How to Write Better Bullet Points & Lists That Magically Boost Your Sales

Ready to learn one of the biggest secrets to a sales page that sells?

You might call it a magic “bullet” of sorts…

Yep, we’re talking about bullet points. You know, those indented lists like the ones below, where your eye was immediately drawn upon scanning this blog post.

Don’t let their simplicity fool you. Writing effective bullet points is so critical to your sales, some experts call it “the single-most important copywriting skill” you can learn.

Keep reading to learn:

• The secret to bullet points that actually increase your conversions
• 5 steps to writing bullet points that capture your audience’s attention
• 7 quick tips to format your bulleted lists better

Why Bullet Points Are Your Website’s Magic Bullet

First, let’s back up and explain why bullet points matter, anyway.

In this era of TikTok, Trenta coffees, and endless browser tabs, you have literally 0.05 seconds to capture someone’s attention. That’s how long it takes for a website visitor to decide whether your content is interesting enough to stay on your site or leave for good.

To form such a quick opinion, people skim your content for clues that the page is worth their while. They don’t read; they scan. That means your page needs to offer plenty of visual cues that prove to them your content is, indeed, worth reading.

One of the best visual cues to turn scanners into readers? You guessed it: bullet points.

Bulleted lists not only make your content look friendlier and more digestible, they also keep people engaged. When someone reads a particularly compelling bullet, they’re, well, compelled to learn more. And when they’re compelled to learn more, they gain trust in your business, making them more likely to buy.

But you can’t just chunk any ol’ copy into a bulleted list and hope for the best. Writing bullet points that boost sales is a skill. Luckily, it’s easy to learn, and we’re here to show you how.

The Secret to Successful Bullet Points

Still reading? That’s probably because you were intrigued by the promises made in the bulleted list above.

The key to an effective bullet is creating intrigue. You want to hook the reader into believing there’s more to discover. You want them to think your content is the answer to their problems, and if they stick around, they’ll find the solution they’ve been seeking.

This element of promise is the difference between a boring bullet point and an intriguing one…

❌ Techniques to improve bullet points

✅ Discover the top 5 secrets to writing bullet points that fascinate your reader and get them to buy!

One is a fact. The other is — as copywriters sometimes call bullet points — a fascination.

5 Steps to Writing Better Bullet Points

Want to learn how to take your bullet points from ❌ to ✅ status?

Here are five steps to write better bulleted lists, as outlined by Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers:

1. Start with the facts. Brain-dump a list of features, benefits, or whatever comes to mind for the content at hand.
2. Replace those facts with fascinations. Rewrite each bullet so it teases the reader into learning more. (Joanna recommends starting the bullet with who, what, when, where, why, or how, then incorporating buzzy words or phrases, like “the exact” or “unexpected.”)
3. Add “finders” to your list. Point to the specific place where readers can find the information you’ve teased (such as “skip to 14:08”).
4. Nix the boring bullets. Keep your list as short and captivating as possible by removing anything dull.
5. Optimize the order of your list. Start with the most interesting bullets, and stagger the length of each bullet so it looks visually appealing.

7 Tips to Format Your Bulleted Lists

Step #2 above is the most important, but step #5 is not to be ignored, either.

Here are seven tips for optimizing the format of your bulleted list so it looks clean, professional, and oh-so-scannable:

• Choose the right number of bullet points. Many experts argue 3–7 bullet points is ideal. Some say odd numbers convert higher than even numbers. While those are both good guidelines, they aren’t rules — so don’t add or delete points just for the sake of it. Make your list as long or short as it needs to be.
• Choose the right number of bulleted lists. You can include multiple lists within one piece of content — and if the piece is long, you should. Don’t go overboard, though. We aim for a maximum of one list per section, and we try to break them up with paragraphs in between.
• Choose the right symbol. Yes, bullet points are often in the shape of bullets (•), but they can be any character. If your list is intended to represent a linear order, like the one above, use numerals. If you want to convey a checklist, use ✓ or a similar symbol. If you’re feeling quirky, use any emoji that makes sense with your list. Feel free to get creative!
• Practice parallelism. Each bullet point should be similar, both thematically and grammatically. Start each point with the same part of speech (e.g., a noun or a verb), and remain consistent throughout the list.
• Capitalize the first word of each bullet. Unless your bullets are super short, like one or two words (which we don’t recommend, given step #2 above), it looks cleaner to use sentence capitalization for your list.
• Use periods if the bullets are full sentences or paragraphs. If they aren’t, don’t. (No, your bullet points don’t have to be complete sentences — but they should be long enough to make a promise, as stated above.)
• Make the list look nice. Remember, people scan your list before they read it. That means their first impression isn’t the content itself, but rather how it looks. Ensure your list is visually attractive by keeping each bullet point symmetrical (e.g., one line each) and avoiding clutter (e.g., sub-bullets) unless necessary.

What’s Your Website’s Magic Bullet?

When written well, bullet points are a magic bullet for your website, turning scanners into readers into buyers.

But they aren’t the only way to convert customers online.

At Quotable Copy, we use a variety of proven copywriting strategies to convince people (ethically!) to buy from your business. From bullet points to type hierarchy to other conversion copywriting techniques, we’ve got countless tricks up our sleeves to help you boost your sales-page sales. Reach out for a custom quote today!

[ Magic-Bullet My Copy, Please ]