Are You Making These Four Online Copywriting Mistakes?

Here are four all-too-common mistakes businesses make with the writing on their websites — mistakes that could cost money.

It’s too technical.

Describing your complicated technical product in all its glorious technical detail may make your CEO happy—but does it make sense to your customers? If the product you sell is very technical, think about who makes the decision to buy it. If it’s a middle manager with no specialized technical training who cares more about cost-savings than technical specs, make sure you emphasize in simple, easy-to-understand language how much money they could save by buying the product.

It’s about you — not them

Your website talks about your company—what it does, how many years it’s been in business, its list of industry awards. But your readers don’t care. They care about their own problems—and effective sales copy explains how you solve those problems with your product or service. Go through your website copy and count how many times you use the words “I” and “We,” as well as the word “you.” If you use the former more than the latter, it’s a sign your website copy is too self-involved.

It’s missing key information

Businesses sometimes leave out crucial information because of a simple lack of planning—or knowledge of how their visitors are using the web. Many prospects go online to quickly and easily find out as much about your product or service as they need to know—well before they’re ready to buy or hire. Make sure you’re including all the information you need to move them as far along in the sales process as possible before they contact you.

The headlines aren’t effective

Online, it’s likely that the headlines are all your visitors ever read. Online readers have the entire Internet to distract them from your message, and if they can’t pick up your message in a glance, they’ll head to a competitor’s site. If your headlines are not persuasive, you are missing an opportunity to get their business or plant a key message. Be sure all your headlines communicate a strong benefit that’s easily understood without having to read the copy underneath.

If your website copy makes these kinds of mistakes, you could be leaving money on the table. Check over your company’s website to see whether it’s really selling your company effectively. If not, it may be time for a copy overhaul.