Author: Kaitlin Farris

One of the largest holdups we see to website development projects is content. Websites must have content that speaks to customers to invite them to take the next step. Yet, finding the time to write content is tough and for many people writing content isn’t their specialty.

According to Neil Patel, the main reason people leave your website is that the content isn’t relevant to the customer’s needs.

No one knows your customers’ needs better than you do, so writing content should be easy, right? Not at all.

Summarizing customer problems in a simple statement is hard. And so is telling them how and why your products and services are the answer to their struggles.

We’ll explain how you can simplify the content-writing process while producing content that converts and speaks to customers in a dynamic way.

How to Write Great Website Content

Instead of sitting down to write your content, start with a strategy session. The goal of your strategy sessions is to gain a better understanding of who you are, what you do well and why customers look to you for solutions. Here’s a step-by-step process of what you should document before trying to write your content.

1. Start with your customer’s problem.

For example, a company that markets a software project needs to explain the challenges the software solves. In the case of marketing automation software, the customer’s challenge might be not having enough time to build effective relationships with their customers. At this point in your content, you aren’t talking about your products at all though. It’s about meeting customers where they are at.

2. Make a list of features and benefits.

List out the primary things your product or service offers. Those are the features. Then make a list of the benefits your customers get from those features. Going back to the marketing automation software example, here’s what a feature and benefits statement might look like.

• Feature: Automate emails when a customer signs up through your website.
• Benefit: Connect with customers the moment they show interest in your business

See how the feature explains what the software does, while the benefit shows what the customer gets from that feature?

3. List your market differentiators.

A market differentiator is how you position your product in the marketplace differently from your competitors. It might be a unique feature, different price point or customer support. Take a hard look at your competitors to see what their primary market differentiators are. You want to avoid leading with the same primary features or benefits of your product to make it clear how your market is different.

4. Outline your website content.

Now you have a better idea about how to talk about your business. Take some time to outline what pages you need on your website. This will likely be a tree list showing hierarchy and how pages relate to one another. It might look something like this.

• Homepage
• About the company
• Services
  • Service
  • Service
  • Service
• Reviews/Testimonials/Work portfolio
• Blog
• Contact Us

5. Take your strategy information and write your content page-by-page.

Start with your most important market differentiators and benefits. Those should be the lead content on your homepage. A good homepage should inform customers at a glance what your product is and why they need it. But remember, you’re not talking about yourself. You’re talking about the problems customers face and the solution you can present.

The homepage should link out to each of your main pages. So write a small paragraph about your services, another general overview of who you are and entice readers to check out your reviews/testimonials or portfolio to see for themselves the difference you make.

General Writing Tips

Website content is more enjoyable to read when it sounds natural and is broken into small, readable segments. Here are some ways to make your content inviting for customers.

• Write like you talk: the more natural your content sounds and the less salesy it is, the better. Go ahead and avoid being too formal or unnatural sounding.
• Avoid industry jargon. Jargon is words or phrases that are only prevalent in your industry. You likely know in-depth what these words or phrases mean because you live them day in and day out. But your customers don’t. Do what you can to avoid having these terms in your content.
• Keep it short. Sentences, paragraphs and headlines should only be as long as they have to be. Use simpler sentence structures to make it simpler to read your content. Break up paragraphs into only a couple of sentences each. And do your best to say what you need to say in as few words as necessary in your headlines and headers.
• Use lots of headings. Headings are attention grabbers. They should summarize the content that follows in a simple way. Show importance by using headlines and subheads that provide further detail.
• Create skimmable content. Bulleted lists and numbered lists make content easier to skim and help readers understand your points in a simple format.

When to Hire a Website Copywriter

Sometimes, finding the time to write content or knowing how to build out the strategy side of content is too much to do on your own. When that happens, it’s time to look for a good website copywriter.

Look through your network on LinkedIn to see who you might already know who provides this service. Otherwise, look for professionals in your area and ask for references and content they’ve written for other customers.

When working with a website copywriter, be prepared to spend some time on the phone going through the steps listed above. Your copywriter can guide you in understanding your market differentiators, features and benefits, etc. But they’ll need some time with you to learn more about your company and what you stand for.

Make yourself available to your copywriter throughout the project as they might have follow-up questions for you. These might include general information about your company or assistance in performing industry research.

In the end, your website will perform much better when it starts with great content. Give this step the time and importance it deserves. Then find a professional website designer to make the content look great and visually connect with your customers.

Kelly Website Design offers website design, hosting and management. Contact us now for more information about these services.

Forms are an essential element of your WordPress website. They help you take customer inquiries and build your following. But many people don’t use WPForms to their full advantage.

WPForms is just one of many plugins that can power the following website functionality.

• Contact forms
• Payment forms
• Survey forms
• Newsletter forms
• Registration forms

Start taking full advantage of this incredible tool to build your business and increase your sales. Here are the great things you can do with WPForms.

Use Conditional Logic

Customize your forms based on some early dropdown menus. Based on how customers answer these questions, you can add additional boxes or adjust other dropdown options.

You can also hide fields that you don’t need based on early answers from website visitors.

Route Form Responses Accordingly

With just one contact page, you can route content to the appropriate teams. Some websites create clutter by having various contact forms to reach different teams, such as customer service, IT support or sales. But instead, use one form and then allow users to select the area of inquiry they’re making. You’ll then route that message based on what the user indicated in the form.

Customize Response Messages

Based on how users fill out your website form, you can post different messages telling customers what to expect next. You can put a basic thank you note after they make a purchase. Or you can send them to a different webpage upon completing the form. This might help in answering their question through a knowledge base or FAQ page while you work to answer it personally.

Add the Form Abandonment Addon

Getting more leads out of your website is important to growing your business. Do this by adding the Form Abandonment Addon. This way you can still see contact information for individuals who start a form but don’t hit submit.

Astoundingly, 81 percent of people begin filling out a form but fail to submit it. You’ll get many more leads if you use the abandonment addon.

Use Multipage Forms

Sometimes forms are just too overwhelming for your website visitors. They look at all the boxes they have to complete and abandon the experience before ever starting.

Multipage forms with a bar at the top that show progress can help increase your form fills. Forms broken down into smaller chunks generally get a greater completion rate.

Connect Your Forms to Marketing Automation Software

You can connect WPForms to your marketing automation software using Zapier. You’ll have tons of options for what software to use. But this way, you can automate follow-up messages and speed up the process of getting data into a CRM or database to ensure you understand your customers and prospects on a deeper level.

Preset Open and Close Dates

For temporary surveys or promotions, you can set an open and close date for your forms automatically. Use the form scheduling options in WPForms to power this functionality. Now, you won’t have to worry about being on your computer at a set date and time to make adjustments to your form.

You can do the same thing with forms once you reach a certain response rate. For example, if you can only accept 100 form submissions during a flash sale or timely promotion, you can automate the closure based on responses.

Restrict Forms to Members Only

Use the Form Locker Addon to only allow members to submit a form. This can be helpful for closed communities or for adjusting forms based on whether a customer is logged in from completing an order. This will also make it easier to see what survey responses are from existing customers and which are from prospects.

You can restrict webinar registrations to those who pay subscription fees or only take RSVPs from pre-approved individuals.

Setup Image Fields

Instead of generic words and phrases for your field options, you can setup image fields to bring the options to life. Use checkboxes or multiple choice but place a photo next to the option alongside the name for the item. This will simplify the completion process for your users.

Add GDPR Compliance Checkboxes to Forms

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires that users consent to the use of their information and cookies. You could face enormous fines if you don’t comply with these laws.

Add a simple check box that enables you to collect GDPR compliance. You can add another checkbox to disable user cookies for those that prefer you not track them in that way.

Customize the Types of Data a User Can Input

Use input masks to customize what data a user can put into your forms. For example, a ZIP code requires five digits for submission. Or a username must be 6-12 characters long.

This provides some data validation to prevent errors. Likewise, you can use this mask to ensure that email addresses all include an @ to ensure the data is usable. Or that phone numbers include area codes so that they’re a total of 10 digits long.

Bulk Add Multiple Choices for Forms

Everyone wants to save time! You can bulk add your multiple choice options using the import option. This will help you get the answers you want on your multiple-choice form while avoiding copying and pasting tons of options.

Choose Payment Options

Allow users to submit payment using different payment forms. Payment forms might be PayPal, Stripe or other gateways. You can give your users options when it comes to how to pay for something but only give the options for payment forms you want to accept.

Additionally, you can allow users to set recurring payments. This is great for companies that accept subscriptions or that charge a retainer for services rendered.

Build NPS Surveys to Learn About Your Customers Over Time

Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys help you understand how perceptions of your company change over time. Use the NPS functionality in WPForms to gather this valuable data. Then visualize the data how it best serves your needs.

Integrating WPForms to Your Website

If you need help integrating WPForms into your website, Kelly Website Design can help. We’ll work with you to recommend best practices and help you get the most out of your website forms. Contact us now for more details.