Help for Your Holistic Practice:5 Tips for Writing Attention-Grabbing Website Copy
by Juliet Austin, MA
Marketing Coach, Consultant and Copywriter
Web copywriting is writing the content for your website with the intent to entice people to ultimately buy a product or service from you.
Effective copy is the most important factor in determining the results you will get when people visit your website. Many believe that if they write well, their web copy will be great. This is not the case. Being a good writer has nothing to do with being able to write effective copy.
Copywriting is a unique skill that, like marketing itself, is both an art and a science. You have to be creative enough to be convincing, while at the same time, you must follow certain rules that have been proven to get results.
Good copywriting speaks to potential clients in a way that makes them sit up and pay attention. It is in no way manipulative or deceiving. It lets them know that you understand their problems and needs while persuading them that you have something valuable to offer.
Ideally, you want to convince your website visitors that what you have to offer is unique and/or better than what others are offering.
So what are the components of effective copy?
There are many aspects of writing effective and attention-grabbing web copy. It takes a lot of knowledge and practice to become skilled at copywriting. The top Internet copywriters take years to master their craft and get paid a lot of money for doing it. For the purposes of this article I will discuss 5 basic copywriting concepts.
1. Write interesting and meaningful headlines.
The headline on the opening page of your website is often the most important factor that will determine whether the person actually stays at your website long enough to see what you have to offer, or clicks away to the next site. Headlines are so important that simply changing one word in them can drastically change your results.
2. Write copy that is easy to read.
Successful web copy uses simple language without jargon, has plenty of white space, uses short sentences and paragraphs, and has many meaningful sub-headings. The use of bold and bullet points also helps make words and ideas stand out.
3. Make sure your copy provides enough information to be convincing.
Your copy needs to be long enough to persuade website visitors to take whatever action that you want them to take. E.g. sign up for your ezine, call you for more information, or buy your product or service.
There is a common saying in the web-copywriting industry that goes like this: there is no such thing as copy that is too long; only copy that is boring. If fact, many have found that long (interesting and meaningful) copy gets better results than short copy.
4. Speak to your potential clients' feelings.
People are typically experiencing some kind of pain or discomfort when they consider hiring a helping or healing professional. If you can illustrate that you understand your website visitors' emotions, they will be more inclined to buy something from you. Everyone wants to feel understood.
5. Be specific about the benefits you provide to your clients.
The more targeted your market is, the easier it is to be specific, of course. Providing clear, specific benefits is not about guaranteeing results for your clients. Rather, it informs them about the possible benefits they can expect from working with you. Think of it this way: why should anyone pay for something if they don't have some idea of what the outcome of doing so might be?
If you are going to write your copy yourself, following the above five guidelines will certainly bring you better results than if you had absolutely no information about copywriting.
However, if you are serious about writing your own copy, then I encourage you to look into the many resources and books available to help improve your copywriting skills.
For most of you, however, learning how to write attention-grabbing copy is likely not something that you may have the time, nor the inclination to do. Your best bet in this case would be to hire an experienced professional to either assist you in writing your copy, or to write it for you.
Juliet Austin, MA is a Marketing Coach, Consultant and Copywriter who assists helping and healing professionals (coaches, therapists, counselors, massage therapists, chiropractors, etc.) who are struggling to market their practices. She helps her clients overcome resistances to marketing, learn and implement no or low-cost marketing strategies, create compelling promotional materials, and write effective website copy. Get her free, 22 page, report, "67 Surefire Ways to Attract Clients" at www.julietaustin.com. Visit her Marketing a Practice blog at marketingaprivatepractice.com and her Website Design and Promotion blog: websitedesignandpromotion.com that she co-authors with Web Designer, Nathaniel Richman, of nrichmedia (nrichmedia.com).