Web content has an important role in marketing your business. How you choose, compose, weave, and arrange words has an impact to your digital marketing strategy.

 

Does your web content grab attention? Does it convince a website reader to do something that you want? Is it persuasive enough to convert these visitors into leads and customers?

Let’s check out some ways on how to write effective content that can increase your chance of conversion:


1. Attention-grabbing heading


The first thing that readers encounter when they visit your website is your content’s heading. In fact, you should consider your heading as the first important factor that initiates engagement. According to Copyblogger, 8 to 10 people skip your content and leave your site if your heading does not pique their interest or grab their attention.


You can, of course, compose your own heading, using hundreds of writing-related sources online, in books, or other reference material. However, if you have doubts whether your headline is interesting enough or not, you can use Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule. Simply register and input your headline, then the Analyzer will give you a score and several suggestions for you to improve your headline.

The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer rates headlines basing on three factors:

  • Headline type – determines the type of headline that attracts and converts readers
  • Word balance – checks if you have the right word balance
  • Character length – checks if your headline is scannable and easy to understand. More on this on Tip 3.

 

2. Deliver on your promise

 

 

Make sure that the body of your content fulfills what your headline says. If your content doesn’t match the headline, there’s a good chance that visitors will leave your site. Just think: why would they linger on your site when they can’t find what it is they’re looking for?


It is also important to take time to edit and re-read your post after writing it to make sure your content matches your title. Here’s a nice tip: read your content aloud. If it feels sounds awkward to you or if it’s hard to read, then it’s probably the same with your readers.


For more information about writing excellent content, check out this link about writing blog posts that increase engagement. Once you get the basics, you can then read this post about rules in writing excellent content. Finally, study the tips in this article to fine tune your composition.


3. Create scannable content

 

 

Reading printed material (e.g. books, newspapers, magazines, and flyers) and reading website content are two very different things. In a study done by Naomi Baron, people reading printed material finds the experience more aesthetically enjoyable. The respondents in her study mentioned that they love the smell and feel of paper or that it is “real” reading. Reading print also gave them a sense of direction in the material. Meaning, they could “feel” and “see” what is described in the text. As such, readers tend to spend more time in


Also, in another study done by the same author, Naomi revealed the following findings:

 

  • Price is a major factor in choosing print or digital versions of e-books. But if price is taken out of the equation, the respondents prefer print material.
  • Users find reading from digital screens for a long time quite uncomfortable, causing eye strain and headaches.
  • It’s more difficult to concentrate reading on a screen than on paper.


With website content, however, you need to capture your reader's’ attention very quickly. According to Time, visitors spend less than 15 seconds on websites. That means, people skim through the content rather than committing time to read each word. Therefore, your content must be easy to scan and consume within a short period of time. There are several ways to do this:

  • Try to keep your sentences short. 5 to 10 words per sentence is a good benchmark.
  • Short paragraphs, preferably 3 to 5 sentences at most, makes your content more easy to digest for your readers.
  • Created bulleted list for items that you want to enumerate. Bullets don’t strain your reader’s eyes. Also, bulleted lists tend to stand out from the rest of your content. This helps makes your content easier to skim.
  • Use sub-headers to divide your content into manageable sections. With sub headers, readers would be able to easily jump to sections of your content that interest them.

 

Check out this screenshot from Vain Lash’s homepage. With short and punchy text coupled with a few simple images, readers can go through the content at a glance, which displays the most relevant items readers need to know. Furthermore, the call to action “See Details” encourages the reader to explore the site deeper for more information.

 

 

4. Include a call to action (CTA)


Now that you have captured your reader’s attention through your content, it’s time to convert them into loyal customers, returning visitors, leads, or email/newsletter subscribers. How do you do this?


Simple! It’s called a “call to action” (CTA) and you should include this at the end of your content. A call to action is a content snippet that asks a viewer to perform a specific action. Some call to action examples are:

  • Buy now
  • Give us a call
  • Contact us
  • Sign up for our newsletter


But you should do more than just write the CTA as text. It’s important to give users a way to quickly and easily perform the action that you are asking of them. For example, if you ask your readers to “Sign up for our newsletter”, you better have a section where they can add their email. Or, if you’re asking your readers to “Contact us”, there should be a button that leads them to your contact page where they can fill out a quick contact form that includes their basic information.


Below are examples of CTAs as the bottom of the Marc Gibson Photography website.

 


Following the tips above helps you write effective, web-specific content that draws the right audience to your website. In time, they will become leads who will soon convert into paying customers.