When it comes to creating a website, there’s a general process that most people follow.
Firstly they’ll decide what they want it to look like.
Then it’ll be designed.
Then it’ll be turned into a working website.
Then they’ll add the copywriting to each page.
Copywriting is the name for the words on the page, sometimes also called either ‘content’ or ‘wording’ too.
But who likes writing copy?
Not most web designers. And not most business owners too for that matter.
Generate More Leads By Starting With Your Copy First
Now if you’re looking to get ‘above average’ sales enquiries when compared to a typical website in your industry, then you’ll have to do something different to what everyone else does.
It might surprise you to learn that the most important part of attracting sales leads isn’t the look of the website.
No, it’s what is being ‘said’. Your ‘message’ to the reader.
Yes, presentation and style needs to be professional, but the wording has far more sway in getting your visitors to take action than you might imagine.
5 Little Known Secrets To Easily Write ‘Copy’ That Sells
Contrary to what the professionals might tell you. You don’t need to be a world-class writer or have an A* English Language GCSE.
In fact, good copywriting is less about your ability to use advanced grammar and fancy words and more about understanding your customer and their desires.
Here are 5 ways that even the absolute beginner can use to improve their copy.
1) Spend more time getting to know your ideal customer than writing the copy
As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to invest more time in thinking about your customer and your ‘offer’ than you will writing anything.
Think about the things that other businesses in your industry do which frustrates their customers. What concerns them? What worries them? Think about what you do differently to avoid this.
Think about common questions or sales objections that people have or ask you about.
Think about what makes your business different.
Why should they use you instead of another competitor?
2) Use a proven copywriting formula
If you’ve never written ‘copy’ before, here’s a simple yet proven structure to follow.
It’s called Problem > Agitate > Solve (Or PAS for short).
It means, start your copy off by acknowledging problems your reader might be facing.
Let’s take an electrical company for example…
They might be trying to find a reliable electrician, but keep getting let down.
Then you ‘agitate’ it. This means you need to stoke the fire and draw up some of that emotion they have deep inside of their stomach.
Share some examples of what being let down looks and feels like.
For example, never having phone calls returned, waiting weeks for a quote to arrive, or jobs taking forever to complete.
Then finally move on to the solution. Present how you do things differently as a direct solution to these problems.
For example, here’s how it will work. We’ll give you a scheduled arrival time and even 100% guarantee we won’t be late.
3) Include a compelling ‘call to action’
Now you’ve got their interest, you’ll need to make sure you ask them to ‘do something’.
The secret to getting this working is to make it simple to understand, quick and easy for them to get their hands on and in line with their natural expectation of what should come next.
For a more detailed example, you can read my guide on creating call to actions that work here.
4) Write an attention grabbing headline
Once you’ve got your target customer dialled in and you’ve made a compelling message and given a reason to take action.
The only thing you’ll need now is to have someone read it.
It might sound simple, but it can be one of the biggest sticking points.
When people ask me “what’s the most important thing on a web page?” I’ll often reply with “the first bit of text on the page”.
Also called the headline.
Think about when you used to read a newspaper.
The first thing you’ll read is the headline. If it sounds interesting, you’ll read more.
If not, you’ll skip on to the next article.
Make sure your headline is clear and gets to the point.
Also it should be about what the customer gets, not about your business.
5) Keep the writing style simple and conversational
One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to writing copy for their website is to try and make themselves sound important and ‘bigger’ than they are.
Defaulting to language known as ‘corporate speak’ in an attempt to sound professional.
There’s just one problem.
This isn’t about you, it’s about your customers.
And more importantly, what you can do to help them.
Keep your copy clear and simple to understand.
Kind of like the way you’d talk if you met in person.
Simple words that your customers understand will bring in more money than fancy words or concepts that go straight over their heads.
FREE Review of your website and marketing
Getting a website designed and built is a fairly straightforward process.
But getting that website to consistently and predictably bring in new customers month after month isn’t so easy.
If you’ve ever given it a go yourself, you’ll no doubt have experienced the difficulty. Getting anything working takes investments of money and time to figure out what works and what doesn’t
Thankfully, you have the opportunity to take an incredible shortcut.
We work exclusively with fast growing companies so we’ve already done the hard work.
You’ll get a ‘no holds barred, take no prisoners’ full review of your website and marketing to find out each of the things that are currently growing or slowing your business right now.
Reviews take time to prepare for and host so we can only do a small number each month.