Mastering Conversion Checkpoints | Alyson Lex

David McBee: Hello and welcome to Simpli.fi TV. I'm David McBee. Our guest today is Alyson Lex, conversion expert and copywriter. Alyson is a veteran direct response copywriter with over 15 years of experience. From crafting compelling sales pages, emails and landing pages, to even mastering the art of direct mail, Allison has covered it all. Having begun her journey as the director of marketing at Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, working closely with industry giants, Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer, she now thrives in her own business capturing her client's unique voices in her copywriting. Alyson, welcome to Simpli.fi TV. Alyson Lex: Thank you so much for having me. I am excited. We're going to really have a good time today. David McBee: I hope we do. Adtech can be boring, but you seem to have a bubbly, exciting personality, so let loose today, okay? Alyson Lex: Well, don't give me that kind of permission, okay? David McBee: So Alyson, I want to start by saying that a lot of agencies and media buyers here on Simplified TV, and some of them might be thinking that the wisdom of a copywriter, even an expert copywriter with your experience, isn't something that can help them in their day-to-day. Are they wrong? And what do you wish that you could explain to them about the ads that they are running? Alyson Lex: They are wrong. Everybody needs me in their life. But really what it is when you're driving traffic, when you're running ads, to understand how to make it convert better on that backend is going to get your clients the better results. When you're driving all this traffic, it really makes sense for you and your business and your agency and your income to help those clients get the best results possible. And so if you're running ads to a landing page that sucks, those ads aren't going to be profitable, those ads aren't going to be as successful simply because of an asset that's out of your control. So you really have to look at that full buying journey, that full purchase funnel in order to maximize the results your client gets. And that's where I come in. David McBee: I always love talking about the purchase funnel, so thanks for bringing that up. Alyson Lex: You're welcome. David McBee: Yes. I think a lot of us have specific areas of expertise and sometimes we have a very myopic view that doesn't take into account all the other pieces of the puzzle. I know you use something called conversion checkpoints. Can you tell us about that? Alyson Lex: Yeah. Oh, I love conversion checkpoints because I'm a data nerd through and through, and it's fun to be creative and data-driven at the same time, but really looking at not just click through rate, impression rate, all of the ad level stuff that you're doing, but okay, how many people stayed on the landing page long enough for it to fully load? How many people opted in? If it was a free offer, how many people purchased? How many people took the upsell? How many people have gone through each decision point in the entire process? They read the page, they signed up, they opened, the email they bought, they did this. Each of those checkpoints is pretty critical because that's where you see where the breakdowns are happening. Really quick story, I had a prospective client come to me and say, my sales page sucks. And I took her through the conversion checkpoints. Her sales page was converting at almost 50%. Her landing page sucked. She was driving all this traffic and was looking at the ad and the sales and seeing that it didn't work. She had that stop gap in the middle. We fixed the landing page, and that was all that needed to happen. David McBee: So I'm hearing that your message to media buyers and agencies is really continue to run those great ads that you love and target the audiences in the way that you always have, but if they don't seem to be working, don't immediately bail on the ads themselves, look inward first. Look at your website and the whole experience that the customer has to go through to make the purchase. Alyson Lex: Absolutely. I'm not an ads expert. I'm going to put that one out there. I know how to click on a great Facebook ad, I do not know how to write a winning Facebook ad. What I do know is how to create a great landing page based on the traffic that I know I'm going to get from those ads. David McBee: So what's your best advice for writing a great landing page? Alyson Lex: One is you want to hit the emotional hot buttons right up front. And there are two ways to do that. Fear or aspiration. I like a good mix of both, but depending on the brand or the company, you can skew either way. So escaping pain or getting something better, hit that button right away. Let them know that you know what they're going through and that you have the answer to that problem. Then you want to give them enough information for them to justify whatever step you want them to take. If you want an email address, a little bit of information. It doesn't have to be a dissertation. If you want money, it's going to need to be more information. So what are you asking them to do? How much time are you asking them to invest with you? Give them enough information to justify that. Then, and this is the part most people miss. Bring it back to emotional. That's your basic format. Emotion, logic, emotion. Encourage them, show them why getting started now is the right way to go. That is the fastest overview that I can give you in a completely unprepared manner. David McBee: No, that's fine. Maybe people will reach out to you directly if they want to learn more about that, right? Alyson Lex: And there are a ton of copy formulas out there, right? There's the tension interest, desire action formula. There's a couple others. I could probably make five up myself. But really, emotion, logic, emotion within whatever else you're doing is going to be really important. And then of course, making sure the messaging matches the add to the landing page and throughout the rest of the funnel. David McBee: All right, so now I want to change the topic just a little bit. Alyson Lex: Sure. David McBee: As a copywriter, how are you feeling about AI right now? Alyson Lex: Oh, I love it. David McBee: You love it. You're not worried about it. Alyson Lex: No. David McBee: No? Alyson Lex: Output is only as good as input. And I know, and I know everybody here listening knows that these clients do not know enough off to get the output they need. And so I've been able to use it to brainstorm ideas, hooks, thoughts, put some structure into what I'm thinking, and then use that and put it forward to something else in a way that shortens my brain time. I think there can be a real danger with trust and authenticity, especially with AI video and those sorts of things. People are wondering, is this a real person? Is it not? Is this content really created by them? But I'm a big fan. David McBee: All right, cool. This has been awesome. I really appreciate it. Before I let you go, I like to ask all my guests if they have a favorite podcast or book that they would like to recommend to the audience. Alyson Lex: The Ultimate Marketing Plan by Dan Kennedy is pretty much the primer for the copy side of things when it comes to the full funnel and it's old school, but use your new school brain and translate. David McBee: I like that. And what is the best way for people to get in touch with you? Alyson Lex: My home on the web is alysonlex.com. And from there you can get me on social, freebies, book a call, all that good stuff, and that's A-L-Y-S-O-N-L-E-X.com. David McBee: I'm so glad you spelled Alyson. I was about to do it for you if you hadn't Alyson Lex: Blame my mother. David McBee: Well, thank you so much for being my guest today, Alyson. Alyson Lex: Thank you for having me. This was fun. This was good. David McBee: And thank you guys for watching. Simpli.fi TV is sponsored by Simpli.fi, helping you to maximize relevance and multiply results with our industry leading media buying and workflow solutions. For more information, visit Simpli.fi. Thanks for joining us today. I'm David McBee. Be awesome, and we'll see you next time.