A common struggle with company websites is writing the content.
The thought of writing the content for the homepage, the About page, the Services page and every other page seems overwhelming. It can get you tired of writing before you even begin.
Something that happens with anxiety about writing content on the site is a tendency to lose focus.
The goal of website content is to sell the site visitor on your company and its services. But that’s where things get tricky.
You do not want to focus on your business at least not in your content. You need to focus on the target customer.
It’s easy to focus on your business. You realize what you can provide for customers and it’s easy to explain the services and products you provide that help them. It’s not hard to fall into the trap of describing features and specs, but customers don’t really care about this.
I call this content writing struggle the “Self Focus Tendency“.
It happens to all of us when we discuss our business and it bleeds into our website content. Here are three ways to avoid the Self Focus Tendency. Hopefully they will help you with your new website copy or even help you adjust the copy on your current website.
1. Ask Customers About Problems
The first thing I like to do when writing content for a website is to get into the mind of the target customer. If possible, ask your clients what their biggest problems are and how it relates to your products and services.
Let’s use an example.
There is a restaurant. The restaurant probably thinks they sell flame grilled steak. After all, customers order this steak more than any other item. It’s popular. Why not just describe the steak as flame grilled? But if you talk to the customer they will probably tell you that their problem on a particular day was having no idea where to eat that night. They didn’t really feel like cooking at home. They wanted someone to make a good meal for them. The steak looked good on the menu because it sounded filling. The customer wanted to get filled up since they were not in the mood for doing any kind of cooking or snacking back at home.
Now there is a lot of good information in that discussion with the target customer. When writing the descriptions and content on your website you want to focus on the problems the customer is having because it allows you to appeal to them. Instead of focusing on the details of the steak this restaurant can address common customer problems like finding a quality meal on short notice.
It’s always good to talk to clients to find out what their problems are. Sometimes you’ll even get some surprising answers and you might be doing more than you even thought.
2. Ask Customers About Your Business
After discussing problems with customers or just doing some research to see what your customers are really struggling with you can move on to a discussion about your business. As business owners we have our own thoughts on what we really provide for customers. On the other hand, customers might have a different view on what a business provides them. This relates to the first item, but here you’re getting into the mind of the customer and learning how they perceive your business. Ask current customers what they appreciate most about your business.
Going back to the restaurant example there might be feedback to this question along the lines of convenience and friendly service. Maybe there was some detail that the customer noticed like the waiters all wearing red bow ties or something. You probably know what customers really appreciate about your business, but you might be surprised at some of their answers.
3. Ask Customers About Their Questions
Finally, the last item is to find out the questions customers commonly have when they’re researching. A good way to figure this out is by asking customers what they were looking for and what they were doing when they found your website or found out about your business.
The restaurant might realize that customers are searching for a quiet place to take a friend or family without a reservation. You can use the insight to write the descriptions and services on your website.
The key to all of these tips is to make sure you’re writing for the customer on your website. The goal of your company website is to increase sales. The focus should be on what’s best for your business, but in the case of content this means you have to focus on how the customer thinks in order to attract them to your services and products.
Avoid the Self Focus Tendency and you should find better conversion on your website as a result of customer-focused content.
