How Important Is It For Copywriters To Have An Agency Quality
Website?
Over the years, I've had several copywriters ask me how
important it is to have an "agency quality" website. My answer
is always the same: it's very important if you are prospecting
other than locally.
When you prospect locally, the client can meet you personally.
But when you prospect nationally, your website, "telephone"
personality, and marketing materials form the basis of your
prospective client's impression of you.
Fortunately, it's not difficult to find a designer/webmaster who
can help you build a high quality site at a reasonable cost. And
some of my students do a very nice job of creating a quality
site themselves.
Because I've found national prospecting to be far more
profitable than working with local business, I encourage my
coaching students to prospect nationally (and sometimes
internationally), and create a website that supports a
sophisticated positioning.
What, exactly, constitutes an "agency quality" website?
Here are five pointers for creating a website that convinces
quality clients that you are the right copywriter for them (plus
two common mistakes to avoid):
1. Make sure your website has a "you" orientation. The Home page
should not talk about "you" except in the context of what you
can offer a client.
2. Have a "unique selling proposition" (USP), or positioning
statement. Why are you "the best" choice? Do you serve a
particular niche? Are you an expert at some important element of
copywriting (e.g., offer development, headlines, concepting,
etc.)? Make sure your USP "shines through" on your Home page.
3. View your entire site as a lead-generating tool. If you write
a direct response package, you first try to get your prospect
into the envelope. Once inside, you attempt to lead your
prospect through the package, with the end destination the reply
card or order device.
Use the same principle in designing your website and its
navigation. Always send your prospect to the "contact me" page,
or the page where you offer more information. As with any
lead-generation effort, your only goal is to get your website
visitor to respond.
4. Create an offer, and offer it on your website. Unlike general
advertising, direct marketing is defined by the offer. If you
don't have an offer, you're not employing the most fundamental
rule of marketing, and it will cost you responses.
5. Pay attention to look and feel. Copywriters have the right
and responsibility to make sure the end product produces leads
or sales.
This means that the copywriter should offer the art director
some level of direction on look and feel (without overstepping
bounds, of course).
A clean, well-organized website that exhibits a "professional
finish" will offer a sophisticated client some level of
assurance that contacting you will not be a waste of their time.
What NOT to do on your website:
First and foremost, don't "preach to the choir." Because the
world of copywriting is new to new copywriters, they have a
tendency to "tell what they know" on their website.
But a quality client (usually mid-size to large companies and
organizations), doesn't want to know why copywriting will help
him. He already knows that, even if he doesn't know how to write
copy himself.
What he's looking for is validation that you could be the right
copywriter for him.
Websites that attempt to "teach" generally attract clients who
need teaching (oftentimes small business with a low appreciation
of what good copywriting can do for them, and an even lower
threshold for paying reasonable fees).
The second mistake I see is mentioning price on the Home page
(or anywhere in the site, for that matter).
Quality clients do not put price first, and any discussion of
price usually comes after the copywriter has a complete picture
of the marketing problem that needs to be solved.
Not long ago, one of my coaching students complained that his
prospects seemed fixated on price. After going to his website I
noticed that his Home page positioned him as more attractively
priced than other copywriters.
This positioning inadvertently created a USP based on "low
price" -- something we copywriters should always avoid.
Bringing up the subject of price on your website will actually
cause your prospect to put it front and center. Best to let
pricing discussions occur "naturally" in the process of landing
a job.