Don’t get us wrong: Use every technical trick, tool, and app you can find to hone in on your target market and beyond.
But do get us right: Content trumps any trick or tool you use on your website. Almost every tricky app has words that launch it into the miracle solution you’re looking for. In other words, consider adding a “publishing model” to your killer app arsenal.
Here are a few strategies to make words work for you:
Give your site a mission, not just objectives. What do you want visitors to do, think, feel, believe about your product? “Visitors will see us as a trustworthy partner.” “Visitors will see us as a company who really cares about their work.” “Visitors will leave our site intending to keep coming back for more.”
Convey the value your visitors get from visiting your site. Your visitors are investing their time in reading whatever is on your site, right? And their time is their money. So what are you going to give back? Maybe discounts, special offers, freebies, excellent advice, little-known strategies to boost metrics? Yes! All of these and more, worded very carefully.
Pay attention to how you convey this value. Use words that quickly and concisely convey your integrity, understanding, and expert knowledge. Use active, not passive, voice. Write in short phrases and sentences. Write as if you’re speaking face-to-face with your clients. Use contractions: you’re, can’t, we’ve.
Train or hire a word crafter. Writing online text is one of the most difficult aspects of creating a WOW website. Not every writer can do it. So make sure you train your writers (or hire a writer) to work meaning into a catchy head or subhead. People scan, so if they look only at the heads and subheads on your page, they’ll still get the gist of your message.
Make sure your writers can do at least 8 magic tricks to make your content:
- Accurate
- Active and fast-moving
- Attention-getting
- Attention-holding
- Colloquial (but not talking down)
- Friendly
- Short (words, sentences, paragraphs)
- Visualizable (paint word pictures)