Website copy has to make an impression on the viewer. Otherwise, it won’t convert. How often do you make a buying decision just based on images? The answer – Never. You read. You try to understand. And when you get what the website is offering, you evolve from awareness stage to buyers’ stage.
There are a few things you can use in your web copy that can
- Maximize its effectiveness
- Get you those conversions you want
- Make sure that you’re selling more than your competitors
1. Buyer’s persona: Buyer’s persona is the cumulative information that you gather on your what your average joe must look like. All his likes, dislikes, his way of thinking, mindset, beliefs, etc are part of the buyer’s persona. If you know how a buyer thinks, you can understand exactly what he wants.
Most of the time, there is a single point in time where the buyer decides to buy the product. It’s called a decision-making point. To make a sale, you have to understand what that decision-making point is. It can either be a single revelation or it can be an outcome of their previous searches. To capture this, you need keyword research.
2. Exclusivity: Once you’ve targeted a particular buyer’s persona, write website copy that captures them. Website copy should be written in such a way, that person feels special when they read it. It should exclude them from the crowd, as someone who’s perfect for your product.
An offer / sale point is one of the most effective uses of exclusivity. Especially repeat customers. Airlines offer miles to people who repeatedly use their services. Many companies have offers such as loyalty programs, pro versions, and secret discounts. It can also be used for upselling and cross-selling the customers.
3. Top half of the page: In marketing, this is called “the fold”. It is the first point of contact with the viewer, part that gets most of their attention. In most paid websites, advertisers try to get their ads placed above the fold so as to get the most above mentioned attention. Especially in mobile versions, where the user will have to scroll to get to the bottom, the fold becomes the most valuable piece of content that you can write, because if the user won’t get the info easily, they might bounce from the website.
For this reason, it becomes important to put your keywords and content in such a way that the important part is above the fold. The fold likely contains the heading and/or the starting content. Make sure that it is one of the good pieces that you have.
4. URL: This comes under the SEO part of the website, but it affects web copy too. URL of your website should have keywords that are targeted towards your user. The effect of two-way, firstly it helps to inculcate words that buyers are typing (part of buyer’s journey). This makes them more likely to click it.
Secondly it helps the SEO of the website. This makes the website rank higher on search engines. Search engine traffic is a much bigger than word of mouth/ referrals. And even though there are a lot of factors that you have to get your website optimized, this is one of the most easiest things that you can do to get maximum results.
“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”
– Leo Burnett
5. Different styles of copy: Website copy can be tweaked for different people People have different styles, different personalities; your friend might find something funny that you may not. Some might go with the conversational style, others might go with urgency copy. You can also use negative copy (that gets people to buy by ego-based decisions). Though you might receive some backlash.
Secondly, if the product is different from the competitors, list out it’ USPs. You might think,”I have all this in the product description, why will I add it in website copy?”. But that description page comes after, way after the website copy. Any differences/advantages that you might have over others need to be put in website copy. This way you can lead people where you want them to go .
6. Power verbs : Power verbs and words define your attitude. When you’re writing something, write it in such a way that the people reading it think “OMG there was such a huge effect of this”.
Consider this
1. “ I was going through the jungle. I heard a sound. I turned and there I saw an 8-foot lion in the middle of the road. Even though I was scared, I didn’t panic.”
Yeah it’s an interesting story, but it can be tweaked with a few power verbs.
“While walking through the dense and dark jungle, I heard a sound. With my heart pounding and nerves throbbing, I turned around to be face to face with an 8-foot 250-pound African lion. Even though my instincts yelled at me to flee, I stood firm and decided not to let panic decide the outcome of this situation.”
So There you have it. These are examples of little things that you can do to make your website convert better. It may take other things too, so don’t get disheartened. Keep working on it.