Picture this: you’re a fitness newbie on the hunt for the perfect gym membership. Naturally, you whip out your trusty laptop (because, let’s be honest, the vast majority of consumers search for products and services online) and start typing keywords into Google. Your search for “beginner, fitness classes” turns up a smorgasbord of hits, and you skim 10+ local gym websites looking for a judgement-free environment to get your workout on.

Unfortunately, though, you don’t make it past the home page of most of these sites. The reason?

While there are many factors that cause potential leads (or consumers who show interest in your services) to leave your website, one of the most common is a lack of customer-centric, impactful, sales-driven copy seamlessly integrated throughout your site.

As a copywriter, I’ve talked with a slew of business owners plagued with website copy that isn’t optimized to sell their services to their target audiences. As a result, they aren’t attracting leads through their website and, most importantly, they aren’t generating online sales.

DOES YOUR WEBSITE COPY CONNECT WITH YOUR TARGET CLIENTS?

How can you assess if your website copy is optimized to connect with your dream clients and generate sales? I’ve got you covered! Read on to learn about the danger in writing “fictional-focused” copy and why research-based website writing wins every time!

Your website copy speaks to fictional customers

This is a big one! It’s easy to whip up website copy that you think will resonate with your target customers. By putting yourself in their shoes, you can imagine what activities excite and energize them, what their greatest business challenges are, and what their definition of success looks like. Then, you can use these conclusions to create beautifully tailored website copy.

But that’s not the same as knowing.

While it’s important to think deeply about the feelings, thoughts, and desires of your customer, one of the greatest marketing mistakes that you can make is to develop a customer persona based purely on guesswork and corresponding website copy that speaks to a fictional audience.

The remedy to this requires some upfront elbow grease but pays dividends in the long run.

First, reach out to your customers (or your dream customers). Over a phone call or coffee date, ask them about themselves, what drives them personally and professionally. Learn about their business wins and failures, their daily struggles, what they stress about each night before falling asleep. Ask them to describe their ideal, balance-enhancing service or product. I recommend speaking with at least 5 people, but ideally 10 or higher, in order to gain a variety of perspectives and a robust customer profile.

Afterwards, summarize this information (many businesses like to do this in the form of a ‘customer persona’), and use your insights as a guidepost for all future copy creation. Now that you truly “get” your audience, your website copy can reflect that understanding by addressing their unique thoughts, desires, needs, and feelings.

Key takeaway here: a true understanding of your customer is the cornerstone of tantalizing, high-converting website sales copy. 

Need help crafting website copy that connects with your dream clients? Reach out today to schedule a free Discovery Call!