Focus on benefits rather than features
This is an old saw from the advertising world, but it remains relevant today. The fact that an iPad can display pictures is a feature. Being able to play Scrabble with your friends as you lie in bed is a benefit. Wrinkle-resistant fabric is a feature. Looking fresh at the end of a long day is a benefit. Readers don’t care about what a product does unless you can point out how it will make their life easier, better, prettier, faster, or less sweaty. Focus on the benefits. EXCEPTION: Some copywriting gurus maintain that this rule should be broken in the realm of business-to-business copywriting, because business buyers need as much ammunition as possible to justify their purchase.
Put the main selling point first
On any optimized website, keywords belong in the titles and near the top of copy. But sometimes in our craze to optimize and be clever, we bury the main point in the third paragraph. It is common knowledge that web readers have the attention span of a gnat. If you’re lucky enough to catch attention you won’t hold it long, so put your main selling point or best benefit statement front and center. A funny opener can hook them, but the well-executed pitch converts.
Edit extensively
The push for constantly updated content makes it harder and harder to spend time editing. While time constraints sometimes mean shooting off a quick, unedited blog post, successful ad copy, articles, and web pages need to be edited. And edited. And edited again. Tight copy doesn’t necessarily mean short copy, it just means that every word works hard for the money, and unecessary words are cut. A solid seven word headline can often be distilled from 100 words.
Use your own voice in your blog, not on your website
Generally, speaking for most websites, in most fields, the writing should be businesslike and impersonal. But that is not the case for blogs and social networking in general. There it is important to develop a unique voice to build a following – It is best to be witty, conversational, concise, and, most of the time, engaging. Not everyone will be interested in what you’re selling, and an informal tone may not even be to every reader’s liking – but they will recognize it.
