Imagine having your dream fan base that’ll always come rushing to you to help solve their problems.
Web copies are essential to your online presence; there are no doubts about that. Whether you’re a business owner, a blogger or a writer, one of the ways to amass a sizable, loyal audience and customer base who will come to you at all times is through astounding engaging web copies.
If you’re serious about standing out, your copy must catch and retain your target reader’s attention, draw them in through empathy, and compel them to take the much-desired action.
It takes a splitting seven seconds for your content to impress an average reader. Ouch! That’s such a very short time. Readers these days are too busy to spend even one minute on contents that bore them. Almost everyone is scanning these days. You’ll be leaving a lot of money and audience on the table for your competitors if your content doesn’t hook them in the first few seconds. Thus, the better your writing is, the better for your business and career.
By the time you’re done with this article, you’ll be able to write the best web copies even if you’ve never written one before.
Don’t worry if your writing skill is rusty or still at the development stage. This guide is here just for you.
Wait! Did I just hear the voice of doubt rearing its ugly head right now? Oh, dear, we must not let that survive. You can do this.
So, let’s dig in!
Table of Contents
What is an Engaging Web Copy?
In three simple words, an engaging web copy is: useful (utility), inspiring (inspiration), and filled with empathy for the reader. A quality copy is packed with clear utility, brimming with inspiration, and with a relentless empathy for your reader/target audience.
When we talk about utility in copywriting, we’re talking about the usefulness of the copy. Is it delivering the purpose for which it is created? Is the purpose and intent behind your service or product clear? Utility means your content evidently helps your target audience shoulder their burdens, ease their pain, or help them to make a decision (conversion).
An engaging web copy must speak to the audience the way they want. It seeks to provide value for the audience. Your web content should empathize with the audiences’ problems and proffer solutions to them.
An example of this approach is evident in Basecamp’s website. The website helped customers understand the essence of its products and services by highlighting how customers can benefit from them.
How to Write Engaging Web Copies
Are you ready to create the type of copy that converts for your audience? Let’s study the best copywriting practices to guide you.
Create a copy with the readers in mind.
Most people do not search the internet for the fun of it. They explore the internet for solutions to a certain problem. Hence, if you want your web copies to do well, you must create content that addresses their problems.
What are their pain points, confusion, and frustration? These are what you should seek to address with your copy.
The first step in doing this is to understand your audience, know them, and what they want. Then with this understanding, you will be able to create contents that speak directly to them.
Thus, readers will find your content extremely useful and enjoyable.
Whatever your goals are, your content should move the reader forward in the direction of your end goal. Hence you must create contents that they can relate to, address their problems, or entertain them.
Use a hook in your introduction
According to Meera Kothand, “a hook is a compelling statement or paragraph in the introduction of your blog post. It grabs the reader’s attention and urges them to keep reading.” If you can’t get them here, you have lost the audience. Moreover, you have just a few seconds to do that. Hence, you must not leave your intro to chance.
Here are four examples of hooks you can use:
- Ask your reader a direct question.
- Include a shocking statistic.
- Showcase a benefit or an end result.
- Add a cliffhanger
An engaging introduction captures the reader’s attention and makes him want to read further. it draws him into the writing subconsciously.
Write Conversationally
Use YOU instead of ‘we’ and ‘I’ in your writing. One of the ways to engage your readers is to write in a conversational tone. Brian Clark from Copyblogger says that ‘you’ is one of the most powerful words in writing. Writing with ‘you’ shifts the focus from you to concentrate on your audience and draw them in. When you write with ‘you’, you engage your reader, and she will see a reason to stick to the end of your post because she feels you’re talking to her directly. She starts feeling and trust that you care.
Sounding smart or bossy in your content has a negative effect on readers. Rather than communicate your ideas to them, it alienates them. While you must master the topic and show that you understand it thoroughly, you should do that as friendly as possible.
Use Trigger Words
What are you seeking to do with your copy? To turn your words into persuasive copy, right? And yes, you wish to inspire, help, and move your readers with your copy and gain more engagement. However, how can you capture them when there are a plethora of blog posts and thousands of blogs clamoring for their attention? Using Trigger Words In Your Copies.
In an article by Smartblogger, they listed 17 Trigger Words That Work Like Cheat Codes for Getting Your Content Read. Among these words are: you, yes, win, stop, discover, if, easy, because, today, instantly, P.S. (postscript), etc. These words pull the reader along and persuade them to move on. Be strategic with them. Use trigger words in your headlines and lead your content with them.
Format for Scanners
“People rarely read web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences,” observed by the Nielsen Norman Group. Going forward, they discovered that visitors stay on a web page for mere 10-20 seconds before leaving.
While people read books, they scan web content. The time available to impress the reader is usually short, hence the need for web copies that are well-formatted and easy to scan.
Web copies that are easy to scan include short and concise sentences. They include headings, subheadings, images, and other visual contents (where needed) and bulleted points. These components make it easy to pick highlights of information from the content without reading through it.
When you provide web copies with these features, you enable readers to scan through the content easily. They obtain information as fast as possible, making the copy immensely useful to them.
Proper Arrangement
Arranging your content correctly is another important tip for creating an engaging web copy. Have you ever gone fishing? Do you remember that the bait is usually placed at the hook, where fishes can easily find it? That is the power of arrangement right there.
Your website content’s correct arrangement includes placing important tips and information at the beginning of the content. You should place these pieces of information at the beginning where readers can easily find them.
This will result in two things; readers will find the content useful as they will access needed information early enough. Secondly, it will likely pique the interest of the reader to continue reading through the content. Either way, it is a win-win situation for you.
Avoid Technical Jargons
Keep the copy simple and easy to understand.
There is a big problem if only a selected few can relate to the web copy’s content due to the amount of technical vocabulary in it. If you want to appeal to a mass audience, do away with technicalities. Ensure that all and sundry can relate and understand your content when they read it.
Rather than read your web copy with a dictionary, readers will opt for a web copy that is easier to understand. Hence, by using technical words and phrases, you tend to cause more harm than good for your content.
Keywords are Important
Every content writer knows the importance of keywords in web copies. They help Google algorithm rank them favorably, among other contents based on the same topic. This means that when readers search for content relating to the topic, your content will rank as one of the first options on Google or any other search engine for that matter.
Hence, keywords are critical to the success of your web copies. If you are in doubt as to the required keywords, you can utilize tools such as Keyword Explorer, Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner, and other tools.
These online tools will provide you with adequate keywords that make your content perform well on search engines. However, it is not enough to know these keywords and phrases. Using them appropriately is the real deal; thus, if you have any problem with this, contact a professional content writer.
BONUS TIPS
1. Get rid of the passive voice in your writing.
2. Include links and screenshots to back-up your claim
3. Make your last few sentences memorable.
4. Use images
5. Include a call to action
Conclusion
The importance of a web copy cannot be overemphasized. The success of businesses and blogs depend largely on these web copies. Hence you must take a special effort to ensure that you create and deliver these contents accurately.
The tips highlighted above are tested and trusted points utilized by businesses and blogs in the past. These tips have not only yielded a large customer and follower base for these businesses and blogs; they have also helped content writers and digital marketers get better at their craft.
If you wish to know how I can help you with content creation and marketing, click here.