“Most websites don’t have a massive traffic problem, however every website in the world has a conversion problem.” – Bryan Eisenberg, Bryaneisenberg.com
Boring, I know, but the first step in creating copy that converts is preparation. Spend 50% of your writing time planning your content and you’ll save yourself hours of pen-sucking, head-scratching tedium further down the road. Start by asking yourself these 3 questions:
1. Who am I writing for? (Imagine a living breathing person rather than a demographic)
2. What do I want someone to do as a result of reading this page? (e.g. buy and share)
3. What are the primary and secondary key phrases I will optimise this page for? (from your keyword research, pick one mainstream phrase and one niche phrase per page)
The single most important thing you need to consider whenever you write a piece of copy is:
What value will this piece of content add to my reader’s life?
And if you think that sounds a bit dramatic, consider how many waking hours you have in your day. Then think about how many different bits of information you have to process within that timeframe. Emails, blog posts, websites, texts, tweets, Facebook updates, train timetables, billboards, newspapers, books, radio and TV broadcasts, conversations, meetings… not to mention the continuous running commentary in your head. Bleuuugh! It’s enough to make you crawl back under the duvet.
Your customers are probably facing the same level of information overload so it will brighten their day if they can read a piece of content that considers their needs and gives them something worthwhile to take away. That can be a juicy report or independent review, some free advice or anything that makes their life easier. When people receive something they value for free, they are much more inclined to do business with you.
Once you know the answers to the above 3 questions and are clear on the value your reader will get, you’re ready to start structuring your content. And that’s what we’ll be looking at next month…
P.S We’d love to hear your comments!
