One way to make your readers – your potential customers – feel comfortable and included is to make sure you use the words that they use.  This is a simple, yet often overlooked, principle in website copywriting.  Why?  Here are 2 common reasons:

1. If you are writing the content for your own business’ website, you are probably an ‘insider’: you know the industry jargon; you may inherently write the way people inside your company or industry speak; you’re probably thinking about what you want to say – not about what your readers want to know.
2. You may think that using big words or “officialese” will make your website sound more important or informative.

Don’t use “insider” words

Think about your customers when you write, and make sure you don’t use industry terminology or insider jargon they might not be familiar with.  Such expressions can make your readers feel excluded at best, and at worst your readers won’t even understand what you’re talking about.  Remember, it just takes one click for a potential customer to leave your site in search of information they can easily understand. 

To keep potential customers on your site, make sure you use terminology they are familiar and comfortable with.  Use the words your customers themselves would use.

Use simple words

Long words, complicated phrases or “officialise” will not make you or your website seem more important.  They may even intimidate your readers and make them leave your site.  Website readers are busy; they are looking for specific information; they scan content.  Even the most highly educated website readers appreciate simple, easy-to-recognise words they can quickly understand and absorb.  Consider the words your customers would use if they were having a verbal conversation – in most cases they are straightforward, clear words.  Use the same on your website.

To persuade your readers to become customers, you need to make them feel comfortable and included.  Using clear, simple words and familiar terminology will make your readers feel at ease and help convert them into customers.

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Active voice is one of the two ‘voices’ of verbs – the other being passive.  In active voice, the subject is doing the action.  In passive voice,  the subject is being acted on. The best way to explain active and passive voice is through examples:

Active voice: The boy hit the ball.  (subject action noun)

Passive voice: The ball was hit by the boy. (noun action subject)

In active voice, the person or thing that is the sentence is about comes BEFORE the verb.

Why is active voice important in web writing?

On average, you have less than 30 seconds per web page to get your message across to your readers.  It’s been proven that readers grab information more quickly and accurately from sentences written in active voice than from those written in passive voice. Active voice sentences are less convoluted, so your readers don’t have to think as hard in order to quickly understand their meaning. 

Active voice sentences also use fewer words than passive voice sentences.  Online readers only read about 28% of the words on a web page, so it’s important to make sure all your words count.  You can cut out unnecessary words by using active voice.

Who does what?

In order to use the limited time and space you have to get your message across to your website readers, use active voice whenever you can.  Tell your readers “who does what” – rather than “what, is done, by whom”.

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Writing copy for a website is not an exercise in ego-boosting

Contrary to popular belief, your website is not about what you want to share with the world about yourself, your business or your services. It’s about the information your audience wants to find, the problems it wants solved, and the benefits it wants to attain.

Your audience doesn’t really want to buy accounting services, for example. But they will feel compelled to save money and get a bigger tax return. Your audience isn’t looking for broadband internet; they just want fast downloads at a cheap price. Basically, your audience doesn’t want to know about your product or service – they want to know what it can do for them. To compel your audience to become customers, you need to express your features as benefits which will meet your audience’s needs.

Connect with your audience by telling them upfront what’s in it for them. The human brain is wired to consider the needs of the self first, so whether conscious of it or not, your audience will be looking to have its needs fulfilled. If your copy doesn’t clearly do that, your audience won’t connect and won’t feel compelled to convert.

Audience, audience, audience

 In order to make your website copy benefit oriented, you need to start by knowing your audience well. You need to know who they are, and what they want. The tighter you can define the demographic of your audience, the better you’ll be able to sell to them by knowing what they are looking for and what appeals to them.

Does your audience want to make more money? Have a simpler life? Impress the neighbours? Have more time? Spend less money? Be the most technologically advanced? Get greater return on their investment?

Once you know your audience, you can figure out what motivates them and what benefits will appeal to them.

Can you tell the difference?

Which of these statements is benefit oriented?

1. At Strong Ideas, we provide specialised website copywriting.
2. With Strong Ideas’ specialised website copywriting, you’ll save time and gain customers.

You got it right if you chose the one that talks about “you”.

A simple test

A straightforward way to ensure you’re talking about benefits to your audience and addressing their wants and needs is to count the number of “we”’s and the number of “you”’s in your website copy. Benefit oriented copy talks about “you”; ego oriented copy talk about “we”.

Don’t tell your audience what you do; tell them what you can do for them

Benefit oriented copy shows your audience that you understand their problems and that you know what they want and need. Benefit oriented copy will create rapport with your audience, and it will compel them to become customers.

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What does that mean? It means you must use your words to take advantage of the unique interactive characteristic of the web. Unlike other communication mediums – print, radio, tv – the web allows users to take action right then and there. This distinction makes a huge difference to what you write and how you write it.

On a website, your viewers can click, subscribe, download, give you information, or – if your content is not compelling enough – they can simply leave.

Know your website goal

Before you sit down to write for your website, you should know what the goal of your site is. Commonly, the goal is either to convert visitors directly into customers or to convert visitors into named leads.

 Once your goal is defined, keep it in mind on every page, and with every word you write. Provide your visitors with opportunities to do things that will lead to fulfilling your desired end goal. And make sure the opportunities are enticing enough for your visitors to WANT to do them.

“Click here to subscribe to our enewsletter”, in order to get named leads to add to your database, is not nearly as enticing as “Subscribe to our enewsletter to make sure you don’t miss out on the latest techniques for influencing your web readers”.

Never “click here”

A key piece of advice on this topic is to never waste valuable website real estate with the words “click here”. Instead, use informative, compelling words that will entice your visitors to “click here” without having to tell them explicitly to do so.

I keep in mind a quote by Martin Fischer, an author and psychologist, when I write for the web: “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”

When I write for the web, I endeavor to impart wisdom.

Why?

Most of my readers aren’t even going to read my web words. Seventy-eight percent of online users only scan the text, and on average a site visitor will only read 28% of the words on a page. (source: Jakob Nielsen alertbox reports, www.useit.com)

So, I need to make sure the messages and the words are simple, concise and to-the-point. I need to throw away the fluff and cut out the marketese. I try to cut what I would write for a hard copy page in half; and then cut that in half.

There are some proven techniques that help me transform ‘knowledge’ into ‘wisdom’ by simplifying the facts online. They include:

• Omit needless and redundant words

• Keep sentences short

• Use fragments rather than full sentences

• Limit paragraphs to 1 or 2 sentences

• Break up text by using headings, subheadings and bullet points

The real challenge is to do all that and to still make the words that are left convey useful, persuasive and enlightening messages.

It is a learned skill to retain core messages while keeping copy simple, short and to-the-point; and it takes a specific proficiency to do it using words that will compel website visitors to become customers.

Strong Ideas’ writers have learned the skills, and possess the proficiency. We can turn your ‘knowledge’ into ‘wisdom’ and your website visitors into customers.

www.strongideas.com.au
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That’s the high level overview. In future posts I will delve into each principle in detail. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about Web Writing Principles and Writing for the Web you can check out the Strong Ideas website, or even send me an email directly (dana@strongideas.com.au) with your questions.

What I’ve learned, though, is that there are some common instances which tend to warrant long copy.

Three of these cases are:

1. Expensive products: It takes prospects longer to commit to buying high priced products than inexpensive products.  Prospects need both more detailed information and more persuasion to be convinced to make the purchase decision.
2. Information based products: Prospects are looking for proof of the quality of information based products, and the way to illustrate it is by example.  Lots of examples – which generally means lots of copy.
3. E-commerce product pages in general: A recent study shows that 76% of online shoppers find insufficient content to complete their research or purchase online “always, most often or some of the time”.  Seventy-two percent of those shoppers then abandon the site and go to a competitor or research further online, typically finding what they want elsewhere.

The most important factor in determining the length for your website copy must be: Does it answer your prospects’ questions and provide the necessary information for them to be confident in making a purchase decision. 

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• 78% : how many web readers only scan, not read, the words on a page

• 28% : how many words on a page the average visitor reads

• 25% : how much longer it takes to read words on a screen than words on a print page

• 50% : the word count that should be included in web pages versus print pages

These statistics support the need for very clear and concise writing on websites. Forget the fluff and jargon; get rid of the ‘marketese’. Stick to getting a clear and meaningful message across. Readers simply don’t have the time or inclination to read anything that doesn’t really matter.

My systematic approach to a website writing or rewriting request is to begin with a Client Briefing. At this meeting I use a questionnaire template to glean insight into the client’s business, business objectives, website objectives, customers, and most importantly their target website readers.

Based on my Client Briefing with Surfside Security Systems and on their current “About Us” page, I have transformed the words on their “About Us” page from this:

_______________________________________________________________
Surfside Security Systems specialises in the installation and service of electronic security equipment to High-rise, multi unit dwellings, commercial premises, estates and residential homes.

We don’t “just” install, we Project Manage from start to finish, inclusive of monitoring and future maintenance of all equipment, ensuring we provide a “one stop shop” for all your electronic security needs.

Since its formation in 1988, Surfside Security Systems has grown steadily and currently employs management staff, qualified installation and service technicians, clerical/coordination staff and technical support persons.

Our managers combine many years of technical experience together with a hands on approach to their projects enabling the development of highly professional work teams within the field.
To ensure our staff have the skills required for specific projects, we believe in training our staff and technicians in all aspects of services that we cover.

We are members of the following associations; ASIAL and the ECA, ensures that our quality, efficiency, service and equipment are governed by the high standards set by ASIAL. This in turn ensuring the best for our clients.

Surfside Security Systems are certified Innerange “Concept” Access Control installers.
______________________________________________________________

to this:

The “one-stop-shop”
for your electronic security requirements

Surfside Security Systems provides design, installation and service of electronic security systems to meet your unique security needs.

Local
Surfside Security Systems was established on the Gold Coast in 1988. Our clients in the Gold Coast and South Brisbane regions benefit from our local knowledge and quick response time.

Experienced
Surfside Security has been in business for over 20 years. That’s not just 20 years of experience, that’s 20 years of research into the best security solutions and how to service them. That’s why even when our competitors can’t fix your security system, WE CAN.

Efficient
We don’t just “install” your security system. We consult with you to make sure we understand your needs; we propose the best solution for you; and we project manage your system from start to finish, including on-going maintenance. So when we get the work done, we get it done right.

Expert
Our managers and technicians combine many years of technical experience and hands-on service with on-going training. And you can be sure you are getting top quality service from us because we are members adhering to the strict standards of ASIAL and the ECA.

Contact Us
Give yourself peace of mind. Contact us to take care of your security needs.

But how do you write an “About Us” page that still follows the usability guideline of customer-benefit-oriented writing? How can you make your “About Us” page personal, meaningful and persuasive? And how can you avoid the mistakes that many “About Us” pages make: providing useless ego-centric information, using hyperbole like “greatest” and “ultimate”, writing “fluffy” words and phrases instead of facts, and wording their way around what the business really does and who they do it for?

An “About Us” page needs to be scannable, concise, plain-spoken, and preferably written in second person (“you”, “we”).

A good rule of thumb is to structure your “About Us” page in an inverted pyramid style – that means putting the most important information first and then leading into less important and more detailed information as you progress.

A great starting point for the inverted pyramid style on an “About Us” page is a clear and meaningful tagline. Take out the fluff and succinctly state what you do or what you provide, from a user benefit perspective. Being catchy is great, but being concise is most important.

Follow your tagline with one or two summary paragraphs that provide a bit more detail about your business’ products, services or goals.

From there you can spread out into more facts or elaboration on key information.

Jakob Nielsen, a web usability expert, even suggests adding subsidiary pages with more depth for readers who want to learn more about your organisation.

A well-written “About Us” page will build rapport and credibility with your readers. A clearly written “About Us” page will help your readers understand you, and your site, as a whole. If you keep it mind the basic web usability principles and structure your page in an inverted pyramid style, you will be well on your way to utilizing your “About Us” section to really connect with your customers.