There is a bit of an art to creating web and blog content. It doesn’t necessarily come naturally, and usually, until someone points it out, you don’t even notice. Unfortunately, writing the way many (most?) people write on the web, can cause you to lose potential customers. This is a problem, because after all, you want new customers, right? If your writing is turning people off, then you’re losing money.
When we talk to friends, what’s the most natural thing we talk about? Ourselves. When we talk about our business, like if someone asks, “What do you do?”, what do we talk about? Ourselves. It’s the most natural thing to talk about and say, “We do this, and we do that.” Others might say, “Oh, we sell these widgets, and we also sell those gizmos.”
Unfortunately, when people are shopping for a service or product, and they’re not quite sure exactly what to choose, it’s far better if your website (or you) tell them how your services or products will help THEM, not just what you do.
As an example, I just went to a random attorney’s website, and it says (names have been changed to protect the, um, well, you know) on the home page:
The Law Office of Doey, Cheatem and Howe is a law firm specializing in creative legal solutions for residents of Bedrock, CA. Practice areas include family law, estate planning, real estate, landlord/tenant law, contract law, contract disputes, and probate.
Blah blah blah. That doesn’t really help you, does it? Maybe you don’t know WHAT you need, you just know you need a lawyer because Aunt Mabel died with a pile of cash in her mattress and a mortgage-free house. Do you need a probate attorney? Something else? Who knows?
Worse, it’s boring. People will not engage with that kind of content on the site. It’s not engaging, and it doesn’t address MY particular issue or problem.
Always remember that people searching on Google (or the others) are looking for SOLUTIONS to their PROBLEMS. They don’t care who you are, your company name, or your tagline. They don’t care about ALL your services, they just want to know if you can solve their one problem and make it go away. They either want a do-it-yourself solution, or they want to pay someone to make it disappear.
We We Monitor
Read the copy on your website back to yourself or have someone read it out loud to you. Does it say “We” a lot? Count the “we’s” – how many are there? The more “you” focused your copy is, the more it’s going to help engage your customers.
Here’s a quick test. Go to the WeWe Monitor (you can Google it too), and put in your web address in the top box, and your company name in the next box. Test your website to see what your score is. Did you get a high “We” score, and a low customer focused score? That’s typical, but if you change it, it’ll be better for your customers and you.
What Is Your Customer’s Pain?
How do you talk about your customers, and not yourself? This may be a difficult mental shift, and for many, it is. Think about what your customers have told you. Maybe they are afraid of dishonest mechanics or car salesmen, a painful experience at the dentist, or IRS audits (think accountants). How can you address their pain? Think about the top four types of pain your customers might experience when looking for your company, and address it with an if/then statement, like:
If you’re a business owner who struggles with:
- Having a good handle on where your company’s money is being spent
- Are afraid of the IRS auditing your company wasting time you don’t have and costing you thousands
- Growth in your business that your current accountant doesn’t have the expertise to handle it
- How to set up payroll properly so you do all he taxes correctly
Then you may be a good fit to speak with our accounting firm…
This is a great way to make it “you” focused. Your customers may read one of those bullets and think, “Wow, that’s ME! I’d better call these guys right away!” The more you focus on THEIR issues and problems, the more compelling it is, and the more likely they’ll do what you want them to do.
Talk about their pain, their issues, their problems, and then suggest that your company might be the solution to all their problems. Read through the rest of the copy, and see where you can make it “you” focused. Read through all your description tags (we talked about them before). How can you make them YOU focused?
Call To Action
Always make sure you have a “Call-To-Action on every page. A CTA is THE ONE thing (not two, not seven, ONE) that you want them to do to communicate with you. It could be lots of things, like:
- Sign up for my newsletter
- Download our free e-book (and simultaneously get our free newsletter)
- Call us
It could be any of the above. But make sure there is only one CTA and make it very obvious – like a big fat red button, right below the pain points.
These points can help you get your potential customers engaged more so that they will engage with you, which is ultimately what you want them to do.
This blog sets a framework for a different mindset from me to you. I guess you have to walk the talk until you feel comfortable doing it.
Great article, we talk a lot about listening for our customers pain but incorporating the pain into the website copy is so intuitive it is genius. Your secondary point of ONE call to action on each page has been coming up lately as important, maybe your next article you can elaborate.
karen
Thanks, Karen. Great idea about the CTA article. Hmmm. 🙂
Basically (the abridged version) means studies have shown over and over again, that if you give people too many choices, thinking “more is better”, statistically, they’ll choose none. Give them ONE choice to engage with you, and it’s less confusing, and more likely that they’ll do that one thing you want them to do (sign up for your newsletter, download a white paper, etc.). If you give them more choices, they will often choose none of them because they can’t decide.