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13 Warning Signs Your Web Copy Stinks
InsightsWe now all know what makes a bad website visually, but what makes a bad site? Henneke Duistermaat gives us some valuable insight. This article was originally posted here. Image courtesy Tom via Flickr.
We’ve all been there. We’ve slaved over our web copy. We’ve carefully crafted and polished each sentence. We’ve rewritten, and edited, and tweaked again.
We finally publish our web copy…and face total letdown. We find web visitors are bouncing. We don’t get the email sign-ups we’re looking for. We don’t get the sales we deserve.
Could it possibly be that our web copy sucks?
I’ve collected the thirteen most common warning signs of crappy copy. Avoid these silly mistakes and you have a good chance to persuade your web visitors to stick around. To sign up to your email list. To join your free trial. Or to buy from you. And each warning sign comes with a tweetable takeaway, so you can share your new found knowledge with all your friends & followers.
Let’s have a look…
1. You don’t know your ideal reader
Your ideal reader is the person you’re trying to persuade to sign up or to buy.
To write persuasive copy you need to know what makes your ideal reader tick. It sounds obvious, but it’s often more difficult than it seems. For instance:Carelogger thought that their target audience would like to have a diabetes app that’s easy to use. But they found that ease-of-use isn’t that important for their users. Their users really want to improve their health.
Conversions increased by 31%, when Carelogger changed their headline fromKeeping tabs on your diabetes just got a lot easier to Maintain your optimal health by keeping tabs on your diabetes.
2. You don’t use hypnotic words
Imagine you could turn readers into buyers just because you use a few words.
Use the following three hypnotic words:
3. You’re talking too much about yourself
You’ve worked hard to improve your product. You’re proud of the company you’ve built. Of course you are. But the hard truth is: nobody is interested in your product, your service, your company.
Your web visitors are only interested in themselves. So don’t go on and on about your features and specifications. Instead, make it clear what you can do for your web visitors. How can you make them happier, healthier, or more productive? How can you help them save money or boost revenues? And which problems, glitches, and hassle do you help to avoid?
4. You’re in love with adjectives
Adjectives and adverbs can kill the persuasive power of your web copy, because they increase the number of words in your sentences; and more words slow your readers down.
Words like breakthrough, innovative, and cutting-edge have lost their meaning. They’re filler words padding your sentences. Cut these words from your copy and join my fight to stamp out gobbledygook.
Follow these four rules to avoid the destructive power of adjectives:
5. You write web copy like a book
Readers usually open a book on the first page of the first chapter and read through until the end.
Imagine people opening your book on page 147, or page 33, or on the before last page.
That’s exactly what web visitors do. They may land on any page of your website.
6. You’re asking for money too soon
What makes a salesman sleazy? And aggressive?
A sleazy-sales problem usually occurs when people are asking for business too soon. Sleazy salesmen don’t give you the time to ask questions. They just want your money. Now.
Of course you need to win business. But are you asking for the sale too soon?
7. You’re suffering from sentence bloat
Sentence bloat makes your readers want to puke. Do you know what causes this miserable situation?
Over-indulgence in difficult words. Verbosity. Trying to sound better than you are.
8. You’re treating web copy like pure science
You understand how you can help your customers. Check.
You use persuasive words. Check.
You test your copy. Check.
But what about the beauty of sales copy?
Steal copywriting techniques from poets to make your sales copy smooth and memorable. Attract attention with alliteration, rhyme, and deliberate repetition:
9. You suffer from superlative laziness
Do your web visitors believe you when you claim to be the best, the most beautiful, or the quickest?
Only use superlatives if:
10. You’re ignoring the impact of design
Writing your sales copy using Word or OpenOffice?
You’re missing a trick.
You need to rewrite, edit, and polish your sales copy once you see it on your actual web page.
Directv uses design tricks to highlight specific words:
Directv’s web designers and copywriters work together to create persuasive content. They use font styles, sizes, and colors to draw attention to specific text. For instance:
11. You’re a little vague
Fuzziness kills landing pages.
A page is fuzzy when a web visitor doesn’t know what to read first on your web page. Or doesn’t understand what to do next.
12. You’re putting Google first
Writing sales copy to rank in Google kills your creativeness, murders the beauty of your copy, and slaughters your persuasiveness.
13. You’re not treating your web visitors like wild animals
Treating your web visitors like wild animals?
Yep, you’ve read it right. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen suggests web visitors are looking for information just like wild animals are foraging for food. Your web visitors are quickly scanning your page before deciding whether to stay or whether to go.
How do you entice scanners to stay on your web page and read on?
The truth about writing seductive copy
Writing good copy is about more than avoiding silly mistakes. Good copy seduces your readers. Choose the right words to make your product desirable. Dazzle your readers with beautiful copy and vivid imagery. Encourage your readers to take action.
Your turn
Now I want to hear from you:
— Henneke Duistermaat
12 handy tips for writing better web copy
InsightsContinuing with this week’s theme of copy writing, Econsultancy’s David Moth gives us a couple of handy tips. This article was originally published here. Image courtesy Nic McPhee via Flickr
Writing for the web isn’t particularly complicated, but it is an important skill to master.
And it doesn’t require a huge departure from the basic rules of writing that were (or used to be) hammered into us at school.
There are just a few criteria that have to be taken into account to maximise the impact of your copy, whether it be for marketing materials or a blog post.
And to be clear, these are guiding principles rather than hard and fast rules.
For more on this topic you can read my 10 tips for writing irresistible headlines or book yourself onto our online copywriting training course…
Get the important information upfront
This is also known as the inverted pyramid method, which essentially means that readers should be able find out everything they need to know from the opening few paragraphs.
You start with all the important information then move onto the additional detail and a more in-depth explanation.
It’s commonly used in news journalism, where reporters cram all the important details into the first line, such as in this topical example from the BBC:
Remember that people will be scanning your web copy, so they need to be able to glean the important information upfront or they’ll go elsewhere.
Know your audience
Aside from all the technical aspects, this is one of the most important criteria for writing for the web.
You need to be aware of who your audience is so you know the type of content that will appeal to them and the level at which it needs to be pitched.
This might involve dumbing things down to an extent. Not everything need to be aimed at the lowest common denominator, but things need to be written so that people can understand it and aren’t turned off by it.
A lot of this should have already been hammered out when coming up with your content strategy, but you need to constantly bear it in mind when writing your copy.
Think: will our audience find this appealing? Will they understand it? Will they find it useful? Will they want to share it?
Which ties into my next point…
Write in simple, concise English
The hardest part of writing for the web is keeping your copy simple and stripping out all the technical language.
People generally don’t want to read complicated explanations, they want web copy to be easy to understand and scan.
Text needs to be as simple and concise as possible.
Again, this isn’t about dumbing everything down, you just need to ensure you’re explaining things in such a way that a broad audience can understand.
Explaining complicated topics in simple language is a valuable skill. Don’t assume your readers are all academics with specialist knowledge, because on the web they’re definitely not.
Get rid of jargon
All industries have their own unique jargon that seems unnatural or even totally alien to normal people.
In the world of digital marketing we have awful terms like omnichannel, disruptive, growth-hacking and SoLoMo.
And if PRs are to be believed, then almost every business in the world can be described as ‘industry-leading’.
Marketing Buzzword Bingo!
This type of language should generally be avoided if possible, particularly if you want your content to be accessible to a broad audience.
On the other hand (there’s always a caveat), industry jargon can be useful if you want to appeal to a niche, expert audience (see rule one).
Paragraphs
Forget what you think you know about constructing paragraphs.
On the web a sentence is equal to a paragraph. Maybe two sentences if they’re both quite short.
This is important for helping readers to scan your copy and means people won’t be put off when they see huge chunks of text on the screen.
It also encourages writers to use concise language.
Use subheadings
This is another way to help people scan the text and find what they’re looking for.
Think of it as similar to different chapters in a book, only on a much smaller scale.
Subheadings should signpost the different points addressed within your article or webpage and break up the text into manageable chunks.
It’s helpful both for your readers and for Google’s web spiders.
Bullet points and numbered lists
Another formatting point aimed at breaking up the text and making things easier for people to read.
Bullet points add some variety to the page layout and make your copy really easy to scan.
It’s also far better than breaking up lists with loads of commas.
Inject some personality
This is only really relevant for articles and blog content rather than marketing copy, but at Econsultancy we encourage writers to let their personality show.
This means the tone is more conversational and more interesting for our readers.
People often comment that this is one of the things they like about our blog. We’re so flippin’ wacky…
Linking
Internal links (i.e. hyperlinks to other webpages) are hugely important when writing for the web.
They allow your readers to find other relevant or related content that you’ve published, and also help Google to crawl your site.
Without them each page exists in isolation and your readers won’t know about all the other useful articles you’ve written.
It also enables you to keep things concise as you don’t need to explain in detail all the technical terms that have slipped into your copy.
If people want to find out more they can follow the hyperlinks.
Include the author’s details
Including a byline on each article seems like a no-brainer, but not all sites do it.
I’d also recommend that the author’s contact details and social accounts are listed.
The benefits include:
As a side note, you should also include a publishing date for all articles and blog posts.
Hiding the publishing date doesn’t make your content evergreen, it removes all context and makes it utterly worthless.
A word on headlines
I’ve covered this in my other post so I won’t harp on about headlines, but the most important things to remember are:
Use a summary/conclusion
When writing a blog post it’s often a good idea to wrap things up in a neat summary at the end of the page.
This is most relevant for long, analytical articles that include a lot of information.
At Econsultancy this includes things like site reviews or an evaluation of a brand’s marketing strategy.
People simply aren’t going to read everything you’ve written, so make things easier for them by writing a short conclusion that summarise the key points and arguments.
Published 23 February, 2015 by David Moth @ Econsultancy
David Moth is Social Media Manager at Econsultancy. You can follow him on Twitter or connect via Google+ and LinkedIn.
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75 Resources for Incredible Website Copy that Converts
InsightsNo one-single place holds all the information you need to build good website copy. Fortunately KISSmetrics has assembled a comprehensive resource for you to work from. The original article can be found here. Image courtesy of Karola Riegler via Flickr.
Writing great copy is one of the most useful skills a marketer can develop. After all, copy is a key element of successful internet marketing across the board, from emails with sky-high open rates to blog posts that get shared hundreds or even thousands of times.
Masterful copywriting plays a big part in the difference between a website that converts like crazy and one that simply falls flat, failing to engage potential customers. Case in point: in Conversion Rate Expert’s redesign of the Crazy Egg website, copy had a big role in growing the site’s conversion rate by 363%.
This resource guide provides links that will give you a strong foundation for writing great web copy. In order to write effective web copy, it’s necessary to understand the principles of copywriting as a discipline. So, this guide includes resources that are not specific to online copywriting, but, nonetheless, will help you build a strong arsenal of copywriting skills you can take to the web.
E-books, Articles, Infographics, and Guides to Get You Started with Web Copywriting
1. Copywriting 101 by Copyblogger – This 10-lesson e-book will teach you the fundamentals of how to excel at direct-response copywriting, which is, as Copyblogger tell us, one of the most essential elements of effective online marketing.
2. Copyblogger’s Copywriting Library – Did you like Copyblogger’s Copywriting 101 e-book above? You can find more free material in the copywriting section of their Marketing Library. These e-books will show you how to use great copy in your content marketing, email marketing, landing pages, and more.
3. The Definitive Guide to Copywriting – This 30,000-plus-word guide from Quick Sprout teaches you how to optimize your copy to increase website conversions. It leads you from gathering the information necessary to write great copy all the way to understanding how copy and design complement each other on your webpage.
4. Free Copywriting Worksheets by Copy Hackers – These 16 worksheets will help you get started applying everything you’re learning about copywriting to your business and website.
5. The Ultimate 101 List of Copywriting Awesomeness: For Startups & Small Bizzes That Want to Write Sweet Web Copy… Sans Pain – Take your time reading through this list of 101 Do’s and Don’ts for startups that want to improve their web copy. Think about how you can apply each one to your site.
6. 20 Killer Web Copywriting Tips – Internalize these 20 web copywriting tips and you’ll be well on your way to writing great copy for your website.
7. Introducing The 6 + 1 Model For Effective Copywriting (Better Than AIDA!) – AIDA, the popular acronym used in marketing and advertising, left out a few key ingredients for getting people to read your copy and take action. Find out which ones.
8. 20 Websites With Carefully Crafted and Convincing Copy – Learn copywriting tricks from 20 websites that are doing it right.
9. Copywriting Cheat Sheet [Infographic] – Using the same tone, style, and length won’t cut it when you’re writing copy for various online platforms. Learn how writing web copy differs from copywriting for social media and from email marketing.
10. How People Read Online [Infographic] – Understand how people read online. For example, “Eye-tracking studies have shown that when looking at text-based webpages, the eye gaze commonly follows an F-shaped pattern and that users spend 80% of their time looking at content above the fold.”
11. Grammar Girl – Now that you’re writing all that copy, you might need to brush up on your grammar. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing.
Must-Read Books on Direct Response Marketing and Copywriting
12. Tested Advertising Methods – A classic book on how to write effective copy, from the headline formulas that really work to the secrets behind ad copy that sells.
13. Scientific Advertising – A quick read by advertising legend Claude Hopkins that will bring you up to speed on the psychology behind great advertising; namely, why certain types of advertising work while others don’t.
14. How to Write a Good Advertisement – Another classic on the core elements of effective copywriting.
15. The Copywriter’s Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells– David Ogilvy has said, “I don’t know a single copywriter whose work would not be improved by reading this book.” So what are you waiting for?
16. The Art of Explanation: Making your Ideas, Products, and Services Easier to Understand – Breaking down your product or idea into words that are easy for everyone to understand is almost always a challenge, especially if you work in technology. This book teaches you how to communicate clearly and effectively with your audience.
17. Breakthrough Advertising – Dense and quite expensive, this classic is best for those who already have read the books listed above and are looking for a way to dig even deeper into how to write effective copy.
Copywriting Courses
18. Copy Hackers – Copy Hackers has a special place in my heart because theStarter Bundle is the first copywriting course I ever purchased. Technically, it’s a set of e-books rather than a course, but once you’ve finished going through the set, you’ll feel like you’ve just been through copywriting bootcamp. What makes the Copy Hackers e-books so effective is that they are jam-packed with exercises you can apply to your website immediately.
19. Conversion Copywriting Course – If the quality of the Copy Hackers’ e-books is anything to go by, you probably can’t go wrong with this 10-week program on conversion copywriting.
20. Fired Up & Focused Bootcamp – This Copy Hackers bootcamp challenges you to block off one hour a day for 20 days to tweak your site and emails with the help of video lessons from copywriting experts.
21. Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting – If the sales page is any indication of the kind of copy you’ll be able to write after finishing this course, then signing up should be a no-brainer. The program teaches you how to write direct-response promotional letters, but the skills you’ll learn can be applied to web copywriting, especially long-form landing pages.
22. Copy Hour – Copy Hour challenges you to spend one hour a day hand-copying high-converting headlines, letters, web copy, and advertisements written by top marketers and copywriters. This is an excellent way to take your copywriting skills to the next level fast, but only do it if you are sure you can make the time for it on a daily basis.
23. Kopywriting Kourse – Learn the basic tenets of great copywriting, from how to form an effective email for a sales prospect to the no-fail process for creating content that converts.
24. John Carlton’s Simple Writing System – This course has been recommended by many seasoned copywriting professionals; just check out the testimonials on the homepage.
The Best Websites and Blogs about Copywriting
25. CopyBlogger – The hands-down best place to get high-quality free information on copywriting and creating great online content.
26. The Gary Halbert Letter – This just might be, as copywriting legend Halbert states on the homepage, the most valuable website on the entire internet. Here you’ll find digital versions of the letters Halbert sent to subscribers about how to master copywriting. Not sure where to start? Check out Ryan MacGrath’s top five issues of The Gary Halbert Letter.
27. The Rant – The official blog of the legendary copywriter John Carlton. Hereare all of his posts tagged as “copywriting.”
28. The Copywriter’s Crucible – Matt Ambrose writes detailed posts on all things copy, from SEO copywriting to website conversion, video copywriting, persuasion, and email marketing.
29. AdCopyWriting – Tutorials, articles, and courses on how to improve your copywriting skills (with a focus on web copy).
30. Copy Hackers Blog – This is an excellent blog on all things related to online copywriting.
31. Bencivenga Bullets – The archives of Gary Bencivenga’s newsletter on how to increase your on- and off-line response.
32. Nick Usborne – Nick Usborne’s blog is an excellent resource for learning how to write for the web.
33. RyanHealy.com – Check out Healy’s best posts on copywriting here.
34. The Copywriter’s Roundtable – A blog about positioning, sales, online copywriting, and more by direct marketing copywriter John Forde.
35. Copywriting on KISSmetrics – Articles about copywriting on the KISSmetrics blog.
36. Copywriting on Unbounce – Articles related to copywriting on Unbounce’s digital marketing blog.
37. Copywriting on ContentVerve – Articles about copywriting on the ContentVerve blog.
38. Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer – Ready to have some fun with all that copy you’ve been writing? This free tool determines the emotional marketing value of your headline and compares your score to the industry average.
How to Write Amazing Headlines
39. How to Write Magnetic Headlines – Copyblogger’s free, 56-page e-book is a great place to start learning how to write better headlines.
40. 4 U’s of Web Copywriting: Tips for Writing Great Headlines & Copy – Learn how to apply the 4 U’s in order to write powerful headlines and copy.
41. Can You Write a Better Headline Than This? Not Using Old Headline Formulas You Can’t – “Without a good headline, no one reads your copy.” That’s why expert copywriters recommend you spend 80% of the time (you dedicate to writing a piece) on the headline itself. This post teaches you how to apply the SHINE formula to ensure that your copy gets read.
42. How to Write Headlines That Work – Brian Clark himself lays out the eight headline categories that have proven to work time and again in one of the most popular Copyblogger posts ever.
43. 10 bitchin’ tips for writing irresistible headlines – Headlines that get attention, like the ones in this article, are almost impossible to ignore. Discover ten ways to write better headlines for the web. (For example, did you know that one expert says the ideal length for headlines on the internet is 65 characters?)
44. How to optimize headlines using the 65 character rule – Now that you’ve gone through the 10 tips above, you’ll probably want to know more about just how you’re supposed to squeeze all your amazing ideas into 65 characters.
45. 9 Steps to Write Your Ultimate Home Page Headline – The amazing Joanna Wiebe of Copy Hackers shows you how to write the most important headline you’ll ever write for the web – the home page headline.
46. Avoid the Headline Holdup: Learn How to Unplug The Bottleneck in Your Business – Learn about the different ways headlines show up across the web (as blog titles, in search results, etc.) and how this should affect the way you write headlines.
47. How To Make That One Thing Go Viral. Just Kidding! – The staff over at Upworthy is known for creating insanely viral content. What is their secret recipe? Amazing headlines are no small part. Skip to page 24 to learn about how they write their headlines, although I recommend giving the whole thing a read. It’s packed with useful insights for content marketing.
How to Write Phenomenal CTAs (Call to Actions)
48. 21 Call to Action Examples and 3 Rules for Effective CTAs – Follow these three criteria for creating effective CTAs, and you’ll see your clicks skyrocket.
49. High-impact Button Copy – How to write calls-to-action that convert [VIDEO] – Button copy can make the difference between a bounce and a conversion. Learn how qualities like relevance, specificity, and positivity in your writing can lift your conversion rates.
50. 14 Real-Life Examples of CTA Copy YOU Should Copy – See how other websites use copy to create CTAs that compel visitors to click.
51. 6 Proven Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Call-to-Action Buttons – Stop being lazy with your CTA copy! Get creative with these six tactics for boosting conversion.
52. What Makes a Great CTA? 10 Examples With Test Ideas to Improve Conversion – Follow along as the author critiques the copy in 10 CTAs and suggests tweaks to test.
53. 5 Tips On Writing Compelling Call-to-Action Copy [SLIDESHARE] – Pick up five excellent tips on how to write compelling CTA copy in this slideshare by HubSpot.
54. The A/B Test That Improved Call-to-Action CTR by 211% – See how one SaaS company got a huge increase in conversions with a small tweak in the copy of an important CTA.
55. [Case Studies] How Failed A/B Tests Can Increase Conversion Rates – You might think that creative twist in your CTA copy will boost clicks, but don’t just decide on a hunch. Test, test, test alterations in your CTAs to make sure you’re putting the copy that performs best on your site.
SEO Copywriting – How-To’s, Tips, and Best Practices
56. 10 Super Easy SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building – Copywriting is not simply what you do when you write for your homepage, product sales page, or your emails. If you want lots of shares and backlinks, your blog posts also should adhere to certain copywriting guidelines.
57. How to Create Compelling Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines – In this e-book, Copyblogger teaches you how to write for search engine optimization. Hint: the secret lies in creating amazing, highly-sharable content.
58. Top 10 SEO copywriting tips for getting high rankings – These 10 tips will help you optimize your content for search engines, resulting in free traffic and happy, loyal followers.
59. How Content Length Affects Rankings and Conversions – As Neil Patel says, “If you want more traffic and higher conversions, you should consider long form copy.”
60. 6 Killer SEO Copywriting Tips From @Copyblogger – Copyblogger’s Brian Clark sat down with HubSpot for this podcast to talk about how traditional copywriting techniques apply to creating great content.
61. How to Craft Phenomenal SEO Landing Pages That Rank and Convert – Much has been said about how to create high-converting landing pages for PPC traffic, but what about optimized landing pages meant to drive and convert organic traffic?
How to Write E-commerce Copy that Sells
62. E-Commerce Copywriting: The Guide to Selling More – Most online retailers rely on manufacturer’s descriptions to sell their products, yet high-quality product descriptions have been shown to increase conversions by as much as 100%. Learn the basics of writing copy that sells your products.
63. 9 Simple Ways to Write Product Descriptions that Sell – Shopify knows a thing or two about selling online. Here they give you nine steps to follow for writing product descriptions that convert.
64. Mobile Ecommerce Copywriting: How to be a welcome addition to your visitors’ mobile experiences – What makes for an effective mobile e-commerce site is very different from what works on your desktop site. Make sure the product copy that shows up on your customers’ little 480×320 or 60×120 screens is optimized for the mobile experience.
65. The 4 Pillars of Ecommerce Copywriting – Learn the four pillars of e-commerce copywriting and how they fit together to drive sales.
66. 7 common copywriting mistakes in eCommerce – Make sure you’re not committing any of these seven common copywriting mistakes that kill conversions on e-commerce websites.
67. Teardown Tuesday: Product Detail Pages Are the Gateway to Your Cart [VIDEO] – Watch Joanna Wiebe of Copy Hackers tear down a product page in this quick video packed with useful insights.
68. 6 Steps to Selling More [Infographic] – Discover six steps to selling more with great copywriting on your e-commerce site.
Conversion Copywriting and Landing Pages
69. A Practical Marketers Guide to Writing for Conversion – A guide to turning information from customer interviews and research into copy that truly speaks to your target audience.
70. How to Write a Long Form Sales Page – In the fifth installment of the Copy Hackers e-book series, you’ll learn how to write long-form direct response sales pages for your business.
71. How to Write Web Copy that Converts – 8 Simple Techniques Based on 4 Years of Research – Understand the deep psychology behind these eight techniques that will help you write web copy that actually converts.
72. 10 Super Smart People Talk Copywriting for Conversion – Links to 10 articles on copywriting for conversion by the best of the best in the industry.
73. How to write copy that converts [Video] – Learn how Joanna Wiebe made a few tweaks in the website of an addiction treatment facility…and got them a 26% increase in conversions as well as a waiting list. (Note: you’ll need a Mixergy membership to view the video.)
74. Conversion Rate Optimization on Unbounce – The Unbounce blog is full of in-depth articles on how to improve conversion rates through copywriting and design.
75. Anatomy Of A Perfect Landing Page [Infographic] – Learn how your copywriting fits into the anatomy of a perfect landing page.
Whew! These 75 resources should be enough to get you started on your way to becoming a web copy samurai. Are there any other resources that you think should be on this list? If so, please share them in the comments below.
About the Author: Chloe Mason Gray specializes in digital marketing strategies for startups and medium-size tech companies. She currently leads the marketing team at the Big Data company Ondore. Be sure to say hi to her on Twitter. You also can follow her on Google+.
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The “Secret” to Writing Outrageously Good Web Copy
InsightsCopywriting is more than just “putting text on a page”. It’s an art, and it’s also how you communicate with your customer. Henneke Duistermaan of Enchanting Marketing tells us more. This article was originally posted on Valuable Content.
Writing seductive web copy is a brilliantly useful skill. We’re delighted to introduceHenneke Duistermaan of Enchanting Marketing, who’s written us this excellent blog that tells you how to do it. Check out her e-book too, details at the end. Over to you Henneke!
How to write outrageously good web copy
Writing your own website text can be tricky, difficult, or even frustrating.
What do potential customers want to hear? What entices web visitors to contact you, to sign up for your e-newsletter, and to buy from you? And what makes them click away?
The “secret” to writing seductive web copy is to write for one person only: your ideal reader. Once you know who you’re writing for, it becomes clear what you should write and how you should write it.
Writing for one person makes your copy more engaging and persuasive.
Nobody likes being addressed as a crowd
How do you chat up a girl (or a guy)? The first rule is making her feel special. You charm her. You flatter her. You might brag a little about what you’ve achieved, but only if she finds your achievements interesting. So why do we try to enchant our web visitors and address them as a crowd?
The biggest mistake web writers make is trying to write for too many people. It makes our messages airy-fairy and ineffective.
By trying to talk to too many people, we’re having a conversation with nobody at all. You can’t chat up a girl if you talk to her as if you’re standing in front of a classroom, can you?
Describing and visualizing your one ideal reader makes your web copy more vivid and more personal. It doesn’t mean that you target just that one person. It means that whoever closely matches your ideal reader feels that your content is written for him. He’ll feel you’re addressing him personally, directly.
Your ideal reader should become like an imaginary friend. You should know your ideal reader so well that you can start a conversation with him any time. You know when he shakes his head because he doesn’t agree with you. You know what makes him chuckle. You know the questions he’d like to ask, and you can formulate an answer he understands and appreciates.
How to visualize your ideal reader
To create a bio for your ideal reader, take a sheet of paper and write down your answers to the following questions.
Start with some simple demographics: Is your ideal reader a man or a woman? What age? What profession? What income? What education? Who does he live with? Does he have children? What car does he drive?
Dig a little deeper: What is he reading? What social media platforms does he use? What are his favorite websites?
And then get inside his head: What does he dream about achieving? What would he love to have? What keeps him up at night? What is he afraid of losing? What’s important to him in life? How does he make decisions?
Give your ideal reader a name and see whether you can find a picture (or make a drawing). Hang your ideal reader’s bio somewhere close to your computer monitor, so whenever you’re working on your web copy, you can look at your ideal reader and imagine you’re writing your copy for him.
The more you know about your ideal reader, the better your web copy will become. You can use your ideal reader for all your marketing activities.
Picture your reader when writing marketing emails, social media updates, blog posts, and even when you choose your marketing channels. If your ideal reader likes hanging out on Twitter rather than Facebook, you know you don’t need to target Facebook for your company’s marketing activities.
How to write seductive web copy
Seductive web copy encourages a web visitor to read on; it engages and tempts your web visitor to contact you or buy from you.
To win more customers with wickedly good web copy, you need to follow a structured process.
Want to learn more about writing your own web copy? Check out Henneke’s e-book How to Write Seductive Web Copy. An Easy Guide to Picking Up More Customers.
20 Killer Web Copywriting Tips
InsightsThis week we’ll be delving into the world of copy writing for web. Starting with an article by Christina Walker, content expert for Writtent. This article was originally posted here, thanks to JD Hancock for the image.
If you feel like becoming a Copywriting Superman, you need to learn how to attract visitors. Being able to put yourself into your customers’ shoes, you should also be eye-catching and unique in your content.
Do you want your customers to switch to your competitor’s website just because your headlines or paragraphs are too generic and scarce?
If not, use these 20 killer web copywriting tips to always stay in the forefront.
1. Use Active Voice.
When you use active voice, the subject does the action instead of being acted upon. That makes it powerful. Sentences that follow this structure are easier to understand, convey movement, and are naturally more interesting. For example:
“We wrote our new ebook to help you work smarter, not harder.”
vs.
“The new ebook written by our company can help you work smarter instead of harder.”
See how the first sentence is not only shorter, but easier to follow?
Active voice sentences can also begin with a verb, as in a command. For example:
Learn how to market your business smarter, not harder, with our new ebook.
Which of these example sentences you use depends on whether you want to emphasize the new ebook or what your audience will learn with it. But either option is exponentially better than long, convoluted sentences that bury the subject and verb.
2. Remember the Important Details.
Who, what, when, where, why, and how are critical for all good copywriting, not just journalism. Your readers want them because they make your copy real, concrete, and trustworthy.
3. Learn to Write Powerful Headlines.
All your copy is worthless if your headlines don’t entice visitors to click-through and read further. Use these resources from Copyblogger to help you write headlines that grab attention:
4. Make It Skimmable.
Readers online don’t read word for word. Instead, they scan to find what they’re looking for faster. Making your copy and content easy to skim gives them what they want, keeps their attention longer, and is easier for everyone to read.
Use a variety of formatting techniques that break up the text and draw the reader’s eye down the page. Some of the best ways to make web copy skimmable are:
5. Be Concise.
People have shorter attention spans than ever. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, and short overall messages to hold their attention.
The only exceptions to this tip are if you’re creating an epic resource, such as an ultimate guide or tutorial, or if a part of your appeal is long, thorough blog posts or books. Other content should still be as concise as possible.
6. Use Short Words.
Simple words communicate better than big words and pompous language. Stick with short uniquely English words instead of more complex Latin-based words. For example:
7. Don’t Worry so Much About Keywords.
They’re still important for search engine optimization, but the goal of every search engine update is to improve the algorithm and return the best results. When you write SEO copy primarily for your audience, not search engines, you help them reach that goal.
8. Avoid Jargon, Bureaucratese, Hype and Corporate Speak.
In the spirit of using simple words, being concise, and writing in the active voice, avoid these types of pompous language like the plague. They’re difficult to understand, and nobody wants to read them.
9. Incorporate Scarcity.
A powerful copywriting tip is to make something scarce, so prospects have to act quickly or it will be gone. Scarcity doesn’t work for all types of content – blog posts, for example – but you can use scarcity for anything you’re promoting in your content. A webinar or conference may only have so many spots, a special deal will end in a few days, or a popular product could only be available at certain times of the year.
10. Create a Sense of Urgency.
Like scarcity, urgency encourages a prospect to act quickly. Limited-time offers, a 3-day free ebook promotion, and coupon expiration dates are all great examples of urgency.
Newsjacking and writing about trends are also ways to take advantage of urgency.
11. Use Positive Language.
If you use negative words, that’s usually what people remember. Rewrite the sentence to use positive words. For example, “Don’t get left behind” might become “Get ahead of the competition.”
Sometimes negative language is necessary, and sometimes it adds variety to your copy. But overdoing it can leave a negative impression.
12. Balance Text with Images.
This might not seem like a web copywriting tip, but incorporating various media (like photos, videos, infographics, slides, and more) in your content marketing strategy can make a big difference. There’s a reason websites like Pinterest and YouTube are so popular.
13. Put Important Information in Image Captions.
When you see an image in a blog post, do you read the caption below it? So does everybody else. Take advantage of this prime real estate by writing a descriptive, informative caption.
14. Make it Feel like a Conversation.
People don’t want to be sold to. Tone down the hype and write your web copy like you’re talking with your ideal customer face-to-face. Your audience can tell the difference, and will be more likely to participate.
15. Craft a Compelling Call-to-Action.
16. Tell a Story
All the epic content in the world is useless if it doesn’t help visitors become leads and customers. Learn to write powerful calls to action that guide prospects through the sales funnel.
Storytelling is powerful. It draws readers in and engages them. And the honesty and transparency involved in storytelling is one of the top ways you can build your
credibility and authority even in your web copywriting.
17. Align Buyer Persona and Buying Cycle.
When you align content, calls to action, emotional triggers, and other elements with the appropriate buyer persona and a specific stage of the buying cycle, prospects are much more likely to consume the content and perform the action. That kind of perfectly matched content is highly personalized, specific, and effective.
18. Include Emotion.
One of the reasons storytelling works is because it often appeals to emotion. If you can make a visitor feel excited that they found you or desperate for your solution, you can draw them further into your site, give them what they’re looking for, and keep them coming back for more.
19. Back up Your Claims.
Logic influences the decisions you want your visitors to make as much as emotion does. Use statistics, research data, case studies, testimonials, and other credible sources to prove what you say.
20. Link to Reputable Sources.
Nothing online exists in a vacuum. Linking out to high-quality websites in your web copywriting helps your visitors and makes you more credible by association.
Bonus Web Copywriting Tips
For more great web copywriting ideas, check out this article from Copywriter’s Crucible.
What web copywriting techniques have worked for you? Please share your ideas and experiences in the comments below!
And if you liked this article, feel free to like, share, or tweet it!
The true cost of the TPG iiNet merger
InsightsThe iiNet / TPG Merger has a lot of us in the tech-world concerned. Will Internode’s customer service level drop? Will the new giant simply roll-over on privacy, as TPG has done before (iiNet fought the Dallas Buyers Club tooth and nail)? Or will this be a boon for the domestic user. Paul Budde (managing director of BuddeComm) wrote this opinion piece for Business Inspector. The original article can be found here. Image courtesy Not Always Right.
TPG’s $1.4 billion offer to acquire iiNet now stands to create a company with combined revenues of $2.3 billion, one that can aggressively pursue its quest to become a comprehensive telecoms provider in the market. However, the merger will come at a cost to the public, further reinforcing the lack of infrastructure competition in Australia.
The TPG iiNet deal is a significant moment of industry consolidation in the telco sector but the trend still has some way to go.
Buying iiNet has obvious merit for TPG. It gives the telco an entry into the NBN, courtesy of iiNet’s 60,000 Fibre-to-the-Premises customers, allows the combined entity to overtake Optus in the fixed broadband space; and gives it a vastly expanded reach into the small-to-medium enterprise market.
TPG is already strong in corporate and government, partially as a result of the PIPE Networks and AAPT businesses it bought previously. The backbone facilities from TPG will also reduce the overall operating costs for the iiNet part of the merged entity.
It is interesting to note that the deal values iiNet’s 975,000 subscribers at $1,436 a head – this is quite substantial, giving the deal a total value of $1.4 billion. TPG reported revenues of $970 million for its fiscal 2014 year and net profit of $171 million. In contrast, for the last six month period iiNet reported revenues of $547 million and net profit of $32 million.
What happens to Internode?
iiNet has been the best performing telco in relation to customer support and has assiduously built a reputation of standing up for user rights in areas like privacy and copyright infringement. Given its loyal following, it’s no surprise that TPG wants to retain the main iiNet brand. However, it will review other brands in iiNet’s portfolio, such as Adam Internet, Internode and Westnet.
While iiNet has built its business on providing strong customer service in the market, TPG’s model is one of low cost (it excels at this) and this is essential within the often dire economic situation of the telecommunications infrastructure market.
From a customer perspective it makes sense to maintain the iiNet brand but the reality is that the choice for customers is becoming thinner. If iiNet stops being the customers’ champion what choice do customers have? Is Telstra or Optus any better?
The negative element of this deal is the obvious depletion of competition and choice for Australian customers.
TPG and the NBN
It’s also interesting to consider the NBN in this respect. What is the advantage of a large company here? Telcos in general have been notoriously poor in building value-added services. What we are seeing, both on fixed and mobile networks, is that the new business models of the over-the-top content (OTT) players are the winners in the retail markets.
The NBN provides a wholesale platform where smaller, more focused players, get a more or less equal chance to win customers. So if companies such as TPG, Optus and Telstra don’t lift their game in this market, many of the 40 or so smaller players will benefit from the churn that will occur when people move to the NBN.
However the trend relates even more to the arrival of a whole new range of players, who will be using telecoms as a platform for their own products and services, whether they are autonomous cars, smart metres, home automation, white goods, smart toothbrushes or payment facilities.
So the general trend here is that telcos will increasingly be pushed back into a wholesale business model, unless they get serious about beating the OTT players.
The backhaul issue
Another interesting aspect of the merger is the continued decline in the number of backhaul providers, as we move back into excessive market concentration in Australia’s fixed broadband market.
This will have a dramatic effect on the provision of backhaul to the 121 POIs (points of interconnect) of the NBN. As I argued back in 2012, it was a big mistake for the ACCC to give in to Telstra and Optus’s wishes to increase these POIs from 6 to 121 since it limited the possibility for smaller players to tap directly into the NBN. Now these service providers have to either build a network to all those 121 POIs – which, of course, nobody is doing – or they have to use the services of the backhaul providers, and with that number of players dwindling, guess what happens to the pricing of these services!
Obviously Telstra and Optus knew at that time that this market would eventually consolidate and – together with TPG – they now enjoy a huge competitive advantage. This industry consolidation has not stopped yet. Optus will also need to step in and ‘eat or be eaten’ would be the operative message here.
The company recently mentioned its poor performance in the fixed broadband market and the need for it to lift its game; merging with TPG would be the only serious option here. Meanwhile, Melbourne-based M2 Group is another company that looks ripe for the picking.
In my past discussions with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on the ramifications of backhaul industry concentration, the regulator had indicated that in case of excessive concentration it would have other tools to regulate that market. That scenario has now been realised and let’s see if the issue pops up as the ACCC reviews the merger.
They can’t really block the merger, as the economic reality of the telecommunications market dictates further consolidation. It is simply impossible for any other company on its own – including Optus – to be successful in the telecommunications market over the next 3 to 5 years.
Interestingly, this also throws a spanner in the works of those who – mainly for ideological reasons – argue that there should be more infrastructure-based competition. Every single industry move over the last decade has been in the direction of consolidation, with little or no new infrastructure players entering the market – either in Australia or any other developed economy.
This is an edited version of a post originally published on March 13. Paul Budde is the managing director of BuddeComm, an independent telecommunications research and consultancy company, which includes 45 national and international researchers in 15 countries.