Copy is one of the most important aspects of any business marketing platform. Effective web copywriting is crucial to any advertising campaign and that includes article marketing, blogging, and even posting sales pages to attract customers.
While we have become accustomed in this modern Internet age to long-winded articles, blogs, and other content to market products and services, effective copywriting can be done (and often should be done) with as few words as possible. There are different types of writing that can have drastically different results. Content can in fact be well written, but not effectively written.
When you operate a business online, the copy that customers see about your business may be the only thing they see. They may never find your website to really get a sense of what your business is about. If they see copy content that does not do its job right, then you have lost a prospective customer.
Copywriting Sells Through Words
Maybe you have looked to hire a copywriter in the past but were shocked by how much they charge. After all, if you look around the Internet, you’ll likely see plenty of ‘writers’ with experience creating content for the web that charge far less than some of the better copywriters. The reason that these copywriters charge more for their work is that it is the most important content you will create for your website.
Article marketing and even blogging is certainly an important ingredient in the world of website promotion, but for the most part the content written for these is designed to generate an increase in search engine ranking. You will certainly generate traffic through these efforts when you have high quality content, which is addressed in another article.
However, ‘copy’ is what you will see in advertisements and even on the home page of certain websites. Imagine having to sell yourself to someone in twenty-five words or less. It’s not that easy.
Now, imagine you need to do the same thing with ten words or less. When it comes to content on the Internet, the more you can say with fewer words, the more effective you will be in attracting customers to your website. That’s why effective copywriting costs more than your average article.
Copy needs to strike a chord with the people who will read it. It must tell the reader, in as few words as possible what the product or service offers them and address a specific need. You may have a business that sells car parts, but there are probably a thousand different sites out there that do the same.
This is the basic foundation of copywriting that is effective. Determining what aspect of your business is different than your competition and exploiting that difference. Customers want to do business with the best company and they want to know what makes a specific company better than the rest within seconds.What sets your business apart? Is it price, knowledge, expertise? Or does your website specialize in a particular brand?
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Copy Needs to Inform and Educate
Have you ever read product descriptions that were long-winded? If you’ve ever surfed the Internet then you likely have come across this situation. You read the product descriptions, or even an ad for a website, and couldn’t fully understand what the benefit would be to you.
That’s copy that didn’t do its job. On average, an Internet user will give a website or an ad five seconds to convince them to read more or learn more. Simply saying that a website business or product is the best isn’t going to be enough. Why is it the best?
There has to be a reason why you built your website. Wanting to make money is certainly a reason, but that’s for your own personal gain. Do you have a passion for the products that you offer?
If so, then your advertisement needs to relay that to your customers. When people feel a connection to a business, they tend to be more willing to spend money with that business. If you have a passion for the products that you offer, then that should come across in the copy you create for it.
Copy Needs to Inspire an Action
What is the goal of your web business at the moment? If you are trying to generate sales, then you want to inspire people to buy the products. This is one of the most common reasons for copy.
Scour the Internet and you will find endless copy that informs visitors about products but it does nothing to inspire them to action. Is there a free trial? A money back guarantee?
Is the offer only available for a limited time? If they act now will they get something else for free with it, such as free shipping or a complementary gift? These are some of the cornerstones of copy that inspires action.
Effective Copy Doesn’t Require the Usual Sales Tactics
This isn’t to say that in order for copy to be effective that you need to have these special offers. Hitting the right nerve will do the trick. If your car parts business produced copy such as: Want more gas mileage out of your car? –then wouldn’t that inspire action from people struggling at the gas pump these days?
This example offered no sales pitch, right? All it did was target a need and offer the hint of a solution. This kind of copy would offer enough of an incentive for people to click on a link and follow it to a special web page on your site that deals with fuel efficiency solutions. From there, the message you create on that page could close the deal.
Copywriting is Part Art and Part Science
Understanding the psychology of the average consumer is important to effective copywriting. Once you know how consumers think when they are shopping, then you can use your creative angle to target them in the best way possible. If you don’t have the skills to pull this off, though, spend the money to hire a professional; it’s that important.
