Copy That Converts: How to Write Like You Talk (But Better)

Have you ever stared at your website or sales page and thought…

“This doesn’t even sound like me”?

You want to sound professional. Polished. Confident.

But somehow… it ends up feeling a little stiff, robotic, or just plain awkward.

Here’s the truth: people don’t connect with perfect.

They connect with real. With warmth. With you.

In today’s episode, I’m going to show you how to write like you talk—but better—so your copy connects faster, builds more trust, and guides your audience to take action.

And stick around, because at the end I’ll share my favorite trick to instantly check if your copy feels “off”—before you ever hit publish.

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Hey, it’s Carrie here with a quick update - eCommerce Made Easy is now Smarter Online Business!

Same practical tips you love, just a clearer name for coaches, course creators, and online business owners. You’re still in the right place to learn how to turn your website into your smartest sales tool. 

Find our show notes at our new domain

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Chapters

• 0:00 Connecting Through Authentic Copy
• 2:00 Voice Over Vocabulary
• 4:13 Clear Beats Clever Every Time
• 5:46 Great Copy Is Rewritten
• 7:53 The Best Friend Test
• 9:53 Quick Recap and Newsletter Invitation

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:27

Have you ever stared at your website or a sales page and thought this doesn't even sound like me? You want to sound professional, polished and confident, but somehow it ends up feeling a little stiff, robotic or just plain awkward. I know this happens to me all the time. Here's the truth. People don't connect with perfect. They connect with you. They connect with the real human behind you. So in today's episode, I'm going to show you how to write like you talk, but better, so that your copy connects faster, builds more trust and guides your audience to take action and stick around. Because at the end I'll share my favorite trick to instantly check if your copy feels off before you ever hit publish.

Carrie Saunders: 1:04

Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales. You're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to the show.

Carrie Saunders: 1:35

Today we're talking about how to improve our copy now. I'm obviously not a professional copywriter, but I've been doing this for quite a while in writing copy for our own website as well as all of our clients, and there can be a trick or a balance to creating that professional but friendly and relatable text that people will read on your website and I know this is something that sometimes I have to go back to my own website and be like, ooh, I was a little too stiff on that. I need to change this up a bit. It doesn't quite sound like me and I'm actually thinking of some pages on some of our websites right now. I need to go look at again to make sure that they're in alignment. But let's first start with a mindset shift. You don't need to sound like a fancy copywriter to be effective, and this is sometimes where we get hung up and we get in our heads thinking we need to be super professional and a super you know well-written copywriter. In fact, when you're trying too hard to sound polished, it can actually push people away. So I want you to be really careful on trying to over-polish your stuff.

Carrie Saunders: 2:38

There's been so many websites that I've seen where branding is beautiful but the words feel vague, stuffy or totally generic, and the problem is that the voice has been stripped out in these cases, and your voice, your real voice, is one of your biggest assets. This is what draws people to you, especially service providers and really even those who also are traditional e-commerce and sell products. It helps create that human connection and that trust that we talk about a lot on this podcast, and when you write like you talk, but with just a little bit cleaned up, you'll build trust so much faster and people feel like you're talking to them rather than at them, and that creates a stronger emotional connection, which leads to action much better. And then there's a difference, though, between casual and cluttered, so we want to make sure that we have clarity and not chaos on our page too. So we're going to walk through this and how to do this well today. So we want to, first off, start with voice, not vocabulary.

Carrie Saunders: 3:38

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see trying to sound like somebody else. Maybe you saw a competitor's website that seemed really slick, really cool. It resonated with you, so you try to imitate that tone, but now your copy sounds like a stranger because it's not you. There's a better way to do this and something I actually need to be doing a lot more often is talking it out. Literally record yourself explaining what you do, who you help and what your offer is. Then transcribe that into words and shape it into the copy on your website. That's how you sound natural, because it is your natural tone.

Carrie Saunders: 4:16

Use contractions, use ones like you're and we're that's kind of hard to say by itself when it's not a sentence. Break long sentences into short, punchy lines too. Don't worry about perfect grammar and focus on clear communication. We obviously don't want to have a grammar that might stumble somebody and make them stop reading, because it's really improper grammar. But you can be casual, like we're talking here right now in the podcast to you, and just really talk it through and talk through what you do and who you serve and how you serve them, because it's going to feel more human and your clients don't want an English essay. They want to feel understood. It's something that I know, that is a technical person, it's something I struggle with many times, and so some of this episode is just actually for me to remember and relearn. Some of the things that I used to be good at and need to be doing again a bit better is that we want to make sure me or you you know your copy needs to come through. And then we talk about clarity over cleverness a lot on this podcast and this is so true when it comes to your copy as well.

Carrie Saunders: 5:27

It's so easy to fall into the trap of trying to sound like you're super smart or super creative, but clever really rarely ever works. Clear, simple, specific language is what works. So instead of saying, empower your business with scalable solutions, which sounds very generic and clever and super fluffy, you can say we help you get more clients with less stress. Oh, my goodness, how much more relatable is we help you get more clients with less stress? Than I'll read the first one again empower your business with scalable solutions. Like that first one just really sounds super stuffy, right? So we want to really connect. I'm actually already connected to that, you know. We hope you get more clients with less stress. Sure, yes, I would love that. Who wouldn't right? So you want to kind of avoid filter phrases like we offer a variety of services. Our goal is to help you reach your full potential.

Carrie Saunders: 6:25

These are easy ones to fall into and as I'm reviewing these for this podcast episode, I'm trying to think my brain automatically goes to my website copy and where I might have fallen into this trap as well, because what does that really mean? You really want wanna get specific. So another test you can do is read your copy out loud. If it sounds weird coming out of your mouth, change it If it's hard to say. It's probably hard to read and hard to understand. We want to make this about third to fifth grade level when they're reading it. And then great copy isn't written, it's rewritten, and this is something that we tend to struggle with as business owners is trying to get it perfect that first time and your first draft should feel messy. It's very normal. Just let it all out completely messy, and then I want you to clean it up after you've let it all out. Maybe you've dictated it to some recording device or you've typed as you would speak in your head, as if you're good at doing that, but then I want you to come back and clean it up.

Carrie Saunders: 7:25

Just remove some repetitive phrases, shorten any long sentences, maybe break them into multiple sentences. Sometimes I find that I could break a sentence into two or three sentences and then add clarity where it feels a little bit unclear, and then go back and punch it up a little bit if you feel like you need to, and look at your call to actions. We talk about that a lot in this podcast. Is it passive, like submit, or could it be stronger, like get my free guide, or book my spot, or book a discovery call? Small changes in wording can really lead to big jumps in conversion. Small changes in wording can really lead to big jumps in conversion.

Carrie Saunders: 8:07

So if you've ever felt like your website or email sound a little off, or if writing leaves you second guessing everything which I know it can for me, being a perfectionist this is your reminder. You don't have to sound like someone else. The most effective copy is the one that sounds like you, just a little more focused and a little more confident. And if you love weekly bite-sized tips to help you improve your website messaging, make sure to come join our email list. I send one quick, helpful email each week to make your site a bit smarter, converting better and without the tech overwhelm. So just go ahead and head over to smarteronlinebusinesscom forward slash newsletter to sign up, or you can click the link in the show notes. And then here's my bonus tip, and it's the best friend test Before you publish anything, try this Read your copy out loud like you're talking to your best friend.

Carrie Saunders: 8:54

Would you actually say those words to them? So this is not just talking it out loud, this is talking out loud to someone you know really well. And if not, then adjust it, tweak it, because if it doesn't sound natural, doesn't sound like how you would speak to your best friend, it won't sound natural to your reader either. Your best friend wouldn't respond to. Our purpose is to deliver scalable business solutions. They would probably look at you and be like what are you talking about? So talk to your audience the way you talk to someone you care about, and they'll feel it too.

Carrie Saunders: 9:26

So let's do a quick recap. Start with your real voice, then polish it, and I want you to prioritize clarity over cleverness and I want you to edit your copy in stages Flow first and then add a little bit of punch behind it. And don't forget your best friend testing before hitting publish. Or if you're going back to revise the copy you already have, use your best friend test on it. Thanks so much for listening to Smarter Online Business and if you love this episode, hit, follow or share it with a business friend who struggles with their website. Copy too, and be sure to join our newsletter to keep getting smarter with your website every week, and I'll see you next.