Brandi, I have been working on my website for what feels like forever. The countdown to the launch ended more than two months ago because I’m stuck. I have chosen my theme, I have my logo and colors, and I know what needs to go on the site but I’m struggling to get the content written. What’s crazy is I just completed my educational program and my school provides a website template for us. Although, I don’t want to use it because it is cookie cutter it is at least a starting point. I know how important my site is, where do I start? I really need to get this done so that my business can move forward.
Thank you for your question, website copy can be a challenge for a lot of small business owners. Here are my top 3 tips to getting started with the copy.
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- Don’t Try to Make it Perfect the 1st Time: So often we try to write a final draft the first time but you don’t need to. Focus on getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper. And THEN go back and edit. I throw grammar, punctuation, and all things ‘proper’ out of the window when I sit down to write. My first drafts often include “something something” here and there when I have incomplete ideas. Once I have captured my initial thoughts I can then clean it up, break out the thesaurus, reduce the number of words, and fill in the blanks.
- Save the About Page for Last: The about page is generally always the hardest, people struggle to talk about themselves. So save it for last. Once you do get to the about page think about what is most relevant to your ideal target market, and include those things. Always include your relevant credentials and I’m a fan of including a photo or two so people can connect to the person behind the brand.
- Focus on Capturing Attention on the Home Page: Your home page will likely be your most viewed page (although it isn’t always how people enter your site) so it is important to capture your visitor’s attention right away. If fact, you only have 7, yes SEVEN, seconds to capture your visitors interest. You don’t need a ton of copy, less is more. Use bold catchy headlines, colors, and graphics that will catch the eye and then include additional detail. Also, use this page as a gateway to the other areas of the site you want people to visit. Write short blurbs that link to those areas as opposed to lengthy copy.
Good luck with completing your site, and because you have been working on it for so long don’t hesitate to implement using a phased approach. The home, about, service/product, and contact pages are the most important. You can always launch and add additional pages later. A good friend @AndreaAmir always says it doesn’t have to be perfect to be profitable.
I also encourage you to listen to my recorded webcast Is Your Website Just Another Pretty Face or a Lean Mean Marketing Machine? for more information on how to develop a revenue generating website.