Seven tips for writing copy that connects with your visitors and motivates them to take action

1. Know Your Audience—If you’re running your own business, you should know your audience by this point. However, it never ceases to amaze how many websites fail to connect with their target audience. Too many companies use stiff, robotic corporate speak rather than conversational copywriting that engages their audience. You need to interact with your target audience just like you would if you were talking with them face-to-face. Talk like they talk. Think like they think. This is how you will get results.

2. Stop Keyword Stuffing—Keyword stuffing is NOT the same as SEO copywriting. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what many “SEO experts” pass off as website copywriting. Rather than focusing on writing results-driven copywriting that engages and motivates, they’re consumed with achieving optimal keyword density. The result? Their copy might end up ranking well, but potential customers don’t feel motivated to buy. There is nothing wrong with using keywords in your website copy, but just don’t make the mistake of focusing too much on pleasing the search engines.

3. Create Compelling Headlines—The headline is the first thing people see when they land on your page. Did you know you only have around 8 seconds to keep a new visitor on your page? If you headline is bland and boring, they’ll click back immediately. On the flipside, if your headline poses an interesting question or sells a unique benefit, they’ll be inclined to stick around and read through the rest of the content.

4. Focus on “You” Rather than “We”—What’s the most important word in copywriting? You. See, consumers are inherently selfish. They want to know what’s in it for them. They don’t want to read a bunch of self-interested copy where the company goes on and on talking about themselves the whole time. Make sure your website copy includes the word “you” more than it does “we.”

5. Make Easy to Scan Content—Multiple studies have shown that people tend to read content differently online than they do traditional print materials. That’s because a computer monitor simply isn’t the best medium for reading long blocks of text. Eye tracking studies show that online users tend to scan content rather than read it word for word. What does this mean for you? It means your website copy needs to be easy to scan. You can accomplish this by using short paragraphs, bulleted lists, bolded headings, and ample white space throughout your copy. Your goal is to make it so that someone landing on your page can scan through your content and understand the main points in just a few short seconds.

6. Sell the Benefits—This is Copywriting 101. It’s all about selling the benefits not the features. Benefits tell the reader exactly how they will benefit from your product. Features are the boring, technical things that make your product different. Here’s an example: A feature of an external hard drive would be that it has 500 GB of storage capacity. The benefit would be that your customers can backup and protect all of their important files without ever running out of room. Focus on the benefits.

7. Close with a Good Call to Action—The call to action is what seals the deal. If you’ve successfully done all of the above points, your readers are almost ready to take action. But they still need a little pushing. Don’t beat around the bush here. Tell them exactly what action you want them to take. If you want them to buy your product now, tell them to do so. If you want them to fill out a form for a free consultation, tell them to do that. Keep it simple and straightforward.

At the end of the day, your internet marketing campaign will only be as successful as your copywriting allows. Focus on writing great website copy, and everything else will fall into place.