Every website copywriter faces a trap – Search Enginitis. Writing web copy with technology makes sense, but writing web copy for people makes the sale. Here are two ways to connect with people across broadband and create web copy that sells.
Your website looks great: solid words, easy navigation, graphics just so, and maybe even a bit of flash with some multimedia. But customers are not buying.
The Technology Trap
You wonder if it’s the web copy itself. How can that be? You remembered the two key mantras of powerful web copy – “write for the search engines” and “write for the medium.”
Your web copy used appropriate keywords to help search engines find you and traffic is up. Surely, customers enjoy reading your content because your web copy is laid out with the internet in mind using:
- short sentences
- brief paragraphs
- bullets
Customers might be reading your words, but they still are not buying your product.
Chances are your web copy has been optimized for technology not people.
Even on the internet, selling is still about connecting to people. Selling on the internet means writing web copy for people not technology. So how do you press the flesh across broadband? Start where brick and mortar relationships do – trust. Why not become the trusted provider in your marketspace? Your web copy can use words to raise your credibility in at least 25 different ways.
Here are two ways to craft web copy for people not technology:
- write the way customers speak
- replace your pitch with a theme.
Write Web Copy for People not Technology Step 1:
Write the way people speak. People instinctively trust strangers who speak like them.
If you find this article useful, how would you tell someone? Are you really going to say, “I read an unusually amazing web copy article that fundamentally increased my sagging sales”? Not likely.
Weak web copy, not everyday people, uses too many modifiers. “Amazing,” “fundamentally,” and “sagging” weaken trust. How’s your site for modifiers?
Give your web copy the finger test.
You might not want fingerprints on your screen, so I suggest printing a copy of your homepage content.
- put your baby finger on the first modifier you can find.
- put your ring finger on the next adjective or adverb.
- repeat until you run out of modifiers or fingers.
If your page is a handful, you’ve got too many modifiers and your web copy is hype heavy, not trustworthy. In addition to giving readers web copy that matches how they speak, it helps to give them time to get to know you.
Write Web Copy for People not Technology Step 2:
Replace your pitch with a theme. Customers need time before they trust.
They will get used to your site in tiny steps, so hold off selling; buy some time with thematic web copy. Have a theme for your site, introducing your offer only after your customer feels comfortable. Themes are a subtle form of repetition because they continually reinforce a single concept. Repeated exposure to an idea usually makes it familiar and safe. Remember the first time you used instant messaging or the family car – not so scary now.
Let’s say your site sells dental floss.
Here’s how your web copy might handle it. Instead of listing the benefits of DentaThread, you could tie the presentation together under the central idea “Some people have nothing to smile about.”
- The opening section could point out how the discomfort of Gingivitis wipes the grin off a person’s face.
- Another segment of the web copy would show how ugly cavities make someone too self- conscious to smile.
- Yet another piece would reveal how the high cost of root canal causes an individual to frown.
In this way, the web copy offers three versions of one idea to help the site grow on the visitor: one idea, three versions. Does your homepage have a theme? How many chances does your web copy give visitors to get comfortable with you?
In this article, I tried to use the two key elements a good web copywriter uses to write for people not technology:
- the language of my readers
- a central idea, trust
Did it work? Did my web copy help? If yes, I guess I proved my point. If no, I have 23 more ideas to go.

Super Bowl Advertising And Marketing For Perfection
The game kicks off in about one hour and we have already seen some of the high-priced ads. Here are my comments on how the big guys do it.
#1. Pepsi. Pepsi has an outside-the-box ad. The ad is done by two deaf guys trying to find out where Bob’s house is. It is done completely in sign with sub-titles. This is a first. We will see if this is labeled “offensive” even if the National Association of the Deaf approved it.
#2. Budweiser. A perennial mainstay. Wouldn’t be a Super Bowl without Bud and all of their commercials.
#3. Miller Lite. Bud’s main competition that seems to always be poking fun at Bud.
#4. GoDaddy. GoDaddy is always controversial which gets them the most publicity. You may see racier ads at their web site.
#5. P&G. Proctor and Gamble will air its first ever Super Bowl commercial featuring Tide.
#6. Vitoria’s Secret. Marketing lingerie with hot chicks to guys makes sense to me.
There are more and I will post another article after the game.
Some comments in general.
Sex, humor, and music still sell. Well, it sells to a primarily male audience.
More companies are linking their TV ads to their web site.
Companies can get away with more on their web site. FCC rules don’t apply.
If it worked before, use it again.
Stars give credibility (to an extent).
Market to your audience (in this case, mainly males).
This is the only show that people actually wait in anticipation for the commercials.
Pepsi has coined a new term &ndash different abilities &ndash as opposed to disabled or challenged.
30 seconds cost almost three million, but these ads will be all over the Internet forever for free. Some ads are already at YouTube before the game started.
Marketing to 90 million people would be considered by most to be the greatest opportunity to get your product noticed. We will see who makes it big with the best Super Bowl ads.
OK. It is almost game time. I’ve got my sandwich, chips and dip, cold beer, and some cashews. I will be cheering for the New York Football Giants since I love an underdog.
Use the power of Super Bowl advertising to get some ideas on how to market your web site. Hopefully, for a lot less than 3 million dollars for
May 8, 2009
Filed under: Custom Essay Service — Tags: ads, ads web, bowl, comments, deaf, first, game, guys, makes, million, new, people, pepsi, site, super, super bowl, web, web site — Custom Essay @ 12:31 pm