Too many businesses, large and small, turn people off with self-absorbed websites.

Does your website content merely brag about your company’s “industry leading” products, features and services? If so, you might be boring your visitors and helping out your competition.

Customer-centric content is a quick and effective way to engage visitors and turn them into customers.

Plus, from a branding perspective, how you communicate with your target market says a lot about your company’s true focus. Are you striving to provide clients solutions and opportunities, or are you just out to grab additional dollars?

To be a true customer-driven business, you should be orienting all business messages and processes to customer wants and needs. In fact, the driving force of your company and culture should be to meet those desires to the fullest.

Here’s a typical and all-too-common example of self-centric website content:

We’re the best learning management system

(Company name) is the revolutionary online training system. We’ve won awards…

What’s this company focusing on? Its customers’ needs? Supposedly not.

Here are some guidelines to help establish customer-centric website content:

• Get familiar with your target audience before writing. What are their concerns, for instance?  This helps to position your product or service as a solution to their problems.
• Promote what visitors want or need — not what you sell. Your product’s won awards? That’s terrific, but be sure to accentuate what it means to your visitors.
• Focus on benefits rather than features. What does your visitor have to gain from your product or service?
• Speak to, not at your customers. Build a rapport with your visitors by using a second-person voice, such as “you” and “your.”

By communicating to potential clients with content geared to their needs and wants, you’ll keep them on your website longer. And the longer you keep their attention, the more they’ll realize how you can fulfill their desires.

Remember, in the age of the Internet, consumers are in the driver’s seat. If you’re not catering to your visitors, the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo will quickly guide them to a competitor that does.

I recently received both fan mail and hate mail in response to comments featured in Backbone Magazine surrounding Flash-based websites.

My statement: “Most Flash intros are not created with the visitor and business in mind, but rather as an opportunity to showcase a programmer’s abilities,” also sparked exchanges on Ubuntu Forums, drawing more than 1,700 visitors and over 70 comments.

“You miss the point completely,” e-mailed one website developer. “Something needs to jump out at the reader, or you blend in with the rest of the Web.”

Continue reading →

Clients and students frequently question why website writing should hover around a grade eight level.

The purpose is to promote readability.

It’s well known in the web writing community that the vast majority of online visitors don’t read word-by-word — they scan.

That’s why plain language works well on the Web.

Continue reading →

When writing web copy for the all-too-noisy World Wide Web, nothing is more powerful than simplicity.

As a result, your web copy messages need to be clearly defined and concise. Easier said than done.

Entrepreneurs, like artists, tend to complicate things when they don’t have clear vision or direction.

Continue reading →

If your website’s not performing, here’s what you can do to improve search engine rankings, engage visitors and convert more sales.

1. Align the Site with Your Objectives

Have your business objectives and goals changed since you launched your website? If so, then you need to revisit your website’s content to ensure it supports your current business needs.

Continue reading →

Are you planning to build or update a business website? The following three questions will save you time, money and frustration, and help you get the results you want.

1. What is your website’s objective?
2. Who is your target market?
3. What’s your position?

On several occasions, my colleagues and I have come across business owners who spent upwards of $20,000 on website design and development, with literally nothing to show for it.

Continue reading →

Relevant webcopy is the key to engaging your website’s visitors and converting more sales.

US consumers alone will spend upwards of $340 billion (U.S.) online in 2010. Meanwhile, Internet World Stats reports more than 70% of US and Canadian consumers are using the Internet.

So what’s the quickest and most effective way to connect with your audience and convert them into full-fledged customers? Address their real needs, and make it easy for them to find what they want.

Continue reading →