Why Copywriting Is The Secret To Your Online Success
Over the last decade, the number of companies selling their
products and services on the Web or sharing information online
with their target market has exploded.
It's no longer frowned upon to conduct your business on the Web,
and huge numbers of people are making a healthy living doing
just that. Others, however, are not. For every great website out
there that grabs its customer's attention and holds it, there
are hundreds more bad ones that don't. Despite their best
efforts, many businesses are losing money daily due to the poor
performance of their company website.
Contrary to popular myth, what constitutes a great website is
not just fantastic design, but also the quality of the online
copy that accompanies it. If you pay equal attention to both
sides of this equation, you'll end up with an amazing site that
drives traffic where you need it most, bringing excellent sales
or driving great interest as a result. But if you ignore the
necessity of simple, effective and clear-cut Web copy, evidence
has shown your site will suffer as a consequence.
In a 2002 Stanford University "Web Credibility" survey of over
4,500 Web users in Europe and the US, findings are unequivocal.
Whilst recognising the benefits of good design, the report also
states:
"Our data suggests that integrity of content has considerable
impact on how people evaluate the credibility of a website.
Study participants gave some of their lowest scores on
credibility to sites that fail to separate advertising from
editorial content, run too many ads on a page, or display ads
through pop-up windows. At the same time, users gave strong
marks to site content that identified its sources and provided
its authors' credentials."
Along with effective design and navigation, the report concludes
that: "As for writing style, (websites should) be clear, direct,
and sincere."
(Source: Stanford-Makovsky Web Credibility Study 2002).
So you have to ask yourself, is the writing on your website