7 steps to getting your story right
Writing a website takes more than great copy. It involves strategy, design, and little tricks to ensure your message lands and resonates.
If you own a business, you almost certainly have a website. They’re an incredibly important tool for anyone, not just those that sell goods or services online. Basically, a website functions as a portal for the world to view you through. It’s a first impression and you’d better get it right.
That first starts with strategy and design, which is admittedly painful for a writer to confess. But it’s true. (If you want to dig into the essentials of great design, we have more on that here.) There’s a good reason why. It takes milliseconds for us to form an opinion when we open a webpage.
Judgment happens before you read a word. If you click on a link and a page opens with design that’s super antiquated or discombobulated, you’re likely to close the tab. No reason to read. One click, opportunity gone. Less than a second.
If your design is good enough to keep the viewer there—or better yet—draw them in, then they start to look for information. If what they find is written or packaged wrong, you’re not going to achieve your goals. That’s what we’re going to focus on here: How to effectively tell a story on your website. Let’s jump in.
1. Speak to your audience’s needs & desires.
That might seem like it doesn’t need to be said, but it’s often misinterpreted. So let me unpack it. Founders and business owners usually know what their potential customers need in terms of a solution or product. And that’s a damn good start. Addressing the needs of a given market is essential. But to truly succeed, you need to know how to speak to your audience.
What really drives audience interaction and brand loyalty isn’t a product or service, it’s about what each of those can do for you.
For example, if you’re a biotech developing a new drug for psoriasis, it isn’t just about curing or treating the disease. Sure, patients want that, but why? They want to live without the pain and itching. They want to be able to expose their skin without feeling self-conscious and having to explain the red patches. In other words, they want freedom and confidence. Those are your audience drivers.
In the same vein, if you make packs for overnight backpacking, you’re not really selling something that carries things. You’re selling an experience and lifestyle—the joy of exploring some of the most beautiful places in the world. To be inspired and do something healthy. That should be the focus of your message.
In its most basic sense, it boils down to this: Don’t focus on selling a product or service, focus on what your offering creates or allows your audience to do on a deeper level. The story is theirs and they’re the hero, not you. Whether its copy or design, success ultimately relies on conveying this effectively.
“Founders and business owners usually know what their potential customers need in terms of a solution or product. And that’s a damn good start. Addressing the needs of a given market is essential. But to truly succeed, you need to know how to speak to your audience.”
2. Get your hero right
What do we mean by hero? It’s the section or panel that a viewer sees (what they call above the fold in journalism) at the top of a homepage. It should intrigue and draw your visitor in, inviting them to scroll down and check out more. Basically, it’s a headline with some explanatory copy below. It’s a sign on your front door. Do passers by want to come in and ask a question or keep walking by?
I’ll start first with what you shouldn’t do, because it’s something that we see really often. Commonly, a company has their H1 (the biggest, boldest text at the top of the homepage) simply say their company name, or “Welcome to Company Name.”
That’s wasted real estate. A visitor likely knows the company name of the link they clicked on. Even if they don’t, somewhere in your logo or header this should be clear. The most important message you have to tell your visitors should not be your company name.
The next thing people tend to get wrong is the explanatory copy underneath the hero. It’s often still in large headline style and multiple sentences long. It’s too much too fast and wrecks the design. Keep it short and compel the reader to scroll below the fold.
If these two things are what you see on your homepage, it’s okay, you’re not alone. But you should work on improving them asap.
So, what should you be doing?
First, the opening headline should speak to the drivers we talked about in step one. It’s a short (five words or so) snippet that tells your audience that you see them and understand their needs and desires. It should be more emotive than informational.
The next chunk of text below (your H2) should also be concise. Think one sentence or maybe two short ones. It builds on the emotive hero and delivers enough high-level information about what your company does to scroll down. Don’t try to say too much. Keep it pithy and engaging.
When we put it all together, the optimal formula is:
Emotive/aspirational driver
Tangible reason to believe that tells the visitor what you do. Keep it about this long.
It’s easier said than done, but it’s worth doing right. It’s your first chance to connect and sometimes your only chance to get a visitor to scroll and find out more. Take your time to create this copy and follow the format above.
3. Balance SEO with readability
Everyone wants their website to be findable. Top ten in a Google search would be lovely, right? The truth is that’s difficult and it takes time. Searchability is something you need to consider when you create your site. But you can’t let it dictate all of your copy decisions.
Are you a startup looking to raise series A funds? Or are you a B2C looking to sell online? How those two organizations prioritize SEO is going to be very different. Ideally, both will balance SEO goals with what users actually interact with on a website.
Search engine algorithms are Byzantine in their complexity and ever-updating. A few things are fairly constant though. Word count matters.You need the right words or phrases that people search for. You need a steady stream of new, original content because the gatekeepers put more weight on it.
Companies putting SEO at the forefront of their copy for cornerstone pages (the ones that change less frequently, like your homepage, services, about, etc.) often focus on word count and write headers that replicate what a user types to search on their device. The issue here is that these pages are aesthetically unpleasing, use headline messaging that looks robotic or nonsensical, and often get skipped over. In short, you miss the opportunity to meaningfully connect with your audience.
A blog is where most companies should be focusing their SEO efforts on their website. Algorithms like new content and readers looking for a deeper dive will check out your postings. Whether it’s thought leadership, more information on a product or service, a company announcement, or a case study, this content can be longer than the copy on your webpages, more SEO friendly, and tell a reader additional information.
We’ll boil it down to this: Create cornerstone pages that resonate visually and verbally, rather than trying to jam in phrases or word count just for SEO purposes. For SEO, write and post as frequently as you have time for or can afford to do.
4. Write with design in mind
As we started to talk about above, all of your copy should consider how it looks on a page. Since we’re keeping in mind that visitor first impressions are mostly visual and formed instantly, this is paramount. There’s a never-ending debate over whether design or copy should lead. Frankly, it’s moot.
A good website writer constantly thinks about design and a good designer knows that if something has to be said, the design will incorporate it.
Write short, punchy headlines with concise, digestible buckets of text below. Keep your body text short. If you have three product buckets, make sure the lines and word counts are balanced for design. I’m not just saying this to make our designers happy. It’s important.
Each panel should convey a new set of information and compel the reader to either click further into the site, purchase something, or scroll further down. Don’t make your reader work to get essential information and remember that a website is not journalism or a novel.
5. Use an information funnel with a goal in mind
Where do you say what and how much do you tell? What action do you want the website visitor to take? Business models (B2C or B2B) and audience needs will dictate this somewhat, but always keep in mind that your website’s goal is to get the viewer to take action. That goes well beyond using effective CTAs.
Panels on each page should be organized to give the reader the most important information from top to bottom. On your homepage, each panel is a window inviting the audience to click to learn more or see a specific product on a further page. From there, it should be easy to either contact you, purchase, or take whatever action you desire from the viewer.
Occasionally a visitor will know exactly what they want when they visit your site. Others want additional, easily findable information and resources before taking an action. If someone needs additional information like explainer videos, whitepapers, or detailed product specs, find the right place to share these resources that doesn’t bog down other visitors who are ready to act immediately. Identifying how much and what information to put where is essential.
6. Write easily understandable language
We frequently work with companies who create incredibly complex solutions in fields like biotech, blockchain, and AI. Inherently, the information conveyed in these fields is more technical. But keep in mind who you’re displaying this information for. Is your sole or primary audience other scientists or developers? Perhaps, but that’s usually not the case.
It’s our job to take the incredibly complex and explain it in a way that a broader audience can understand. Basically, people want language they can inherently process without working too hard. Make sure that your various audiences can all digest what you’re trying to say. If one of your audiences needs super technical information—the kind other audiences won’t completely understand—whitepapers, blog posts, and promotional materials aimed at the technical audience is where you can show this.
If you’re not in tech, you can still fall into a trap by using stuffy language. Basically, don’t use fancy words to prove you’re a fancy person or company. Having an extensive vocabulary is a good thing. Using it in an attempt to prove a point about your worth isn’t. Don’t sit and stare at the thesaurus looking for a super long word to replace one that is easily understood (but do dig into a thesaurus to avoid word repetition).
You want to sound competent and professional. But if people have to think too hard about your message or find a dictionary, they simply tune out.
7. Ditch headline-style capitalization
Yeah, we know, they taught us to use them in school. Capitalize every word in a headline, or ones of a certain length, or specific types of grammar. Every style guide used to call for them in one of those forms. But not anymore.
Knowing and adhering to a style guide (preferably one of your own creation) will keep your writing consistent and eliminate mistakes. Do that, but neither AP or the Chicago Manual of Style are meant for branding and website traffic.
Headline style capitalization is difficult to read. It’s often perceived as too stiff or formal. Research also shows that readers vastly prefer sentence case to headline style or all caps. If website visitors prefer it, why aren’t you using it?
It’s also difficult for many companies to do correctly. A new writer or marketer might know a different style guide’s rules for headline-style caps, or not be an expert on the grammar function of certain words. This leads to inconsistencies and errors. Make it easy on yourself and your audience. Use sentence case as a default and only deviate if there’s a special consideration.
Adhere to the basics, then get creative
The strategies above should always be taken into account when creating a website. They’re building blocks to make your website connect and convert. While we love to think about the creative, you can’t execute that effectively without knowing basic guideposts for what an audience wants. If you follow the seven steps described above, you just need one more thing to ensure storytelling success. Damn good copy.
