05 Jul How to Write Website Content That Sells

Our attention spans keep shortening, and you have less and less time to engage and convince your potential new client that you are right for them. So you need to ask yourself:  does my website content still cut through?

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

4 min read

We’re in the process of updating our website – and I’m going to be knee-deep in writing web content for our new pages and features for a while yet. And you know what? … Even for a professional copywriter it’s pretty hard to distil what your business is all about, what sets you apart, and to decided what goes on the page and what stays off !

Other people’s sites: easy. But as the owner or senior manager of a business you are forever that little bit too close and emotionally attached to every single word of our website content.

So, apart from leaving it to the experts and get a copywriter to work on your web copy, what can you do to ensure you don’t otherwise hinder the success of your website?

The Memory Challenge for Website Content

With the attention spans of us humans officially approaching that of goldfish (read: very short), you don’t have much time to hold your readers’ interest – let alone get them to take action and contact you from your website. So how then can you get engagement in a crazily short window of perhaps only five seconds (or less) in which that site-visitor makes the decision to either stick around and take action – or leave?

Answer The 3 Website Content Questions

There are three crucial questions your website content must address to make visitors take note, linger and explore your website with interest. If you’re able to answer these questions clearly, succinctly and memorably you’re on to a winner. If you’re still unsure about whether your site fully hits the sweet spot, don’t worry: use this insight as an opportunity to improve and polish your website content.

#1 – Quick! What Do You Do?

It’s an easy trap to fall into: to try and cover everything you do, might want to do or could do for your clients in the main web copy. By doing so, you risk diluting your message and confuse your readers so much (remember their goldfish brain when it comes to holding attention?) that they just think “too hard!” and wander off.

Some of you might think, “hey, my website message is clear!”. I challenge you to take another look and see whether it’s undoubtedly clear what you do, and for whom (are you talking to your target market and address their needs, fears and worries?). This is also an opportunity to change web content that is aimed at an old target market that you no longer serve, while it neglects speaking to your new, more lucrative prospects.

For me the challenge is to not just say that we “create content”– but that we are a team of expert writers that works B2B only. That we work on marketing and business content including books. That we are industry, medium and business size agnostics. It’s a very different message from lone freelance writers who are naturally restricted in their available knowledge, time and fields of expertise.

#2 – Quick! What You Do Offer?

You have piqued interest and got your reader’s attention – now it’s time to hold it for long enough to build trust. Is it immediately clear what exactly you offer? Because the challenge in writing your website content is to ensure your attentive reader can dig deeper and find out whether you offer precisely what they need. And you have to make it very obvious how to find that information – you can’t rely on your site-visitor having the patience to rummage through your webpages to get to those gold nuggets.

You can do this with words, but also utilise the visual power of photos; do create infographics and charts for complex content ideas. Cover the most important information on your home and about us pages. It’s ok to leave the finer details to other content pages like your portfolio, case studies, or the product details in your shop. Just make it abundantly clear where that info can be found.

For me this next level means I’ll have to make a potentially complex website structure (due to many industries served, types of services offered, and mediums we can write for) simple and easy to navigate. And I need to let our website readers know that ‘content creation’ can mean any or all of these: ideas generation, copywriting, editing, book ghost-writing and proofreading. I have to ensure it is clear that we have a team that is hand-picked, innovative and full of native speakers. Our workshops, author coaching and mentoring are finer details of delivery that can go onto one of our services pages. Not your standard copywriters then.

#3 – And … Why Are You for Me?

You talk to your clients every day. What is it that made them work with you in the first place, and keeps them coming back? You might know this or you might want to run a quick survey to find out. Either way, the answers tell you why your customers want to work with you.

Different people want and need different things from the same type of service. You might be a plumber who also does gas fittings, an architect who has a knack for getting tricky development applications (‘DAs’) approved, or a tailor who only creates made-to-measure, bespoke shirts and suits. In your online content, you need to let your website readers know clearly how and why you are different to propel the browsing visitor into action and contact you.

Our task for our new website copy is to differentiate ourselves from the classic copywriter who is a lone freelancer with limited time and rarely much business experience. We, in contrast, are a team of people, have run businesses or have been in senior managerial positions, and remove key person risk. We understand business; be it at the small or big end of town.

Clear Website Content Means Good Business

You don’t need to be a digital content or marketing expert to get your most important website messages right. You already know whom you’re trying to attract. Armed with that knowledge you can polish your web content and ensure your site answers the three most important questions.

If your website content does all that, you’re on your way of being if not the biggest, then definitely the most attractive, fish in the pond you and your competitors swim in.