Six copywriting tips to transform your website
You’re a business owner, you’ve got a to- do list longer than your arm and you know your website needs work… but where do you start? Well, right here!
Website copy is a delicate balance of information and selling, and lots of people choose to delegate it to a copywriter. It’s more complicated than just getting the words right; it’s a skill. But, like all skills, it can be learned. There’s nothing stopping you writing your own copy for your website. After all, you know your business best and you’re an expert in what you do.
The tips in this blog can be applied to any business or website. Don’t be afraid to put your spin on them. Making everything on your website personalised to you and your industry will make it even more impactful,
Tip #1: Attention- Grabbing Headings
A dazzling heading is crucial. You’ve got seconds to interest your customer, and the first thing they’ll see is your heading. You need to attract them, inspire curiosity, and give enough information to get them reading. Oh, and the best bit? There’s an ideal word count. The best headlines are between 6 and 12 words. Using a question is a great hook to the reader, or a shocking fact will grab attention. If you can get a keyword in your heading too, then it’ll help you to rank higher on Google.
Tip #2: Compelling Calls to Action
A call to action (CTA) is where you tell your customer to do something. Sometimes business owners shy away from using an explicit CTA because it can feel “sales-y”, but your customer needs a direction to follow. This may be to book an appointment, to buy a product, or perhaps to sign up to a newsletter.
Getting your customer to act means keeping your CTA simple, clear, and consistent. You can write “buy now” or “click here!” but the best CTAs are also engaging and original. Here are some examples:
Let’s get started
Want 10% off?
Press for magic
Grab one for free
Quick! Book me!
Shall we chat?
Tip #3: Persuasive Structure
Have you ever heard the line, “it’s not what you said, it was the way you said it”?
The order of the information is just as important as the information itself.
Read that again:
The order of the information is just as important as the information itself.
This is where many self-written websites can struggle to convert. You need to carefully introduce the right information at the right time in the right order. There are lots of copywriting structures to choose from, and they all work in different ways:
PAS: Problem, Agitation, Solution. This is when you outline a problem a customer audience is having, then give further examples of the problem, before highlighting how your product or service solves that problem. It’s super persuasive.
BAB: Before, After, Bridge. This one highlights what your customer’s life is like ‘before’ using your product or service, and the ‘after’ shows their life after using your product. The ‘bridge’ is how they can buy the product or service.
BAF: Benefits, Advantages, Features. This one’s great for product descriptions!
Tip #4 Highlight your Brand Values
Have a quick think about why you started your business. To make a difference? To bring some joy? To solve a problem? Well, that’s a selling point. Customers buy from businesses whose values align with their own.
You could simply tell your customers your brand values, but it’s far more effective to show them. Brand values are communicated in every email you send, in every social media post, and in your website copy. Try to clarify your brand values (here’s an example from Alpro) and subtly weave them through everything your customer will read.
Tip #5: Clarify your Tone of Voice
A masterful tone of voice makes your website stand out, be memorable and it communicates who you are all at the same time. It gives a consistent and professional feeling to your website and, perhaps most importantly, it inspires trust. And why’s that important? People buy from people they trust. A good tone of voice literally helps you make sales.
All you need to do is make some decisions about how you want to sound:
Funny vs. serious
Formal vs. casual
Respectful vs. irreverent
Enthusiastic vs. matter of fact
Once you’ve you’re your decisions, make sure what you’re writing matches your decisions. For example, if you’ve chosen serious and formal, writing with slang and lots of emojis is not in keeping you’re your tone of voice. Likewise, if you’re going for a relaxed and upbeat tone of voice then writing with industry jargon and formal language is just going to confuse your customer. Monzo and Oatly all have distinctive and unique tones of voice.
Tip #6: Writing for your audience
Excellent copywriting reads like one person talking directly to one person. It’s incredibly hard to do that if you don’t know who you’re writing for. Ask yourself: who is your ideal audience? If you’ve just mentally answered “err… everyone?” you’ve got some work to do. If you try to appeal to everyone then you’ll speak to no one.
Working out your ideal audience isn’t as hard as you might think. You could start by conducting some market research on your current customers. Ask them about themselves: what they like, what their jobs are, what their lives are like. Keep them in mind as you write and make sure you solve their problems with your product or service.
And there you have it! Six ways to tweak your website and make it even more effective.
Bonnie Harrington is a copywriter and content writer from Bristol, UK. She loves writing creative small businesses, independent brands and agencies who pay their invoices in a timely manner. Meeting new customers and chatting about their passion is one of the best parts of her job. If she’s not reading, you’ll find her writing, or posting blogs on www.wordsbybonnie.com.
The life of a Copywriter… and tips on how to write great content
Guest blog post by Collette White
Juggling, plate spinning, and creating content …. currently, it’s more like a circus in my house than a workplace and I know I’m not alone!
I have had the joy of having two children (9 & 12) at home to try to “home-school”, whilst trying to clean, work, shop and feed them, oh, and run a business.
Actually, I’ll let you into a secret, I gave up a few weeks ago on home-schooling, it’s more like free flow education (I’m pretty sure baking cakes, playing games and bouncing on the trampoline are perfectly good educational skills for them).
What I should be getting on with, of course, is running the business – sourcing clients, networking and actually getting down to writing. Blogs, articles, social media content and website content for businesses that struggle to articulate what they need to or would prefer to let someone else do it for them.
Whilst I’m getting on as best I can, am I alone, I often wonder, in marvelling at these fabulous Mumpreneurs who manage it all perfectly and have such polite children too. Whilst I struggle with fitting in a shower, working and ensuring my youngest doesn’t leave the house in just his pants.
But flexibility, adaptability and rocking-it (whilst zooming) are some of my new found skills and traits and I’m sure that they also form part of all work at home Mum’s. Something we should all be proud of.
So how do we do it? I’d love to know your secrets for success… Me – well coming up with content to fit the style, topic and needs of a business can be tricky. For example, I’ve been working with a plumber. A dryish technical kind of subject.
What I do is take a peek at client’s social media. This helps me to appreciate how my client likes to write, as style is very important too, you’ll need to make sure you know what their voice is like ie. corporate, fun, jokey, serious etc.
Next, it’s all in the research by understanding your topic, you can turn it something interesting, bite-sized and easily digestible. Keep your audience in mind, if you don’t understand it… they won’t.
Keeping it simple and not overloading – if there is a lot to cover then consider a teaser piece as your social media content and then bulk it up to make an article or blog. Make sure it solves your client’s problems or helps them in some way. Ideally, if you can show that what you do, can take away their pain and save time and money – you’re onto a winner!
Getting a sense check. Quite often I’ll get my husband to have a quick read of my work, as it’s good to have a second opinion, if he nods off half-way through or his eyes glaze over, I know I’m going to have to start again. Adding a sprinkling of humour to a piece as well as looking for audience give back (asking a question) on social media content is also a great way of creating engaging.
Just to break the illusion of me pouring over a desk whilst the midnight oil is burning…I’m not that bad, but I do find myself rapping something out at 5am if I can’t sleep and have lots on my mind. Alternatively, I’ll spend 30 minutes on getting something done and then give the kids some attention. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about getting it done and fitting it to your life-style.
Enjoying what you do, actually makes it not a chore. If you feel that it’s hard work (don’t get me wrong there are times I struggle to get started or to finish a piece), each and every time, then maybe consider outsourcing. If you enjoy it, relax, remember it’s about helping others and don’t get hung up on other’s approval. Be your own voice, stand strong, you own it.
One last thought… Using keywords is important to ensure that my audience gets to read it. By keywords I mean those that people will use in a search. Such as ‘plumber’, ‘DIY bathroom’ etc. These are just the basics and I would highly recommend, when you can, getting a super SEO specialist to help you (they work wonders for your business).
Collette White is Owner of CF3 Creative, and has oodles of experience in marketing, events and writing. She is a professional juggler (only kidding) and can be found trying not to eat her own body weight in chocolate, when faced with all trials and tribulations that life throws at her!!