You can use a variety of tactics to optimize website conversions and grow your business.
Most companies focus on major website elements to elevate sales, but small web design tweaks offer just as much potential.
Microcopy, for instance, is a commonly overlooked web design element that directly impacts the user experience (and conversion rates).
So, what’s the secret to creating an effective microcopy? Read on to learn everything you need to know about how small words lead to big conversions.
What Is Microcopy?
The easiest way to describe microcopy is as short, clarifying, or instructional text used in conjunction with different web elements.
In practice, microcopy can include (almost) anything. The most common type of microcopy includes CTA button text (or wording near calls to action).
It can also come in the form of error messages, pop-ups, tooltips, placeholder text, banner announcements, etc.
Why Do You Need Microcopy in Addition to Regular Web Copy?
One common question about the role of microcopy in elevating conversion rates is whether it’s genuinely necessary on web pages. And the answer is a resounding yes.
Although it may appear short and simple, microcopy can give your prospects the nudge they need to enter the sales funnel or move on to a lower stage during the buyer’s journey.
Moreover, these short texts can give web visitors some much-needed context or CX-influencing information, assist them while completing tasks, and build trust—especially when used with traditional conversion elements.
How to Use Microcopy to Boost Conversions
There are many ways to enrich your web pages with microcopy.
When aiming to boost sales on your website, the best thing you can do is consider ways to help web visitors have a more enjoyable and productive browsing experience.
By using microcopy in a way that aligns with your target audience’s needs and elevates the UX, you’re guaranteed to see a rise in conversion rates.
This is not least because consumers want and expect pleasant browsing journeys from brands (even though they don’t often get them).
Moreover, people’s patience for poor UX is relatively low.
Data suggests that 88% of web users won’t return to a website after a single bad experience, which is an outcome you definitely want to avoid.
Fortunately, microcopy can help! Here are a few tips on how to use microcopy to boost web conversions.
1. Present Web Visitors with Trust Signals
Consumers who don’t trust your brand won’t convert. In fact, brand trust ranks as one of the top pre-purchase considerations for most people.
Knowing that brand trust directly impacts conversion rates, it’s important to elevate your web design with as many trust-building elements as possible.
Microcopy can be a great way to encourage your audience to see your business as credible, experienced, and dependable.
For instance, check out Transitions Elite. This brand understands that its target audience won’t even consider hiring the services of a company that’s not entirely dependable.
That’s why it uses CTA microcopy that gently encourages trust.
By inviting potential customers to find out how much their business is really worth, Transitions Elite establishes itself as a business people can trust and an entity that won’t prioritize profits over its customers’ interests.
2. Provide Clarity and Transparency
Sometimes, the best way to earn your prospects’ trust and encourage them to convert isn’t to push them toward the lower stages of the sales funnel.
Instead, it’s to help them see they can depend on your brand to prioritize their needs while giving them any necessary info to ensure they’re well-equipped to make a purchase decision they’ll be happy with.
Clarity and transparency are exceptionally effective at achieving this goal.
For starters, they demonstrate that you have nothing to hide (and that you’re truly committed to solving your prospects’ pain points).
Plus, they can be an exceptional method to manage customer expectations and ensure they know precisely what they’ll get by converting.
What’s great about using this microcopy tactic to boost conversions is that it allows you to fully adapt it to your needs and prospects’ main expectations.
For example, you can use microcopy in a way similar to Exclaimer. This business knows that price plays a big role in determining people’s willingness to convert.
So, to help web visitors make the best decision for their needs, it uses microcopy to point out that prices are set per user per month and billed annually.
Alternatively, you might employ this tactic to ensure that web visitors know what to expect from your business.
The Unita homepage, for instance, uses microcopy to maximize its prospects’ purchase intent via transparency.
By pointing out the number of listings for each community category, this business clearly shows that it can and will meet all of its potential customers’ community-building needs — regardless of how niche they may be.
3. Quickly Communicate CX Benefits
Today’s consumers demand exceptional customer experience. And they’re not afraid to shop around until they get it.
According to Deloitte, customer-centric companies achieve profits that are 60% higher than their competitors.
So, if you want to boost conversions (and your bottom line), explore methods to utilize microcopy to show that you’re willing to go above and beyond to win over web visitors.
What’s great about this strategy is that you can focus on practically any CX feature your target audience appreciates.
For instance, if you know that your customers want free shipping, a banner can be an amazing way to communicate that it’s included with each purchase over a specific amount. This is what CoreBalance does in its e-commerce store.
Or how about payment options? Data shows that the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) option significantly increases consumers’ online spending.
So, if you’re looking to boost conversions, it might be a good idea to use microcopy to communicate that you offer this option — as Uplift Desk did in the example below.
Finally, remember that CX doesn’t just depend on what user benefits you can promise (and deliver) during the pre-purchase stage of the buyer’s journey.
Consumers also want to be sure that you’ll continue to meet their needs long after they’ve paid for their products.
Considering this, it’s also a good idea to use microcopy in a way that shows your dedication to ongoing customer support.
For instance, something as simple as announcing product updates is a marvelous way to use microcopy to boost conversions by showing prospects they can expect their purchase to pay off in the long run.
Take a look at how Rapid Direct did it below.
4. Remove Conversion Obstacles
Sometimes, the key to boosting website conversions isn’t about promoting benefits as a way to convince web visitors that they can trust and rely on your business.
Instead, it’s about addressing the fears that may be holding your target audience from clicking that Buy button.
After all, even a strong purchase intent can result in an abandoned cart if your audience’s doubts creep up.
According to research, there are many reasons why consumers decide not to purchase.
They include high shipping costs, high price margins compared to competitor offers, unexpected checkout costs, a lack of return options, and unavailability of payment methods.
Admittedly, you may be unable to remove all of your audience’s conversion obstacles. However, you can remove some of them.
Thus, the best way to ensure shoppers don’t leave your store is to use microcopy to show how you intend to meet their expectations.
For instance, using a webpage element to state that you offer free returns or a lifetime warranty can be a great way to elevate your conversion rates. Here’s how Darn Tough did it:
Of course, you don’t necessarily have to do this in such an explicit way.
One of the best (online and offline) sales strategies out there includes asking questions about what your prospects want and need so that you can present them with personalized options they’ll be happy to invest in.
This approach shows your dedication to CX. More importantly, it prevents your audience from becoming disappointed with your offers, especially in situations where this can be prevented by a bit of communication.
If you check out Eden Emerald Buyers Agent, you’ll see that the brand asks prospects to specify their budget when getting in touch with the company.
This allows EE to personalize its offers, leading to a higher chance of a conversion.
It also ensures that web visitors understand that the agency caters to various clients and reassures them that it’s the right choice for their needs.
5. Prevent Errors and Frustrating Experiences
Finally, if you want to elevate your sales, understand that site errors are some of the biggest conversion killers out there.
Now, while you may not be able to prevent all mistakes from happening, you can use microcopy to avoid errors that could frustrate your target audience (or at least make them more bearable, as Slack did on its 404 page).
Additionally, to elevate the UX and your site’s conversion potential, don’t just think about errors once they’ve already happened.
Instead, consider using microcopy to prevent them and to guide your prospects in a way that will ensure success.
StudyX does this beautifully. Knowing that first-time web visitors may not understand how the solution works, this brand uses microcopy to present them with clear and concise instructions.
These ensure a smooth user experience while providing the brand’s prospects with positive outcomes to boost their chances of becoming loyal customers.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, some of the best ways to create effective microcopy that boosts website conversion rates.
As you can see, the best strategy for this commonly overlooked webpage element isn’t to try and convince your prospects to buy.
Instead, it’s to use microcopy to elevate the user and customer experience, demonstrate your brand’s trustworthiness, and help create clarity.
If you do all this, you can rest assured that your conversion rates will go up and that your target audience will be more than happy to turn to your brand whenever they have a pain point you can solve.
