Are you building a new website? Re-branding, or maybe you’ve realised it’s time to update your copy?
If you are worried about outsourcing the ‘wordy side’ of your website to a copywriter, there are a few things you can do to ensure you get the most ROI on your investment.
Bonus. You will have a VERY happy copywriter – it’s a win -win!
Here is our checklist to help you get the most effective website copy possible from your copywriter.
Step One. Identify who your target audience is.
Hint. It CANNOT be ‘everyone in Perth who uses a car’.
How can you narrow that down? List your ideal client’s age, location, wants, problems etc… Think of it this way – who is your absolute favourite person to deal with? Who gives you the biggest sale? That is the person you want to be talking to.
Maybe it’s businesses who need a whole fleet of cars, who will be repeat customers and have a bigger budget. Boom. Suddenly your copywriter is talking to business owners who are time poor, who always have a massive to-do list and need someone to reply on for all their car issues and purchases. Now we are onto something, and this takes us to…
Step Two. What are your ideal customers biggest problems and biggest wants?
From Step One, we now know that we are talking to a business owner who is probably middle-aged, very busy, successful, has a lot of staff and all the problems that having multiple cars brings.
What problems and needs do they have that you can be the answer to?
Can you offer them consolidated insurance and finance or make a deal for the ongoing servicing of their cars? Can your staff come to them or are you open after hours when they are more likely to have the time to come by? What do you have/offer which will make your service attractive to them?
By being really clear on this, you’ll be able to answer your copywriter’s questions clearly and in a highly-targeted way. This will make the initial briefing process short, sweet and most importantly, effective!
Whoop!! Now your copywriter knows exactly who they are talking to and can get inside the mind of that customer when writing your copy. We can talk directly to their problems and needs – making your business stand out to those potential clients as someone who ‘gets them’, has what they need and will make their lives easier.
Step Three. Map out your website.
Wireframe example
Get really clear on what needs to be on each page, where and why.
This is especially important for the homepage. You might have already gone through this with your website designer and been given a wireframe – this is invaluable for copywriters to see the overall layout and ‘customer journey’ of your site, so we can be very clear and organised with how we write.
If you are doing a refresh of an existing website, then let us know any layout changes you want and what pages you need the copy for.
A good way to do this without a wireframe is to grab some paper and block it out page by page; like the example below…
Homepage:
- Intro section – who we are / how do we help
- Services – Summary of what do we do (links to service page)
- Our USP – targeted section (we are specialised dealers for owners of fleets – what we offer to them)
- Team – Brief intro to team and location etc. (links to about page)
- Offer – CTA (get them to call/book you)
Read our blog here for more tips on planning your content.
There you have it.
Those are the three vital ingredients to writing website copy that works.
Your copywriter needs to know WHO they are talking to, WHY your business is the perfect fit for that person and HOW the copy needs to be laid out on your website.
After that, everything else is just details.
Your copywriter might be able to help you map out your website and decide the best way to lay out the copy, but it’s not their job to decide who to target the copy to. The clearer you are on your ideal client and what they need, the better your final content will be.
So, what are you waiting for? Narrow down that ideal client, get yourself a creative copywriter and watch the magic happen!
We aren’t too shabby in the word department – if we do say so ourselves…
If you are looking for someone to write your website content or give it a bit of a scrub up to target your dream clients – give us a call!