As in so many areas of life, preparation is the key. By mining the expertise of people in the business who truly understand the company’s customers and their problems, web copy can be brought to life.
It is the holy grail of copywriting for all service providers: to produce articles, advice and product descriptions which resonate with readers and make them feel their individual problems and queries are being answered on the page.
This kind of persuasive writing doesn’t happen by accident, however. It requires in depth information from people inside the business who understand their customers and their products.
The copywriter’s job is then to turn that hidden gold into glittering copy which entices people to read and, ultimately, to buy.
To achieve perfect web copy a copywriter needs to:
- Know and understand the audience deeply.
- Understand the ethos, values, top selling points and USP of the business.
- Have access to evidence which shows how the business lives its ethos and values.
- Have access to evidence that shows how the company’s products solve problems for customers.
How to find your hidden gold
So, how do we unearth this kind of information in the first place? Too often, copywriters are handed a website which is poorly written and poorly designed – and then asked to re-write it.
This ignores the underlying problem. Re-writing can certainly improve the user experience by making copy cleaner, easier to understand and easier to read. But without the ‘hidden gold’ it misses an opportunity to speak to readers more directly, more personally.
As in so many areas of life, preparation is the key. By mining the expertise of people in the business who truly understand the company’s customers and their problems, web copy can be brought to life.
This can be done by:
- Interviewing people whose job titles bring them into contact with customers and products. This might be salespeople in some businesses, underwriters in an insurance company, shop floor staff in retail, for instance.
- Asking key people in the business to complete an in-depth q and a to provide the information required.
- Setting up meetings and webinars to share expertise and information.
Information required includes:
- The job titles and social backgrounds of the people who buy a company’s products.
- The size, sector and make-up of companies which typically become clients.
- An in-depth description of the company’s ‘typical’ customer. What are their pain points and what are their desires?
- The same details, if different, for the company’s ‘perfect or dream’ client?
- Extra information about each product. Which is the best-selling customer favourite? What are the key features? What makes them special compared to the offerings of rival companies?
- What are the top factors a client considers when choosing a particular product?
- What after care does the company offer?
- How does the company live its values when selling this product?
- What trends have experts noticed around the selling of each product or range?
- What advice can they give buyers? How can we help customers avoid making mistakes when purchasing products?
- Are there are any myths or misinformation online related to any specific products?
By providing the copywriter with answers to all these questions, it enables them to produce copy which truly talks to customers on a personal and intimate level. After all, they may be experts in writing, but a company’s employees are the real experts in the business itself.
How many words make a perfect webpage?
The internet is changing all the time – and views on how many words should be included on each web page are changing too.
In the past the belief was that, due to short concentration spans and the baffling expanse of the internet, readers were unlikely to stay focused on a page for more than a few paragraphs. The trend was for big images, a lot of space and very little copy.
Now, however, the demand for long form copy which portrays a business as an expert and answers customer queries and concerns is more highly valued.
Insightful product descriptions which achieve those goals can run to 1,000 words. Most people may not read them all – but the skill of the copywriter is to produce articles and descriptions in an easily-digestible way which makes skim reading possible.
This kind of copy is appreciated by readers but also highly valued by Google, helping to improve a business’ SEO (search engine optimisation). Most people reach a product landing page having searched for a solution to their individual problem – and so strong SEO is hugely valuable in attracting potential new customers.
By putting your own experts in contact with an expert copywriter, your website – your shop window – will work harder for you.
