You study your website stats and see the amount of traffic coming through. Nice numbers. But when you compare your traffic against your sales, what do you get? A small fraction of 1%? Wouldn’t you love to see those conversions grow? But how can you get them to buy?

The secret isn’t some magic trick or tool. But your Internet marketing is just shooting into the dark if you don’t know the needs that lead people to buy and how to focus your copywriting to tap those needs.

Two main needs drive all people no matter what the demographic: 1) a desire to expand their world and become more than what they are, and 2) a desire for safety. These needs conflict: the desire to grow leads us to head out into the unknown; self-protection leads us to circle the wagons and dig in against unknown dangers.

Each person strikes their own balance between these two contradictory needs. Understanding the way that different personality types balance these needs is the key to effective copywriting for them.

Methodical Personality Type

The methodical personality type balances strongly toward safety. They need facts, lots of details, to assure themselves that they are making the safest, most logical choice. Make no mistake, methodical personality types decide to buy based on their emotions like everyone else, but they feel a need to back up their desire to buy with sound intellectual arguments.

To get them to buy, your copywriting needs to help them narrow their choices. Avoid giving them too many options. They easily get lost trying to find the best option among a series of equals.

One option to offer, though, is between your plain product at a cheaper price or a more expensive price with lots of additional features. Methodical thinkers are much more likely to choose the more expensive version because it reinforces their image of being a wise shopper. And it changes their decision from deciding between buying or not buying into deciding between buying a more valuable deal or a less expensive offer. But either way, their decision gives you a sale.

Give them solid reasons to buy and buy now. Lead them through your sales process in an easy and non-threatening way. Give them the details they need to make themselves feel that they made a rational decision. They want their purchases to be well-reasoned and risk-free, and want to see themselves as smart shoppers.

Competitive Personality Type

The competitive personality type is less averse to risk, but still needs to feel that their purchase reaffirms the way they see themselves. They, too, consider facts in making their purchase, but rely more on gut feelings of how well the purchase puts them ahead of where they were.

The key to copywriting for this personality type is to recognize their need to see the way they define themselves reflected in what they buy. Recognize what types of self-images your product reflects and sprinkle your sales copy with words and phrases that help your competitive types see your product reinforce their self-image.

Cast a wide enough net in fitting your product’s image to theirs, but don’t try to cover every possible self image or you’ll get too generic to appeal to any of them.

Gregarious Personality Type

The gregarious personality type seeks to feel connected to those around them. They are more willing to trust, more willing to venture into the unknown, but are hesitant to assume the full risk until others have proven that the path is safe. They respond especially well to copywriting that shows how your product has benefited others.

Catch their attention by talking about positive results that others have experienced. Testimonials of satisfied customers or pictures that show happy people enjoying your product also are important. Make sure your copywriting provides them with evidence that others have found your product worthwhile. They’ll feel more comfortable taking their own risk with it.

Spontaneous Personality Type

The spontaneous personality type is the most open to exploration. They are the trend-setters, the early adopters, who blaze the trail for everyone else. They will take risks. But not unless you offer to fill the chief need for something better, something that will let them to grow beyond what they are.

Surprise them. Intrigue them with the unexpected and they’ll make that leap of faith with you. Present them with the boring old status quo approach and they’ll move on to something more intriguing.

Understanding what drives these four different types of customers is essential to copywriting effectively for them. In copywriting, as in clothing, one size most definitely does not fit all.

The other day, I was having an email conversation with a friend about business goals.

She mentioned that she’d started a book only to realize she didn’t want to write one *right now* after all.

She had mixed feelings about the decision, though. After all, *everyone* says a good consultant *must* write a book. And she was feeling the pressure.

In a reply email, I offered her a piece of advice that, as soon as I’d typed it, I knew was really advice for *me* and not her.

Have you ever had that happen? You’re talking with someone and you hear yourself making a suggestion that you realize (on the spot or later on) is exactly what *you* needed to hear?

This final newsletter ingredient continues to be the hardest for me–I grapple with it in nearly every issue. See, persistence, and staying the course with your newsletter, is all about keeping your focus on the things that matter. Not letting yourself get distracted by all those *other* great ideas. The sections you *could* add to your newsletter. The design changes you *could* make. The requests and reviews and … that *might* be good to include.

I find myself going around in circles some weeks–not wanting to start the newsletter, and yet being on a deadline and *needing* to start the newsletter. And, each time I get caught in this circle, the solution is consistently the same. Yet, it often takes me several hours to *realize* that I know how to resolve my procrastination.

For me, what works most often is to STOP what I’m doing (surfing the Internet for ideas, reading someone else’s book or newsletter, asking someone else what they think I should write about, reviewing back issues) and to simply SIT for a few minutes.

I know that’s the solution. And I know it works 9 times out of 10. And yet, I still find myself unwilling to apply it at the first sign of distress.

Then again, I’m the same way about taking medicine . I have to get really, really, really sick before I even think of taking something.

So often, we think of persistence as working harder, as pushing through it, as forcing ourselves to buckle down and “get it done.” And there’s value to that.

But, in this case, I’m speaking of persistence as more of a willingness to repeat those actions you already *know* work for you. So, if you know that a plain text newsletter format works best for you, don’t let yourself wonder if you should publish in HTML every few months. If you know your readers respond best when you talk about your dog, don’t listen to that consultant who tells you to be more buttoned up.

By persistence, I’m asking you to commit to blazing your own trail–doing things your own way. Persist in that. And don’t worry about what everyone says, or what works for everyone else.

Regardless of what service you provide or what type of products you produce, in today highly competitive and rapidly changing world one should always have appealing, attracting and interesting content on the web site. Web copywriting process is destined to help you to create well-written content copy. Copywriters will be able to design and compose the copy that gain attention of major search engines and increase the traffic on your web site; yet it not enough. One should never forget how the text on your web site should look like.

Many copywriters, who write for online and offline companies, commit mistakes by writing and composing the copy that addresses all clients at the same time. However, one should realize that the content that communicates with each client individually rather than with the group of people is the most efficient one. The phrase” Our clients will find our services affordable” sounds weaker than the phrase:” You will find our services affordable” In this case you focus on the uniqueness of your client; you communicate with him and address him directly. Certainly your business might provide services to several thousands of clients yet even in this case you should preserve individual, direct contact with the person. This is one of the most effective strategies in the web copywriting process.

Whatever you write-be it a sales letter or just advertisement, SEO copywriting copy or leaflet, this simple principle of direct, individual communication should be preserved. Otherwise your copywriting content might loose some versatility. When you write online copywriting, try to maintain easy-to-read and simple style yet at the same time retain individual approach. Apart from this, your content must be designed to target particular groups of people; that is why it is extremely important to combine copywriting process with marketing research which allows you to indicate your potential customers and thus design and compose the content that matches their wishes and expectations. Do not waste your energy, skills and time on poor written content. Remember that some minor detail may ruin the efficiency of your content; do not let it happen.