A good website can do wonders for your business. It can project an image of professionalism and trust. This creates a bond between you and your target customer, which you need in order to succeed.
In this respect, your website content is key. The words on your website will tell their story about the kind of business you are running. They will either build up trust in you and your business, or they will put off your visitors. It is very important to present yourself well, using content that conveys your expertise, empathy, and trustworthiness.
If you have excellent copywriting skills, you might be tempted to write the content yourself. Alternatively, you would be looking to hire a copywriter or copy consultant to write the content for you. However, even if your copywriting skills are fine, I always advise that you hire a professional copywriter or copy consultant to write your website copy for you. This is because he will bring an objective eye to the process, and, in the process of preparing the content, will ask you questions that you might not necessarily have considered, given how close you are to the business.
In this blog post, I will give you some advice about what you should expect from a copywriter or copy consultant if you hire one for your website.
Background research
Your consultant should do proper background research. Copywriting is not about finding pretty words and putting them onto a website. Such writing tends to come across as puffy and insincere. You have to build a bond of trust with visitors to your website. This means therefore that your content must be authentic. In order to achieve this, your consultant really ought to know what he is talking about.
This means that he has to do his homework.
At Harcourt Lane, we begin every new assignment by sending a checklist and questionnaire to the client.
The checklist
The checklist helps us identify precisely the areas in which the client needs our help. Clients often don’t realise the different areas in which copywriting can help their business, and so we use a checklist to help them see the entire range of possibilities. For example, for a client who wishes to create a new website, or to review an existing website, we will send her a checklist setting out the different possible aims of website content. These include:
- Generating sales;
- Building awareness;
- Building corporate image/brand;
- Establishing authority (e.g. as an expert);
- Sharing news and updates; and
- Creating customer engagement (for example, through a blog or users’ forum).
We ask the client to select her desired aims. This guides us on how to write the content.
The questionnaire
As mentioned above, your consultant should do his research. His research should cover the following areas:
- Your business, including all your products and services;
- Your competition;
- Your target market.
As far as your business is concerned, he should want to know, at least, the following:
- The aim or mission statement;
- The range of problems typically solved by businesses of that nature, and by this business in particular;
- The range of products and services offered by the business;
- The size of the business;
- The nature of specialism (if any) required for the business; and
- The nature of the industry in which the business is operating.
He should learn everything that there is to learn. He should therefore obtain all relevant documents, including plans, reports, marketing and advertising materials, product specifications, proposals, etc.
Regarding your products and services, he should want to know, at least, the following:
- What exactly you are offering;
- How exactly it helps your target customer;
- Its features and benefits (including unique features, if any);
- How it compares to any competing products or services;
- The mode of delivery of the product or service;
- How the product or service is supported.
Regarding your competition, your consultant should conduct research to discover, at least, the following:
- Who are your main competitors?
- Where are you (roughly) ranked, in relation to them?
- What advantages do your competitors have over you?
- What advantages do you have over your competitors?
- How do your products and services compare to those of your competition?
Regarding your target market, your consultant should do his homework to discover who exactly they are, and what are their biggest needs, or pain points, so far as relates to your business. He will need to be very specific, all the way down to identifying the precise demographic of your target customer, for example, her income range, level of education, preferred reading material, family situation, etc. He will need to create a ‘customer avatar’. This is, in brief terms, a detailed picture of your target customer. For more on customer avatars, see this blog post.
Preparing to write
Once your consultant has done all his research, he will be ready to start writing. By this time, he will have sketched an idea of what your website should look like. This applies both to new websites (which are obviously being written from scratch) and to existing websites (which are being reviewed). Regarding existing websites, you may have given your consultant particular instructions on the current text and structure of the website, for example, whether and how much of these to retain. If you instruct him to maintain some of the existing text and structure of the website, he will be more constrained in what changes he can make. However, if he is given a free hand to rewrite and restructure the website, the changes could be more marked. In the case of new websites, you are also of course free to instruct him on your preferred structure.
At some stage, your consultant should have information for your website, such as the following:
- The extent (i.e. how many pages);
- The structure (for example, main pages (such as: Home page, About page, Contact page), and sub-pages which deal with the different products and services);
- The tone of voice;
- The relevant keywords for your website, and where exactly to place them;
- The links profile (for example, what (page/sub-page) should link to what (page/sub-page)?;
- Call To Action placement. A ‘Call To Action’ is an instruction to your website visitor to do something, for example, to ‘Buy Now’ or to ‘Sign Up For A Free Trial’. You will want these placed at optimum areas across your website. By this stage, your consultant should have an idea where to place them.
A word about design. At Harcourt Lane, we focus purely on the text. This is our area of expertise. Some of our clients have their own designers, and we work with them to prepare the final product. This includes agreeing on which images accompany which text, image placement, colour scheme, and such matters. However, we also have clients who do not have their own designers. In such cases, we help the client by bringing a designer on board. We work with some fantastic design firms, and we can easily outsource that part of the work to them.
Before beginning to write, your consultant should submit you a briefing document, summarizing what he has understood from his research, and how he proposes to go about the writing. A ‘creative brief’, if you like. Sometimes a client presents us with a creative brief at the start of the project, setting out exactly what they require from us. However, in most cases, we prepare it ourselves.
Writing
Your consultant should stay in close touch with you during the writing phase. You don’t have to be looking over his shoulder, but neither should you keep your distance. No matter how much research has been done beforehand, new ideas will arise during the writing phase. It is important for you to be available in case your consultant wants to discuss these with you.
After writing
It is standard practice for the client to be allowed a fixed number of revisions without being charged extra. So your consultant may provide that you will have, for example, two free revisions of the text that he submits. In this case, if you request a third revision (or more), you will be charged extra. Typically, the ‘free’ revisions do not cover a substantial change in the assignment. So if you decide to issue brand new instructions that differ significantly from the original, you may be charged for that.
Conclusion
Your website is very important for your business success. If it portrays you properly, your business will reap the rewards. Your website content is the key to building trust between you and your visitors. It should project a powerful, authentic and trustworthy image. Make sure your content always works for you.
