When you set out to write your website copy, it can be easy to fall into the trap of writing what you like. It is your website, after all! But don’t forget that your website is a tool to help you reach your audience, and your website copy should be written in a way that reflects that.
How do you write high-quality, effective content representing your business and connecting with your audience? Here are some things to remember as you set out to write compelling copy.
Your copy should be benefit-led rather than feature-led to resonate with your audience and turn browsers into buyers.
This means that instead of boasting about your product’s shiny features and impressive capabilities, you should focus on how your audience would benefit from them.
Write website copy that leans into the why rather than the what.
Your business exists because your customers have pain points that your product or service effectively solves. These pain points (and your solution) should be the driving force behind your benefit-led copy.
To hone in on those pain points and connect with your prospective buyers, consider conducting some research. Interview your consumers to grasp their experience and use that information to build buyer persona profiles, which you can then intentionally target through your website copy.
Read through the reviews left on your Google Business Profile and determine exactly what it is about your business that satisfies your clients.
You can take it one step further and break down the buyer’s journey into stages based on where they land in the decision-making process.
For example, copy written to target buyers in the problem recognition or information gathering stage will look different than copy intended for buyers in the evaluation or post-purchase stages.
Keep it benefit-led and speak to buyers' pain points at their particular stage in the journey. Buyers love benefits!
We can look to Dollar Shave Club for a great example of benefit-led copy.
A subscription-based service that delivers razors and grooming products to customers regularly, their copy includes lines like “Shave time. Shave money.” Simple but effective, this benefit-led copy addresses the main pain points of their target audience and highlights their product's benefits: convenience and affordability.
Soar with SEO
Your website copy isn’t about you, that’s true. But it’s also not entirely about your clients and prospects – it's about search engines, too!
While benefit-led copy is all about connecting with the reader once they arrive on your website, SEO best practices are about getting that copy in front of the right eyes in the first place. If you’re asking yourself, “What the heck is SEO, and is it a big deal for my business?” — We’ve got you covered.
The great thing about SEO is that high-quality content from a search engine’s perspective is almost always high-quality content from a visitor’s perspective.
Here are some things to pay attention to when you write strong SEO copy:
Are you providing valuable information? When you cover a topic thoroughly and provide a comprehensive overview that answers the reader’s questions, you satisfy the reader while earning SEO points.
Is your content unique? Like the above point, you want your information to be valuable – not just a regurgitation of someone else’s valuable content. You can provide unique value through effective examples, insightful data, fresh perspectives, and helpful infographics, to name a few.
Is it readable? This one is simple. Easy-to-read copy is better, both for the visitor and for SEO purposes. Follow a logical structure, maintain a consistent voice, and avoid long, convoluted sentences.
Is your content trustworthy? Google heavily values E-E-A-T signals, that is, experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. In other words, is your information accurate and reliable?
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: your website copy isn’t about you.
That being said, it can be difficult for small business owners to write their website copy in a way that is effective and engaging to their audience. When you’re too close to the business and its products and services, it can be difficult to put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and write copy that connects with a brand-new audience (not to mention with search engines!).
If that sounds familiar, The Brand Brew ®’s Copywriting for Website service could be just what you need. Written intentionally to engage the ideal consumer and to appease the search engine ranking systems, our evergreen copywriting can be used across all communications: social media, digital advertising, print media, and more. If you need help writing copy that converts, pass the pen to us!
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