You need to inspire the visitors on your website to keep reading. You need to keep them engaged. You need to create a profound sense of urgency that they absolutely must purchase your products and services.
If you succeed, then you’re the hero that helped your company crush its digital marketing goals and drive incredible revenue growth. If you fail… you can’t fail.
Great web copy leads to amazing things. At Square 2 Marketing, we’ve written thousands of web pages that have helped our clients attract, engage and convert their customers. We polled our team of expert copywriters, content strategists and editors for their top website copywriting tips. Follow them and you’ll crush your digital marketing goals, too.
You have to understand the people coming to your website. Not just what they might want from your business, but who they are as people.
Do buyer persona research to understand what makes your visitors tick, what their personalities might be, how educated they are and what they are going through on a day-to-day basis. Then write your copy in a voice they will understand and relate to.
No matter what you’re selling, emotional appeals are essential to effective website copywriting.
Make your visitors feel something. What kind of challenges are they facing? How will they feel once your products or services have made their lives better? What emotions will motivate them to stay engaged and ultimately take action? Fear? Love? Joy? Relief?
If you can tap into their deepest and most primal emotions, you will capture their attention and keep it.
For many businesses, emotion alone isn’t going to carry the day. You also need a rational appeal.
How exactly will your customers benefit when they buy from you or take the action you want them to take? What proof points do you have to back that up? What are the logical reasons their lives will improve after they’ve done what you want them to do?
If you can’t make a clear, concise and rational argument to your readers, you will lose them.
Jargon, big words and complicated sentences don’t make you sound smart or credible.
Using words your readers might not understand risks losing their attention. Say what you need to say as simply as you can. Simple sentences and clearly communicated ideas are much more likely to motivate behavior than complicated ones.
Your readers have a lot going on. Don’t waste their time with unnecessary words or long blocks of copy.
Keep your sentences short. Limit your paragraphs to no more than five lines of copy.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has decimated originality on the internet. The web is littered with businesses trying to look and sound exactly like their competitors.
If you look and sound exactly like your competitors, then your customers have no compelling reasons to buy from you. Yes, you need to be crystal clear and easily understandable. But you also need to stand out, have a strong point of view and take a stand.
Figure out what makes your business remarkable and why you’re authentically different from your competitors. Then weave those differences into all web copy you publish.
Value statements are important, but don’t let your readers get lost in a sea of abstractions.
If you’re selling a product, be very specific about its features and what it does and what it’s like to use it. If you’re selling a service, be very specific about what you do and what it’s like to work with you.
Great web copy requires skill, expertise and discipline. You have to keep your reader at the center of your story. You need to inspire emotions and make persuasive arguments.
With the right techniques, you can craft copy that inspires urgency and loyalty. You can drive your readers to fill out forms, request meetings and complete purchases. With great website copy, you can crush your digital marketing goals.