4 Steps to Create a High-Performance Website Copy Strategy

 

High-performance website copy occurs when your marketing content attracts, engages, informs, inspires, and converts.

(No pressure whatsoever.)

As you set the stage to write the website copy for your new design, you might feel a tad bit overwhelmed.

After all, your website message is how your ideal customer understands the benefits and solutions you provide and influences his or her buying decisions.

(Again, no pressure.)

When you write content without the proper strategy in place, you risk a low-converting website. To prevent wasting time, money, and energy, take these 4 foundational steps before you rewrite your website copy, rebrand, or complete a full overhaul.

Step 1: Answer the most important question of them all.

“What is the purpose of the new website?”

Yes, to be “found” and make more sales. We get that. But there’s more to it than that.

Your new website content will not only help you establish a more dominant web presence and hopefully increase sales, but it will also…

• Show that you understand the needs of your target market.

• Offer solutions on how to fix the toughest problems.

• Provide empathetic insight into what the customer avatar faces on a daily basis.

• Create a very specific feeling that propels decisive action.

That last criterion, about creating a feeling, is your website’s most important function.

If your content triggers indifference, you won’t meet any of your objectives.

In the example below, you’ll see a snippet of website content that highlights what the audience experiences.

The content generates the feeling that this business understands its customers and wants to help.

Source: www.trudog.com

Step 2: Complete a character sketch of your customer avatar.

Your audience is the star of the show.

It’s never about you—it’s about them.

Never forget that.

Knowing your customer avatar remains one of the most foundational elements of successful website copy.

If you speak to everyone, your message is likely to fall on deaf ears.

Also, communicating with your prospects as if they’re a commodity is the fastest way to get them to click the back button and never return.

They want to feel you understand who they are, their needs, their preferences.

So, how do you successfully uncover information about your ideal customer?

Think about what this person does in a given day.

How will he or she use your offerings to make life better? How will your services prevent a perceived future problem?

Conduct market research.

Check out your competitors.

Poll your customer base.

Or pick up the phone and ask current and past customers about their preferences.

This is how you become reacquainted with your audience before you begin writing website copy.

An audience-centric website message is key to site engagement, consumption of content, and conversion.

Your customers want to know what’s in it for them, not everything there is to know about how great your business is.

In the example below, you’ll see content that performs that function.

Notice how the content places the focus on the individual solution and benefit and not on the business itself…

Source: www.classcraft.com

 Step 3: Map out the customer journey.  

 A high-converting website means interaction.

When you sketch out the customer journey and user experience before you write a word, you have a compass that points you in the right direction.

Your web content must coincide with your vision of the user experience.

Once you answer the question outlined in Step 1—about the overall purpose of your website—you have the background information necessary to map out exactly what the visitor experience should be.

The customer journey can be determined in three different ways:

#1 The topic and subject matter—the content that conjures feelings, experiences, and solutions.

#2 The action and functionality—the functional/navigational facet of your website that makes information consumption easier.

#3 The audience—calling out your customer avatar directly automatically sets the framework for a specified user experience.

Below you’ll see content that uses the topic to push the customer journey forward.

The three services allow the traffic to decide what will benefit them most.

Source: www.propack.com

In this example of an action-based customer journey, you’ll see website content that explains a process, which streamlines action and functionality.

The navigational arrows provide the user with the ability to gain the most information without feeling overwhelmed by bulky paragraphs.

Source: www.townandcountryus.com

When it comes to audience-based user experience, content that clarifies the customer avatar automatically facilitates the customer journey. In the example below, the company clearly identifies whom they’re speaking with.

Source: www.bildandco.com

[Related: Your Website Message: The Most Overlooked Element of UX]

Step 4: Admit when you’re too close to the work.

Guess what? You are responsible for running an entire flippin’ business! (Did you forget?)

We know you are dedicated to building something significant, and making an impact in the world.

Your business is your baby, and sometimes it’s important to your bottom line to take a step back.

Don’t run the risk of little to no ROI from your online marketing initiatives.

Don’t miss out on higher online conversions because of DIY copywriting.

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