Creative Writing for Website Text: Content Fundamentals
Updated: Oct 14, 2021
Coming up with creative written text on a website is one of the more difficult items in developing a new website. Many websites either have too little, or too much text content for it to be attractive to site visitors. In some instances, the text content confuses viewers more than it helps. Having a good understanding of what a site visitor is looking for and how to capture their attention can be accomplished with the below guide on effective writing for your website. Following the below guide, a visitor to your site will know who you are, what you do, and why they should choose you over the competition.
First and foremost, it's important to let the site visitor know what you offer them within the first glimpse of your website. Being this particular text will most likely be at the top of your website’s homepage, you want it to be short. Sometimes just a sentence will do. Consider this your well thought-out hook line. Be sure to include relevant key terms and phrases, but keep it simple for the reader to quickly understand. If a reader needs to re-read the text to fully understand, it's either too long, not structured correctly, or perhaps uses too many insider terms that they may not understand.
Second, let the reader know who your website is intended for. Consider who would visit your site and why. Do they need your product or service? Do they find entertainment value from your website? Are they visiting to find information about something? Let them know within the first couple of scrolls of their mouse. Be sure this particular text tells them not only why they are visiting your site, but why they should be interested in your website’s value now, as well as in the future. Again, keeping it short and clear, using one to three sentences is your best bet.
An example of this would be: “Are you looking for ______ or _______? If so, we have exactly what you need. We offer _____ and _____ for businesses of any size”.
Third, follow-up with a brief description of why they need your product, service, or website offering. Generally one or two sentences for an overview will be sufficient. If additional explanation may be required or desired, include buttons or linked text in this section that will direct them to a designed page on that subject. Below are examples of what this descriptive text might look like:
If visiting for a product, an example of this would be: “We have the highest-quality _____ available”.
If they need your service, perhaps something like this: “Our _____ service can help reduce your costs”.
If your website provides information or has entertainment value, an example of good text would be: “Stay informed on the latest ______ updates”.
If you offer multiple reasons why they need you, try using bullet points to make the text stand out and easier to read quickly.
Fourth, if you haven’t persuaded the visitor yet, build their trust and confidence by telling your story. It’s no secret that we love to know more about the person or ideas behind something. It's our human instinct to be curious. So briefly let the reader know something about you, your business, or brand. Be careful though not to alienate your reader by sounding arrogant, writing negatively about others, or by writing your entire history. Stay positive, professional, and on-point. Generally one or two short paragraphs should be all you need to accomplish the desired effect. Again, including a button or linked text to an “About Us” page can be utilized to further develop your story or history on a separate page.
The fifth step is to back up your brief story above with a reason why they should trust you. This further established trust and confidence from the reader. Demonstrate your credibility, again without alienating your reader. Keeping this short and concise is important as well, as a reader can generally tell when it's too much. Including too much text content here can make the entire process up to this point meaningless. Choose specific achievements to highlight, such as the number of people you have helped or worked with, or use awards and certifications to back up your identity. Using customer reviews or testimonials is an excellent way to achieve this trust building opportunity on your website as well.
Finally, it's time to close the deal if you haven’t already. Use a entertaining or fact-driven sentence to let them know why they need to act today or at minimum choose you when they are ready. Whether it's contacting you, booking your service, buying your product, or signing up for newsletters and email updates... Give them an exciting reason to take action. Actions may be clicking the contact button, providing their email address, or adding your product to a shopping cart. This is your final chance to engage your audience and secure a new customer or long-term visitor to your website.
With the above steps, your website’s homepage will be well structured, reader-friendly, and provide the best opportunity for a desired reader action. Be sure to keep it engaging, but not overwhelming. Try to be relatable to your audience, gently helping them understand your position. Including interactive website elements like a hoverbox, slideshows, and animations, can make the experience even more attractive to your viewing audience. But be wary that these elements do not slow the user’s experience down, or distract the reader from your overall message.
If you are needing help with the creative writing process for websites or other projects, try contacting a local marketing agency, or sourcing a local freelancer to help. If you are a location-specific business, using local creators can enhance your content for being relatable to your audience. You can also contact us at AFire Marketing for assistance in creative writing. We are experienced in developing creative content that provides maximum audience engagement on websites, social media, online advertising, print advertising, multimedia descriptions, and more. Contact us for more information and a price quote on your project at afiremarketing@gmail.com
Happy writing!
-Written by RW from AFire Marketing & Media at https://www.afiremarketing.com
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