Posts Tagged ‘online copym’
10 Tips for Improving Your Online Copy to Increase Sales
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
So, you’ve engaged in various online marketing campaigns - SEO, linkbuilding, online ads - but your site still isn’t seeing a surge in sales? Well, it may be that your website’s copy needs a tune-up; that your site’s text doesn’t flow, or engage the visitor or call them to action. If that’s the case, here are 10 copywriting tips you can use to give your website a much-needed writing boost!
1. Use white space to your advantage - We’ve all been to websites that have big blocks of text, with no end in site. Sites like that are truly lucky that anyone stays to read their uninviting novel. If you want your text to be inviting, then make it manageable to readers. That means small paragraphs with lots of white space.
2. Use original content, and lots of it - One of the worst things you can do for your website, in terms of search engine rankings and readership, is to copy and paste text from another site, even if you have permission to do so. All of the major search engines frown upon duplicate content, and visitors searching competing websites are sure to be unimpressed when they happen upon your website, whose copy is identical to the previous three he or she just looked at! Keep all your copy new and fresh and add pages to your site for regular news or blogs - all that extra content will help bring in more visitors to your website.
3. Give visitors a call to action, and often - Okay, the good news is a visitor is on your website, reading your copy. Now what? If you want to turn visitors into customers you will have to hold their hand through the process. Give them the opportunity to buy or learn more (whatever it is you want them to do). Throughout the text on each of your pages, have links that say “Read more”, “Order now”, “Learn more”, etc. You want to make sure you don’t miss the short window of opportunity with your visitor when he or she decides they’re ready to take action.
4. Answer unspoken questions on the first page - What are the most common questions that people have about your business? Okay, now instead of hiding them deep within your FAQ page, answer those questions right on your home page. Don’t let visitors make assumptions about your business, because that may quickly lead them off your page and onto someone else’s!
5. Break up your text - Use bullets or numbers to emphasize points, break up text and bring in some more white space. Another good way to break up text is by using a picture, graphic, or headline - anything to make your website’s copy look unintimidating.
6. Keep headlines short and to the point - A good headline tells the reader everything he or she wants to know, in only a few short words. You should spend more time on a headline because it will be what your readers are most drawn to, and it’s designed to quickly grab their attention. The most important thing about a headline is that the message needs to be 100% clear and understandable. No one should be forced to re-read a headline because they weren’t quite sure if it meant one thing or another.
7. Make your copy personal - If you want to really engage your readers, then talk to them like you know them and understand them. Instead of bragging about how “thousands” have been satisfied with your products, tell them specifically how one of your products could work for them. Imagine you’re writing copy to one of your customers, because visitors don’t log on in groups, they come as individuals.
8. Stick to one - or two-column web pages - Don’t try to get fancy with multiple newspaper-style columns, just stick with the format your online customers are used to, a simple one- or two-column page.
9. Separate your site from its competitors - Unless there are no other websites selling similar products or services to yours, it’s a good idea to give your visitors the reason why you stand apart. The best thing you can do is to avoid clich�s like “our customers are #1″ and to be specific, like “our organic baby diapers are 100% natural and biodegradable”.
10. Make ordering easy - Okay, now here is where many online sites fail; they make ordering overly long and tedious, and then they wonder why their shopping cart abandonment rate is so high. Don’t require additional information like survey questions or membership signups in order for a visitor to place an order. Make the process simple and try to condense the number of checkout steps to four or less (three is optimal).
Now that you have been given some copywriting tips for your website, you’ll be ready to give your online text a makeover! The effort you put in to bringing visitors to your website will mean nothing if the site is hard to read and requires too much time to understand. The key to any website’s success is to make sure your copy is understandable, to the point, grammatically correct and that the text is broken up by lots of white space.
Tags: advice, Carrie Hinkel, copywriting, E-Commerce and E-Business, Generating More Sales, increasing sales, online copym, Sales, tips, website, writing copy
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