You’re probably no stranger to the phrase “content is king” — but does that still ring true in 2021? Well, yes — great content will likely always play a part in any company’s digital marketing strategy — but there are a few key points to keep in mind as you head into the new year. Below, we’ve provided some tips to optimise your copy and provide your website visitors with an optimal experience.
Before you jump into the finer details of optimising your website copy, it’s important to lay the groundwork first. Here are some ways to ensure that the foundations of your website are in good shape:
Your home page is an essential part of your visitor’s experience. Here are some ways you can make your home page better through a mix of the right copywriting elements and UX features.
Have you ever visited a website with the intent to find a very specific product but there was no search bar on the page? It’s a very frustrating experience that might have caused you to visit another site instead. Incorporating a search bar means that a customer doesn’t have to scroll through multiple pages to find a specific product.
A call to action or CTA prompts users to complete a certain action. The action could be anything from subscribing to your mailing list to starting their buying journey. You don’t have to overthink the copy of your CTA, either. Keep it simple! CTAs are meant to be short and sweet. Aim for 5 words or fewer.
It’s a good idea to sprinkle calls to action in prominent areas of your website, in contrasting colours. A great example of this is GoodLife Home Loans. They use contrasting blue and white boxes to help you navigate exactly where you need to right above the fold on their homepage.
Besides using a search bar and a navigation bar on your website, it’s also important to have a navigation bar somewhere that’s clearly visible.
In most cases, a customer isn’t going to make a purchase without taking a little convincing. Usually, that means that a customer is going to check out your service or product reviews before making a buying decision. Make sure that you highlight your 5-star reviews in a prominent area of your home page.
If you’re a new company that doesn’t have a ton of reviews yet, try to send out follow-up emails to past customers to request reviews. Including testimonials on your site, especially on your homepage, sends signals of trustworthiness and authority to your prospective customers. Take Undergrads Moving for example. They give you a transparent look into their Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews so that you can easily see they are a well-trusted and liked company to do business with.
Nobody wants to visit a website with giant blocks of text and nothing else. Even a website with the best copywriting in the world needs great photos, icons, and illustrations to go with it. Paragraphs of text should be broken up into headers and subheaders to make it easy for someone to scan. In addition, graphics are a great way to drive home a point that you’re already making in your website copy.
Graphics don’t need to be super fancy to be effective — simple icons do the trick, too.
And go easy on the stock photos. While stock photos are helpful here and there, an over-reliance on stock photos can give your website an inauthentic vibe, which you should avoid at all costs.
Another easy way to engage with customers is by putting a live chatbox on your home page. Dedicated staff can talk to customers or potential customers to quickly answer questions.
If you don’t have the staff to feasibly offer live chat to customers, a chatbot can be a powerful tool to use instead.
Although infographics are light on content and heavy on graphics, they still require the touch of a writer to convey the right message. In fact, the fewer the words, the bigger the impact in some cases. Infographics don’t offer a ton of SEO value, but they act as a shareable asset that might even go viral if you’re lucky.
Infographics are also helpful to enhance customer understanding of certain concepts. For example, let’s say that you run an environmentally-friendly apparel business and you want to drive home how much carbon is saved by buying from your company.
To help illustrate the benefits of purchasing apparel from your company, you could create an infographic highlighting statistics about fast fashion. Then, you could move onto your company’s mission of sustainability which fights the negative effects of fast fashion. (For example, you could show how each purchase is equivalent to taking a car off the road or a similar environmental impact calculation.)
Copywriting is still an important tool for businesses to prioritise on their websites and marketing materials. Without good writing, you can send out confusing messages that turn off potential customers. Consider implementing some of the different tips found in this article. By paying attention to the copy and messaging of your business, you can successfully attract the attention of new customers while retaining old ones.
Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. He is currently a contributing editor for 365 Business Tips. Matt is passionate about marketing and business strategy and enjoys the San Diego life, travelling and music.
