We all know that it is a big project to do the website writing to sell your services. It can take days, weeks, even months, and more to put together all the information about your business. Then, you must put it in "marketing language" that can sell interested prospects on contacting you. Perhaps, despite your best efforts, you can see from your website analytics that you have read more here and not succeeded in getting site visitors to stay on your Home page long enough to learn anything. Nor have you intrigued prospects enough that they go on to read other pages (or all) of your site. If visitors go to other pages, they don't stay. They also do not go in any progression that might lead to their being a prospective client. You know enough to understand that they land on your Home page and almost immediately abandon it. Here are a few ideas why that might be true.
1. Your first headline on the
Home page does not apply to the target market's problem they are looking to
solve.
Think of it this way, your
target market has put a keyword or keyphrase into a search engine. They have a
problem to solve. They don't want to waste one minute of their time. If your
site comes up in their search results, they want to see instantly on your site
that there is a popossibilityyou could solve that problem. Your headline must
significantly address an aspect of that problem that causes their pain. That
will grab their attention. That will make them instantly decide to read the
first paragraph on your page.
2. Your first paragraph fails to
provide a compelling, succinct overview that describes the situation of your
target market.
At this point in their search
for a solution, they are only thinking in laser fashion, "Me, me,
me!" That's what they want to see in the first paragraph - their own
situation, their own feelings, their own issues. They want to recognize
themselves in the "mirror" of your website writing. At this point,
they care nothing for yoyouand definitely don't want to read any "blah,
blah, blah" about you and your business. You must provide them with what
they need in this paragraph so that they believe you could have the solution
they are looking for.
3. You don't understand that
there is a natural progression to the way a site visitor needs to get their
information.
You must first get their
attention. Then, you must get their interest. After that, they want
information. After the imation, they want to know what the next step is and
want to be invited to take that step. If you don't do your website writing in
this sequence, you will likely find that your website analytics will continue
to indicate to you that your website fails to grab and hold your visitors.
4. You don't provide anywhere
nearly enough information.
Is your site simply a collection
of pages with a few paragraphs of information on each page? Essentially, you
don't really say much. A site visitor could not get excited about the prospect
of working with your business. They cannot learn enough about you. What you
have on the site is actually boring. The marketing writing does not
"pull" them more and more deeply into your site. Your website writing
is a total "snooze job".
5. You don't guide them through
the site and on to taking the first step to contact you.
You leave your site visitors
slightly off balance and disoriented by not directing them from one page to the
next, or giving failing to provide calls to action. It's like inviting a guest
to your home but leaving them to fend for themselves once they're there. This
causes anxiety, and anxiety will cause site abandonment. You need to use your
website writing to take site visitors "by the hand" and lead them
around your content and the concepts of your business.
6. You use a too-stiff,
too-formal tone in your website writing.
Your website writing should be
friendly, open, warm, inviting, and conversational. You want your site visitors
to feel comfortable and welcome. You want them to be excited about the
possibility of working with you because they like how you "sound" in
your marketing writing. If prospects tell you know that you sound like someone
they'd enjoy working with, you have hit the right tone.
If you're wondering what it is
about your website that doesn't get your target market to stop and read more,
these are the major reasons. Since you're going through althroughthe work and
expense of your website writing project, you might as well produce a site that keeps
your target market reading.
Suzi Elton provides business
writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts
them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan
Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free
series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site.
