Copywriting for Websites: Common Mistakes of SMEs

THE BRIEF: To write an article talking about the importance of professional copywriting services when building your website.

Copywriting is an aspect of website development that is often undervalued and sometimes overlooked altogether by SMEs. Most business owners think that attractive graphics, user-friendly interface, and valid coding are all it takes to create a good and effective website. Although these elements are indeed important, it cannot be stressed enough that copywriting is just as, if not more important than any or all of them combined. It is because of this misunderstanding about the relevance of copywriting that SMEs are often guilty of the following mistakes:

Thinking that you can do it by yourself

Yes, we agree with you: it is your business and you know more about it than anybody else. However, ownership of the business does not necessarily give you the ability to put down what the company offers into an effective combination of words. Anybody can write, but only some people can write well, and most certainly a smaller group of people can write well with a specific purpose. In this case, that purpose refers to giving justice to what your products and services can do for your customers. So unless you are really adept at copywriting, then we suggest you leave it to the pros.

If in case you are actually an SME owner and a really good writer as well, we still urge you to leave your business website’s copywriting to somebody else. Looking at your business from an objective point of view can be very difficult, if not impossible. This can result into poor copywriting because you may fail to step into the shoes of the customer. You may end up showing them all the work that you put into the company instead of showing them what the company can do for them.

Thinking that your designer, programmer, or other office staff can do it

Effective copywriting requires specialization and experience – both of which the members of your team do not posses. Yes, they may have a specialty and experience, but in entirely different fields! Designers, programmers, and writers all speak very different languages. You would never ask your designer to program the website, would you? Then why would you think it would be okay to ask your programmer to write for the website content?

At this point, you should have learned that copywriting is not the same as writing. The task of copywriters is not as simple as sending a message to people. Their task is to send a message that is compelling enough to evoke action – in this case, drive people into the website and convert them into customers. You should rid yourself of the idea that nobody reads website content. You have to realize that the internet has become the best research tool of our times and people use it to gather all sorts of information, including info on products and services.

Not realizing sooner that your business website NEEDS a Copywriter

A lot of business owners spend a fortune on creating a website without a clear understanding of how a website can work for their business. To put it simply, a good business website will let people fully understand the scope of your company’s products and services, as well as lead them to take the necessary action to avail of those products and services. You want to drive traffic into your website and then convert that traffic into sales. Sounds simple enough, but it is not as easy to achieve on your own as it seems.

A copywriter can assist you in the following areas of your website development:

• Research and propose the Sitemap, which will allow easy navigation.

• Write killer copy for Banner, which has high eye-ball effect to encourage browsers to continue reading.

• Provide convincing copywriting to improve trustworthiness and persuade browsers to engage your services / products.

• Ensure the whole website has interlinks among the website so that it looks more professional.

• SEO copywriting can help to target keywords and thus achieve higher ranking on Search Engine.

Basically, a copywriter is key in driving traffic to your website and converting that traffic into sales. You want to maximize your website as an advertising channel for your company, products and/or services. Websites have become the best and most cost-efficient medium for most SMEs to grab and sustain the attention of their market. Professional copywriting can help convince browsers that they are dealing with a reputable and trustworthy company.

What really makes copywriting important is that it is the first thing that your customer understands. Most people are more adept at reading comprehension, over visual design or website programming. Sure, they can probably tell which website took more effort in terms of design and coding, but only on an intuitive level as those are areas that they were not trained in. Good copywriting is the first and most effective way that you are able to reach out to your customers. So maximize your business website by having a copywriter in your web development team.