Good web copy makes people pull out their credit cards.

How do you turn a casual visitor to your site into a potential customer and ultimately someone who spends money with you time and time again?

How do you get someone to visit your site through a search engine? The key is to provide useful and interesting information on your site that people are looking for. If you have a website that sells a product or service your main goal is to get more sales.

Web copywriting is the art of selling with words.

3 basic facts about successful websites

1. They don’t look like ads

• People are already bombarded by ads every minute of their lives – stop the madness
• Online people are looking for information, not ads to look at
• Web copy must have an editorial feel to it – it must not feel like a sales pitch
• Create information-rich content that moves easily into a covert sales pitch – be subtle or you will annoy and put off your potential customers
  

2. They grab your attention

• Include an attention-grabbing headline that stops you dead in your tracks
• Add drama, emotion and urgency in your subheading
• Follow up on the heading and sub heading with editorial content that drives the reader to the sales message

3. Each page has a benefit with a call to action

• Make it clear what the benefit is that your product provides
• Include a simple, easy to understand response mechanism – in a non threatening manner
• Initiate a relationship with your potential customer – don’t demand their money up front

Each and every page is an opportunity for you to start a relationship with your potential customer. The first page that a visitor sees may not even be your home page – especially if they found your site through a search engine!

Don’t fill your pages up with a giant logo of your brand – your logo must appear on the page, but you should first and foremost give visitors what they want – information and a reason to stay on the page and scan through the information that exists there.

Compelling headings are a must

Each page must have a heading that includes the main keyword of that page and that grabs the attention.

No weak headlines!

No uninteresting headlines!

Your headline must speak to a specific target audience, not to all Internet users in general…

The power of a question

When you ask a question in your headline, subheading or in the first sentence of your copy, people’s brains tend to come up with their own answers. Questions allow people to use their imaginations and discover the possibilities for themselves.

e.g.

What if you could do business with a bank that had the lowest fees across the board?

instead of:

Do business with a bank that has the lowest fees across the board.

People may or may not believe the statement, but the question makes the possibility real. Leaving things to the reader’s imagination makes the idea more powerful.

A matter of style

Use a personal, colloquial style to connect with your reader. Keep it conversational.

Avoid the following:

• Marketing fluff e.g. low hanging fruit, deliverables, end-to-end solutions
• Product jargon – don’t assume your potential customer knows all the phrases and acronyms you use in-house
• Unnecessary words – keep it simple, don’t be verbose, don’t try and sound important (you will fail and look like a jackass)

Do use testimonials - include the names and photographs of the customer who’s praising your product to make it real.

How do people read online?

Visitors are NOT going to read your website - they will SCAN it for the information they need. Your website is not a book that you can cozy up with in bed.

• Get to the point immediately - start off with the main idea and conclusions
• Use bullet points
• Use bold and italics
• Break the information into bite-sized chunks that are easy to scan
• Check to see if the information is presented in a scan-able format
• Use headings and subheadings in a logical manner
• Have one idea per paragraph

Finally

By adding emotional zest and a bit of intelligence to your web copy you can turn your website around, increase conversion rates, improve sales and have a good time doing it!