People read differently online, but everyone wants the web copywriter (or content writer) to get to the point quickly and to have clear lines of thought that are easy to follow.
The reader hates getting lost in a desert of texts. Readers love to be taken by the hand and guided through fluent text that offers them a solution to a problem they are currently dealing with.
The copywriter’s first step is therefore to outline exactly what should be said and how the arguments build on/against each other.
If the content of your web text is of no value to the reader, any optimization of the presentation is pointless.
Value in this context means a tip, an impulse or simply the feeling that you have just consumed content that arouses your curiosity and makes you want to try a certain product or service.
You must have a clear goal
Before you write: think about what you want your text to achieve. And then you work towards that goal.
Put the arguments that build on each other in the form of an outline. In this way, you can immediately identify and iron out weak points.
The actual writing is a breeze later, you only need a few transitions. Allocate 80% of your time to thinking and brainstorming, and 20% of the time to writing, and you would immediately notice much better conversions.
Never write for yourself, write for the reader
The most important trick for successful copywriting for websites is putting yourself in the reader’s shoes and formulating everything from their point of view.
So you should not be saying “We are the specialists for bespoke design of modern living spaces”.
It is better to say “let us transform your four walls into your personal dream home”.
It’s not about you and how great you and your company are. It’s about connecting to your reader and how you can help them improve their lives.
The entry into the web text: a strong headline
The headline is the all-important element of a web text.
It decides whether to read or to go straight back to the list with the search results.
Good web copywriters, therefore, spend a long time writing a headline.
Unfortunately, the topic has been hyped a little too much recently. As a result, almost everyone feels like implementing the 10 or 99 tips for the best headlines.
So your best bet is to do headings that are a little different. So that you don’t get lost in the uniform mass of standard headings.
The teaser is the short intro text at the beginning of an article.
A teaser briefly outlines what the reader can expect and what he or she will take away from the article.
Only if the reader recognizes a benefit for himself in the teaser will he continue reading the text.
The temptation to continue reading: inspiring subheadings
Subheadings give the eye an anchor and enable fast readers to skim through web texts better.
Text with subheadings is always more inviting than a wall of letters.
In addition, with cleverly chosen subheadings, it is not necessary to leave the entire text. This is how you grasp the basic content.
Write easily consumable texts
Avoid long, complicated sentences, unclear trains of thought, foreign words that should prove your education.
The work that you do in advance with the structure of the text, the reader does not have later.
If texts are too complicated to not invite to read, readers will drop out and leave your website.
Simple trick: It’s best to write the way you speak. That automatically makes texts better.
Because most of them speak very differently than they write. And are much more convincing.
So in the future, write the way you would talk to someone sitting across from you.
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If this is difficult for you: speak your text, record it and type it up.
There are professional copywriters who, for this reason, do not write their texts with the keyboard, but rather dictate them into a speech recognition system.
And another tip that improves every text: Then read the text to yourself or, even better, to someone else. Then it is immediately noticeable whether your words are linguistically convincing or whether they are rather stiff writing.
Simplification is the first step to success
Anyone who expresses things in a complicated way has not done his job as a copywriter and passes it on to his readers. Not smart.
If you want to convince with copywriting, keep things simple. Even complicated things don’t have to be difficult to read. This is not only proven by the “broadcast with the mouse”.
Forget what you learned about writing in school and university
Most people learned how to write during their studies or at work so they often find it difficult to create boundaries between writing web copy and formal communication. The result? An endless desert of long-winded, stiff, excessively formal texts, which is also full of technical terms and big grammar, but boring and meaningless to the reader.
The academic writing that you learn at university is poison for successful websites. It is also best to forget many of the rules from school.
Don’t use only one line in a paragraph? Don’t start sentences with “and”? Never add a comma before “but”? …Meh meh meh. Let me tell you this; Just do whatever makes your text more readable and your thoughts clearer.
A lot of text is not good text
Also at school and university, we are taught that you have to write a lot to get good grades.
An essay on half a page? Bad.
A thesis with only 25 pages? Even worse.
Forget all that.
Website copy is not about producing quantity. It’s about conveying content quickly and to the point.
Really good texts are therefore formulated briefly. So that you can’t leave out a word and the thought is still conveyed very clearly.
Make it a habit to radically shorten any webpage text before it is published. Most of the time it gets better.
Foreign words and technical terms are not necessary to work as an expert
Don’t use the language that you think should be used in your industry. Most of the time it’s just a lot of hot air.
Real experts do not need to use language to differentiate themselves or to have to rise above others. You are able to say something in perfectly normal terms – so that the target audience can understand it.
That is what makes them real experts.
Talk to the readers
Addressing readers personally works very well on websites.
This is because we all like to deal with our own lives and how we can make them more enjoyable.
Avoidance of getting too close with the reader is not a sign of professional website copy, and even large companies and corporate bodies have realized that.
The closer your texts are to the target group, the more likely you will be successful on the Internet.
Make your texts do the attraction
Many also learned about these brutal walls of text at the university. At that time there was a deduction for too many paragraphs or blank lines, which has an impact on life.
No one voluntarily struggles through such walls of text. Especially not on a screen.
Texts need space to be effective.
So make a lot of paragraphs. After five or six lines at the latest.
Use subheadings.
Use a font size large enough to be comfortable to read.
Make sure there is enough line spacing. Texts need this white space to invite reading.
Don’t make lines too long. Especially in the case of responsive websites that adapt to window sizes, it must be prevented that endless lines are created when the window is enlarged, which is no longer easy to read.
Do not try to appear different from who you are
Small, young companies like to try to make themselves older and bigger in their website texts in order to appear more professional.
Better leave that.
First, it won’t take so much time to find out that you are fake, which ultimately results in disappointment. Second, since you have raised the expectations of your prospective clients, you must, at all times give them something better than what they have tasted or experienced somewhere before.
So, be honest, write as you are, and not what you think a successful company has to be.
Don’t accept time pressure
A good website copy takes time.
You can’t always write everything in 30 minutes, no matter how small. So leave it behind for now. Sleep on it. And look again the next day. You will realize that you can write better that way.
Give your web texts a real ending
It is a shame when really good content just gushes out at the end.
It is better to give the reader a really strong, inspiring thought that summarizes what has been read before.
If you can’t think of anything like that, even a call-to-action or a call to ask questions is better than ending without an end.
Therefore, if you are not sure about how good the texts on your business website are, just send me a message via yusuf[at]branditechture.agency or reach me on the phone via +234 903 483 4608, and I will help you have a look. Doesn’t cost anything.
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