300 words depending on the length of your sales copy. Read the rest of the page to make sure the rest of the copy concentrates on the after-state or the benefits. We often don't need to point back to the problems — we know they're there.
Here are some sneaky negative statement examples turned into positive statements:
You'll never have to go back to a job you hate → You love every aspect of your job.
Stop worrying about the number on the scale → Life is so full of joy, and you feel fantastic in your body.
No more wasting money on ads that don't convert → You're booking more sales consults than ever, and it feels authentic.
Before finalizing your sales copy, review it sentence by sentence. If you have any negative statements — you can often identify these quickly as having the words, don't, can't, won't, or will not or will have negative emotions in there. If you have a negative statement — aim to follow it with at least three positive ones.
Writing great sales copy is a skill. And, it's one that you can learn. I teach my coaching clients this skill so that they can write sales copy for literally anything.
Want to read more articles like this? Check out these next:
