How to Write Engaging Web Copy
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If you want to keep visitors to your web site engaged and make them come back for more, you need to appeal to their emotions. If you want them to do something in particular (buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, etc.), that kind of appeal is a must. Keep reading for some great tips.
Copy writing as a profession predates the Internet. While you must write differently when your audience will view your copy on a web site rather than in some other form, many important principles stay the same. Indeed, a recent post on Mind Valley Labs' web site mentioned legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz, saying that "we still swipe his material today." Schwartz died in 1995, right when the web was just beginning to catch on. If we can still learn from him, we can certainly apply some "old school" ideas to our web copy.
But back to our main topic. How do you appeal to your visitors' emotions? First, you need to know what concerns them. That means knowing your target audience intimately. Schwartz advised those who went to his seminars to "be the best listener you ever met." He'd ask questions of cab drivers when he took a taxi, because that's how you learn what people are thinking. He also advised watching the top 10 box office movies to get a handle on what the market is thinking and feeling. Once you know your audience's concerns, you can write directly to those concerns.
Say you now know your audience. Your next move is to make a promise that will appeal to them. Are your visitors busy, budget-conscious moms? Write an article on "Seven Cheap Ways to Get Organized and Save Time." (Heck, I'd read an article like that and I don't even have kids!). Or you can appeal to their desire to see their children do well with "Five Ways to Foster a Love of Reading in Your Kids." The point is to start out right in the headline or title of your text with a promise that appeals to your visitors' emotional needs. The more basic that need is, the more strongly that promise will draw them in.
And sometimes images can do the job; here Google draws us in on Earth Day with a redone logo that appeals to our basic need for a clean, life-supporting environment.
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