It’s no secret that running a small business is extremely time consuming. It’s smart to look for ways to save time, like using a website builder. These are perfect for small business owners who want a DIY approach to a professional looking website. But what about the copywriting? If you think you can save time by taking the words from a print brochure or press release and making it the content for your website, please don’t! A good looking website will only deliver results with the right words. Here’s the good news: copywriting for B2B websites is actually easier than you might think.
Many business owners struggle with writing the content for their own website because they don’t know what to write, find writing too time consuming or simply hate to write. Follow these five tips and it will be easy for you to tackle the copywriting of your B2B website.
1. Define Your Audience
It’s impossible to make everyone happy. So, why try? If you’re a landscaper who specializes in designing entire yards with trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals, you don’t want to be contacted by a homeowner looking for someone to cut their grass. When you write for a specific audience, you won’t waste your valuable time having a conversation with those who would never spend money with you.
After you narrow down who you want to talk to, the next step is to speak their language. You want a potential customer to quickly understand your message. Don’t write to impress. Rather, use a conversational tone in everyday language that skips the industry jargon.
2. Focus on Their Needs
Before you write a single word, decide what problem you solve for your customers. Does your product help them save time? Save money? Deliver peace of mind? Eliminate headaches? Your homepage copy needs to immediately make a connection between what the person needs and what you provide. Your website visitor will be motivated by benefits instead of features. For example, look at HubSpot’s homepage.
First, they tell you how you will benefit from using their software: They will help your business grow. Only after you read the benefits of using HubSpot do you scroll down and read about the products they offer.
3. Use Keywords Intelligently
Gone are the days when you simply stuffed your web page with keywords. Humans and search engines have become smarter and no longer fall for that. Instead, focus on answering questions a potential customer might have about your product or service.
Make sure your copy provides useful information customers want to know and clearly explains how you help. Since people type questions into search engines, having answers to questions is the perfect way for someone to find your website when they are looking for information.
4. Break up the Copy
Numerous studies show that people read differently on paper versus on screens, so it’s important to write so your content can be scanned. Long paragraphs are harder to read online. The same is true for long sentences. You need to write so your message is conveyed quickly. If a person lands on your website and thinks, TL;DR, they will leave!
Use the following so your content is easy to scan:
- Subheads
- Short sentences
- Bulleted lists
- Short and long sentences
Also, since more than 63% of Google’s U.S. search traffic comes from a mobile device, it’s important to be concise.
5. Don’t Forget the CTA!
Over 200 small business websites were selected at random for a study by Small Business Trends. An astounding 70% did not have a clear call-to-action on their homepage. Plus, 72% did not have a call-to-action on their website’s interior pages.
If someone lands on your website, make sure you clearly tell them what their next step should be to learn more or even better, hire you!
Well-written web copy is a key part in helping your website rank higher on search engines. Plus, once a person lands on your website, they need to know exactly how you can help them. This can be a deciding factor if they want to work with you. Use these tips when you build your own website. If you find that you don't have the time to handle the copywriting for your B2B website, contact us. We'd love to help.
