One of the most daunting tasks to any website design project is content creation. I have worked with clients that only have 10 page websites and have taken 4-6 months to produce the content. The content on your website will make or break the sites performance. Your site could rival the Sistine Chapel in beauty, but if the copy doesn’t persuade, the site won’t convert.

Before we get into writing, I recommend that you first accept your limitations. Some business owners are brilliant at business, great salesmen, but just can’t write. If this describes you, then either find a staff member that can write or hire a copywriter with extensive web experience. If you feel comfortable writing, or just don’t have it in the budget to hire a professional, then these three steps will get you on the right track.

Step 1 – Define Your Audience

It’s much easier to write good copy if you know who you are writing to. Think back to your high school days when you had to write research papers. These papers were always more difficult to write than writing a letter or note to a friend. Why? Because the term paper was impersonal. You weren’t writing to a specific person, with a personality, emotions, and feelings.

According to best selling author Bryan Eisenberg in his book Call to Action Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results there are four personality types:

1. Methodical – These are the customers that need facts and figures. They want to know they are making the right decision and the data supports that decision. These are the customers that will ask how questions.
2. Spontaneous – These are the customers that love to make quick decisions. If everything looks good, they will act. They fear missing out by hesitating. These are the customers that ask why questions.
3. Humanistic – These are the customers that want the relationship. They appreciate the personal touches your business experience offers. They move a little slower in the process to savor the experience. These customers ask who questions.
4. Competitive – These customers want to be in control. They are goal-oriented and business-like. They are disciplined and move at a strategic pace. These customers are going to ask what questions.

Your copy should be written so it addresses all four personality types. The best way to do this is by using text links. Each personality type asks different questions and those questions will arise at different points on the page. You want to anticipate these questions and place a text link where you think they will occur. The link should take them to a page that answers their question and then gets them back onto the linear conversion path.

Step 2 – Discover the Benefits

Your customers chose to do business with you because the saw a benefit in your product or service. They didn’t buy because of a feature or because you offered a specific product. Your customers asked themselves, what’s in it for me and the answer to that question motivated them to buy. Your copy should focus on answering the question what’s in it for me? You do this by writing about benefits.

The easiest way to discover the benefits of your product is to list your products and services. Every product or service has a set of features and every feature has at least one corresponding benefit. Start with your products and services, then list their features, and then list the corresponding benefits. When you look over the list of benefits, you will start to see how each benefit could motivate the different personality type. You start to get a better picture of how you will persuade your visitors to act.

Step 3 – Write for YOUR Websites Visitors

To get the full impact of benefit rich copy you need to make your visitors experience the benefit. Sales 101 tells us you should get your prospect to take ownership of the product or service you are selling. That is why the car salesman asks you questions about your family. Later on he is going to tell you how your new rear entertainment system will play little Joey’s DVD’s so he isn’t fighting with his sister on your four hour trips to the cabin. If you look closely at that sentence, you will see it contains the word “your”.

You are writing for your customers. You want them to take ownership of the product, to experience the benefits so they feel passionate enough to act. Don’t write about my business or how I or we are different. Instead tell your customers how they will feel by using the product or service you provide.

Writing persuasive copy for the web is not easy. It is a race to show enough benefit to your prospect before there attention span fades. Your competition is only a click away, so focus on the benefits and write for your customer.

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