Making sure your new business website has effective content is one of the most important things to accomplish. It’s wise to have a professional writer create website content, since that is the best way to ensure proper grammar, content structure, and most important, a clear and persuasive flow of ideas and information that leads site visitors to buy and inquire.
No matter how skilled the writer, that person will need your help in crafting the best site content. Here are the three most important ways you can help your writer get the job done with flying colors.
- Describe the target audience(s) of each page. Is the writer speaking to engineers, C-level executives, warehouse personnel, middle-class homeowners? Understanding the audience is essential for choosing the right words and taking the right approach when it comes to depth of information, benefits to highlight, and which and how many features to highlight. The more descriptive you can be, the better.
- Convey two, three or four major points that need to be emphasized on each page. Giving the writer a lot of input about your company, products, competitors and customers is terrific — but all this information usually does not prioritize the information. In fact, too much information often makes it harder for the writer to figure out which details are worth highlighting and which are worth ignoring. Only you, with your intimate understanding of your business, can explain what’s important to customers and what isn’t. If you leave it to the writer to figure it out, it’ll likely come down to guesswork.
- Give the writer a checklist of what should not be mentioned in the content. For maximum persuasion, what is left out is as important as what is written in. Point No. 2 discusses how to lead the writer to the hot buttons; here, we’re talking about how to lead the writer away from the cold buttons. Instructions in this area include things such as:
- Avoiding particular words, such as “cheap.” Are there descriptive words that run counter to your brand, or turn off customers? Writers need to know.
- Avoiding certain jargon — that is, words and phrases customers don’t understand or don’t understand correctly.
- Avoiding certain styles — that is, phrasing that is too formal, too informal, too scientific, too simplistic, etc. Your insights here are based on your knowledge of the customer and your brand.
A bit of work on the front end will not only help the writer immensely, it will also save you a ton of time editing and correcting content later. More important, you’ll enjoy a more positive relationship with your writer, and more important still, you’ll enjoy more conversions after your website is launched.