Looking for website copywriting tips to help you improve your website so it attracts and converts more leads in 2021?
One of my biggest lead generators is this website right here, and I’ve also written for many clients who have since told me that the copy that I wrote for their websites have helped them attract, convince and convert customers.
So don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start, I’ll share five easy website copywriting tips to help you focus on some key things to remember when updating your website.
1. Improve your targeting
If your website is attracting a lot of traffic but isn’t converting well, it’s possible that your targeting is off. Perhaps you’re targeting everyone under the sun instead of the specific target groups of people who are more likely to buy from you.
If that’s true, then you’ll surely end up with random leads who are not your ideal customers and you find yourself wasting valuable time taking calls or answering emails from people who don’t fit your ideal customer profile.
To fix this, your website copy needs to be more precise. You can easily do this if you understand your ideal customers, including things such as their demographic characteristics, values, beliefs (that by buying from you will lead to their desired outcomes), lifestyles, purchasing behaviour and geographic location—i.e. if you only target the people who share a unique combination of characteristics and similar buying behaviours.
Also look at what they’re struggling with, what they’re looking for, what language they use when they discuss what they need, what they expect to find on your website when shopping for it, plus the things they complain about, and so on.
Once you have all this information, think about how you can make your website copy speak to these people in the best language that would sell you to them.
2. Sell the benefits better than others sell them
Many people assume that when the time comes to choose, a lead would simply choose the ‘best’ in the industry. Maybe that’s true in some cases, but in other cases people often choose the alternative if the alternative sells the benefits better than the ‘best’ brand explains them.
There are three key stages when selling the benefits of your services or products to your target market: engage them, inform them and make them take action.
Let’s start with engaging the lead. Ideally, you want to attract and retain their attention so they continue reading the copy all the way to the call to action. You can do this by showing them that you understand their values, needs, wants and desires. If you’ve done the research that I mentioned in point 1 above, then you can easily know those needs, wants and desires to help you do this in your writing.
Next, your writing should inform them about who you are (or your team/brand) and the attributes and benefits of the services or products you’re offering, plus how these attributes and benefits connect with their values, needs, wants and desires.
Wrap it up by giving them a strong call to action now that they have everything they need to know to make a purchasing decision. What do you want them to do next? Call you for a quote? Grab 50% off? Whatever it is, make it super clear so they can act right there and then.
3. Claim the obvious
This is one of my favourite website copywriting tips. One way many marketers win customers is by being the first to make a claim before their competitors do so.
For example, a tattooist in my local city claimed that they sterilised their equipment. They went as far as putting this in writing on a chalkboard which they positioned on the footpath outside their door for all to see.
I’m sure that as per the health regulations all tattooists were expected to sterilise their equipment. And I’m also sure all brands in the area claimed to do so. However, this smart tattooist was the first one who made sure to publicly promote this claim.
They must have known that potential customers would trust a tattooist whose equipment was safe over other tattooists who were not making this claim.
You, too, should be able to find something that you can openly claim that your competitors are not claiming.
NB: Be careful with claims; don’t make false claims. There are laws that make it illegal to make incorrect statements nor create a false impression.
4. Use high-quality testimonials
I’m sure you know that people are more likely to choose you over others when others recommend you. That’s why testimonials (and reviews) are so important nowadays.
A high-quality testimonial describes your work in a way that helps convince a prospect to hire or buy from you. So, don’t settle for your typical “Rhonda is a great writer, we totally recommend her”.
The best testimonials go into more details about why they choose you, how you helped them, why they recommend you, and so on.
If you’re only saying “give me a testimonial”, then there will inevitably be a time where two or more customers would echo each other and as such won’t contribute much extra information.
To avoid this, consider sending specific questions to customers when you ask them to write their testimonials.
Some examples of questions that I ask my clients:
- What were you looking for in a copywriter?
- If you were referred by a friend, what did they say that convinced you to check me out?
- If you looked at my work, what was it about the work that made you choose me?
- How was the experience working with me?
- Would you work with me again? Why?
- Would you recommend me? Why?
- What results did you get? What does this mean to your business?
And so on.
5. Create a FAQs page
One thing I often hear from business owners is they get a lot of phone calls and emails from leads who, like one business owner put it, “ask a lot of questions, meaning I need to talk to people or answer emails when I could be doing something useful”.
Business owners said they often have to answer the same questions over and over to the point where it becomes quite annoying and it starts showing through their voice and choice of words when they respond to queries.
If this is happening to you, then I recommend that you answer these frequently asked questions upfront through … you guessed it … a Frequently Asked Questions page. This way, even if people skip the page and still ask you the same question, then at least you’d have a link to send to them.
If you don’t have a proper list of questions to work with, now is the time to get started. Just keep a record of what people ask, and then start writing the answers. Another way is to browse online forums (e.g. Facebook groups, Quora and Yahoo! Answers) to find out what people are asking about the services/products you offer.
I hope these website copywriting tips help you do better in 2021. Whatever you publish for potential customers to see should be the best, the very best and the highest quality that you can get from your customers.
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