There’s no way around it. Your website is your first impression.
And a bad first impression means no new web visitors and certainly no new leads.
As a small business owner, your website needs effective, results-driven copywriting. Great copy helps businesses achieve their goals by appealing to your target audience every step of the way.
While writing engaging web copy is doable, it can certainly be time-consuming. That’s why I put together this quick guide to writing copy your audience will love and trust.
Strong Headlines
Headlines are a reader’s first invitation. The stronger the headline, the more likely you are to spark the reader’s interest.
Like it or not, if your headline does not grab a reader’s interest, then they won’t be reading the rest of your article. They may not bother to linger on your website for a second longer.
Poor headlines = no new leads.
Writing magnetic headlines takes time. According to copyblogger.com, you should spend half of the time it takes to write a piece of engaging content on the headline.
When writing headlines, I follow these simple and powerful steps:
1. Before writing, select your audience
2. Grab their attention & deliver a message in 10 words or less
3. Draw your audience into the rest of the body copy
While writing effective headlines takes a lot of time and patience, the results are well worth the wait. Elicit the right emotion in your audience, and they’ll take action (i.e. more clicks and time spent on your website).
Concise and credible information
Once you have your headline, let your body copy do the rest of the work. However, even if you’re writing long form content (1,000 words +), you want to make sure you’re writing in short, concise prose.
In William Zinsser’s classic writing guide, On Writing Well, he says, “Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that doesn’t serve any purpose.”
In other words, cut the fluff. As much as I adore writers such as Virginia Woolf and Zora Neale Hurston, I wouldn’t want them writing for the average customer. Save the poetic musings and gorgeous interiority for your novel or creative writing practices.
A Clear CTA
Engaging web copy doesn’t present helpful or interesting information for information’s sake. The right web copy leads to action.
If you’re looking for more email subscribers, conversions, contest entries, and more, then you want to ensure that your website copy contains clear calls-to-action or CTAs.
From “Buy now” to “Love writing and want to learn more? Subscribe now so you never miss a post!”, a compelling call-to-action helps your business thrive year round.
Cheers,
Emily