Today’s blog post focuses on writing content for your website. We’re going to discuss creating content, the proper techniques for writing it and the benefits of blogging (including improvements that should be made).
Write for the Customer
No one knows your e-commerce store better than you. The content on your site reflects you and your products. Your online store’s success is dependent on the quality of your product and the description on your site. This entails engaging and coherent sentences. When writing for your, site two things should be considered: your product and your customer. Unless you’re Best Buy, you’re not selling six hundred different products. You might have a large quantity of items in stock, but they relate to one another. You’re not selling plasma televisions, dishwashers, video games and DVDs all from the same store. You have a niche and it’s important to play to that. As an example, we’re going to use a second hand book shop as our store. We’ll call it Roger’s Two Timed Books. In this modern age book reader’s have become an endangered species. But Roger knows there’s readers out there. So he writes the content of his website to entice readers. He understands that elegant writing will pull in the book buying audience. His site’s prose is less concerned with technical information and slanted more towards book reviews and summaries. This gives a potential customer exactly what he or she needs: information about the book, it’s condition, and it’s price. From a buyer’s standpoint, the experience was easy and enjoyable. They buy a book and will be coming back for more. Roger takes it one step further by inviting his customer’s to leave reviews. This let’s potential customers landing on his site see the favorable experience other’s have had. Doing this has satisfied and grown his niche.
Worthy of Web 2.0
The internet is a double-edged sword. Like high school, it’s a rumor mill that can do wonders for your business or have an everlasting negative affect. If you’re going to attempt a 2.0 campaign for your site, there’s some important things to remember. Whatever you’re writing, photographing or filming, it needs to be funny, ironic or extremely informative. Otherwise it comes off like a plug and won’t make it anywhere in the social media realm. Regardless of how great your viral marketing scheme is, there will be naysayers who will voice their opinions in forums. It’s an unavoidable part of Web 2.0 and should be something you plan on encountering. Social Media is a risk, but can pay off handsomely if it catches on. Millions of people use Facebook, MySpace, Digg and other media sharing sites. If your marketing plan works, thousands of people will have seen your site and hundreds are likely to purchase products from it.
Grammar Common Sense
The utter lack of grammatical adherence is rampant. The internet breeds a disregard for proper writing. Don’t fall into that trap. Unless you’re selling kitsch products for a very specific audience never use “u” for you. If I’m go to a website and the writing is less cogent than that of a third grader’s, I’m leaving. You don’t have to be a grammar nut to notice this, bad writing is repulsive to the mind and eye. Don’t believe me, check out this example of improper writing on Roger’s site:
Buy this collector’s edition of “Ask the Dust” write now and get free shipping.
As a customer, are you going to trust a site that doesn’t know the difference between “write” and “right?” No; if he screws up on a sentence, he can easily mess up an order. Roger should have proofread his content, reading it out loud, before integrating it into his site. When a customer reads a description that’s correct, they trust the store and are more willing to buy a product.
Blogging
The last part of successful site content writing is a blog. If you don’t already do one, start. Immediately. Blogs are a fantastic way to engage your audience. Let your customer get to know who they’re buying from. It will give them a stronger connection to the store. Everyone prefers buying from a place and person they know, but don’t be shill. Directly selling your products should not be a part of your blog. Focus on other parts of your life or current events instead. A word to the wise, steer clear of making political or religious posts. Not everyone feels the same way you do. The goal of your blog is to keep customers, not drive them away. When writing your blog use strong, active language that will engage the reader. A reader who is more vested is twice as likely to come back. Eliminating a weaker verb for a stronger verb makes the sentence like a sudden punch in the gut: something a reader won’t forget. I’ll give you an example: The bike fell off the truck. That is a boring sentence. Try adding a more active verb: The bike bounced off the truck; the bike tumbled off the truck; the bike ricocheted off the truck. All of those verbs are stronger than fell, and they don’t lose the intention of the original sentence. Incorporating this type of writing will build a larger reader base, which will translate into more customers.
Write Away
Site Content writing is difficult. The process is arduous, but when done correctly it pays off significantly. Carelessness is noticeable. Don’t let this ugly quality dictate your site. Invest in your online store’s content and build the customer base you want.
Miva