You’ve heard the key to business success: location, location, location…
Online businesses are no different. For us, a website is prime real estate, as valuable as the key spot in a busy shopping strip.
What Web marketers often forget, though, is how important it is to maintain the value of your property. Strong copywriting, Google-approved optimization, and intuitive navigation will give you a good website. For a great website, consider these five tips…
1. Clean, clear writing.
People visit your website looking for information. Make sure you give them what they’re looking for in easy-to-understand, well-written copy. A few keys to good writing:
- Use strong, active, positive verbs.
- Minimize connecting phrases, adverbs, and adjectives.
- If you have the choice between simple or complex words, go with simple.
- Be conversational, but make sure you’re understandable.
2. Always give a call to action.
The biggest mistake in marketing is to leave off the call to action. Every communication, whether online or in print, should have a purpose. By the end of your message, the reader should know exactly what it is.
Make your point. Expand on it. Then tell you reader what to do next.
3. Give your copy room to breathe.
To make sure people can (and will) read your web copy, you need to provide lots of white space. The best copy connects with scanners as well as readers. To do that, use…
- Shorter headlines and subheads.
- Bulleted lists rather than paragraphs.
- Paragraphs no longer than four lines.
- Shorter, less complex sentences.
4. Don’t try to write for everyone.
In marketing, if you try to connect with everyone, you’ll connect with no one. Write specifically to your ideal prospects. Use language, formatting, and style that will appeal to them, even if it excludes other people.
Some people won’t like it. But they probably wouldn’t have been your best customers anyway. Your only concern should be connecting with the people who will be your best customers.
5. Answer unspoken questions immediately.
If you’ve been in business for very long, you know the question that typically gets asked first. What’s the first thing people want to know about you? Perhaps…
- Do you have experience in (insert their biggest issue)?
- Do you work with people like (insert their description here)?
- Have you been doing this long enough to know today’s best practice?
Whatever it may be, write your copy to answer this question right away. Consider targeting your ideal prospect in the headline or first paragraph. Make it easy to find your credentials, years in business, and successes. Use subheads to guide people’s attention to the information they’re looking for.
Finally, as Nick Usborne says in Copywriting 2.0…
“Whatever you write, don’t stop until you have done everything you can to make it the best you are capable of. Only then will you be finished.”
Just as journalism is different from academic writing, and nonfiction is different from fiction, writing for the Web is different than other types of copywriting. Not that its rules are incredibily different. It’s simply that good writing always takes into account where and how it’s published. Click to Tweet.
Digital documents are different from print. Visitors to your website are different from people on your mailing list. If they’ve landed on your website, in most cases, they wanted to. Either they selected you out of search results, clicked on a link, or physically typed in your URL.
Because people want to be there, you can tone down your messaging. You don’t have to be pushy. You can simply focus on answering their questions and building relationship.
Does that mean there’s no room for direct response copywriting online? Not at all. Most websites draw from direct response for sales copy, then use Web copywriting tactics like the ones I’ve listed above for informational pages. It takes a mix to achieve your goals.
What you need to remember is that web writing is different.
The changes in Google’s search algorithms, and the growth of content marketing and social media have made it critical for marketers to understand these differences. If you want to get better results, connect with your ideal prospects, and build a website that people return to time after time…
You need Copywriting 2.0: Your Complete Guide to Writing Web Copy that Converts.
- Written by one of the top Web copywriters in the industry.
- 463 pages of in-depth, on-target advice on how to write web copy that converts. – Covers web pages, newsletters, blogs, email, and more.
Whether you’re a bidding Web writer or have years of experience, you’ll enjoy Nick’s fresh insights and practical tips.
Get better online results. It’s time to update your skills with Copywriting 2.0.
