Join me as we continue our journey into the heart of A Website That Works Wonders! This post is part of a series in which we explore and explain the key elements your website must have if you want attract new fans, engage your audience, build your mailing list, promote your services and sell your stuff!
Boy, your website has a big job to do.
Not only does it have to captivate and hold the interest and attention of your ideal client or fan, it needs to clearly communicate your message in a way that resonates with those fans. It has to inspire your ideal fans to opt-in, seduce them into reading for a spell, and eventually win their hearts with its charm, sensitivity, relevence, intellience and beauty.
All this without ever calling in sick or taking a day off.
So, let’s help out your webite with one of its major tasks: clear, clean communication that makes a connection with your ideal fans.
4 Tips for Website Copy* That Makes a Connection
* For those of you who don’t already know, the term “copy” refers to writing that is used in marketing, promotion and advertising. Like the writing on your website. Or in your email announcements. Or that new poster you created for your upcoming show. It’s writing that is intended to not just inform but promote or sell something.
Tip # 1: Be Real… and Revealing
Does your website communicate YOU? The real you? Or does it read more like a publicist’s press kit? Is your website a place where people feel they can connect with you, or just read about you? Does your voice, your personality, your energy (and even your quirks) come through loud and clear?
If you want to engage your reader, you need to give them someone to engage with. Someone real. Not an image, a persona or a load of hype.
Here’s another way to look at it: If I come to your website, will I find you at home? Will I leave with the feeling that I’ve had an interaction with you… a conversation? Will I feel a connection to you that will stay with me even after I’ve skipped on to some other website?
The heart and soul of all great marketing is relationship. Creating relationships of trust with your fans, relationships that are mutually beneficial, that grow stronger and deeper every day and contribute to the joy, inspiration and brightness of our lives. Right?
And one of the best ways to prove yourself trustworthy is to trust others with who you really are. Let your potential fans know you. Let them see a little more than just your professional image, your talent, your expertise. Let them get to know you as a person.
Now, I’m not saying that you need to open every door of your private life and reveal your deepest, darkest secrets. All I am saying is, show up. Be real. Be a person as well as an artist or an expert.
I guess I’m stressing this point because I know some artists, especially some musicians, who are scowling at me right now and thinking to themselves, “I don’t think so!” You see, a lot of performance artists are still trying to follow the old “Hollywood Star” model of marketing, which is, create a larger-than-life, glamorous or edgy idol persona, and let people worship you from afar. Invent yourself as someone so cool or so crazy or so desirable that your fans dream of getting close to you… but never let them actually get close! Keep them guessing. Be a mystery! Or be so outrageous and shocking that they never know what you’re going to do next.
Yeah, okay. Well, you can try that. But it takes a lot of dough and big marketing machine to keep that kind of train running. For an independant artist, it’s not the best strategy.
While we’ve all had crushes on stars who’ve made us swoon with their illusive and mysterious charm, their talent, their mystique or bad-boy image, those crushes burn out pretty quickly. Because in the end, what we really want is to feel part of something, to feel included, rather than excluded. We want relationship. We want the real thing.
Tip #2: Be Clear
Unless you’re Mark Morford, the master of snappy, colorful and sometimes scathing run-on sentences, keep your sentences short, crisp and clean. Easy to read and easy to understand is the way to go. Some of the greatest copywriters in the world will tell you that if you want to get your message across, your copy needs to be targeted towards someone who has no greater than a 7th grade education. So don’t let your website read like your Master’s thesis! At least, not if you want anyone to read it.
“But what if my style tends to flow and be more stream of consciousness and unfold into poetic blossoms of colorful phrasing?” Um, okay, well… if that’s the case, I recommend getting yourself a ruthless copyeditor. Look, if all your potential fans are into poetic blossoms of colorful phrasing, then… no, actually, you still need a ruthless copyeditor.
Here’s the deal. Most website visitors are not literary scholars. Most don’t even like to read! They like to scan quickly, get a hit of what you’re about and then pop off to the next thing. But when they DO stick around and read (because you’ve captivated their interest and held it skillfully, right?) you want to make it easy and enjoyable for them to do so.
I’ll be honest. I love writing run-on sentences. I like the rhythm of a sentence that is almost as long as a paragraph. But when it comes to reading those kinds of sentences online, not so much. And I think most of us are that way. How much do you appreciate long, drawn out sentences full of complex ideas, innuendo and obscure references when you’re reading someone’s website? Exactly.
Tip #3: Be Casual & Conversational
One of the popular copywriting “rules” when it comes to writing for the web is… write like you talk. Now, for some of you, this is very good news. If you slept through most of your high school English classes, avoided essay questions and never particularly enjoyed writing, then you’re in luck! Because now, you don’t have to really write in that formal, constrictive, rule-bound way. Just write down what you would say if you were talking to your potential fan.
Chances are good that if you write in this casual, personable way, your reader will feel as if you are speaking right to them. Reading your copy will feel more like a conversation than a dissertation or a lot of marketing hype, and that is a very good thing. Besides, it’s been proven that the most effective web copy is highly conversational and casual in nature.
Another cool thing about making your website copy casual and conversational is that it helps you accomplish both Tip #1 and Tip #2 above. Think about it. If you write like you talk, aren’t you much more likely to “speak” in your own voice and let your personality shine through? Won’t you tend to use the words and phrases you use in everyday conversation and therefore be easy to understand?
Now, being casual and conversational doesn’t not mean being sloppy, aimless and lazy. You still want your message to be clear, concise and compelling. It always comes back to communicating in a way that makes a connection, that allows your fans to feel as if you are speaking right to them, as if you both went out for a cup of coffee together to talk about what’s up. But with the intention of making your message ring true in the hearts and minds of your fans.
Tip #4: Be Considerate
Please, please, please! Do not make the font size of your website copy so friggin’ tiny that I have to strain my already overworked eyes to read it! Please do not make your line spacing so thin that every paragraph looks like a thick, chunk of squiggly lines trying to be recognized as words.
Your copy can be compelling, conversational, clear and of great interest to me but I will not read it if I have to get new prescription glasses as a result of doing so. Yes, it is possible to enlarge the text in most browsers, but really, should your potential fans really have to figure out how to do that in order to read your website?
That’s like asking someone over for tea and then making them search through your kitchen for their own teacup.
Be considerate of your website visitor in every way. Make is easy and highly pleasurable for them to drink you in, read your website and interact with you so they will want to come back often… and refer others! Remember, white space is your friend! Give your words room to breathe and people will be much more likely to read them!
Okay, well, I apologize if I morphed into the “stern school teacher” there for a minute, but you know I only get emphatic because I want you to succeed! I want your fans and potential fans to fall in love with you when they come to your website. I want to make sure that your website is so inviting, captivating and enchanting that you can’t help but cultivate long-lasting relationships of trust and loyalty with your fans.
If you have questions, or if you want me to help you with your website copy so you can radically increase its magnetic powers to captivate and communicate, please leave a comment below, and I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I can. You can also ask your question on the Firecracker Communications Facebook Page!