Copywriting for websites requires thought and planning before you even start writing a single word. It is a good idea to sit down with your customer, or your copywriter, to discuss who you are and who the customers are and create a copy strategy.
Copywriting is the art of writing persuasive content that sells products and services, it is a one man sales team. The content a copywriter will create is designed to make a positive impact and help the business achieve it’s goals.
Create a content strategy document
Your copywriting strategy document will walk you through a number of key factors that will shape the style of writing required for the project.
The website project may also include marketing emails so the style of writing must be consistent with all communication channels.
Here is a list of website copywriting elements to consider when drafting your copywriting strategy.
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13 elements of good copywriting
1. Targeting new or existing customers?
The target audience will be the main driver in how you style your copy.
Are you communicating to new or existing customers? Are you selling or providing a service?
Your website is a not only a place to attract new business, it is also a great resource to educate and inform existing customers.
You maybe writing training material to employees, or you maybe writing sales adverts for retailers. Knowing who you are writing for is an important factor.
The focus of the project is ‘who are you communicating to‘? I personally do not like overly friendly sales people, but do expect overly friendly service people with companies I engage with.
Here are a few things to consider when detailing target audience:
- Age
- Location
- Wealth
- Sex
- Business person
- Stay at home mother
- Life experience
- Health
- Nationality
- Culture
- Religion
- Motivation
Obviously a lot of these will not be relevant, but it is a good idea to gain as much information as possible to get the best possible outcome.
Copywriting could be for a general e-retailer or it could be for a GP. You could be writing to a young audience of children or your audience maybe very passionate about a charity or cause.
Understand the person/s you are writing for.
If you are an existing business you can get a lot of data from your website analytics.
2. Copywriting objectives
Once you know the audience you are communicating to then you need to understand why and what you expect the outcomes to be.
Copywriting objectives could be:
1 Buy into the business
About us. The about us page of a website is one of the most important pages. People want to know all about you and often enjoy the stories behind the business. Writing a compelling and honest About Us page will gain trust and appreciation from visitors. It could even be the reason why someone buys or does not buy from you.
2 Sell products
The product descriptions on an e-commerce site should feature dimensions, materials, benefits, features etc.
3 Get people to sign a petition
If you are working for a charity or working for a cause then you may want to write copy that highlights a particular problem and explain why it needs to be reviewed by Parliament.
To get people to sign you will need to inform readers of all the reasons why they should sign the petition.
4 Get people to donate
Many charities are now heavily reliant on donations, if this is the case then there should be a donate page with a few words encouraging your supporters to donate.
One way of doing that is to write case studies. Tell a story about a person or situation that benefitted from the charity and that could be the push needed to get a donation.
Donations is a good example of finding a target audience.
5 Get more Membership sign-ups
Clubs and Societies rely on paid memberships so writing compelling content to encourage visitors to sign up to a paid membership subscription.
3. Get the tone right
It is important that the tone of your writing meets the expectations of the audience and is consistent.
You can choose to be business like and professional or more chatty but you don’t want to mix the two.
The reader must feel that when she/he is dealing with the business that their expectations are met and they know who they are dealing with at any one time.
Consistency builds trust. If someone buys into your business because you come across very friendly then when you email them you are very matter of fact, there will be confusion.
The tone of voice for your business must be established in your copywriting strategy that others can pick up.
4. The art of storytelling
Storytelling is used by copywriters to connect with audiences by offering them stories they can relate to. We often build relationships with people with shared experiences and through stories we can show others we understand their pain points.
Your service offering has more meaning when others can read case studies.
Products are more appealing when we read the reviews of how others have enjoyed the product and how its helped them.
This is why blog posts are effective because they are telling a story to an audience that either needs advice or has an interest in what we do.
5. Be a subject matter expert
Write with confidence and write with lots of facts and data to show you are an expert in your field or that you know where to source relevant statistics.
Sounding like an expert people will be more likely to trust that you have the skills and knowledge to help them.
If you have expert knowledge then share it with others, they will appreciate you have taken the time and effort to write important information.
6. Be honest
Copywriters communicate the facts to the wider world. They are not paid to write dishonest content for a quick sale.
We live in a world where social media can ruin a business in one tweet. One business was destroyed by fake reviews on Facebook.
Integrity and transparency will be the key to every successful business so a writer should never be asked to be ‘economical with the truth’.
The same can be said about being honest when things go wrong. I.e. if a server goes down then apologise and be truthful about when the server is expected to be fixed.
7. Design appealing CTS's in best locations
The copywriter will design the appropriate call to action buttons to induce an action using an appropriate phrase:
- Buy Now
- Register
- Find out more
- Get a free quote
These short phrases are designed to gain a lead or make a sale. The copywriting content should communicate clearly to the reader what they should do to get that deal.
Call to actions are placed at points throughout the website to guide visitors from various pages they may land.
8. Summarize points
Website content is written in blocks and summarized to make reading quicker and easier.
Short descriptive headers give the reader an idea of the upcoming paragraph.
The content offers links to further reading and key points are highlighted for the reader to digest.
Making bullet point lists breaks down content.
Website designers will make good use of tabs, accordions and toggles for quick access to information.
9. Include sense of urgency
If you are paying good money for a copywriter you will want a good ROI. The copywriter will usually add a sense of urgency somewhere near the call to action to ensure the visitor follows through with the sale or donation.
The content could include a sale end date, or it could offer a percentage discount for a limited time.
Giving the reader a sense of now or never will help them to make a positive and decisive decision.
10. Include icons, graphics, highlighters
Lots of writing on a web page is boring and difficult to digest so we use graphics, icons, videos, images and highlighters to break down the content to make it easier for the reader. We can do that using tools such as Canva and Adobe.
A good copywriter will include graphics, icons and highlighters so important words and phrases pop out on the page.
Separators can be used to separate blocks of content.
Images and videos can also be included to emphasis key points to the reader.
11. Writing product descriptions
Writing product descriptions and sales copy requires a detailed knowledge of the product, the features, the benefits, unique selling points, variations etc.
Include if the product is certified with logo’s and link to certification body.
Does the product solve a problem? Highlight the problem solving benefit with a case study where possible.
The copywriter could add comparisons, reviews and images of the product being used not just on a white background.
12. SEO friendly
Website copy has to be SEO friendly for search engines so the content can be indexed properly
Copywriter will incorporate keywords and phrases in the right places and add internal and external links if necessary to increase SEO score.
The SEO should not change the quality of the writing, so it will not always be possible to achieve a 100% SEO from a piece of copywriting.
13. Spelling and grammar
It goes without saying that a piece of writing should not contain spelling mistakes but should also be grammatically correct throughout.
There are lots of tools to check spelling and grammar. Writing in Word first gives you tools to check grammar and spell check, as long as it is in UK English not USA English.
14. Avoid slang and jargon
Your audience will determine how formal or informal your writing will be but never use jargon, acronyms, slang.
Summary
Whether you hire a copywriter or do it yourself it is good to understand the concept of copywriting, that we are communicating persuasively to prospects, we are helping them solve a problem, we are offering clear and simple benefits and features with a sense of urgency.
This is why I always encourage customers to write blogs posts as it is good writing practice.
