Web content has the ability to deliver a message to prospects at the right moment — precisely when they’re looking for a product or service. Unfortunately, the right message is rarely delivered.

Self-centric copywriters and business owners are to blame.

Some copywriters believe it’s more important to win awards than for clients to win new customers. They write for themselves, disregarding key business objectives.

Meanwhile, numerous micromanaging business owners insist prospects are interested in their mission statements and corporate values. Employees have a hard time getting excited about these things, so why would consumers care?

So what engages visitors and turns them into customers? Read Web writing: The Good, Bad and Ugly.

How do you get online visitors to take interest in your products or services? Write about things they care about. Most would say that’s brain-dead obvious. Yet, it seems 90% of websites miss the mark completely. The problem: self-absorbed web content. The cause: self-absorbed copywriters and business owners.

To engage prospects and turn them into customers, you need to appeal to the visitor’s self-interest — not yours.

Is Your Web Copy Written for the Right Audience?

Who is your website written for — your audience, your business, or your writer?

The following insight will help you answer this critical question, and guide you toward higher online engagement and conversion rates.

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While discussing Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs at a web writing workshop, a student asked what the most powerful consumer appeals are. Great question.

I suggested sex, greed and fear top the list.

Sex Sells

First of all, does sex sell? Just ask Calvin Klien. The concept has been around as long as advertising.

However, during the past decade, it seems consumers are more sophisticated and have greater expectations of companies and their marketing ploys. Hence, to achieve the fully desired effect, flesh-induced images and suggestive word plays might require increasingly developed strategies.

Greed and Fear

As for greed and fear, they are timeless motivators.  That’s because humans naturally: (a) have a desire to improve the status quo; (b) or fear losing the status quo.

Mix a person’s wallet into the equation, and you have a powerful formula to get people to act.

To clients and students alike, I always preach “less is more” on the Web. It applies to web design, web copywriting and even programming.

So I was fascinated to find an applicable quote from French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint Exupery. While reflecting on the development of airplanes some decades ago, he wrote:

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

So true. It reminds me of another relevant quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Had I but more time, I would have written less.” Actually, Mark Twain wrote something similar: “If I had more time I would have written less.”

The common premise is web designers and web copywriters must take extra time and effort to scrap any useless elements, from extra colours to extra syllables.

Good web content isn’t about flashy graphics and fancy words. It’s about communicating key messages and getting tasks completed.

When it comes to web content, some web copywriters still clash on the classic “features versus benefits” debate.

A web copywriter might choose to stack web content exclusively with features. For instance, web content promoting binoculars might focus on certain features, such as oversized lenses, rubber coating and ergonomic design.

That can score points with consumers in terms of credibility, but the web content should not omit the benefits: low-light performance; bright, crisp and clear images from dusk until dawn; and toughness and easy handling.

For consumers to take action, they need to care. Benefits tell readers why they should care.

Benefits engage. Benefits inspire. Benefits get people to act.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow conducted lifelong research about mental health and human potential. Seeing human beings’ needs arranged like a ladder, he devised his renowned hierarchy of needs.

Here’s a breakdown of the needs and desires people try to fulfill, as compiled neatly in Chip and Dan Heath’s New York Times bestseller Made to Stick:

• Transcendence: help others realize their potential
• Self-actualization: realize your own potential, self-fulfillment, peak experiences
• Aesthetic: symmetry, order, beauty, balance
• Learning: know, understand, mentally connect
• Esteem: achieve, be competent, gain approval, independence, status
• Belonging: love, family, friends, affection
• Security: protection, safety, stability
• Physical: hunger, thirst, bodily comfort

Ensure your web content taps into these basic human needs to appeal to your visitors’ emotions. You’ll engage and convert.

A common pitfall for web writers and journalists alike is it’s easy to get caught up in too many details.

Writers must step back regularly and ask: “What’s important and interesting to the readers?”

If you’re writing web content and feel you’re losing direction, chances are you’re missing the integral story. You might be saying too much. And if you say too many things, you’ll lose your audience on the fast-paced Web.

Well-versed web writers recognize the need to prioritize. There’s one shot at the headline, lead sentence and body. Don’t miss the mark.

Don’t get lazy with search engine spiders, or they’ll bite you.

A long-time client contacted Webcopyplus to find out why their high rankings went downhill. In a matter of two months, they went from page one to falling off the radar for a couple of lucrative search terms. Their Google PageRank, indicating Google’s trust in their website, also dropped from 5/10 to 3/10.

We reviewed their web writing and meta data, and both checked out. Their inbound links were also relatively stable.

Upon further inspection, it was discovered that they were using duplicate web writing on many blog posts.

Google doesn’t like duplicate content. It’s considered a spam or black hat SEO tactic, and can result in dropped rankings, or even elimination from the search engine altogether.

A simple way to find out if your website has been penalized is to search for your domain name on Google. If your site doesn’t appear as the first result, there’s a good chance you’ve been penalized.

And if Google can’t find any page of your site if you search for “site:yourdomain.com” then it’s almost certain your site’s been knocked off its index.

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We recently posted an article entitled Website testimonials: Weapons of influence. It encourages website owners to use customer testimonials to boost credibility and sales, referring to author Robert Cialdini’s insightful social psychology book called Influence: Science and Practice.

While website testimonials are a powerful way to earn a prospect’s trust, they also foster commitment from those providing the testimonials. How? Well, when people put their commitments on paper – or the far-reaching Web – they attempt to live up to their words.

“Whenever one takes a stand that is visible to others, there arises a drive to maintain that stand in order to look like a consistent person,” noted Cialdini. Why? Because, he explained, personal consistency is viewed as rational, assured, trustworthy and sound.

Look at Barack Obama’s presidential campaign; he went with the theme “change” and stuck with it right through to his election to the Whitehouse. Someone without consistency is often judged as fickle, uncertain, scatterbrained or volatile. John McCain started with “experience” and switched to “change” mid-campaign.

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Testimonials are critical to any website that’s marketing or selling products or services.

They provide “social proof,” suggests author Robert Cialdini in his insightful social psychology book called Influence: Science and Practice. This principle states we determine what’s correct by finding out what other people think is correct.

It extends from the hectic pace of a complex society, where consumers are often forced to make decisions based on limited information. Add to this the hyper velocity of the Web, and you can begin to understand how people tend to automatically comply with the masses.

“As a rule, we make fewer mistakes by acting in accord with social evidence than by acting contrary to it,” stated Cialdini. “Usually, when a lot of people are doing something, it is the right thing to do.” Safety in numbers! It’s a convenient ‘shortcut’, requiring little time and thought, in exchange for plenty of comfort.

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