Entries Tagged 'website copywriter' ↓

You have a set of values within your company.

Every employee is supposed to uphold those to provide a united front of customer excellence.

You’ve probably got an “Our Values” page or section on your website that outlines them, but are they reflected in the rest of your website copy?

What does your website tell your customers?

For a moment let’s imagine I’m a potential customer.

After browsing the web I found your website. I’ve had a quick peak at your About Page and read all about the values you hold dear. Great, you sound like my kind of company. Then I nip back to the Home Page – ah, something’s not right.

Your values told me that your customers always come first, how you bend over backwards for them and offer an unrivalled level of customer service. The problem is that your Home Page completely ignores my needs and talks about your company’s growth, the awards you’ve won, your passion for your industry and how long you’ve been in business.

Hang on a minute, what happened to being the company that puts its customers first?

You haven’t told me what you do or how it will benefit me – so I’m not the centre of your world at all, you are.

It’s mixed messages like this that will scare off potential customers.

Customers always come first

Your website isn’t your online portfolio from which you can shout about how amazing you are. It should be an outlet through which you can show me, as a potential new customer, how you will make my life easier, better or more productive.

It is there to attract new customers. If it just talks about you and your achievements it won’t convert visitors into customers.

Sure, you can talk about you achievements and awards to back up your services, but confine it to the About section. Your Home Page must be about your customers.

Make sure your Home Page:

• Clearly shows what you can do
• How your products or services benefit your customers
• Tells them how to get in touch

It must be all about your customers because that’s what they want to hear. There is no room for your ego on your Home Page.

Sprucing up your website doesn’t have to mean a full redesign every few years. There are some less evasive things that can be done to freshen it up and make sure it is performing well.

Just like spring cleaning your house, an annual dusting of your website will make sure it remains responsive, SEO friendly and continues to give your customers what they want.

Here are 9 things you can do to keep your website in tiptop condition.

1. Code

If, like me, you have no idea what all those strange letters, numbers and symbols mean behind the scenes, you may want to get someone in to help you with this one.

Cleaner and more organised code means a faster website that loads in a flash and is easier for the search engines to crawl.

2. Title tags and META descriptions

If you have an SEO strategy, you’re probably already tweaking these on a regular basis.

Your title tag lets the search engines know what your web page is about, so make sure you review this regularly. Likewise with your META description, although not a factor in SEO, it must be relevant and appealing to your customers. If you’re not sure what it is, the META description is the short piece of blurb that comes under your URL in the search results. It’s important that it speaks to the reader, highlights the benefits you offer and contains a call to action. The only issue is you have just 160 characters to play with, so you’ll have to get creative.

3. Alt tags

Yes, more tags. The Alt tags are the ones you find behind the images you use on your website. During your review, make sure every image has a tag, but that doesn’t mean you should be stuffing them with keywords. Every tag should be relevant to the image.

Plus, where you have your logo on your website, make sure it’s Alt tag contains your company name or website.

4. Images

Once you’ve reviewed the coding behind your images it’s time to look at the image itself. Are your photos and graphics still relevant? Are they looking a bit dated? What about the size of them? The file size will have a huge impact on the loading time of your website, so if at all possible compress them to give your users a better, faster experience.

5. Call to action

Take a look at your calls to action.

Are they working?

Are your website visitors being converted into customers? If the answer is no, or you’re looking for a high conversion rate, your call to action is a great place to start.

Did you know that Dell increased sales by $25million just by changing their “Learn more” call to action to “Help me choose”? So if you’re not already doing so, test different calls to action to find the one that works best for you.

6. Navigation

The navigation bar on your website is the map your visitors use to find their way round. Check to make sure it is clear and easy to follow. It’s also a good opportunity to make sure it aligns with your SEO strategy.

7. Compatibility

More and more people are accessing the Internet through their mobile phones, so it’s essential your website is mobile friendly.

8. Refresh

While you’re reviewing all these aspects, why not add in something new. How about an explainer video or infographic? Adding fresh content to your website is a must whether it’s a video, graphic, article, report or series of blogs.

9. Does it work?

One of the main reasons websites fall short of the mark is because they are designed and written by people within the business.

Think about it – you’re business is your baby and you’re going to want to shout about it to everyone. But what are your customers looking for? Certainly not your euphoric ramblings about how great you are.

They want to know what you can do for them, which is why it’s a great idea to get someone from outside your company to read your content, follow your navigation and generally ‘play’ with your site to see if it tells them what they need to know.

This exercise is also a good way to check for broken links.

Creating and publishing your website isn’t a one off activity. It’s vital you revisit your site regularly to make sure it’s keeping up with technology and the needs of your customers.

Bookmark this article and diarise regularly to review your website and keep it in tiptop condition.

Author: Sally Ormond, copywriter at Briar Copywriting Ltd, cyclist and Big Bang Theory fan.

Your call to action is a small, but vital element of your website copywriting.

Without it your customers will wander off in search of another site that has a call to action to direct them as to what to do next.

The simplest form is “Buy”, usually superimposed on a big red button so it can’t be missed. But is that the most effective call to action?

It would appear not.

Dell’s call to action

The computer giant, Dell, boosted their sales by a whopping $25 million by simply changing their call to action.

What did they do?

Well, on their website they were using the fairly standard “Learn more” call to action after the sales copy for their computers.

The only issue was that the people reading their website were already going to buy a computer, so the term “Learn more” wasn’t relevant to them.

However, what they did want to know was which computer it was they should be buying.

Bearing this in mind, Dell changed their call to action to “Help me choose”.

Brilliant.

By switching to those three little words, Dell was using a call to action that actually gave their customers want they wanted – help in choosing the right computer for their needs.

What you can learn from Dell

Rather than using the standard call to action you always use, think about where your customers are in the buying process at the time they are reading your copy.

How far through the decision making process are they?

Are they still thinking about whether they need your product and want to “Learn more”?

Do they know they want your product, but are unsure of which model so they need a “Help me choose”?

Perhaps they have already made up their minds and are ready to “Buy now”.

Before you write a bog standard call to action, think carefully about the needs of your customers and choose your words carefully.

If your copy helps and supports them in their decision they are more likely to buy from you.

Author: Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting Ltd, one of the UK’s leading copywriting services agencies.

My office faces one of the busiest roads in Suffolk. Traffic constantly roars back and forth as people make their way between Suffolk and Norfolk.

Drinking my coffee this morning, wracking my brain for an idea to write about, it suddenly struck me. Traffic.

You, and every other online business, is obsessed by traffic.

Religiously, day in day out, you’re checking your analytics to see how many visitors your website is getting and where they are coming from.

You smile smugly as you see your visitor numbers increase; you are invincible because you are brining in 10 times the traffic of your competitors.

So what?

If you’re that amazing, why are your competitors making more money than you?

What’s happening to your traffic?

Running a business is tough. There’s so much to think about and only a finite amount of money to reinvest.

You probably started out with an ‘OK’ website that you got cheap and filled with content yourself. With a bit of help from your SEO guy (or girl) you’ve got traffic heading your way in droves, but something strange is happening.

When you look at your sales (i.e. conversions), they aren’t reflective of the number of visitors you’re getting.

Why?

Because your website and its content isn’t up to scratch.

Look at it this way, if you have a High Street store with a stunning window display, potential customers will flock through your doors. When they get inside, if your products are haphazardly strewn here and there and your sales team are loitering in corners discussing what they’re going to be doing at the weekend, ignoring them, the chances are they’ll turn round and find a different shop that’s more welcoming.

Well, that’s what’s going on with your website.

Your SEO guy/girl has done an amazing job luring people to your website, but because you’ve got a dreary site with awful content, they’re leaving straightaway.

Yes, SEO is important to get people to your website, but it’s the design and, more importantly, the content that will get them to stay and buy.

Convincing people to stay and buy

Your website copywriting must:

• Address the reader directly
• Sell the benefits of your products and services
• Convince them to buy

One of the most common mistakes is to write about your company. This comes across as very inward facing and ignores the needs of your customers.

When they reach your website they want to instantly see what it is you offer, how it will help them and why they should buy it.

If you write in the second person (i.e. using ‘you’ instead of ‘we’ – just like this blog post) you are instantly creating a relationship with the reader. It’s as if you are talking to them – it’s the written equivalent of eye contact.

Using this technique, show them the benefits of your product. That doesn’t mean the colour, size, technical spec etc., all that comes later in the product description. They will want to know how it will make their life easier.

SEO and content go hand in hand

If you want to succeed online, you must invest in good search engine optimisation and great web content.

Find a copywriter who really understands the concept of search marketing and who can create content that fulfils the needs of both Google and your customers. It’s a fine line to tread, but one that will bring incredible results when done well.

A good SEO and copywriter is a dream team – when you find yours hold on to them and don’t let them go.

Author: Sally Ormond – Briar Copywriting Ltd

Last month I wrote a blog about the rise of friendvertising using the video from Dove to illustrate how big brands are using the power of social media to get you to do their advertising for them by sharing their content.

Watch the video now and then I’m going to ask you something.

Moving, isn’t it?

It’s incredible how these women see one thing and yet the artist sees something completely different.

And that’s what got me thinking.

You’ve been working in your business for many years, you know it inside out, but are you seeing the same thing as your customers?

How do they perceive you?

Getting your message out loud and clear

The video shows how easy it is to be caught up in your own world and be blind to what it is other people are seeing.

Take a good look at your business. Not how it’s run (although that will have an effect on how you are perceived), but how it is marketed to the world.

Let’s start with your website.

Does it look OK?

Just OK?

How about your brochures, business cards, leaflets, newsletters and emails, do they look OK too?

I bet they tell your customers all about your business, your products and your services.

They tell them how long you’ve been in business, that you’re an expert in your field and that you’re passionate about what you do.

So what do you think that tells your customers?

That you’re innovative, have their interests at heart, will do everything you can to help them?

No.

All that tells your customers is that you love your company.

The power of you

You is a short word, but one that packs a powerful punch.

Making sure your website copywriting (and all your marketing materials) is written in the second person will create an entirely different perception.

Instead of being told “We have many years experience in the development of software solutions”, which will send your potential customers to sleep, you will excite them by saying “We’ll create software systems that work the way you want them to, saving you time and money.”

Straight away they can see the benefit in what you do because, rather than telling them what you do, you are telling them what you can do for them.

You are showing them you are a company that cares about its customers. Suddenly, them emphasis is on them and not on you.

It’s a far more powerful message.

Everything you write must be about your customer.

Every message must highlight the benefits you will bring to their lives or their business.

Every word must show them that you care about them and that’s the whole reason you’re in business.