Writing Effective Copy for Your Homepage

Whenever I'm looking for products or services on the web, I always come across websites that have ineffective homepages. That's because there are far too many businesses out there that fail to make the most of their homepages - rather than entice visitors and encourage them to buy, the copy simply provides a bit of background information about the business and what the business does. This is a waste of a homepage, because it isn't doing anything to promote their goods and services or to connect with the visitor. And if it doesn't engage the audience, chances are they will just click away from the site and take their business elsewhere.

To make the most of your website, you need to understand what your visitors expect to find on it:

1. Confirmation that they are in the right place for the services or products they want.
   
   
2. Quality and Value - they want to know that your products and services are up to the high standards they expect and are available within their budget
   
   
3. Choice - Not always an issue, but if you stock or provide a wide range of goods and services, customers need to know
   
   
4. Trust. Your visitors need to know that they can trust you to provide high quality products and services and conduct business in a professional way.

They are not particularly interested in who your staff are (unless you are selling their skills) and they're probably not visiting your site to find out about the history of your business. Sure, you can publish this information on your website and it can help to generate a level of trust, but unless your history is your unique selling point (or at least a major selling point), it doesn't belong on your homepage.

As with all copywriting, it is the benefits to the reader that need to be emphasised. And the copy you use to highlight the benefits of your goods and services needs to be engaging, easy to understand, and enticing, so that the visitor stays on your site and makes the effort to read your homepage.

As a trained and experienced copywriter, I produce web copy, including SEO copy, that promotes your business effectively and involves your visitors in your message. Using carefully crafted sentences, I can persuade and reassure your visitors that your products and services are right for them, and can make the copy enagaging and easy to understand.

So if your web site needs copy that captures the attention and actively encourages customers to buy (without resorting to forecful hard-sell techniques), please contact me via http://www.straygoat.com.

Craig Wright
Copywriter, Web Copywriter, SEO Copywriter, Technical Author
StrayGoat Copywriting

Pros and Cons of Using Swipe Files

Most copywriters and marketing professionals keep a file of successful advertisements called a swipe file. The advertisements in the swipe file contain effective copy, creative ideas, and clever headlines, and can come from a variety of sources. The reason that copywriters keep a swipe file is that at some point we all suffer from writer's block or struggle to think of the right words for the project we are working on. And that's where a swipe file proves to be invaluable. Because a quick look at adverts in a similar field can kick-start our minds and trigger a whole new wave of thoughts and creative ideas.

Swipe File Pros:

• Can provide inspiration and trigger new thoughts and creative ideas
  
  
• Lets you see the sort of language used in the relevant market
  
  
• Provides a quick reference of the approaches and styles that have been used before
  
  
• Can help you overcome writer's block and come up with lots of new ideas

Of course, swipe files have their disadvantages too. As they contain effective copy, it can be tempting to cover the same ground with your own copywriting or even to copy it (which is illegal by the way!). So while a swipe file may help to generate new ideas, you may find that it also stifles your creativity as you stick to the tried and trusted methods that have been used before (sometimes subconsciously).

Swipe File Cons:

• If you see an advert with effective copy and an interesting angle, sometimes it can be hard to break away from that and come up with something different.
  
  
• You might fall into the trap of using the same language and ideas as competitors. Take a look at all of the recent shampoo adverts and you'll see what I mean - most of them use a scientific approach and concentrate on the various chemicals and proteins that will benefit your hair. And the cost of that is that it is hard to differentiate one brand from another.

• If you're feeling particularly inadequate, as most writers do at some stage in the writing process, seeing a wide range of successful adverts can make you feel even worse! But stick with it, this feeling is all part of the plan and will lead you to good ideas and the right choice of words.

The trick with swipe files is to use them sparingly. Personally, I try to develop my plan for the approach I want to make before looking at my swipe file. Then I just skim through the ads, make a note of any pertinent words, and use any new ideas to further develop my plan. I always try to come up with something first, then refer to the swipe file.

I never copy any phrasing or sentence structure. The most I take from a swipe file is a small collection of useful words. I'm just too wary of plagiarism - I like to know that everything I write is in my 'voice'.

Craig Wright
Copywriter and Technical Author
StrayGoat Copywriting
www.straygoat.com