Written by Bob McClain, Web Copywriting Expert
When you’re going to sit down and write website copy, you have to know what you’re talking about. Just like a sales person, you can’t sell what you don’t know. And a website copywriter is just a salesperson who works online rather than face to face.
In fact, when I get a client who insists on writing their own copy, the first thing I tell them is to get a digital recorder and give it to their best salesperson. Every time they go on a sales call, they are to record the call from just before they walk in the door until they leave the meeting.
What the client learns and hears in those sales calls is literally what they need to use for their sales copy on their website. Because your website is your online, 24/7/365 sales person!
So if you can’t follow a sales person around or record their sales calls, how do get the information you need to write your sales copy?
Who, What, When, Where, Why and How…
These are the magic tools you need to write your website copy. Because you can’t write about what you don’t know about. You have to be a detective. You have to think like a journalist.
You have to ask the tough questions and not be satisfied until you get the answers. You need to get your hands on every piece of sales copy, every ad, every brochure the client has and immerse yourself in it.
But you need to go beyond reading someone else’s sales copy. You need to understand the product or service inside and out before you can sell it. Take a tour of the office or the plant. Sit down with the sales people and grill them for answers. Sit down with the engineers or the technical people and ask them questions until the pieces start to fall together for you.
Sample questions to get you started…
- What is the product or service in a simple sentence or a short paragraph?
- Why was it created?
- Who does it serve and how does it serve them?
- Where did it come from? Was it purchased from another company or did someone invent it in their garage?
- What is the history of its development?
- How long was it in development? How long has it been on the market?
- Who was the person behind its creation? Or was it a team? If so, who was on the team?
- How is it made?
