You can’t ignore it: if you want to attract online customers, you will have to deal with enticing web copy. The right text can change the behavior of your website visitors and can make the difference between a visitor and a customer. The beauty of web copy is that it is easy to adjust, allowing you to experiment a lot. This means you can quickly see what works for your business. Have you already found what works for your target audience, or do your texts ensure that you sell nothing?
1. Uncertain texts/too cautious texts
In a personal conversation, you unconsciously take into account the body language of your conversation partner. You can usually see from his body language whether he is sure or unsure of his case. You also unconsciously pick up cues of reliability from the intonation and volume of his speech.
In web texts, there is no volume, body language, or intonation. Therefore, you will have to work extra hard to convince someone. As strange as it may sound, this largely starts with convincing yourself. What still occurs too often are texts where the writer does not present himself as an expert. It is usually difficult to believe that he possesses that expertise, and a large part of the potential customers drops off. With this uncertain language use, you gain nothing as a company and create more questions than you answer.
Error: "We do our best to make every visit to our amusement park enjoyable."Correct: "We make every visit a moment to never forget."
2. Texts that do not appeal to an emotion
An convincing and seductive text goes further than just naming your unique selling points. Because a human is not an analytical robot and is sensitive to emotion, you can influence his purchasing decision by using the right emotion.
A strong emotion that I unfortunately see too little on websites is fear. The fear of losing something, missing out on something, or being excluded from something. Using the right emotion in your texts can give your visitors just that little extra motivation to buy something from you.
Those familiar with Cialdini's 6 principles of influence may have wondered why these principles work so well. The principle of ‘scarcity’ is based on the fear of missing out or being left out. The following example makes this clear.
Error: "Sign up today and stay informed."Correct: "Sign up today because there are only 15 spots available."
3. Texts that try to sell too quickly
If you do not take the sales process of your product or service into account in your texts, it may happen that you quickly come across as pushy or salesy. Using the right text at the right moment in the sales process is essential if you want to sell something.
In most cases, you do not want your potential customer to feel that you are trying to sell something, but you want to give him a little push deeper into your sales funnel. However, some products or services need a little more persuasion than others. A direct and aggressive sales tone will not help you further. You probably also find it annoying when you are in a store and immediately a salesperson comes up to you. Online, it’s not much different.
Error: "Request a quote directly!"Correct: "Read more about our product."
4. Writing without contrasts or making sentences too long
People love stories. To ensure you have a good enticing story on your website, you can hire a copywriter or storyteller. But if your story isn’t read, you’re just throwing all those valuable euros straight into the trash.
To ensure your story is read and your visitors stay engaged, you will need not only a good story but also to make sure that visitors keep their attention on your story.
A good way to maintain that attention is to create contrasts in your font sizes. A text that has no contrast in font size essentially says: everything is equally important. Or better said: everything is equally boring. To keep visitors engaged, you will need to experiment with titles, subtitles, spacing, and paragraphs. Because once again: your story can be very compelling, but if you fail to activate poorly motivated visitors, they usually leave your website without taking action. The solution is sometimes simpler than you think.
5. Texts that are not personal
When someone mentions your name, you immediately feel addressed. That’s quite logical. It means that by mentioning a name you can seize someone’s attention. Online, it is of course not always possible to address visitors to your website by their first name, and it is also not always appropriate to do so.
To get as close as possible to that personal connection without mentioning someone’s name, much is communicated in seductive text with a personal form: you, Jij, or you. The following example shows how you can make a text much more personal with a simple adjustment.
Error: "No entrepreneur wants to wait in long lines and always wants to be helped immediately."Correct: "Are you also not waiting in long lines and do you want to be helped immediately?"
Hopefully, after reading this article, you have gained a different perspective on the influence of text. Text is usually not a minor detail, but the main issue, and it may be the element that is holding you back from selling something.
Source: Marketingfacts.nl
