It’s 3 a.m., you’ve just polished off your seventh or eighth cup of coffee for the day, and the tiny cursor on your laptop has produced nothing of great value (or so you think). How do you communicate the value of your business in a few short lines? Too many of us get bogged down in content writing for our websites simply because we are trying way too hard.
Users are not going to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of information. If your website is solely dense written content, prepare yourself for low engagement and a significantly high bounce rate. Keep your copy concise, to the point, and clear. Instead of having your users read copious amounts of plain text, show it to them in a visual like a sliding banner, an infographic, or even an explainer video. Think about your behavior when you look at website: you may read a line or two here and there, and then jump from page to page.
In essence you need to supply a 90-second elevator pitch by answering the following five questions.
1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. How do you do it?
and....
4. Why do you do it?
Your company's value statement or the "Why you do it" is by far the most important question you can answer as a brand while you are writing content for your website. The Ted Talk below expands on the "why": it is a vital ingredient into gaining the customer's trust and ultimately their undying loyalty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjtmQSALuQo
So put down your coffee mug, get some rest and crank out those answers. As long as you can communicate why you do what you do, the rest will unceremoniously fall into place.