This is a guest post by Gagan Deep.
There’s web copy and web copy, but the truly effective web copy is one that literally makes the consumer take immediate action. How do you write web copy that achieves this result?
We provide 15 ways to do this; try them out and let us know!
1. Keep It Easy To Read
Less is always more. Stick to 8 words for your headline and keep sentences to within 15–20 words. Paragraphs shouldn’t exceed 70 words, while your entire web content should be within 300 words. Avoid big words, get to the point quickly, keep it factual and you’ll engage the reader well.
2. Keep The Tone Personal
Write directly to your reader and not to your entire consumer base. Use ‘you’, and be direct in your talk. Your aim is to appeal to him or her on a person to person basis and move him or her towards an action.
3. Use The Right Keywords
Craft keywords in advance based on what your target readers use. Weave them carefully into your copy, without making it too obvious. When people find their search keywords reflected in the copy, they’re more inclined to stay on the page.
4. Imply Promise In The Title
Your heading should be easy to scan, grab attention, short, include important keywords and should not contain adjectives and prepositions (and, the, of, a). Imply the promise of a gratifying solution in your headline itself – your headline should appeal to the emotion you’re trying to target, whether it’s greed, doubt, love or fame.
5. Include Keywords In Title Tags
Title tags, meta descriptions and meta tags help you achieve high search engine rankings. Be sure to include the right keywords in your all title tags – the headline, content headers and so on.
6. Provide Value-Add Links
You want to keep the reader on your web copy page, but it’s good to link to information and authority sites. This works out well for you and for Google, which does not like dead-end sites or pages.
7. Sell Benefits not Features
A long list of features is fine but only for those who really want to know more. In your web copy, highlight the benefits of using your offering. Let your consumer know how your product will help them get thinner, happier, wealthier, and more beautiful and so on. Let your value proposition come through right at the beginning.
8. Edit Multiple Times
Get others to proofread your web copy; even small mistakes can be detrimental to your business. Make sure of the grammar and spelling, and expand abbreviations. Check for consistency in the spelling of your offering, offer and other business aspects.
9. Use Emotional Triggers
You can use multiple emotion triggers in your content. For example, there’s no telling that people can’t feel uncertain and yet be greedy at the same time. Write persuasive copy that keeps hitting various emotional triggers in keeping with what your solution offers.
10. Make Your Consumer Feel And Taste Your Promise
Get your consumer to imagine your solution clearly. If it’s a product for beautiful skin, your consumer should literally be able to feel it on her face. Make her see it, feel it and taste it with your words. Don’t allow your consumer’s inner skeptic to give her reasons to distrust your promise.
11. Throw In Logical Proof
The inner skeptic doesn’t die completely, even when you successfully seduce using emotion and imagination triggers. To fully convince your consumer, throw in some user testimonials, safety records, performance statistics, and other logical proofs to justify her emotional decision.
12. Provide Peer Assurance
Product reviews can offer a great deal of assurance, especially with skeptical consumers, especially reviews from authority sites, existing consumers and so on. Link to several reviews, including video reviews at the bottom of your web copy.
13. Include A Specific Offer And A CTA Link
Once you’ve got your customer at the stage where she or he has bought your promise, put out a very specific offer and a clear CTA (Call to Action). Make the CTA very clear – you cannot expect that every consumer will know where to look for your CTA link or button!
14. Use Bold Colors And Fonts
Use bold colors, preferably your website colors, for your copy title and headers. Use an alternative bold color that really stands out for your CTA button. Use a large-sized, bold font of a different color for your offer, and for your unique value proposition.
15. Use Lists
Use lists when you’re enumerating product benefits, offer specifics and so on. From a visual standpoint, bulleted or numbered text is easier to read and digest. Plus, it appeals to people who don’t have the patience to read whole sentences to get what you’re actually offering. If you feel your web copy has bulky paragraphs, it’s good to break up sentences into bullet points as well.
Author Bio: This article is contributed by Gagan Deep for web page optimization company Invesp.
Photo credit: Courtesy of reinvented via photo pin cc
Excellent post ! I’ve just started as a freelance copywriter and will surely use your tips for my future copywriting assignments
Keep up the good work !
These are great points. I especially like your point about using lists, since there is nothing more confusing to a reader than a massive paragraph of text.
I found your blog from seobythesea’s site – you’ve got good stuff.