The 9 essentials you need for writing your own website copy:

It’s estimated that by 2021, any business who doesn’t have a website is going to be as good as dead- regardless of whether they can operate as normal or not, per government-mandated regulations.

So now that’s out of the way- while you obviously need a website, you also need copy that actually works. It can’t just be a placeholder- it has to lead your website visitors on to the next step, whatever you intend for that to be:

Do you want them to buy online?

Call you or a member of your sales team?

Place an order?

Join your mailing list?

Subscribe?

Because it’s nice to refer people to a professional-looking, modern website, but without the right message you’re missing out on a tonne of potential sales- and who wants to be losing out on that?

So if you’d really (rather than getting someone like me to take care of it for you) prefer to go ahead and write your own copy, fine. But for your sake, make sure you follow these guidelines:

#1- Who’s your audience?

Primarily, your answer should be based upon either:

a) Who comprises 80% of your customers, or

b) Who are the most valuable 20% of your customers

Once you have a clear idea of who they are, then your website copy AND your entire content strategy should be directed at these people and created with them in mind. This is what you need to establish before worrying about any of the other points I’m about to address here…

#2- How are you going to get their attention?

Because the secret is making sure you have an attention-grabbing headline, as I discussed here There’s really no point taking the time to write amazing website copy if you haven’t created a knockout headline where necessary, making it easy for your website visitors to find the information they’re looking for or even read the info they weren’t looking for, simply because the headline caught their attention and on some level made them think “Hey- that’s interesting!”

With the right headline, even your cold-emails get read:

#3- Be careful with the negatives

The emotion of fear is a great seller and if you don’t believe me, just watch the news any given night. Drama, scandal, threats to our daily way of life all presented conveniently in fresh waves each night. The boogeymen and forces of evil might change depending on what news sources you go to, but it’s always that same core emotion they’re tapping into.

But here’s where you’ve got to be different: You’re selling people on your solution, not the problem (see the negative I put in there- ironic, huh?) Primarily, you want people to associate your brand with solutions, good times, relief, pride- think all the positive emotions that come from delivering whatever outcome you deliver to your customers. If you want a textbook example of how to do this, just take a look at any insurance company’s advertising campaign and how they sell to you based upon a solution to your problems:

#4- Remember- it’s all about them

More times than I care to recall, one of the early things I’ve picked up on with a clients’ website is how much of their copy refers to “our customers” or their clients in the third-person. This is perfectly acceptable when you’re relating case studies of past customers, but for the most part your web copy should be aimed directly at the browser- think of words like ‘you’, ‘your’, ‘you’re’ and ‘yours’.

It’s going to make the website audience feel a stronger connection with the message the business is delivering, which in turn improves their response rate and means that new business is all theirs.

Compare that sentence with this one, and see how it feels:

It’s going to make your audience feel a stronger connection with the message you’re delivering, which in turn improves your response rate and means that new business is all yours.

Case closed.

#5- Relate to their experiences/ emotions

While your copy might be technically, factually and grammatically sound, if it doesn’t appeal to the experiences and emotions of your audience, then you’re going to lose them. Remember just two points back where we looked at tapping into their ‘fear’ emotion? Well think about all the other emotions you can tap into as well. How often do you remember exactly what somebody said to you or something you read, as opposed to how it made you feel? I expand on that idea here

#6- Tone-Matching

What language or use of jargon is going to appeal directly to your audience? Because that’s how you should write your web copy, so they feel as if you’re on the same level as them. A while back I spoke about this. Essentially, this is how you make a great connection with your audience. The trick is to present information in a manner that they’re going to understand (and relate to) best.

#7- KISS*

Essentially: keep it simple, stupid. Say what needs to be said on your website and use the fewest amount of words you can. Again, you want to make it as easy as possible for your audience to read through and then take action how you want them to (more on that, shortly). But first:

#8- Link Me Up

Be sure to also include hyperlinks in your website copy- this is not only great for your search engine rankings, but it also provides a better user experience for your site visitors. These can either be links to information to do with your business (internal links) or links to information that have to do with a subject that’s relevant to your business (external links). You’ll see I’ve included both examples right here in this very article! Internal links are useful for helping your site visitors to develop a deeper understanding of your business as a whole (and what you can provide for them) while external links are great for helping to establish your credibility. So include links to both!

#9- Clear Call To Action

There’s no point going to the effort of writing all that amazing content on your site if there’s no clear call to action. This means you need to do both of 2 things:

1- Present a clear call to action that persuades your website visitors to do what you wish for them to do in a given section of the website (contact you or your sales team, place an order, subscribe, buy now etc.)

2. Present your CTA so that it’s clear what happens next. Don’t be vague about what the next course of action is. If you have a free download that users can get if they enter their details and join your database, don’t just say ‘Free download here’- say something like ‘Enter your details, join our amazing database and get your complimentary copy of ________’.

Your website should have at least one call to action on every page, even the pages where you aren’t necessarily selling something.

By following these 9 steps you’re well on your way to producing good web copy, whether you’re building a new site or updating an existing one. However, because I’m in a generous mood, here’s a BONUS tip for you:

#10- Plan

So you’ve got a website. Great! But what else? What’s next? Do you have an email funnel to back up the free download you’re offering? Do you publish regular blog articles to your website so that one-time visitors want to come back regularly and see if you’ve got anything new for them to read? Depending on how people interact with your site, you want to plan what you’d like to happen next, which itself is dependant on the decision your audience makes:

Subscribe to your database: What happens after that?

Order from you online: What happens after that?

Browse your site then leave: How can you get them to return?

For a truly outstanding website, you need more than words and links on a few pages- you need a plan of action to go with it so you maximise your audience, your leads and your customers.

So I wish you luck with all of this but remember- if you’d like some professional feedback you could always make it easy for yourself and contact me

In a single afternoon, how I defined success changed forever…

As a member of the bX business network, I have access to countless webinars spanning several years, featuring experts from a variety of backgrounds and industries who share their particular secrets to success.

I’m a “whatever it takes” kind of guy, so I’ve got into the habit of putting an hour aside each weekday to go back through the catalogue of past webinars, watch one, take notes/ screenshots and compile it into an easy-reference Word Document. I did this with the fantastic 10-Part Tony Robbins series Time Of Your Life that (in itself) was a big catalyst in Scribe becoming more than just a business concept- but that’s a story for another time…

So I was watching a webinar by bX Director Matt Alderton, titled ‘Preparing For Your Best Year Ever’- and he spends 45 minutes or so breaking down the art of goal-setting. I listened, took notes (and screenshots) and put it into my Word document- but in doing so, it reminded me of a day a few years back where I changed how I defined success. Here’s how it came about…

See, I’d recently celebrated a birthday, and as is customary, I’d taken a day out to go and brainstorm my goals for the next 12 months. While Matt recommends doing this at the end of the year, I prefer to do it when my birthday comes around. As people get older they begin to dread every looming birthday more. But as I see it, why dread the inevitable when you could celebrate another year of opportunity in front of you? So I make it a time for appreciating the last 12 months’ worth of milestones and to devise a plan of action for the next 12 months.

This means I unplug from social media, get outdoors, reflect- and strategise. I always get pumped for the year ahead, full of anticipation for the new outcomes I’d listed and committed myself to achieving.

But this time around?

I was thinking of the sacrifices I’d made. The time spent working solo, pressuring myself to do stuff barely noticed by the outside world. The amount of things left solely up to me to organise and put into place every day. Sure, it was all done with a clear destination in mind. Yet…

I was putting a line through these outcomes but feeling no particular sense of pride. No rush as I achieved another ‘Mission Accomplished’. As a result, I’d begun to wonder:

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

So here I was this particular Monday morning, having freshly clicked over another year, aboard a city-bound train, mountain bike swaying gently at my side, iPad and helmet stuffed into my Kathmandu backpack. After arriving in the city, I spent hours riding through the parks and beachside suburbs on a clear and sunny day, as all along I pondered:

What exactly do I want to achieve over the next 12 months?

Then it dawned on me:

I was unsatisfied because I’d come to define success by what I did, rather than who I became.

I’d become too engrossed in a legalistic, paint-by-numbers, cross-it-out view of achievement. It’s all well and good to look at your list of action items and see that you did a, b and c. But, more than anything-

I needed to pay closer attention to my attitude.

After all, attitude is the fuel that powers achievement.

The problem is that we’ve been encouraged to judge success simply by surface layer metrics, with no regard for the underlying story:

How many followers have we attracted?

How many subscribers do we have?

How many people have watched our videos or heard of us?

How much did we bank last financial year?

Where do we live?

What car/s do we drive?

Who do we know on a first-name basis?

What events have we attended and who else was there?

Where do we get to go on holiday?

These can all be indicators of some forms of success, sure- but they don’t mean that you are a success. Imagine you had all of these great things disappear overnight- what would you be left with, then?

Because if we can’t truthfully say the following:

1. We enjoy our work and the difficult, frustrating parts are worth it
   
2. Our attitude brings us fulfilment
   
3. We’re confident we’ll reflect on the person we are now (one day) and be proud of us, even if we didn’t always make the right decision

Then success is being done wrong.

See, it’s one thing to do what needs to be done and simply to go through the motions-

But becoming that individual who does more than tick a box, who takes pride in what they do and who they become in the process? That’s next level stuff. It’s the kind of quality people can’t help but sit up and take notice of.

Succeeding is an event. But being a success is a state of mind.

Succeeding is temporary. But being a success is permanent.

Succeeding shows you stretch the limits. But success shows you persisted.

Succeeding gives you the chance to learn. But success continues learning.

I’m not sharing this to stand on some platform and boast of “enlightenment”. I share simply because I remember when I defined success the wrong way- a way that doesn’t necessarily equal fulfilment and won’t save you from a sense of imposter syndrome or victories that feel hollow.

So I defined success wrong, and I’d begun feeling burnt out. Remembering what it felt to be truly inspired was like the memory of a romance full of passion that’d since grown cool and practical. I wondered if the juice was really worth the squeeze and if it wasn’t, then what was the point?

But this particular afternoon- revelation came:

Because a change in attitude would lead to me accomplishing things beyond a mere list. So instead of defining the coming 12 months by a list of accomplishments, I had to scale it down to just a few, intangible things. In the end, I was left with just these 3 questions:

1. What do I enjoy doing?
   
2. What attitude do I want to embody?
   
3. Who would I be proud of, as a person?

From there, it was actually fairly easy to plot out the next 12 months, based around just those 3 questions.

Attitude is the fuel that powers achievement.

So I rode out the rest of the afternoon, grabbed a late lunch and then boarded the evening train home, weary but content- and with clarity about my future.

So I encourage you to ask yourself these three questions for yourself. Get clear on them. Make your answer the foundation of your goals and your vision. Then go forward.

Like this article? Get every brand new one the moment it drops!