If you’re stuck facing a mountain of writing tasks so you can get your website copy up and supporting your business, this post is for you. We’ll dive into a few strategies I suggest on how to write the copy that genuinely works for your business and how to get it onto your site ASAP so it does its primary job: supporting your business.
Before we jump in, bookmark the following posts so you can see how to craft the primary three pages of copy for your website and about blogging for small businesses:
- Home page: An Inspiring Home, Home Updates
- About page: Sell on Your About Page, What Not To Do on Your About Page
- Offer and Work With Me pages: When to Update Your Services Page, From Site to Sale
- Blog: Content to Cement Your Expertise, Seven Content Sourcing Secrets (for when you’re stuck on what to write)
Now, on to how to get this content live on your website!
Know Your Writing Style
Take an honest review of how you write so you can plan. Whether you do marathon writing sessions or sprints of one or two paragraphs in a few minutes, knowing what to expect of yourself when you sit down to write is critical to creating your plan.
Sprinters, This is For You!
If you tend to write in short bursts or have short spaces of time to write, be very precise with what content you’ll write when you have time dedicated to writing. Then start in with this suggested order of writing copy, one or two paragraphs at a time:
- Home page
- Offer page(s)
- About page
Once you have a few paragraphs on your Home page, then write copy for your Offer page, then for your About page. Continue this writing cycle for each page and you’ll build copy for each page as you work.
You’ll eventually hit a point at which you know that you have enough copy on your Home page. That’s when you can begin to build out your blog; whether you do video, audio, or written posts, keeping up with a blog will help cement your expertise with your ideal clients.
Marathoners, This is For You!
If you’re more of a get-in-the-zone and lose track of time writer, you’ll also want to be specific about what you write and when but you’ll likely fall into one of two general categories of marathon writers:
- People who need to map out content before they get to writing.
- People who need to simply start writing to get all of the content written.
If you need to map out your content, take the time to do that one page at a time starting with your Home page. Look at the must-have elements of the copy that you need to write for this welcome to your website and get specific about what you want your ideal clients to feel, know, and do on this page. Repeat for your Offer page, then your About page. Then, you’ll be ready to set aside the time to write it out and adjust your writing as needed.
If you know that you need to start writing to do a marathon writing session, I suggest getting started with not writing copy for your website. Yes, truly. Take five minutes to write down whatever is in your head at the moment so you can set it aside when you need to write: your to-do list, grocery list, feelings, about your day: whatever is in your head write it out before you start to write your website copy.
Then, start with whatever details come to you first and continue to write down the page until it is all out. At this point, I always recommend taking a break from writing. It’ll allow you to come back with a refreshed mind to edit and organize the copy before publishing it on your site.
If you find that you’ve run out of time for the day with this first step, block off your next time for editing and organizing the copy.
Always Focus on Your Ideal Clients
At every decision about what type of information to share and what kind of content to create, consider what your ideal clients need to know from you so they’re ready to make progress toward their specific goals. You’ll know your ideal clients better than anyone else, so take the time to see what their needs are before you start writing.
Here are the three basic questions you can ask yourself to find the details you need to include on each page:
- What do I want my ideal clients to feel as they’re reading this page?
- What do I want my ideal clients to know after reading this page?
- What do I want my ideal clients to do when they reach the end of this page?
(For more on the Feel, Know, Do approach, check out my post on it here.)
