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Putting obstacles in your customer’s path

January 3, 2012 By 1 Comment

Why would anyone put a barrier between their message and their potential customer?  When this is online where you have only a few seconds to get their attention, it doesn’t make any sense, but many businesses make it unnecessarily hard for their readers to get their message.  Why?

It’s usually because they have no idea that they’re turning their potential clients off.  Every time you put an obstacle in their way, some of your readers will give up and go somewhere else – that’s fewer customers for you.  The secret is to know what sends them running away and remove as many barriers as possible.

Very few people know how we engage with and process information – the more you know, the fewer obstacles you’ll expect your reader to scramble over.  Here are a few things that cause readers to think “This is too difficult, I’ll just go back to the list and try a different website.”

1.  Where do I start?

This is usually the result of a webpage with no single dominant message that connects with the reader.  Don’t forget the power of a good headline in a big enough font size that people can’t miss it.

2.  Don’t ask me to make a decision!

If your web page resembles a patchwork quilt with lots of different boxes, headlines, buttons, etc. don’t be surprised if your readers can’t make their minds up and simply disappear in favour of something ‘easier’.

3.  If I have to squint to read, I probably won’t.

Font size needs to be no smaller than 10 point (ideally a bit bigger).  Also if the background is a darker colour than the text people will get a dazzle effect, which means they have to make an effort to read at all – many won’t bother.

4.  I missed your key message altogether.

If I’m looking at your site on an iPad or notepad and I can’t see anything below a big picture at the top of the page, it means I’m going to have to work to find out what you’re trying to tell me.  Unless I have a compelling reason to explore further I might not bother  - and why should I?  Women usually try harder than men, but generally we have a short attention span!

5.  I know what to do, but I have to work out how to do it.

If you’ve asked your visitor to do something i.e. go to another page, email you, phone you, sign up to your list, but they now how to work out how to do what you’ve asked e.g. scroll back up to the menu to find the page; search for an email address or phone number; find out where the sign up box is – how many may not bother?

This is just the tip of the iceberg – do you know how many obstacles you’ve got on your website that stop people buying your products or using your services?
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You can also find us on +44 (0) 1245 473296 or on Skype ‘lesleywriter’

Filed Under: Readability, Website copy Tagged With: ,

Do you know too much?

October 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

On the face of it, that may seem like a really stupid statement – how can anyone know too much?  However, when it comes to writing commercial copy for your business, most of us know far too much to be able to present our offering effectively to a potential customer.

There are several issues that get in the way of a really good written commercial message when you’re writing your own copy:

  • You are passionate about what your business offers – and there’s a tendency to want to tell people everything!
  • There’s a tendency to write about what you do, rather than what your potential customer gets.
  • Most people present their content in the first person – ‘we’ or ‘I’.  It’s much more powerful presented in the second person ‘you’ – but much harder if you’re not familiar with this technique.

For these reasons when we do our own copy – most of us (yes, that includes me) tend to write too much and provide far too much detail.  It’s a tough discipline to stay focused and cut copy back to the essentials.  I once wrote a 13 page document outlining our new services and everyone agreed that what was on offer was great, but nobody wanted to read 13 pages!  Getting it back to a single page and a brief outline of the packages was a very painful process.

It’s difficult to stay objective about writing commercially when it’s your business.  There are many websites and brochures that provide the detail of how the business owner delivers their service – and little about the benefits to the recipient and how it will change their lives and make them feel good.  As a potential customer I’m not really interested in exactly how your processes work, or even how well-qualified your staff are – I just want to know what’s in it for me.

Why am I banging on about this?  Because I’m a tiny bit frustrated with the people who are happy to pay for an accountant to do their books, but are reluctant to pay for someone to write their copy – after all, everyone can write, can’t they?  I may be blowing my own trumpet (and those of other professional commercial copywriters), but I think writing copy to persuade people to take action is a skill that few people have, no matter how excited they are about their business.  What do you think?

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Get your free reports, tips and information that will help you get your message across in writing in the Treasure Chest.

You can also find us on +44 (0) 1245 473296 or on Skype ‘lesleywriter’

Filed Under: Website copy Tagged With: , , ,

The advantages of English (or search engine heaven)

October 7, 2011 By 1 Comment

Anyone who has ever written a page, a blog or an article with the search engines in mind will know that, these days, stuffing your content with keywords is more likely to get your site or item ranked down, rather than up.  Today ‘relevant content’ is king.

This means that your submissions need to talk about things that are relevant to your core keyword – then the search engines will like your content better.  However, if you have the same information in more than one place – take care.  Search engines check for duplicate content and, if you post the same blog in several places, your material is likely to get ‘bounced’.  This is where a good command of English becomes your secret weapon!

When I was in my early twenties I worked in Germany and came into contact with many different nationalities.  One day a Sicilian gentleman asked me “Where do you come from?”

“England,” I replied.

“Ah,” he said.  ”England – that’s where they write ‘London’ and read ‘Liverpool’!”

Yes, English is a complex language with many irregularities in both grammar and spelling – not to mention words that definitely don’t sound like they look (but it’s not as bad as Welsh or Irish!) however, the vocabulary is rich and there are many different ways of saying the same thing.  This means that rewriting your blog, web page or article to present the same information in different words should be easy.

Work through your content and rewrite the thoughts in different words before you repost your content – it will still be relevant, but different.

You can say:

‘You can buy the perfect present for your partner in our catalogue.’

in more than one way.  How about?

‘You’ll find our catalogue full of fabulous gifts for your partner.’

Or

‘Explore our directory of gorgeous gifts, you can match your partner’s preferences perfectly.’

Or

‘Present the perfect present to your partner – our catalogue is full of stunning ideas.’

Get creative and get more content telling the world about how you can help them.

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Get your free reports, tips and information that will help you get your message across in writing in the Treasure Chest.

You can also find us on +44 (0) 1245 473296 or on Skype ‘lesleywriter’

Filed Under: Marketing, Uncategorized, Website copy Tagged With: , ,
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