Focusing on the website message

I can’t say enough about being clear about the purpose of each page on your website.  Maybe it’s one of my ’soapboxes’, but so many people either don’t know what they want people to do when they visit the website - or have unrealistic expectations.

Don’t expect anyone to buy from your home page - they can be engaged, but not sold to.  They’ll need more in depth information before they take that step to part with money.  Even Amazon don’t get many sales from the home page - and don’t expect to.

By all means put your phone number and email contact on every page, but think about what you really want people to do - that might be to find out more on another page, or buy online (when they’ve seen your products/services page, or call/email for more information, or make an appointment to meet with you or your representative.

Do make sure that everything on each page of your website helps to get your message across and contributes to the purpose of the page.  That includes copy, graphics and images, information in columns on the right and left of the main text and every paragraph should lead the reader towards your purpose.

Marketing mailouts

Just recently I’ve had a few people who asked me about marketing email campaigns - and, indeed, hard copy letters too.  I thought sharing this with blog readers might be useful as well.

Firstly, you need to establish the purpose of the mailing - which may appear to be obvious - but when thought through may not be the ‘buy our product now’ message that many people hope for.  More realistic may be ‘visit our website’ (to a special page, of course), or ‘ring/email us for more information’.  If you simply want people not to forget you, a mailout is probably not the right media, a newsletter may be a better bet.

Brainstorm the benefits of your product or service and use one of these framed as a question or in an aspirational phrase - e.g. Are you always late leaving the office? or Finish work early - every day! (time management course).

The first paragraph builds on this - either leaning on the pain or developing the aspiration.

Second paragraph picks up on other benefits (or the problems associated with the issue that they resolve).

A bullet list is a great way to present what the reader will get (if they buy your product/service) - remember not the feature or the advantage (nice to have), but the emotional triggers.

Finally, the call to action - call us for more info, see how much more you can have on our web page - or, better still, follow up with a phone call (always much more effective).

Sounds simple - it can be, but you’ll need to be clever and creative with your benefit management to really make it work well.

Focus on the message

Every time I start working with a client on their website I ask the same questions:

Why do people buy you/your services/your products?

What would they be looking for when they search for what you’re offering?

What do you want them to do when they’ve finished reading each page?

Doesn’t sound like rocket-science, but I’m constantly amazed that people don’t know the answers to these questions.  These are absolutely critical - you need to not only ‘think’ you know the answers, you need to actually do some research to find out the answers to the first two - and then be realistic about the answer to the third one.

If you think people will ring you up and buy from the home page, that is probably somewhat ambitious.  Instead choose where you’d like them to go next to get more in depth information (usually your services/product overview page).  However, always have your phone number/email visible on each page, just in case.

Answer the questions for every page on your website and your copy will be much easier to focus and to connect with the reader.

Website graphics

Pictures on your website can be a big advantage or a huge drawback in helping you to get your message across.  Here are a few good rules to work by:

DON’T put picture in just to have a visual on a page - make sure that every picture works for its place.  It must help you to get your message across.

DO use pictures of real people (especially on your About us page - where YOU should appear); but beware of naff photos of people shaking hands, posing for the camera looking like ‘business people’ or other stock shots.  Ask your clients and customers if they are happy for you to take shots of them - or leave them out.  ‘Fakes’ look exactly what they are.

DO use diagrams, graphs, pie charts and so on to help to make your point, but make sure that the information is genuine, up-to-date, not copyright and is simply enough for anybody to understand.  One diagram or graph per page is enough - a whole series is confusing and puts people off.

DON’T use clip-art, holiday photos (unless you’re a travel site and they’re really good ones), nice pictures you like (but don’t add anything) or a bunch of graphics that don’t match.  It will simply brand you an amateur - and that subliminal message can leak over into your expertise.

Pictures are powerful - if they’re the right ones in the right place!

Descriptive copy

Everyone can write, but few people can write well.  The people who can’t string three words together are usually aware of their shortcomings and find the whole writing process a struggle.  Then there are the people who do write - using lots of descriptive prose and three adjectives to every noun.  This makes it really hard for the reader who will then have to pick out the pieces of information they want from all the excess verbiage.

Descriptive prose has a use - to set a scene, to create an atmosphere, to help the reader to see themselves in the situation being described - but, there is always a danger of ‘going over the top’.  When writing commercial copy you need to ensure the message is clear - so descriptive copy really isn’t appropriate, particularly on a home page.

When you get to a specific service or product there is a place for it.  For instance on the products page for a furniture company:

Imagine what it would be like to come home and be able to sink into a really comfortable sofa, that supports your back, but is just soooo relaxing. With a Supersofa this is exactly what you get - and more.

The image helps the reader visualise themselves and makes the sales message stronger.  But if the text had been:

You come home and push the door closed behind you with a huge sigh of relief.  It’s been a long hard day and you have been longing to just collapse and put your feet up.  You walk into your beautifully decorated lounge and glance into the mirror over the chimney breast - you definitely look tired.  The sofa beckons - you sink into it letting it wrap around you and feeling that firm pressure at the base of your spine, whilst the soft cushions allow you to totally and completely relax.  If this sounds like absolute luxury to you - then don’t wait a moment longer, order your sofa right away.

Now, whilst that certainly sets the scene - it’s far too much information for most people!

Good writing isn’t about lots of words - it’s about getting the message across.  Keep it short and simple and write for the reader, not yourself.

… and if it’s all too much of a struggle call in the experts!  www.insidenews.co.uk

Every web page has a purpose

It’s essential that you know the purpose of each of your web pages.  That might be:

• To take the visitor to another page,
• To get them to email or phone,
• To share an important piece of information with them, or
• To help them to understand a particular aspect of your service and how it applies to their business

But, if you don’t know what the purpose of the page is, it’s likely to be ‘woolly’!  That isn’t all - you will need to decide what information goes into each page to achieve that purpose.  This is where you will need to be ruthless.

We are all passionate about our businesses, we are excited about what we do and the danger is that we want to share it all with the visitor to our website.  Resist the temptation!

Every word must work for its place - if it doesn’t help to persuade someone to take action then leave it out.  Many people put far too much information on their websites and then visitors can’t find out what they want quickly and easily - and leave.

TIP:  Get someone outside your business to review or edit your copy, they’ll have a much better idea of what your potential customer wants.

Alternatively, email info@insidenews.co.uk and get a professional to do the job!

A house style

I just delivered a course on writing for the web for a group of professional website managers and the one issue we were challenged by was developing a ‘house style’.  They all had their specialisms and were intending to write the website pages for each of their expertises individually.

“How can we create a house style?” they asked.

This is the toughest nut to crack for a website.  You can agree layout, site map, design, page purpose, USPs, key information for each page - but how do you ensure the writing style is the same throughout?

There are two answers:

1.  Have just one person collect the information and write all of it.

2.  Everyone writes their bit - then gives it to a single editor to ‘knock into shape’.

Every writer is different, even the professionals.  Asking half a dozen writers to create copy that looks as though it’s all been written by a single hand is probably much too tall an order.  If you’re suffering from this problem, find someone who is good at English, pedantic about punctuation and grammar and doesn’t know too much about your business.  They’ll edit it so that the reader (who also doesn’t know much about your business - and only wants to know if you can do what they want) gets the messagge, clearly and consistently.

If they happen to be a professional editor - better still.

If you’re looking for a professional webcopy editor we’ve a few in our team!  Look at our website to find out more:  www.insidenews.co.uk/services_website_copy.htm

Too much writing gives you brain fade

If you’ve ever been given a big document to read - pages and pages of closely packed text - you know exactly what I’m talking about.  If you look at the top of a page and there are only 2 paragraphs - one with 20 lines and one with about 30 lines, you’d be forgiven if your first thought was ‘I’ll go and get a coffee and read this later.’  Of course, the chances of you actually reading it later are slim - unless it’s really critical.

Having been working on business plans recently I know that they have to have lots of information included so it’s inevitable that they run to many pages, not to mention the appendices - but there is not reason why they should be presented in a way that makes reading difficult.

I was taught the KISS technique - Keep It Short and Simple!  It works like a charm - short sentences, short paragraphs and simple easy to understand language.  One thought per sentence and one idea per paragraph is a good rule of thumb to work by.

If you do actually know the definition of every word in the Oxford English Dictionary don’t show off in a document that you want other people to understand.  Stick to straightforward terms, don’t use jargon or abbreviations without an explanation the first time of use and get someone else to read it and give you some honest feedback.

Go back and cut out extra words; we all use them.

Finally, use subheadings and lots of white space to keep people reading.  Generous margins, headers and footers and a consistent and clean layout all help people to read - and what’s the point of writing something if people don’t read it?

Click here

Why would I do that? If you want me to do something then tell me what I’ll get and make that the link – and don’t be clever about it – blue underline means a hyperlink to me, pretty coloured text or bold or anything else might – or might not – be a link; I may not mouse over it to find out!

A hyperlink that says ‘Discover more about our services’ will lead me to the page where the services are featured. If you ask me to scroll back up and make a menu selection I might not bother!

Clicking on hyperlinks is a knee-jerk reaction – scrolling is conscious and, therefore, ‘harder’ work. Don’t make your visitor work any harder than necessary.

http://www.insidenews.co.uk/services_website_copy.htm

The patchwork quilt effect

Have you ever arrived at a website to find lots of different boxes with various products, services, special offers, sale items or a range of different options that cover everything from signing up for the newsletter to downloading a report?  Confusing, isn’t it?

Where do you start when there are so many options?  The problem is most people don’t - they just hit the back button and leave.

You need ONE item that stands out and attracts attention and that gets your visitor started - it’s usually the headline, but there are some other devices that also work.

If you’re offered a choice of six colours isn’t it harder to make a decision than if you’ve just got a couple to decide upon?  It’s the same principle, except that most web visitors just don’t bother, if it looks too hard, they’re off to find something ‘easier’.

If you want your home page to be sticky then you mustn’t frighten your visitor off at the first visit!  Nice clear text, a visible menu that looks easy to use, not too many boxes and things in the places that they expect them to be.  For instance, log in or sign up boxes tend to work best top right, under the masthead.  Testimonials work well under that on the right, or in a defined box in an appropriate place in the text.

Visuals should contribute to the message not be pure decoration.  Everything should work to get your message across and you’ll have a much better chance of hanging on to your visitor long enough to get them really interested.