← Simple SEO and Marketing, Business Growth, Organic Marketing, Copywriting, Online Business, Blogging, Content Creation
Simple SEO and Marketing, Business Growth, Organic Marketing, Copywriting, Online Business, Blogging, Content Creation
11 Website Copy Mistakes That Cost You Leads, Sales, and Major Revenue
00:20:47
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
All right, y'all, so today we are going to dive into 10, maybe 11 website copy mistakes that are killing your sales. Because let's be real, we are in business to help people and make money doing it. And your website needs to be converting or it's just costing you money and taking up space on the Internet doing nobody no good. So today we're going to dive in, bust out your notes app or whatever you use to take notes, and then later when you sit down to look at your website, you can tick through this list and make sure that your website is not struggling with any of these things. All right, y'all, we're going to dive right on in. Hey there, fellow entrepreneur. Welcome to simple SEO and marketing. Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of search engine optimization? And you want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business. But when it comes down to it, does SEO feel complicated and hard to implement? Are you tired of wondering what in the heck to do with your website to get more traffic and more leads knocking on your door? What if I could tell you that there was a simple, proven system for using SEO, blogging and copywriting to get leads from your website and not just any leads. Hi, converting lead. Hey. I'm Faith Hannon, wife, mama, copywriter, SEO strategist, and barrel racer. And for the last eight years, I've been figuring out what works and what doesn't work in the world of online marketing to get organic traffic. And now I'm here to share all the things I'm learning in the trenches of SEO, copywriting and content marketing. How does 300%, 500% or even 12,000% more traffic in a year sound? What could your business do with that kind of traffic increase? How many more people could you help? So listen in and prepare to take notes. I'm about to drop simple, actionable SEO, marketing and copywriting tips, all with a heavy dose of Jesus loving encouragement. Let's get you more traffic and more leads so you can help more people with your God given gifts. So to be honest, one of the things that really got me started as a website copywriter is I saw so many really cool businesses that I was like, oh my gosh, they offer so many cool things, but their website wasn't communicating that. And communication has always been one of my gifts. And then marketing. And so I was like, let me help you, help me help you. And so that's really kind of how I got started in website copywriting. I mean, obviously lots of marketing experience, lots of research, lots of like behind the scenes work to make that work. But my heart has always been to help great businesses communicate how amazing they are to the right people in the right way. And so as we step into this new year, I mean, obviously marketing trends and how we market always evolves to some degree. But there are some core truths that stay the same in how we speak to people and how we reach people. So in today's podcast, I really want to break down some things that I want you to just check on your own website. Like just do a little checkup to make sure that you're not messing up. These things that could be slash probably are costing you sales. All right, now know that all this is very much from a place of love, but I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't shoot you straight and just tell you. All right, so the number one mistake I see, Ready, Ready, Ready, ready. Is unclear messaging. You knew that was going to show up. But in every aspect of business, especially now, as we are inundated with more and more and more information, clear wins over cute. Every day of the week that ends in Y. And so often we can get so involved in our product, so involved in the transformation, and so involved in our mission as business owners that we fail to communicate clearly how we help people. Um, I've recommended Donna Miller's book Building a Story Brand so many times. It is so fantastic for just getting good at communicating clearly. But that would be a great read for you. But the number one mistake I see really is unclear messaging. Okay, you have to be so clear. Remove fluff words, remove any excess baggage, especially at the top, above the fold section of your website. I have lots of episodes on that. If you want more information on that, reach out to infoaithan.com be like, all right, send me all the good you got on clear copywriting and my awesome assistant will get that sent to you. All right? Mistake number two. You ready? Is industry specific language for non industry customers. Now if you are selling a very, very technical good or a very, very technical service to other highly technically skilled users, then great. Use all the technical specific jargon that you want. But if you are somebody that you sell, let's say a tech product to make life easier for the non techie person, quit using techie language because we don't understand it. Okay? I shouldn't have to bust out a dictionary to understand your product, all right? Your language needs to speak to the person in the way your person in a way that they understand. And a really simple way to audit this is to have somebody outside of your industry that knows nothing about what you're doing, but is still somewhat your ideal client read through your stuff. Maybe they don't know about, maybe they're not your ideal client. Maybe you can't find somebody like that, but still try to find somebody who doesn't understand what you do and see if they can understand your messaging. I know that feels really backwards, but the truth is, if you can simplify things and you can explain them in such a way that makes sense without having to use a bunch of brain calories to understand it, then you're going to sell more stuff because. Because your stuff is understandable, because your product is understandable, because the outcomes are understandable. Okay, now the number three mistake is too many CTAs on one page. Now, I know that building out multiple pages for your website is time consuming. I get it. I get it. And paying somebody to do it is expensive sometimes. However, please, for the love of all things holy, you do not need to have multiple paid CTAs per website page. Like, this is not supposed to be a choose your own adventure kind of thing. You have somebody coming to your website or even your Instagram or wherever your messaging is, you have somebody coming to you looking for help solving a problem. And you need to communicate that you have a simple, clear, effective way to solve that problem, not give them a whole bunch of options for like, take this path or take, you know, this track or whatever. Like, how are you going to solve the problem and make it crystal clear? And having too many cta, too many different calls to actions on a page, it just confuses. And then it's like, wait, do I need this freebie or this freebie or this freebie or this freebie? Do I need to buy this thing or buy this thing or like, it just. It is too much and it is too overwhelming for your audience and you're losing them and losing sales. Now, the number four thing that I want to touch on today is making yourself the hero of the story. Now, I've talked about this a ton. If you have read Donald Miller's book, Building a Story Brand, then you know, and it's an amazing book, highly recommend all the things. However, sometimes as business owners, we feel the need to prove ourselves. And you know what? We really do need to prove ourselves to some degree. Because I need to know, like, as a consumer, can you actually do the thing that you say you can do? However, when you position yourself as a hero, you are. You are just messing up the buyer psychology aspect of purchasing. You can prove your results with really great testimonials and showcasing results and still leave the customer as the hero of the story. All right, now, the number five thing that is messing with your messaging is to not talking. Not talking about any real experience. Like, y'all, we are all so burned by AI crap. Like, nobody wants Google's AI opinion on the best dress, right? Like, we want real opinions from real people with real bodies. Right? That's what we want. That's what your customer wants. They want real experiences. You don't have to have the same opinion as everybody else out there, but you do need to have some background and some experience in what you're talking about so that you can help people and so that you can actually attract that ideal customer that's coming to you looking for a solution. You need some sort of a track record that you've done that thing. Now, if you're like, faith, I'm just trying to get into this industry. I'm just trying to learn how to do this thing, that's fine. You don't have to say that you've helped 835 people when you've only helped two. Right? Don't lie. Ain't nobody like a liar. But you do need to talk about your real experience with what you're doing. Okay? And this is one of the fun things that we get to work on when we are doing copywriting projects for clients is we get to. We get to have them get testimonials and things like that from past, past clients or past people that they've worked with and strategically weave that into the website copy. And we get to kind of pull out, right, Their experiences and their track record and put that into the copy. So don't feel like you have to have a bajillion years of experience. But you do need to have some experience, some opinion, some eeat they call it in the SEO world. But you do need to have something to talk about that's not just regurgitated AI. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Number six. Ready? Is that you've made your, your messaging, your website, even your Instagram stuff. Too hard to read, Y'all. We lazy. We humans are lazy, right? And don't get me wrong, like, I. There are some lazy things about life that I love, like a dishwasher and no washing machine. And, like, there's so many awesome things that, you know, make us a little lazier than our Great grandparents. But when it comes to reading your website, copy your blogs, your emails, even make it easy on your customer's eyeballs and our brains because we skim, we just do. Nobody but your mama. And maybe you and your VA are reading every single word on every single page and maybe not even then. All right? Make it easy for somebody to follow along and get the general gist of what you're saying. If they are super, super interested and it's a super high priced product, they'll go back and they'll read every single word. But if you just like word vomit in Times new Roman size 12 font and write it like an English paper and don't put any bullet points or any numbers or anything, then they're not going to stay long enough to actually dig into what you offer. And the next mistake that is costing you money is one that I'm actually working on myself, is showing the price too soon. Telling the price before you have fully communicated the value. And this is something that I'm like, oh snap, like I need. I have worked on this recently as well because in my mind I'm like, I just want to know what it costs. Like I know what my budget is, I know how many dollars are in my account, right? But sometimes flesh, you probably should rethink your strategy a bit. If you don't communicate the value before you fully, if you don't communicate the value before you communicate the price, then people are automatically going to write it off, right? So fully communicate the value before you communicate the price. Now this does not mean that you have to have shady, annoying practices with your pricing. Like there was one time I was on a webinar with some people, it was like an hour and a half webinar. And we had done lots of messaging back and forth before this. Like I already had probably a couple hours invested in messaging and reading and researching this product before I got on the webinar. And then an hour and a half into the webinar then they drop the price. And it was a five figure price. It was something that was way out of my budget. And I was so mad, so mad that they took that long to tell me the price because time is super valuable to me. So this does not mean that you need to fiddle, fart around with the price. But this does mean that for your, you know, four and five and even six figure products like that doesn't, the price does not need to be at the very tippy top of the page, right? Like let's communicate value, let's speak to their pain points. Let's write copy in a way that works and actually serves and helps people, you know, understand what this product does and then tell them the price so that there's a, there's a match in their head. They're like, oh well this price makes sense because of this and this and this transformation and this and this and this feature. Okay, which leads right into point number eight, which is talking about features versus benefits. Now I get it. You are neck deep in your product, in your program, in your stuff. You understand the ins and the outs. You know that. You know your, your skin care product is made from the, the best of the best, from this farm and this farm and this farm and locally made and all that. You know that. You know particular lavender is better than the other lavender. Like you know those things, but, but your ideal customer probably doesn't know or doesn't care, right? Don't lead with the features, lead with the benefits, lead with how their skin is going to get zero wrinkles and feel so much better and be more hydrated and no more breakouts or like whatever the benefits are for your product. Don't lead with the this much vitamin A and this much vitamin D. Like they want to know, is this going to make me feel better? Look younger, lose weight, like whatever your thing is, right? Like talk about the features over the benefits. Yeah, you can get into the earth. Talk about the benefits over the features. Sorry, you can get into the features later. Right, that's fine. But like tell me why your washing machine is going to get all the dirt out my clothes. Don't tell me about the horsepower of the motor. Okay, don't care. I want to know is it going to get the dog hair off my clothes and the baby poop out of the baby clothes? Like just tell me those things. Okay. And mistake number nine is guessing about their pain points. Y'all. I understand that market research takes time. I get it. I am. My time is very limited. But if you will take the time to do market research or even have some market research on autopilot, then you will get to know your customers pain points from their mouths and then you can incorporate that into your messaging and that those real pain points from real words from real people is going to resonate so much better than the made up pain points that you think they are struggling with. Okay? The number 10 mistake ready is to not use keywords naturally. I have pretty much put my stake in the ground in the SEO copywriting and copywriting and SEO world all in using keywords Naturally. And it has proven to stand the test of all of the algorithm updates. Because yes, you can use different keywords, you can flip words around, but if that does not sound like it's coming out of a real person's mouth, don't use it. I do not care what the SEOs say. Your keyword placement on your website, in your blogs, your keywords should sound natural. And I will go to Dukes over that one, y'all. And number 11, a bonus tip for you to avoid in your messaging is the wrong amount of info or TMI too soon. Like, I love when entrepreneurs get like really personal about their story and why they created this business. Blah blah, blah, blah blah. I love that. But don't lead with that, okay? Don't lead with that. That is not where we make the sale upfront. Like, yes, that's further down the page or on your about page, that's fine. But don't lead with that. You know, lead again with the transformation that your person is going to go through. Again, they're the hero of the story, not you. And when you bombard them with the wrong information too soon or just TMI in general, they gone, baby, they gone. Now if you were like, faith, I need help with my messaging, then I have a couple of different options for you because I would love to help you guys with your messaging. It is so fun for me. It's something that we have specialized in. We've seen such great results in copywriting and SEO. One, we can just come in and do it all for you in a full website SEO copywriting package book, a discovery call if you're interested in that, or two, if you want to learn how to fish, so to speak, and you want to learn how to do this for yourself, then jump into the Simple SEO framework. I give you formulas on how to write your messaging. I give you our templates that we use inside of my copywriting business. I give that to you and tell you how to use it inside of the simple SEO framework. It is a super affordable course and group coaching program that you get a year access to and you're going to learn how to set your website up for SEO success in half a day or a day and then how to maintain that traffic generating machine and two hours a week or less and it's a steal of a deal. So both of those links for either a website copy discovery call or the simple SEO framework, both of those links are in the description. But I'm excited to give you all these tips. I'm going to run back through them one more time in case you got pulled away by a screaming kid or a phone call. All right, 11. Website copy messaging mistakes or messaging mistakes in general to avoid number one unclear messaging number two industry specific language for non industry customers number three too many CTAs on one page. Only one please and thank you. Number four making yourself the hero of the story. Number five no real experience in what you're talking about. Number six too hard to read messaging, use bullet points, use spaces, use bold text. Number seven Showing the price too soon. Number eight Talking about features instead of benefits. It's a huge mistake. Number 9 Guessing about your ideal client's pain points. Number 10 not using keywords naturally and making yo self sound like a Robot. And number 11 TMI. Too soon with the info. All right y'all excited to jump into this new year with y'all? God bless. Bye. Thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website. If it did, can I ask you a quick favor? Would you please share this episode with a friend and then just take 10 seconds and go Leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus loving entrepreneurs scale their businesses so that they can help more people with their gifts and make an even bigger impact for the Kingdom of God. And guess what? We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now. It's linked in the show notes and all the other things, courses, coaching and copywriting can be found at my website faithhannon.com until next time. God bless and I'll talk to you soon.