The right copy in a business can be the difference between a conversion or someone deciding to take their business elsewhere.
Many businesses are happy to invest in premium photography for their products and services, but neglect to put time or money in ensuring their copywriting is effective.
Copywriting is both an art and science. It involves persuasive writing with the goal of causing an action or feeling – and it’s essential to operating a business.
When writing for webpages, search engine optimisation (SEO) is involved – this means as well as being persuasive, your writing also needs to incorporate key words and search terms to help your pages appear in search engines.
If you don’t feel ready to invest in external assistance for your website or printed copy just yet, take these steps to upskill yourself and improve the copywriting and content you produce in-house:
Read more: How to Upskill Yourself for Less
1. Fix your headlines
You can have the best article in the world, but if you don’t have an accurate or click-worthy headline then people are unlikely to read it.
Our world operates on a new commodity: attention. It’s hard to get and harder to keep, especially as a business.
Use your headline to give an accurate idea of what a reader will gain by clicking through to your piece, and ensure you deliver on that promise.
2. Talk about what you can offer, not who you are
As a business, you’re offering your clients and customers a solution – whether they know they have a problem or not!
If you can offer a superior way of accomplishing things or provide a product that fills a need, you need to share the solution with potential customers.
Yes, telling the story of your business and team is still important, but it’s a complementary factor in decision making. Improve your copywriting by showing people what you can do for them, and doing it effectively and transparently.
Read more: Professional Development Tools You Should be Using
3. Keep your copywriting simple
Have you ever read the terms and conditions in full before clicking accept? Likely not!
Most people will scan-read your content, looking for anything considered a ‘dealbreaker’, and make their decision.
Jargon in your copywriting largely serves to alienate your readers – people want to read words that talk to them as equals, rather than talking down to them.
There are readability tools available, such as the Flesch-Kincaid score, but the best test is always asking someone to read through the piece and provide real-life feedback.
4. Use reasonable call to actions (CTA’s)
If your copywriting is effective in helping people consider your business to solve their problems, you need to instruct them on the next step.
A call to action is an instruction or suggested action for your reader to take.
‘Click here’, ‘follow us’, ‘read more’, ‘buy now’, ‘book a tour’ – all are clear and understandable call-to-actions.
A CTA should be able to happen instantly, and the information to complete the action should be presented on the same page, whether a URL, phone number, or link.
Read more: Get the Basics to Grow Your Business
5. Consistency is key
Consistent tone and CTA’s on your collateral are important factors of effective copywriting.
It also creates a positive experience for your audience – if someone signs up to your communications on a flawlessly written landing page, they aren’t likely to react well when they receive an error-laden eDM or an aggressively-toned sales piece.
Once you’ve established your brand tone and style, go through your assets, sales tools, and website with a fine-toothed comb and try to bring everything into consistency.
Copywriting can improve through practice, reading other people’s effective copy, and developing based on audience feedback and actions.
Hub Australia offers businesses a treasure trove of tips to grow their skills and, in turn, their business collateral and effectiveness. Read more here.
