Non-Drowsy Web Copy

Copywriting for websites is not an aimless venture.  There is serious purpose behind what you write, and you are the expert who is supposed to fulfill that purpose.  One thing your copy should never be is a big snooze.  Success begins with capturing the attention of your target audience.

A writing principle that has stood the test of time and serves as an excellent guide for how to construct web copy is the AIDA principle, which says that copywriting should:

·         A – Capture the attention of the target audience.

·         I  – Gain the interest of the audience.

·         D – Build desire for the product or service.

·         A – Induce the readers to take action.

Your target audience has no patience for a boring presentation, no matter the demographic.  There are certain proven tactics for grabbing a reader’s attention, including:

·        Taking a novel approach.  When you present words or images on a page that are interesting and outside of the norm, people take notice.  Whether it’s a colorful and easy-to-comprehend graph, illustrations, photographs, or anything else somewhat mesmerizing, novelty is a reliable attention-grabber.

·        Catering to the F-scan.  When people visit websites, they scan in an F pattern on the page and then possibly read.  Since the vast majority of people scan rather than read, make sure that your copy is highly scannable.

·        Inspiring emotion.  People are drawn to headlines and stories that appeal to their emotions.  When you can get readers to feel something, you have their attention.

·        Structuring content sequentially and presenting one concept at a time.  Clearly introduce the value or promise, follow it up with a supporting presentation, and end with a conclusion that directs your target audience to take the desired action.  If text is disjointed, ambiguous, or difficult to grasp, you lose your audience.

Copywriting is serious business that even has value for people who aspire to be book authors.   After all, once you’ve mastered the art of grabbing attention as a copywriter, you have developed a skill that could be helpful in writing a real page-turner.