Your website is your gateway to the online world, and just like in the real world, first impressions last. When your visitors don’t find what they’re looking for in your site, they’ll have no qualms closing that tab and finding a site that does.
Many businesses don’t realize that their websites can be powerful sales tools—but only if you build them to be.
You can do this by zeroing on what your target audience is looking for and making sure to include those in your website. However, it’s not always enough to provide information. It has to be the right kind of information delivered in a way that’s easily digestible and valuable for your readers.
To learn how to do this, read on below!
1. Don’t Overwhelm Your Visitors
One downside about today’s Internet age is that we’re rife with choices. Too much so, in fact, that we’re having a hard time choosing from all the options we have. Psychologist Barry Schwartz calls this the paradox of choice.
Schwartz claims that when faced with plenty of choices, customers often become anxious and take less positive risks when picking. For instance, in a study done on by Columbia and Stanford researchers, it was discovered that people are more likely to make a purchase when faced with a maximum of six options as opposed to choosing between 24 flavors of jam.
Why is this so? Because it’s tiring to go through 24 flavors just to figure out what you like. When you apply this to your website, try to distill your offerings to just six or below.
Content-wise, you can apply this concept by not intimidating your visitors with the sheer number of categories or blocks of text on your website. Start out with a handful of categories first and take it from there. For your content, utilize short paragraphs with enough spacing in between. Use brief, punchy sentences and bullet points to make your website copy look less intimidating.
2. Be Customer-Centric
Nothing screams bad copy like a website that spouts a mile-high list of information, awards, and accolades about them. There is nothing wrong with including the said things per se, but when it’s all there, then you’re leaving a big chunk of potential business on the table.
The way to writing effective web copy is to understand what makes your customers tick. If you don’t take the time out to understand who your audience is, the result is copy that never quite hits the mark when it comes to engaging your customers.
If you want your website to become a powerful sales tool for you, you have to make sure that your message caters to the needs and interests of your customers.
You can do this by getting into the minds of your prospective clients before even attempting to make a sale. Know their pain points and choose the right words that will help convey how you can solve those for them.
More than just providing a solution, make your customers feel good about buying from you. When you focus on this kind of value, you’ll naturally sell more of your products and services.
3. Give a Reason
Another great way to make sure your website copy sells your business convincingly is to provide a reason. Yes, you read that right. If you’re thinking to yourself, “What could reason have to do with being persuasive?”
Well, for one, it helps people justify what you’re asking them to do. In a foundational study done a couple of decades ago, researchers found out that more people are willing to acquiesce to a request if the other person gives a reason—no matter how silly or unrelated the explanation behind the request is.
You can apply this to concept to your website copy by providing a rationale to potential barriers to sale. For instance, if you’re charging more than most of your competitors, explain why this is so. Maybe your business can save them twice the money than others or that no else has a specific feature that you have.
Prove your value to your customers and they will choose you every time.
4. Don’t Forget The Most Important Part of Your Website Copy
You can have superbly written copy but if it lacks a powerful call-to-action (CTA), you likely won’t get anything from it. To make sure your website remains an effective sales tool, include a killer call-to-action on your most visited pages (usually the home, about, and services pages).
So why is a CTA an extremely vital part of your website? Because it directs your readers to the action you want them to do.
A CTA should be action-oriented and straight to the point. It should be personalized and relevant to your target audience. Don’t make the mistake of settling for standard CTA phrases like, “Click here,” “Download,” or “Register now.” These calls-to-action have been used and worn down ad infinitum that they just doesn’t make that much of an impact anymore.
People can be easily desensitized to messages that they keep seeing or encountering so make sure that yours stand out.
For example, when Impact changed their CTA from “Free Download” to “Show me how to attract more customers,” they experienced a whopping 78.5% increase in people signing up for their lead magnet.
When you have calls-to-action that are creative and meaningful, it allows you to connect to your customers on a personal level. The result? A website that gets more clicks and better sales in the long run.
From a Collective Standpoint
These best practices have been proven and tested by not just me, but countless other copywriters and marketers as well. If you want people to respond to what you’re offering them, you have to zero in on the right message from your website content down to your CTA.
The above tips are meant to help you do just that so you can transform your website to an online selling beast that does all the heavy lifting for you!
About the Author
Jeanne San Pascual is a copywriter. You can find her on her website, TheCopyPsychologist.com.
