The Low Cost Web site Design Secrets series continues. You’ll always be able to click the link to the entire series below.

Low Cost Web Site Design Secret Number 23 : Master the correct tone of copy for your audience.

You will want to match the tone of your copy to the audience that is coming to your site. The vast majority of the time you’ll want a business casual voice that is conversational – the exception would be circumstances where your audience does not speak in a conversational, business casual tone. Very few commercial sites are going to fit this bill, but it’s not entirely unheard of.

For example, if you had invented a social software such as an instant messenger, while your company might be commercial, your audience speaks in a casual voice, and so should your copy.

Part of having a conversational voice is writing copy that imitates the way you would speak to your future client if there were some way for you to see them step into your virtual store. You will want to be friendly, but not overly intimate. You should use the same short sentences that you would when speaking aloud.

A good way to test your copy for a conversational tone is to open up a best-selling novel and look at a page of dialogue. Instead of actually reading the page, just glance at the layout and look at your site.

When comparing the two, you won’t be looking for an exact match to white space and use of pronouns. Rather, you’ll want to see that the layout of the page looks similiar. If you find too many blocks of text on your page or have copy that reads like an instruction manual than a letter to an aquaintance, you’ll want to have a web site designer or copywriting expert look at your page and give you some pointers.

Sometimes departures from conversational copy will be necessary – but if these are the norm at your site, it’s worth having someone give it a second look.

Nina

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Low Cost Web Site Design Secret Number 22: Learn the Attributes of Effective Web Copy.

Effective web copy has a sole function, and that is to convert prospects into buyers. Your online copy needs to be persuasive in getting the visitor to register, subscribe, qualify as leads, and ultimately, buy from your web site.

Remember you are trying to get someone you can’t see and have never met take a step towards building a relationship with you or your company. Since statistics tell us that over 80% of all buying decisions are emotional, that means that you must make an appeal to the logic to get your visitor to see that they have a need for the product or service, but one that is heavily supported by emotion, to appeal to their wants as well.

You can read more about effective copy writing and web site design in our article section, including nine tips for effective copywriting.

Nina

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Low Cost Web Site Design Secret Number 21: Pay attention to how copy is displayed.

Visitors don’t like to see long lines of text because they want information to be concise and quick. They want easy-to-read material. Use short, punchy sentences. Break up large chunks of text into short paragraphs or use bulleted lists.

When you get into details, make it a hyperlink to a new page around that topic. The “click here” statement should be a hyperlink taking your visitor to another page focused on describing your products or services in more detail. Use teasers. Hyperlinks are used for easy reading. This keeps your content short so visitors remain focused, yet a detailed description is just a click away.

This especially applies to blog posts. Most posts to a weblog should be about a third of the length of a regular article. If you find that your posts are normally longer than this, try putting excerpts on the front page instead of the entire post.
Nina

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Low Cost Web Site Design Secret Number 20: Understand What Copy Has to Do With It

The relationship of copywriting to web design is often forgotten when designing a site. However, no matter how beautiful a site is, if the copy is ineffective, all effort is for naught.

Copywriting is writing that sells a product, a service, or even a person. It is basically taking powerful, emotion evoking word pictures and showing the reader that his or her life would be more complete – better, easier, more productive, more profitable, happier, whatever – if the visitor owned your product or service. Copywriting is everywhere – on billboards, newspaper ads, on the net, and in every USP.

And so, should it be on your site. In an upcoming post, we’ll talk about effective copywriting – but first, in a few hours, we’ll look into how it should appear on the page, which is often just as important.
Nina

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Low Cost Web Site Design Secret Number 19: WIFM

Those are the four call letters of the only station every human being in the world has tuned into at one time or another, perhaps several times a day, representing the phrase that truly pays: What’s In It For Me?

It’s easy to spot a site that doesn’t meet the WIFM criteria for getting and keeping a visitor.

It talked about what “we” can do, rather than what “you” may want or need.

They refer more to the company than the visitor – if they talk about the visitor at all.

When they do talk about the visitor? It’s all about what the visitor can do for them – not what they do for their visitors.

If you can successfully answer the ultimate visitor question “What’s In It For Me” from the visitor’s perspective, you will have plenty of happy, satisfied customers. It doesn’t matter how flashy your site is – if you don’t give the visitor what they need, they’ll leave.

If your site doesn’t answer this question it is destined to fail because there is no benefit to the visitor to come to the site, or to return another time. Successful websites on the other hand, always exceed the expectations of their visitors with the benefits of coming by.

Nina

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