15-30 seconds is all you have to show that you are a trustworthy authority with the knowledge to solve your customer's problems.
Within that time your website visitors have formulated a general sense of who you are, what you do, how professional your company is, and if they can trust you.
They have no choice. We’ve evolved as humans to judge and put things into categories quickly. We need your audience to judge you as reliable, professional, engaging, and trustworthy.
Your photography and copy need to be created specifically to speak to the needs and problems of your target audience. Professionals know how to do this.
They don’t do it alone, don’t get me wrong. They interview you (and sometimes your customers), perform market research, and use their own experience too. Professional content is more involved than what it appears at first glance.
If you want your website to convert your website users into paying customers you need content and photography created by people who do it full time for a living. It’s the same reason I don’t do my own plumbing. It isn’t in my wheelhouse.
We’ve met many a client who has said they’d take care of their own photography and 3 months later are still working on it. To put it bluntly, you should be working on your business and letting someone else come in and shoot your location, products, and/or services being made. You can collaborate with them but if you want it done, and done right the first time, hire a pro.
Your photography is part of your brand. It tells a story that you can then continue through social media, advertising, brochures, and other types of marketing.
The human brain is more inclined towards the visual representation of any written content. We translate pictures very quickly and your users will decide in 2 seconds (or less) if a photograph speaks to them.
Content that is all words might fail to stop a reader to skim through it, but pictures can get them to slow down and look at them closely.
Content that is easy to read and dotted with the right heading types and pictures immediately gets noticed by the search engines and ranks well on the search engines. If optimized correctly, your website’s images can end up on Google Images which can increase your traffic a bit.
The pictures that you post on your website are vital for the branding of your business. The tone, depth, and background in your photographs all convey a message and add to the feel of your website.
For an online grocery store, a picture of their fresh produce on the shelf or workers picking those goods from a farm can brand the store as clean, self-sufficient and hygienic. But this is only possible when you use your photographs on your website and not buy them from a stock website.
Apart from the illustrations and graphics, photographs are a crucial part of your visual content and should be handled as such. There are some inconveniences that you might have to face if you use stock photographs sold at different sites. What are those?
There are plenty of websites selling photographs related to a variety of subjects. Photographers sell the copyrights of their work to these sites, and then anyone can buy those photos from these sites.
The concept might look easy enough, but it takes away individuality from your website. Your competitors and anyone else can use the same picture that you’ve posted on your site and make your content look recycled.
A website selling stock photographs have thousands and thousands of pictures related to different subjects that you can browse through by putting in the right keywords. But even with an efficient searching system, you cannot always find the right photograph to go along with your content.
For instance, if you are selling homemade candles, then it doesn't make sense to post pictures of candles that you haven’t produced.
Outsourcing or hiring a professional photographer to provide you with original photographs is the kind of investment that will be rewarding for your business. Most photographers know technicalities that are associated with website layouts and take care of photograph dimensions and pixel quality for you.
Moreover, you’ll own the rights of all photographs posted on your website and won’t be subjected to any legal penalization or copyright lawsuits.
The primary purpose of a website is to get a brand or business recognized or noticed by the targeted audience. Optimizing your content skillfully so that it can rank well on search engines is one way to influence the search engines.
You might think that you have the aptitude to write for your website but know that you'll be competing with thousands of businesses selling the same service and product from all around the world. Therefore, your website will have a better chance of thriving against your competitors in professional hands.
Your web copy has the potential to make or break your business’ standing as it influences not only the customers but also search engines.
If your copy is optimized, then search engines will favor your content more than your competitors. The SEO techniques mentioned below cannot be learned overnight, and only a professional copywriter knows how to utilize them to produce a lead generating website copy. Moreover, a professional copywriter will know how to put together the right kind of words to influence the decisions of leads and potential clients.
1. Using the right keywords.
If you want your website to get noticed by the search engines then include the right keywords in your website’s copy. A professional copywriter will know what words to use and how many of them to use them in an average length copy.
2. Website referrals.
Hyperlinking specific words and outsourcing articles is also a rewarding SEO technique. Copywriters have enough experience and insight to figure out a way to hyperlink some of their old writings in their latest content without losing relevance.
Using different heading types is another way to get in the good graces of any search engine. Experienced copywriters know how to use this information to improve the quality of their content.
Attaching relevant images and videos with your website’s copy is also a tried and tested SEO technique.
Business owners will spend thousands of dollars to make their website look visually appealing but not enough on its content. Words have the ability to make your leads lean in towards your services and respond to your call to action immediately.
So how does your copy convert leads into buyers?
As mentioned earlier, a crisp and engaging writing style can make your leads read through the entirety of your content without losing interest. A conversational writing style that addresses the potential customers directly creates an air of familiarity between you and your leads. A professional copywriter knows what words to use to appeal to the emotional tendency of a lead. Furthermore, they know how to build the flow and take your content from point A to B and then C.
A good web copy is the one that has all the information that a leader needs to know to make their decision. From introducing your services to highlighting your product’s selling features all come under the expertise of a copywriter.
Any skilled copywriter will know how important it is to write an enticing call to action to complete any sales funnel successfully. Using the right words can increase the conversion rate of your website, exponentially.
A professional copywriter knows how to increase the conversion and ranking of your website on SERPs. Once you are visible to your targeted audience, then whether they buy your services or products or not depends solely on how you market them through your content.
Your website is probably the first thing that your potential customers will see. Therefore, you need to do an excellent job of leaving a profound first impression on them. Seeking professional help might be the only way to guarantee the success of your website.
Website copy that fails to fulfill its essential purposes is good for nothing. After all, businesses go online to expand their reach and increase their business to increase sales, but an incompetent website copy will turn off your users.
A website copy should weave in the right adjectives in sentences to introduce your business to the targeted audience. It should be concise yet compelling enough to intrigue the potential leads to know more about your business.
The content you provide at your website has the potential to brand your business. The overall impression that a reader gets from your website’s copy becomes your brand. If someone reads your web copy and doesn’t understand the nature of your services that they will associate that confusion with your business.
Furthermore, if you use extravagant words but don't elaborate on your services, then a lead will peg your services as subpar, and that will become your brand. That is why hiring a professional copywriter is imperative as they are experienced to figure out the psychology of your targeted audience.
It is essential to post only the prime-quality content on your site as it later can be recycled to market your products. A well-written web copy can be a catalyst to make your marketing campaigns a big hit as it has the potential to convert the leads sent its way into customers effectively.
A web copy’s prime focus should be highlighting the critical elements of your product and services. A lead should know why your product is better than your competitors and how buying it will benefit them or their business?
If you fail to convince your lead about the efficiency and importance of your products and services then there is no use of investing thousands to make your website appealing for the audience. The end goal of a web copy is to convert a lead into a buyer, and only a professional copywriter can help you achieve that.
If you want results online hire a professional copywriter and photographer. Repurpose that photography and content onto your offsite assets and marketing.
Related reading: Copywriting seattle
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Thrive Design is a customer-centric web design agency from Seattle. Contact us today to find out how we can elevate your business online! Find us on Clutch, UpCity, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
