Kristen Doyle 0:00
Your website might be beautiful, but if the content on it doesn’t connect with your visitors and drive them to take action, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities. Last week, we talked about how businesses often focus way too much on how your website looks over the strategy behind it, and how that can turn your website into nothing more than a pretty welcome mat or a brochure, when it really should be a strategic tool that is bringing you more customers.
Kristen Doyle 0:32
Now, it is one thing to know what needs to go on the page and to know that the strategy is important, but it’s another altogether to actually write that content. So today I want to take it a step further and show you how to create strategic content that converts visitors into customers. Whether you’re selling products or you’re offering services, the reality is the content on your site is what really drives results for your business, not just the design. So let’s talk about how to write that kind of content.
Kristen Doyle 1:05
Are you a digital product or course creator, selling on platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers, Etsy, or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you’re in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I’m Kristin Doyle, and I’m here to give you no-fluff tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process—things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automations, and so much more. Let’s get started, y’all.
Kristen Doyle 1:44
The first thing you need to do is stop focusing on you and think more about your visitors. See, most websites mess this up because they focus way too much on what they do or what they are or what they sell, instead of focusing on what their visitors need and what they came to their website for. So I want you to move from talking about yourself, your features, why you started your business, all of those things, to really trying to tap into the thoughts, the emotions, the feelings, maybe even the fears of your website visitors.
Kristen Doyle 2:22
See, people don’t spend money with you unless they have a problem that you can solve. And I know it is so tempting for all of us to think, yeah, but my business isn’t that deep. Mine’s not like that. I’m different. But even something as straightforward as a nail salon or a restaurant, people come and spend their money with you because they’re hungry and they don’t feel like cooking tonight, or they need their nails done for an event or whatever. So they have a problem that you are going to solve for them. Regardless of what your business model is and how serious or how maybe light and fluffy you feel like it is, people come to you because they have a problem that you can solve.
Kristen Doyle 3:07
So from a very practical standpoint, what I want you to do is look at your homepage first. Count how many sentences you have on your homepage that start with I, or we, or me, or my, versus you and your, and flip that ratio so that well over half of those are focusing on the customer and not you.
Kristen Doyle 3:31
Now let’s talk about how people read your website and why that matters. So believe it or not, there are people out there who are doing things like eye tracking studies to follow how people interact with and how they read your website. And those studies show us that on desktop, people scan in either an F or a Z pattern, depending on who you ask. Realistically, they’re essentially the same thing. Basically what this means is they start at the top left, and they scan across and down and across and down and across and so on. On mobile devices, it’s a little bit more of a spine pattern, kind of down the center and then out at different intervals when people see something that grabs their interest.
Kristen Doyle 4:18
What this means is that your most important information has to be in the headlines, because that is what grabs people’s eye and what they start to go out across the page to read. You don’t want to bury all the good stuff in paragraphs. See, most visitors only read about 25ish percent of the words that are on your page, and that is why the content strategy matters so much. If people aren’t reading most of your words, then the ones they do read better count.
Kristen Doyle 4:48
Now what I don’t want you to hear from that statistic is, oh, I need to go cut my copy on my page by three fourths and only put that 25% on the page, because there are people who will read a lot more than that, and typically speaking, those are your most engaged visitors, the ones who are most likely to convert into buyers. So don’t take all the words off, but think about that 25% of your text, probably the headings and the bolded stuff, those need to really tell the whole story, and rope people in. So from a super practical standpoint, your headlines, like I said, need to tell the complete story, even if people don’t read any of the paragraph text or the bullet lists that you have.
Kristen Doyle 5:34
When you’re putting paragraphs on something like your homepage or a sales page, no more than three sentences per paragraph is a great rule to follow. And if you’re looking at something like a blog post, you can make those paragraphs a little bit longer, but not too much. Anytime you’re doing paragraph text, make sure the most important info goes in the first and the last paragraphs, because that middle section is what people tend to tune out.
Kristen Doyle 5:58
Now when it comes to making those headlines and that main copy really work for you, there are a couple of frameworks that work really well, and we’re going to talk about one called the problem agitation solution framework. It can work for every single business. And basically what you do is you start by identifying the problem, so you just name that specific challenge that your ideal customer is facing, and when you do that, make sure you’re using their language, not fancy industry jargon, and then you’re going to agitate that problem just a little bit.
Kristen Doyle 6:33
Now, we don’t want to harp on it and be super negative, but use phrases like, maybe for myself for a web designer, I could say something like, imagine spending thousands on a website that doesn’t bring in customers, or, think about how many of your potential clients are choosing your competitor while your calendar stays empty. Agitate that problem just a little bit, and then transition to presenting your solution as that natural, inevitable solution to their problem.
Kristen Doyle 7:04
There are handful of ways to kind of present that solution. One of them I really like is the only statement. So if you can say that you are the only, whatever your business category is, that does this unique thing you do, that goes a long way. So maybe you can say you are the only speech therapist in town who uses this particular strategy that you know works really well.
Kristen Doyle 7:25
Another one that works is a kind of before/after bridge, where you’re showing the transformation people get. So before they came to us, people are in this situation, they’re struggling with this, and we do this, and then after, they are having these wins. And then the last one I’ll share is kind of more straightforward problem, solution, result. We solve this problem through this unique approach that we have so that you can get this desired outcome. Those are some really short and sweet ways to get people to immediately understand what the problem is that you solve.
Kristen Doyle 8:02
Now, the whole point of all of this is to get your visitors to actually take action from your site, not just browse and leave. So whether you’re an online business or an in-person, brick and mortar kind of business, you want to get people to do something other than just browse your website. And the way that you do that is you make it crystal clear what people need to do next. We talked last week about how every page needs to guide your visitors to a specific action. Don’t make them guess what you want them to do, or hunt around for what they need.
Kristen Doyle 8:36
When you do this, you want to make sure that you are being specific about that action. So instead of, you know, a button that just says contact us, replace that with really specific instructions, like text to schedule your appointment, or see available booking times, something like that that really helps people immediately know what is going to happen when they click that Contact Us button. And you want to make taking action as easy as possible.
Kristen Doyle 9:04
So what does that look like from a super practical standpoint? Whether you have a lead magnet or an appointment scheduler or whatever it is, if you have a form attached to the action that people are taking, even a checkout form for an online store, the fewer form fields or the fewer steps, the fewer decisions people have to make, the more people will follow through. So leave off any fields that you don’t really need to know and just collect that most important information so that you get more people to opt into your lead magnet or to sign up for that appointment, whatever it is that you’re doing.
Kristen Doyle 9:40
When it comes to contact, having as many different contact methods as you are comfortable with is really going to help remove barriers for people. The more options you can give people, the more people will be interested and willing to contact you. See, some people hate phone calls, and would rather just text or email or make an appointment online. Other people really aren’t comfortable with the online stuff, and they just want to get on the phone and talk to you.
Kristen Doyle 10:08
So the more options you can give people, the better you’re going to do. The businesses that make it the easiest for customers to take action are going to win every time, even against competitors who maybe have similar quality or similar prices or similar really great strategic content on their website, like we were just talking about.
Kristen Doyle 10:30
Let me share a perfect real world example from my life of how this works. So about a month ago, my regular nail salon that I use closed for some renovations and an ownership change. They were closed for about a month, and I needed to find a new spot to go in the middle. I looked at all the nail salons around online, and one salon I looked at, their website looked beautiful. They have a gorgeous space. It looked clean. They offered the services I wanted. Their prices were good. I even had a friend who told me that they went there and liked it.
Kristen Doyle 11:03
But their website didn’t mention if they took walk ins or require appointments, and I really didn’t see an easy way to contact them to find out, and so I immediately left their site and kept searching. Now I could have probably dug around and found their phone number, but they didn’t make it easy for me, so I moved on. The salon I ultimately chose wasn’t necessarily better quality or better prices or anything. It was probably about the same, to be honest, but their website had a very clear ‘click here to make your appointment’ button, and they let me text them to book an appointment. I am not a phone call girl, so if you let me text you to make an appointment I am in, this is so much better for me. So that simple difference in their website content right on their homepage, making the next step obvious and offering the contact method I preferred is why the second salon got my business while the first salon lost it.
Kristen Doyle 12:00
And this wasn’t a one time thing either. I noticed this because I was looking at a new salon, but the reason I’ve stayed with my regular salon for years now isn’t just the quality of their work. It is great, and I do love it. It’s women owned too, and that just speaks to my heart. But one of the biggest reasons that I stick with them is because I can grab my phone and text them to book an appointment. I don’t have to call, I don’t have to remember their website. I just have their number saved, and I can text, book my appointment, and I’m done. So tiny little decisions like that one, like what kind of contact methods you’re going to allow on your website, really can directly impact whether people choose to do business with you or they pick a competitor.
Kristen Doyle 12:39
Alright, let’s talk about what you need to do this week. Take a look at your website’s main pages. Start with your homepage if you’re just getting going, because that is kind of that digital front door, and so it’s the most important page to optimize first. Look over your page for that customer focus. Count how many sentences start with I or we, or me, my, versus using yours. See if you can aim for at least 80% customer focused language and only 20% you-focused.
Kristen Doyle 13:12
Make your headlines work harder for you. Look for any super generic headlines or call to action buttons, things like our services, contact us, learn more, and replace those with benefit driven headlines and call to action buttons that speak directly to your customers’ needs and their problems and the actual action step they’re going to take.
Kristen Doyle 13:34
Try to look at each page through the eyes of a first time visitor to your site. I know sometimes that’s tough, but try to do that when you’re looking at it. Would they immediately know exactly what to do next? And when they click a button or a link, is it obvious where that button or that link is going to go? Make sure every page has that one obvious next step.
Kristen Doyle 13:57
And then reduce friction points as much as you can. Again, try using your website like you’re a new customer. Go through your purchase process, your appointment booking process, whatever it is that you have on your site, and think about anywhere that there’s a little extra friction, and try to eliminate those roadblocks that might cause people to leave, things like requiring a phone number on an email contact form. Do you really need their phone number, or is it okay just to get their name and email address? Maybe requiring a phone call when a text would work just as well. Anything like that that you can do to reduce friction and make it easier for people to say yes, is going to get you more customers in the long run.
Kristen Doyle 14:38
Beautiful design might catch someone’s eye, but it really is that strategic content on your site that makes them reach for their wallet. Now, listen, I love a gorgeous website. I am a web designer, after all, but your website has to be way more than just pretty. It should be a sales tool that connects with visitors and gets them to take action. So start with just your homepage this week. Review those I and we statements versus you and your statements, check your headlines, and make sure there is a crystal clear next step for your visitors to take. Just like my nail salon story, even small content decisions that are made strategically can really be the difference between winning a customer or losing them to your competitors.
Kristen Doyle 15:21
If you found this helpful, I would love for you to take a screenshot of this episode in your favorite podcast app and share it with a friend who might be struggling with their website content. Tag me at kristendoyle.co so I can thank you personally, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s episode where we are talking about the difference between owning your website and renting it, and why that really matters in the long run. I’ll talk to you then.
