Entries Tagged 'website copywriting' ↓

Frequently I am asked by people to give them an analysis of their website copywriting. Again and again I see the same mistakes so I thought I’d write this post about it to help you review your own site.

Believe it or not, the appearance of your website text can actually have an impact on your sales. Its readability can affect your reader’s buying decision. Many companies place more importance on the design of their site than the words it contains – big mistake! It is the words that will sell not the graphics.

To give you a helping hand I have listed below 7 basics to make your website readable:

1. Easy to read

This covers everything from simple words and sentences to the colour scheme. Use a light coloured text on a light background and your copy will be unreadable; the same goes for using a bright coloured font on a dark background.

1. Attention grabbing

If you want to get their attention, use headlines. Make sure you work your keywords into the headings too. Break up your text with plenty of sub-headings. Not only will it make it more attractive on the screen (a huge block of text is a major turn-off) but they will also act as sign-posts so your reader can find the information that’s relevant to them.

1. Highlight your keywords

Emphasize words that are important to your reader by making them bold, italics or a different colour. Things like free, fast, free delivery and your key selling points.

1. Font size

Don’t use text that is either too small or too big. Save the larger text for your headings and sub-headings.

1. CAPS are bad

If you use all capital letters in your copy you’ll come across as unprofessional plus it’s very hard to read.

1. Spacing

A well spaced page of text is a readable page of text. Use plenty of white space, headings and sub-headings to signpost the important sections. Show your benefits as a bulleted list so they stand out. Whatever spacing format you use, make sure it’s consistent throughout your site.

1. Check and re-check

Breaking grammar rules can be very effective in sales writing, but sloppy spelling and punctuation isn’t. Mind you that’s not to say that your grammar can be sloppy – it should always be used correctly unless you are trying to get a point across. There is nothing worse than a website full of typos – it’s very unprofessional.

This list is by no mean exhaustive and I could go on for hours about. Take time out to review your website. It is your company’s online shop window. Review every section of text from its appearance to its factual content – is there too much detail or too little, are there any call to actions?

Your website shouldn’t be viewed as an optional extra in your marketing campaign. You don’t have one just because it’s nice to have or because everyone else has one. Your website is there to sell – use it.

Every business should have a website, but not just any old website.

How many times have you seen a website that has been unreadable? I’m not just talking about dodgy website copywriting that has been over stuffed with keywords, or bad translations of foreign sites. I mean where the site is literally unreadable because of the layout and colours.

If you already have a website or are thinking about building one, here are 8 tips to bear in mind to make sure your site is readable.

Make it easy to read

Don’t use light coloured text on a white background, for example yellow on white, because it will be unreadable. By the way that works for dark text on a dark background too.

Get them in the mood

Use colour to create the mood – red for excitement, green for greed etc. But don’t over do it, rainbow text looks very unprofessional.

Attention grabbing

Use headlines to get their attention. Use a different colour or font to make them stand out from the rest of the text.

Highlight important words

Emphasise words and phrases that are important – super, fast, free, new etc., by using bold, underlining, italics and colour.

Font size

Getting the right font size is vital – too small and your reader will struggle to read it. Make sure your headings are in a larger font size to the rest of the text so they stand out.

Spare the capitals

DON’T USE ALL CAPS AS IT WILL LOOK UNPROFESSIONAL AND AS THOUGH YOU ARE SHOUTING AT YOUR READER.

White space

Make sure there is plenty of white space on your page to break up the text. There is nothing worse than being faced with a solid wall of letters.

Use sub headings to help your reader navigate their way through your web page. Key points should be listed as bullet points to make them stand out.

Check and double check

Once you have created the perfect layout and written your web copy, check the spelling and grammar before it goes live. But don’t forget, sometimes you need to break the rules of grammar to get your point across so don’t be afraid to get creative.

Sally Ormond is a freelance copywriter providing a comprehensive range of copywriting services to businesses across a diverse range of industries.

Warning! Your website copywriting and brochure content are not designed to stand the test of time.

Think about it for a moment. You change your style of dress to reflect the changing fashions; you may even redecorate your home now and again because your tastes and priorities change. Therefore you should also review your marketing message every 6 – 12 months.

Times Change

When you set up your business you invested a great deal of time in researching your market and ensuring your sales message resonated with your target audience.

But the economic climate has now changed; your target market may have different priorities. They are older and wiser and…guess what? Technology has changed. In fact everything has changed.

Therefore you have 2 choices: continue to do what you’ve been going and watch your sales slide, or revamp your message and see your profits rise.

However good your original sales message was, it is now becoming tired and stale. Your customers want something new. Your message may no longer resonate with them. They’ve changed so you need to change too.

Freshen Up

Take a look at your website content and brochures. Is your message still powerful? What do your ‘today’ customers want? Do the benefits you pushed still work? Basically are you still tuned into what your customers want?

Your sales message has to be flowing. Keep it static and you’ll lose customers. Regularly update it to reflect people’s needs and you’ll keep it fresh, exciting and in demand.

Put your coffee done, grab your brochure or get your website on screen. Take a look at the copy. Does it still reflect what you can do for your customers?

Review your copy every 6 – 12 months and your investment will be rewarded with new business, retained business and increased profits. Keep your business growing; don’t get stuck in a time warp.

Copywriting is the one thing that will make your website work. Forget flashy graphics and annoying animations, it the copywriting that will convey your sales message to your readers and get them to buy.

If you don’t use the right words within your website copywriting you will never convert your traffic into sales. Everyone knows how important keyword research is and the effect it will have on your SEO, but there are also some other very important words that should be featured on your website.

By incorporating these 10 simple words in your copywriting, you will make your writing more powerful and results-driven.

You – too many websites use ‘we’ instead of ‘you’. Your readers are only concerned about how your product will benefit them. They couldn’t careless about your company. Copywriting is like holding a conversation – talk to your customers not at them.

Free – people love free. It helps build trust. It doesn’t have to be something big, a free eBook or consultation will do. Mind you, you do have to be careful. Over do the ‘frees’ and it could look like spam so be careful.

Guaranteed – all shoppers are cautious especially online shoppers. Guarantee builds trust as it gives your buyer a safety net should things go wrong. Just ensure you can honour the guarantee!

Easy – everyone loves easy; enough said.

New – people love to have the latest gadgets so ‘new’ is very powerful.

Proven – show your customers proof that your product/service will do what you say it will do. If you have them, use statistics or testimonials.

Results – don’t beat around the bush. Show them results if you have them. When confronted by irrefutable proof that it ‘does what is says on the tin’, they can’t say no.

Save – I am not just talking about money here. Saving time, energy and trouble can be just as powerful.

Maximize – this has the effect of showing your readers that ‘it couldn’t get any better’. But be specific – if it is a woolly claim they will just walk away.

Benefit – I have saved the best for last. The main aim behind any copywriting is to let your readers know how they will benefit from your product/service.

Now slip off and take a look at your website. All 10 words are there right? And you haven’t used ‘we’ anywhere (you can get away with it on your ‘About Us’ page)?

These simple tips will make your website a winning site.

One of the biggest copywriting mistakes you see is that the writer has made assumptions about the reader.

What do assumptions make? Absent readers because they would have toddled off and found what they were looking for elsewhere.

Everyone wants something different out of life – whether it is peace and quite, a high flying career or just to be left alone. If we didn’t the world would be a pretty boring place.

It is the little things that get us up out of bed in the morning that are crucial to the way you write your website content and copy. If you don’t know what makes your reader tick you’ll never get inside their heads, inspire them and make them take the action you want them to.

Guess what? Even if you do know them so well you know what buttons to push, you can never assume you know how they’ll react.

Even the most seasoned copywriter can come unstuck if they think they know what everyone wants. You see the problem is that we all have our own way of looking at the world and tend to assume that everyone else sees the world in the same way.

Remember, what motivates you will not necessarily motivate your target audience. You have your own ambitions and goals in life, but the people who you want to buy from you may be looking for something very different – and therein lies the trick of writing website copy that converts.

If you can’t reach people and tap into what they want, you’ll never be able to sell them anything at all.

Getting to know them

Your website content must separate what you want from life from what your target audience wants. You are only after one thing – sales.

So how do you sell to someone who doesn’t think like you do? Simple – you become your target reader. Forget about your motivators, assume nothing, and discard all your personal perceptions. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes.

Your reader is trying to work out where your company figures into the equation. Why should he choose your business?

Perhaps he’s stressed and needs ways to make his life more peaceful. Perhaps he wants to cut down on his workload or boost his business.

If you know what motivates him you can sell him what you have. Take the time to find out, don’t assume anything.