What You Need For Your Website Pages Before You Ever Start Writing

Not all copywriting projects require you to write…at least not right away. The first step to writing website pages doesn’t involve writing at all. You need to nail down a few things before you ever start writing copy for your website. The writing part comes later. 

Sounds crazy, right? Well, the good news is that by putting in the non-writing work ahead of time, you’re going to make the writing part that much easier later on. This post is especially helpful if writing is not your specialty, but you’re also not quite ready to hire a copywriter for your online business and need to DIY your website. 

Keep reading to learn what you need for your website pages before you ever start writing. The elements I’m highlighting should give you a solid foundation for your copy so you can write strong and compelling words that convert your readers into clients on autopilot. You can thank me later.

Customer Research

Customer research is a critical part of every single piece of copy. Online business gurus recommend niching down and researching your customer in the very beginning stages of your business. Basically, you want to figure out who your business is meant to help and write to them.

If you don’t know who you’re writing to, then you probably shouldn’t write at all. At least not yet. Before you ever write a word, you need to know who your ideal client avatar is. You need to know what their deepest desires are, what keeps them up at night, what makes them tick, and so much more. And that means you need to conduct customer research to get the answers to these questions.

Knowing your Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA) inside and out will help you write copy that speaks directly to them because you can’t write great copy until you know who you’re talking to. 

Social proof

Social proof like testimonials, features, and recommendations go a long way for business owners. Not only are you increasing your credibility with your readers but your also building trust with your audience. 

Social proof helps solidify what your words are trying to convey. They give proof that you are what you say you are and that you can help your ideal client get the results you claim they can get. Without social proof, your words are just words. 

Offer Clarity

Before you write your website pages (particularly your services page and/or your sales page), you want to know what your offer is and why you are persuading your readers to buy it. How will they benefit? What are the results of it? 

You might have several different offers that work for different audience segments. Get clear on what product or service you want to sell before you write about it.

Brand Voice

Make sure your writing is cohesive and exudes your brand across the board. You don’t want to write your Home and About Page, before you’ve solidified your brand voice and then write your services page and a few blogs post branding. These pages will inevitably sound different because you’re writing some pages with brand clarity and some without.  

I promise your reader can tell when a brand’s voice isn’t solidified (even if they don’t know how to pinpoint that problem. A unified brand is confusing for your reader and will encourage them to click off and find a competitor whose brand is cohesive and doesn’t sound like four different people are talking to them. 

Formulas

Most website copy can rely on a formula. It’s unnecessary to follow it, but if you’re a beginner or just feeling a little overwhelmed when writing your web copy, formulas are a great way to get started. Sales pages, about pages, home pages, work with me pages, blogs, and even emails have basic formulas that will help you get your ideas and thoughts on the page. 

Not only do formulas eliminate the guesswork of what to write, but they’ll help you tackle those blank Google docs without wanting to rip your hair out. 

If you want to know more about formulas, I wrote a post about my favorite About Page formulas right here. 

Hopefully, these five elements will help you get started writing your website copy without feeling the overwhelm of looking at a blank screen. With these pieces in place, you might be surprised to find how easy writing your copy will be when you have solid foundations for an unmissable web page.

If you’re still not interested in writing your own web copy and are ready to take the pressure off, let me write your pages for you! You can learn how to work with me and the team right here.