Writing for websites is different to writing for paper-based media, so if you’re new to it all, these pointers might help.
The first thing to remember is: reading on screen is hard!
It’s a lot harder than reading on the page. Think about the way you surf the web – you probably skim-read, trying to get to the information you need as quickly as you can – it’s because it’s so much harder to read on screen that you’re doing that.
Remember that your readers are just the same as you. So it’s important to do what you can to help them find the information they want – and make it appealing and easy for them to carry on exploring.
Keep things simple
There are some things you can do from a technical perspective to make your web copy easy to read:
keep sentences short
keep paragraphs short
use bulleted lists where you can
use informative headings to break up the copy and allow people to jump to the information they want
better still, if a page is going on too long, break the information up into separate pages so people aren’t intimidated by loads of scrolling text.
(Try this: go to the BBC News website. Pick a story and read it through. Notice how easy to read and understand it is. Now print it out and read it again. Suddenly, the sentences seem short – almost too short. That’s the difference between reading on-screen and on the page.)
Write for your audience
Keep the reader in mind while you’re writing. Ask yourself “what do readers want/need to know?” not “what do we want to tell them?” and remember that while you’re writing.
Try to write as if you’re talking to one person not making a presentation to hundreds – this will help to keep you focussed on giving readers what they need – and keep your style friendly and personal.
Keeping people engaged with your website is one thing. Getting them there in the first place is quite another. That’s where keywords come in, read our post on how to choose the right keywords for if you need help on this.
Every one of your customers has individual characteristics that make them who they are. But those customers will often share certain characteristics. Understanding what those common characteristics are will make your marketing more effective. And whether you’re marketing on a shoestring or not, that can only be a good thing.
How can understanding your customer make your marketing more effective?
Because you can:
show that you understand their challenges and – more importantly – how you can help them to meet them
know they need what you’re offering – focusing your marketing on the prospects you know will be interested means a better conversion rate than if you focus on prospects that might be interested
choose the medium that suits them best – if you’re marketing to travelling sales people, local radio might be a good option; if you’re dealing with marketing professional, email might be a better bet.
In short, you’re making your customers more likely to buy from you.
So how do you understand who your customers are?
You draw up customer profiles for five of your best customers. Think about:
Who they are
Name
Industry
Role
Age
Gender
Interests
Education
What is important to them
What are their needs?
What keeps them awake?
What stops their company growing?
What wastes their time?
So for one of our customers you might end up with:
Sally runs her own accounting practice which has grown quickly over the 2 last years. She is in her early 30s has a young family and is a West Brom supporter. She has little time to promote the company and is concerned the website looks outdated but is worried she wouldn´t find time for any clients she did win.
From this we can understand that Sally is a busy person with drive and ambition. Marketing to customers like her will need to reflect that drive but also get straight to the point. Because she´s got so little time we need to demonstrate that as professionals she can trust us to get on with the job while she gets on with hers. We also need to remind her that an out-of-date website reflects badly on a business she´s worked hard to build up so investing now would protect her business – and even offer the capacity to take it to the next level.
