A cluttered website will be an assault to the senses and will put people off in an instant. Try not to worry about white space and use 50% less copy than you believe you should. Less is more in copywriting and every word counts, which is usually why copywriters charge by the word.

Streamline the appearance by making it digestible in bite size chunks. Use meaningful titles, make use of bullet points and only sell one point per paragraph (as only four words will be read anyway you don’t really have chance to promote anything else).

Use a Little Psychology

One trick all copywriters use (and if they don’t they’re not a copywriter) is to harness the power of writing in the second person. Talk to your audience, appeal to your target market, let visitors believe you’ve written the copy and developed your business especially for them. Let them know how your services will help them and how choosing you will be the right step to take.

So use phrases such as “we offer you an unrivalled service that promises to make you smile, enhance your life and leave you thankful that you found us as soon as you did”.

Add a Personal Touch

As a journalist for the Integrated Retailer (I did mention this didn’t I?) one thing I often report on is retailer marketing, such as Omni channel solutions and so on. I’ve talked to bigwigs such as the CEO of Marks and Sparks and picked the brains of the best PR gurus in the country. All of this has confirmed what I already believed; we want the old days back!

We all love the convenience of shopping online but we do miss the good old days where we’d go to the shop with cash in our hands and have a little natter as we waited for our change. Remember buying penny sweets and as the doorbell tinkled a friendly woman would come out and greet you? That’s how welcoming your copy should be, people need to feel appreciated before they’ll part with their hard earned cash.

The truth is, although we all reminisce about these days we really haven’t the time for chin wags and browsing, so to cater for your consumers you need to give them what they want quickly and your copy will help with this!

These tips are just for applying to the Homepage as the rules change the deeper you delve into a website, for instance if a visitor has taken time to click on your About Us page then they are already interested and you can use copy to utilise that. Your frequently asked questions should answer every eventuality, even if not frequently asked, as visitors will want to be reassured that you’ve considered their needs when they flick through your FAQs.

To get started, just try one of these tips, you’ll be surprised how much your new copy will lower your bounce rates; your next step is to add SEO!