What You're Missing in Your Website Copy

The look and feel of your website may be fantastic, but if your website copy isn’t resonating with prospective clients, you aren’t going to get many leads. When reviewing your current copy or drafting new copy, keep these things in mind.

If your company is like most, it’s likely gone through a website redesign at some point or another - maybe even multiple redesigns. And, after each redesign, you analyze and comb over every detail for weeks. You talk with your designer and developer about the functionality of every aspect of your new website.

Finally, by the end, everything is perfect and you launch your shiny new website. And you patiently wait for leads to come in.

But very little, if anything, appears. 

After spending thousands of dollars, no one is interacting with your site, no one is engaging with the chat or filling out the forms.

Here’s something to think about: Your website copy.

The look and feel of your website are probably fantastic, but if your website copy isn’t resonating with prospective buyers, you aren’t going to get too far.

When reviewing your current copy or drafting new copy, keep these things in mind:

Are your client’s pain points addressed in your website copy?

When drafting copy for your website, you may think you should only focus on the positive aspects of what you sell, but believe it or not, it is a missed opportunity to not address problems or issues a prospective buyer could face when choosing your products or services.

If you’re able to address your client’s fears head-on, it’s a moment you can begin gaining trust while helping to eliminate some of their fears.

Does your website copy explain how your service helps your potential clients?

Take a look at how you are listing the benefits of your product or service. To do this, it’s important to know the difference between your features and your benefits.

Features are factors, or pieces, of your product or service. Benefits are what a client can accomplish with that feature.

If your feature is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, the benefit could be a comprehensive view of a company’s client information.

Features are absolutely important, but if a potential client doesn’t know exactly what that feature can do for them, or if it is difficult for them to figure out what a feature can do for them, there’s a pretty good chance they won’t be interested in your product.

Does your website copy showcase your own company too much?

Keep in mind that people care less about what you claim your product or service can do, and they care more about what your product or service is going to do for them.

Here’s a test to see if you focus too much on yourself rather than your potential client needs: Head over to your homepage and count the number of times you see words like “we,” and “our,” rather than words like, “you,” and “your.”

Much of your website, especially the homepage, should communicate to your future clients that you care about them, you know what motivates them, and you know how you can help them. Your value isn’t only what your product or service is, it’s what you can do for your clients.

Are you upfront with your pricing?

I know, I know, this is a very controversial point. But hear me out.

When you are conducting research on something you’re considering for purchase, price is probably a big consideration point, right? 

Common problem consumers have when doing research on something they need or want is not being able to find the price. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, people want to know how much something is going to cost them before they buy it.

You may be thinking to yourself things like:

• But there just isn’t enough context to justify the cost.
• The cost is dependent on different factors.
• But my competitors will be able to see my pricing!

Of course, you may not be able to display your actual pricing because of your customized options, but have you considered how you may be able to present costs in your website copy?

How about presenting a starting point or a cost range?

Provide written or video context explaining why you charge what you do - really focus on the value you bring with this service. This is highly beneficial for potential leads who see the value in what you offer. Others of course will say that’s way too high (meaning they don’t see the value) and really, you probably saved your sales team valuable time since they’re probably not a good fit anyway.

If a potential lead is comparing solution providers and one company provides at least a ballpark estimate and another doesn’t on their website, which company do you believe will have a better chance of the lead filling out a form to schedule a call?

Are you using video to expand your website copy?

Ideally, your service pages will be the most highly trafficked pages on your site. An easy way to provide information to your clients without writing a novel’s worth of content is through video.

Try to remember that videos on your site should be informational and not salesy. The goal is to answer questions they may have. If you aren’t sure what to include in your video, here’s a short list of things to keep in mind:

• What are you selling? What is your product or service?
• Who is it good for?
• Why do your prospective clients need it?
• What is the cost?
• When should your prospects purchase?
• How can they complete the purchase? What steps do they need to take from here?

What’s one of the highest-value pieces of website copy?

Reviews! How often do you purchase something without reading the reviews? Probably not too often. Anything from case studies, testimonials, and reviews can provide prospective clients with context as to how your product or service has impacted the lives and businesses of others.

There are little things you can do here and there to increase the quality of your testimonials, too. Instead of only listing a company name next to a testimonial quote, ask the former client if you can use their headshot. Then, maybe you can link their name or photo to their LinkedIn profile or their bio on their own website.

When you’re able to highlight real people and real companies with whom you’ve previously worked, it will help establish trust, which we know is so important.

Does your website copy provide enough information for prospective clients to self-assess?

A lot of buyers these days would rather come to you with a pre-determined solution and ask you if they are making the right choice rather than come to you with a list of problems and ask you if you have the right solution. 

Publishing blog articles, a FAQ page, or other content on your website that answers the most common questions your prospective buyers may have during the sales process or about your service saves time for all parties involved.

Ready to boost up your website copy?

Now is the time to feel inspired! Take those first steps in improving your website content. Talk to your sales team and your clients - and listen to them. Keep the above questions in mind, and remember to always focus on your buyer and their pain points to fully understand how your solutions can help.