The Ins & Outs of Website Copy

Business

Nov 10

So you’ve decided you’re going to tackle writing your own copy for your business instead of hiring it out… but you have no idea where to start. Let’s start with your tagline. What’s a tagline? The tagline is the catch phrase or slogan that follows the name of your business. For example, Nike uses “Just do it” as their tagline. For your business, I recommend using something that gives a little insight into the product or service you are offering. Alliteration is always a nice touch to add to your tagline as well, it's catchy and will stick with your prospective customers.

Too Much or Not Enough?

Now, the tricky part is finding the line between enough copy and too much copy. You don’t want to overwhelm people with too many words. Most of the time, they won’t read it if it looks like too much. You want to create a funnel and essentially push them through this funnel of information. Use bold, easy to read headlines to draw them in. What should be at the forefront of your funnel? Start with “What you do”.

What are your services and products? Again, write a few, easily scannable, paragraphs. Write with a purpose, eliminate filler. A helpful trick is to read your copy out loud. Is it short and simple? Or drawn out and boring? Read it to someone else. Do their eyes glaze over or did they listen attentively? Adjust your copy based on these answers.

You Covered “What” Now Who and Why.

Now move on to who you are and why you do what you do. It can be hard to write about ourselves. A good tip is to have someone interview you. Take note of the questions they ask you. Those are the questions that people reading your copy will genuinely care about. This is the part where you want to write with not only purpose, but connectivity and emotion.

By now, your reader has established whether or not your product is within the realm of what they are looking for, and the “Who you Are” section will give them insight as to whether or not you are someone they want to purchase this product or service from.

SEO.

I know what you’re thinking, “Ugh. ANOTHER vocab word?” Don’t worry. This one is easy and very helpful.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is writing for keywords people will generally put into a google search bar. When using Google, people may write ‘berry picking near me’ or ‘where to purchase sweet corn’ or ‘ground beef meals’. Use these search terms as headlines: Berry Picking in Southwest Wisconsin, or Fresh Sweetcorn Picked Daily! If you are a cattle producer who provides freezer beef, I would consider adding a blog to your site to share some of your go-do dinner ideas with your meat.

Writing with SEO in mind will help your website rank higher when crawled by search engines. Utilizing keywords and your region or general location will increase your chances of being found by new customers. After all, your website is supposed to be working for you, not extra work for you.

Call to Action.

You’ve spent all this time on copy, now it’s time to give readers a task. The end of your funnel should be the “call to action”. A call to action might urge your reader to join your email list, download an informative document, or make a purchase. Any of these are considered a win. Even if they don’t purchase at that time, but they sign up to be on your email list, you have planted a seed, and likely converted an onlooker into a customer.

Remember, copy doesn’t have to be a huge daunting task. Not only that, but it SHOULDN’T be. Copy is fluid and ever changing, therefore, it doesn’t have to be done all at once. Take it one step at a time, and remember that copy is always a work in progress.

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This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase an item with my code, I get a small kick-back as well. But be assured, I am only sharing these products because I use them every day and love them just as well!

Hi, Friend! I’m Brenna - and I can’t wait to chat with you about all things business and rural life. Thanks for reading!

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