In today’s digital landscape, having a stand-out website is a key component of a successful marketing strategy for your small business. But stand-out doesn’t have to mean all singing and all dancing or super expensive. It can simply mean crafting copy for your website that truly speaks to your target audience.
If you feel like your website copy isn’t doing its job, check out the top tips below for making small improvements to your website copy that could have big results…
5 Ways to improve your Website Copy
Define your Brand Personality
If your website copy feels like it’s missing the mark, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Your brand personality should form the basis of your website copy – from your tone to the type of language you’re using, even through to the way your copy looks on the page. Start from scratch and determine exactly what your brand personality is. Is it fun and friendly? Innovative and cutting edge? Professional and authoritative? Whatever it is, define it clearly before you make any changes to your website copy.
Once your brand personality is set in stone, you can begin making subtle changes that ensure your copy aligns with the personality you’ve created. This may mean removing complex jargon or wordy sentences if you’ve gone for a personality that is more fun and friendly. Or it may involve adding humour or puns to make your copy feel more light-hearted. It could even be as simple as splitting some paragraphs down into digestible bullet points to reflect the professional and straightforward nature of your business.
The important thing to remember here is that small changes can make a big difference. It’s unlikely that you’ll need to delete everything and start again. Take your copy section by section and edit it to inject your brand personality into it.
Once complete, you’ll find that your copy feels much more ‘you’, meaning it’ll help to create stronger connections with your website visitors.
Know your Audience
Another issue that may cause your website copy to feel slightly off-kilter is issues with targeting. Your audience is the backbone of your website – they’re the reason you’ve created the site in the first place, so all content within that site should be created specifically with them in mind.
This means conducting thorough target audience research to ensure you know your website visitors inside out. This research should go beyond their age, occupation or geographical location. You need to understand what makes them tick in order to be able to provide them with exactly that.
Spend your time learning about your audience as human beings – what do they like and dislike? How do they talk? How do they communicate with others? Which social media platforms are they hanging out on? What do their buying habits look like?
Once you’ve obtained this information, you can let it infuse every part of your website copy. This will remove anything that feels a bit generic and will help your copy speak directly to your target customers. In turn, they’ll feel understood and valued by your small business, making them more likely to make a purchase.
Tweaking just small parts of your copy to make it better align with what your target audience is looking for could make a huge difference to the quality and success of your website overall.
Be Story-Driven
Story telling is our oldest form of communication, which is why it works so well when you’re trying to connect with your customers.
Website copy that is falling flat could be the result of the absence of storytelling. Try to weave narrative into your website copy. This doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it should demonstrate the human passion behind the development of your small business. For example, if you’re running a small business selling local honey – how did that come about? Do you keep your own bees? Where did your interest in the industry begin?
Once your audience can see that there is a real person behind the screen they’re looking at and real human passion has been poured into the business they’re considering purchasing from, they’ll feel much more connected to your cause. There will be an element of emotional triggering created by your storytelling that will make your website copy and business feel relatable – an essential component in creating customer connections.
Frame your existing copy with a narrative if you feel its not quite pushing the right buttons for your potential customers.
Use Authentic Language
It’s hard to stand out as a small business, particularly when there’s so many out there trying to achieve the same thing. The best thing you can do to help your business and website stand out is to be authentic, specifically in the language you use.
It can be tempting to use language that makes you sound more stereotypically professional or established – this usually involves complex jargon. While this works for some businesses, if it doesn’t reflect your authentic brand personality, it definitely won’t work for yours.
Instead, establish language and a tone that sounds authentic to your business. Don’t be afraid to use simple, concise language – it won’t make you seem any less credible. In fact, it’ll do the opposite by conveying clear messaging to your customers.
If some of your website copy doesn’t really sound like ‘you’, change it up a bit to reflect your true brand personality – it’s what makes you unique!
Regularly Review and Adjust
Content isn’t static. What was working well for you a year ago might now be falling flat. Trends change, as do audiences and their preferences, so it’s important to take that into account when thinking about your own website copy.
Every couple of months, book some time into your schedule to review and adjust your website copy. This may be something as simple as changing outdated information or adding in a new section to promote a particular product or service. You may even just want to tweak your CTA wording to try something different.
Small changes really can make a huge difference.
Website Content Support with The Edwards Company
Here at The Edwards Company, we help small businesses craft compelling website copy designed to delight their customers.
For more information on how we can help elevate your small business, please do not hesitate to get in touch.