10 Website Copywriting Secrets to Get More Sales
Website copywriting matters. Correction. Your website copy REALLY matters. ‘Why?’ I hear you ask. It matters because your business website is the only digital asset you truly own and have control over, making it the single most important online platform you have. Think about that one for a second. While social media is a key part of an effective content marketing strategy, it involves using another organization’s platform, which means you’ll always be playing by their rules. In contrast, your website is 100% yours to bend to your will, and a killer site will attract traffic, convert prospects, and keep your customers coming back. That being said, not all websites are created equal. There is a real correlation between the success of a business and the effectiveness of its website, particularly the traffic it generates. In one study by Hubspot, the majority of companies exceeding their revenue goals had more than 10,000 visitors per month to their website. In comparison, 80% of companies not reaching their revenue goals had less than 10,000 visitors. And you can bet your bottom dollar those visitors weren’t going to the websites by accident. They happened to be there because of great website content. [bctt tweet=”@JuliaEMcCoy shares her top 10 website #copywriting secrets to gain more traffic and, of course, sales! ” username=”ExpWriters”] Why & How Website Content Is The Great Differentiator We know from experience that website copy, and high-quality content at that, can be what sets a brand apart from its competitors. Don’t take our word for it, though. More than 70% of marketers rate relevant content as their most effective way of obtaining website traffic, with content marketing generating three times as many leads as outbound marketing, and costing 62% less. [bctt tweet=”More than 70% of marketers rate relevant content as their most effective path to site traffic, with content marketing bringing in 3x as many leads as outbound marketing & costing 62% less. @JuliaEMcCoy ” username=”ExpWriters”] What’s more, small business websites that have blogs experience 126% more lead growth than businesses without, and B2B companies with a blog generate 67% more leads per month than companies that don’t have one. Not Just Any Old Content Will Do Like any other product or service, quality matters when it comes to website content. A recent UK study revealed that 59% of people wouldn’t use a company that had glaring grammatical or spelling mistakes on its website. In addition to this, a whopping 82% of people said they’d be put off by a website that featured content poorly translated into English. The scary thing is that poor website copywriting, instead of generating sales, can actually cost your business. That’s right. Poor quality content can actually turn away customers and create additional costs for your business. Writing expert and author Josh Bernoff says poor writing costs U.S. businesses $400 billion every year. From thedailybeast.com/bad-writing-costs-businesses-billions He names websites and marketing materials as the worst offenders, pointing the finger at lack of clarity, overuse of jargon and poor structure. Bernoff attributes the massive cost to the time that is wasted correcting and attempting to interpret poor writing. This figure doesn’t take into account other expected costs to business in terms of lost leads, sales, and reputation. [bctt tweet=”Did you know? Poor writing costs U.S. businesses $400 billion dollars every year. Read more: ” username=”ExpWriters”] Using poorly written content on your site can also have a significant effect on how Google ranks your site and your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). People Don’t Read Your Content So, here’s the thing. You may go to the trouble of crafting what you think is beautifully written content, but people aren’t going to ‘read’ it no matter how good it is. Numerous studies confirm what we already know. We don’t typically read much of the content we see. We scan or skim it. I do it. You do it. And so do your website visitors. Our average attention span is just 8.25 seconds – that’s one second less than a goldfish! We read at most only 28% of the words on an average web page – 20% is believed to be closer to the truth. So every single one of your words has to count. Reduce your content to the smallest number of relevant, and necessary, words possible without sounding stilted. 10 Website Copywriting Secrets to Win More Sales & ROI from Your Online Presence Want more in-depth tips? Check out my 365-page book on Practical Content Strategy & Marketing. You’ll learn the entire strategy for great web content. Bonus: Module/Section 5 is completely devoted to creation techniques – called Practical Content Creation! Creating effective website copy is an art. This is why many businesses turn to professional copywriting services or someone who specializes in online copywriting. Whether you hire website copywriters or decide to go at it alone, it helps to know the factors and qualities of great website content. Here are our top web copywriting tips. 1. Know Who You’re Writing For With more than 200 million pieces of online content created every minute, it can be difficult to stand out. One of the best strategies to cut through the competition and reach your audience is to create a target persona. Once you have your target persona clear in your mind, writing your content becomes much easier. Your target persona will guide what language and tone are most likely to resonate with your audience and inspire them to take action. 2. Create Eye-Catching & Skimmable Content Since we’ve already established that our attention spans are worse than a goldfish, you should make your website copy skimmable, as well as eye-catching. Start with an awesome headline. The headline is your hook and helps a reader decide whether they should click and read on. Make your headline clickable with power words. Use lots of white space around your copy. Incorporate subheadings and bullet points to break up space and create obvious landing spaces for the reader’s eyes. Break up text with images. Photos and videos not … Read more
