Four Mistakes Online Businesses Make With Their Website Copy
Your website copy is a salesperson in print-it makes the case to your visitors why they should buy from you or hire you. If the case isn’t compelling, you could be leaving money on the table: losing business without even knowing it. Here are four common mistakes online businesses make with their website copy-and how to fix them.
The writing is too technical. I had a client once who sold an extremely technical product to businesses and organizations. His website described his product in glorious technical detail. But the copy read like an engineering spec-and the people who initiated the buying processes for his product were typically mid-level managers without special technical training. Before anything else, he had to change the copy to explain what his product did in non-technical terms.
It’s not about them; it’s about you. It’s extremely common to find website copy that talks about the company-what it does, how many years it’s been in business, how qualified its employees are, and so on. That’s the wrong approach. Copy that sells addresses what the audience wants and how the company provides that-not just basic information on what the company does.
The right information isn’t highlighted. It’s not uncommon for business owners to leave out crucial information on their websites as well. Often this has to do with lack of organization or consideration of how their audience uses the web. Your prospects are likely to go online to find out as much about you as they can quickly and easily-and they may not want to get in touch to find out more until much later in the decision-making process. Make sure you’re not leaving anything out that they’ll need to make a crucial decision.
The headlines don’t sell. Headlines and subheads are critical in online copy-they let the reader scan and pick up the gist of your page quickly. Most readers won’t read the entire page-they’ll just read the headlines. So you’ve got to make sure the headlines on your pages pull their weight. Make sure they communicate a strong benefit to working with or buying from your company-in terms your prospects will understand.
Take a good, hard look at your website copy. Do you make any of these mistakes? If so, your website may not be selling like it could-and it may be time for a rewrite.