Web Mastery | How to Write well to Boost your Business Online
by Mashum Mollah Small Business 02 December 2016
We believe in building success from the ground up, and so we have some tips here on how to make your business as successful as possible. Part of success in making a great first impression, and we believe that you need to do this both in the ‘real world’ and online.
How to make an impact on the ‘real world’
You need to make sure that when your prospective clients, employees, and anyone else who comes into contact with your business first encounters you they get the right idea about you. It’s simple but true, the easiest way to make a great first impression is with a very impressive office. For many businesses who are just starting out, stunning office space is often out of the budget.
And it’s often the case that with startup businesses that you will only need an office for client meetings because your team works remotely. So it doesn’t make sense to be spending a lot of money on a rented office that you’re not using. But there is another way: a virtual office. A virtual office gives you the best parts of a prestige address and meeting rooms/boardrooms which you can hire on an ad hoc basis – without the overheads of a permanent lease.
We would recommend that in order to make a great impression that you consider signing up for a virtual office. After all, it could be the thing that helps you to land your next big client. Servcorp Wellington has a range of virtual office addresses for you to explore.
Image source: sharedspace.co.nz
How to make an impact online:
While you need to have a prestigious front in the real world, the biggest place where business hangs out now is online, and there’s a certain way in which you need to sell yourself online to ensure that you’re making the best impression. We’ve got some handy tips here on how to do this.
How do you write about your business online to make the biggest impact?
If you’re sitting here wondering to yourself what the difference is in writing for your business online (as opposed to other kinds of writing like leaflets, presentations, reports, etc.) you’ll that that the key difference is in how it’s read. Namely, when people are reading your content online they will be skim reading.
Read also: CONTENTMART: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR FREE ONLINE WRITERS
When people are looking for information about your business on the internet they don’t spend a lot of time reading in-depth information. On the contrary, most people will read a lot of information very quickly and then move on.
A study created by the Nielsen Norman Group found that users will stay around ten to twenty seconds on a website before leaving. Other studies still will say that this number is actually much smaller is actually more like five seconds. Either way, you don’t have much time to make a great first impression on your visitors… So what’s the key part of writing for the web to make sure that the message for your business is heard?
1. Be relevant:
The number one thing that you need to do for your business writing is to make sure that you are talking about what your customers want to be reading. When your customers are online and are researching your topic (and using a keyword to find your business) chances are they’re looking for something particular.
If a visitor gets to your website only to find that you’re not providing up to date or relevant information then they will move on. Fast.
A key part of your success online is making sure your content is up to date – something that is sometimes difficult for many business owners is keeping the content that they post relevant.
Read also: The key to success with your online marketing
You might blog about something but then have a couple of months between having time to update your website. So if you’re finding that this is the case, perhaps it might be a good thing for you to hire someone to update your social media or blog for you. The cost for someone to update your site is probably less than losing a potential sale thanks to out of date information.
2. Be concise:
Don’t waste words trying to fluff around making a point of some kind. Just get to the point. Your visitors are going to be looking for the right information in as little time as possible. Just as you need to make a great first impression with your office space, you need to make a great impression with your words.
3. Remove the spelling errors:
Have a proofing process in place for your website and/or any copy that is going to go out. There are few things worse in the world than having a big website done only to have a customer or client point out a spelling error online.
4. Be assertive:
Ain’t nobody knows your business as you do! Shout it out and don’t be afraid to have an opinion about your topic. If you’re a leader in your industry get out there and speak it. It’s far more interesting and provocative to have a conversation with someone who has an opinion.
Writing for the web can be complicated – but if you break up your text with paragraphs and headers, that’s a great start. Above all, make your business a professional space online and you can’t go wrong.
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