Having established that ‘welcome‘ as a home page headline doesn’t work on any level, here’s another copy crime countless companies commit.
If you’re a regular Copy Break reader, you’ll know I often refer to the psychology of selling. For good reason…
With just seconds to attract a visitor’s attention, you need a way to switch on their interest. Something to hook their eyeballs so they don’t click away!
One of the best ways to do this is appeal to their self-interest – to speak directly to them. That means the last word people want to see introducing every paragraph is ‘we.’
Sadly, website copy is often peppered with this tiny word, without any thought to how the target audience will subconsciously respond.
Whilst it’s only a two letter word, it can have a detrimental effect on visitors – particularly if all they read about is your business.
In fact, the message it sends out is that you are more important than them. To a buyer, this is an instant switch off.
The great switch off
Though tempting, bragging about your achievements on your home page – including how many years you’ve been in business – means nothing to anyone else.
That means if the focus is on you rather than on your potential customers, you can’t expect the killer response you want. i.e. For prospects to stay and browse, get in touch, or buy.
It’s simple really. People just want to know whether your service offers them anything they need.
To make sure this happens, your home page copy (and, in fact, every other landing page) needs to motivate the reader.
With motivation, emotion pulls the strings. Therefore to elicit a positive response, it’s better to put the emphasis on your ideal buyer. What are they motivated by? What do they want?
What triggers their pain? How can your service or product solve a problem?
This doesn’t mean great copy is sentimental; far from it. It simply means you connect with people on their level. Once you’ve done that, you can press their emotional buttons.
No wonder copy focused on giving people what they want always outsells formal, dull copy focused on the company.
Try this
Have a look at your home copy now. Is content focused on your customer, or all about you?
If the latter, change your copy. You’ll spot the difference once you start getting more enquiries…
Image courtesy of jennylincoln.com
