Good copywriting is critical to getting your message across to your audience. Good copy will make a connection with the reader, arouse emotions and potentially provoke a response – if you run an online store, the response that you are seeking is the purchase of a product or service.
It’s difficult to write your own copy. No matter how many times you go over the text you have written, there always seems to be areas that you don’t quite like or wish to refine. It’s doubly hard to write copy for the reader, rather than writing about ‘you’. The first rule of copywriting is that the text needs to be tailored for the audience – it’s not all about you.
Here are some tips for writing good copy:
1. Heard of the acronym WIIFM? It stands for ‘what’s in it for me?’. This the attitude that your website visitors will have when they read your copy – you need to write from this perspective. What benefits will I get from using this product or service?
2. Know your audience. You can only hope to write good copy once you have established an excellent understanding of the customers that frequent your website. What types of people are they? Male or female? Young or old? Each demographic group is different and will respond to different tones in your copy.
3. Write in a conversational tone. Don’t fill your text with big words. Write as if you are conversing with your visitor in plain, simple English. Read your text back to yourself and punctuate it as if you are talking to a prospective customer.
4. Keep it short. It’s proven that most people only skim websites for key words, rather than reading the whole text. Your copy should be short, succint, to the point, and arranged in bite-size chunks (short sentences and small paragraphs) so that it can be easily absorbed by visitors.
5. Convey key messages. Identify up to three key messages that you want to put across to your visitors – and no more. Most people can’t absorb any more than 3 messages and any attempt to convey more information will result in confusion or indifference on the part of the visitor.
6. Don’t use weasel words. These are words that don’t mean anything or are ambiguous – my favourite one is ’synergy’. Use plain English and tell it how it is, rather than using fluffy, flowery ‘motherhood statements’ or long, technical words.
7. Change the subject of your sentences from ‘we’ or ‘us’, to ‘you’ – instead of ‘we offer’, use ‘you’ll receive’. Remember, WIIFM!
8. Make sure your grammar and spelling are correct – get someone to check for you. Nothing will turn off customers more than poor spelling.
9. Use a call to action at the end of your copy asking the visitor to respond in some way – eg. ‘Buy the book now…’
10. Use humour in your text – Australians particularly enjoy humour and this may serve to endear them to your website and brand.
