Struggling to write your website copy? Feeling confused and overwhelmed because you don’t know where to start? I totally get it. When you don’t have a website copy strategy, even the simplest parts of writing website copy are stressful.

What do you say? How do you say it? And how the heck should you organize each page? If you’re asking yourself these questions or at a loss with your website copy, you’ll find relief (and answers!) in this article.

You Need Certain Website Copy Information Before Writing

One thing that makes your website copy strategy 1000x easier is having all the information you need on hand before you start, rather than coming up with it as you go.

If you were to hire a professional copywriter, they would ask you for specific information before writing a single word of your website copy. So, it only makes sense for you to do the same. And fortunately, you don’t need to be a professional copywriter or have any copywriting experience to gather and use this information.

In this post, I’m sharing 5 questions you must answer before writing a single letter of copy. You’ll save yourself time and major frustration when you go to write your copy if you have this information on hand.

Before we jump in: If you want the fastest route to writing your website copy, then get my website copywriting course. I’ve made it incredibly simple for you to write your website copy in as little as a weekend (seriously, I’ve practically written it for you). You’ll get a preparation questionnaire, and copy and paste templates for all the main pages of your website, plus some special bonuses. It covers everything in this post and SO much more.

Okay, now let’s get to the 5 pieces of information that will allow you to write better copy, faster.

1. Who Is Your Target Audience?

Your target audience is who you’re writing to on your website. You need to know them inside and out. Here are all the things you need to know:

• What are their problems? (specifically the problems that you solve)
• How do they talk? What words or phrases do they use to describe their problems?
• What is in the way or keeping them from solving those problems?
• What do they want out of life? What are their hopes and dreams?
• Are they men or women?
• What do they do for a living and how much do they earn?
• How old are they?
• Are they married or single, and do they have children?

You don’t need to have hyper-specific demographic answers to these questions, but you do need to know general answers and qualifying characteristics that put someone in your target audience or exclude them. For example, if you’re selling baby products, you’re targeting people with children and not people who don’t have children. If you’re offering a service specifically for lawyers, then you’re not targeting people who do other jobs for a living.

Where to Research Your Target Audience:

If you don’t know any of this about your target audience, my favorite way to learn this information is through reading reviews. You can read reviews on competitor products and services, or you can read reviews for products or services that your target audience is also likely to buy, but are not direct competitors.

For example, if you’re selling a versatile travel backpack, you could go on your competitor’s website or Amazon and read reviews of other travel backpacks. In the reviews, you want to keep an eye out for:

• What customers love about the product
• What they dislike or what could be improved
• Why they bought it
• How they’re going to use it
• Any personal details that give you insight into their age, profession, income, education level, hobbies, etc.

If you’re selling services or information products and you can’t find detailed reviews from competitors, read reviews on Amazon for books on the subject of your offering. For example, if you’re an interior designer, read reviews on interior design books, or even interior design courses on sites like Udemy.

With target audience research, you’ll quickly learn what your clients value, what’s missing in the industry and how you can perfectly fill the gap and convince your prospects that you have what they want.

2. What’s the #1 Goal of Your Site?

Alright, this question should be really easy to answer. It’s basically the reason you created a website, which is to sell your services or products! It’s important to consciously identify the #1 goal of your site so you can keep it top of mind when writing website copy.

Is your #1 goal to sell a specific product or service? To book a call? Or is your #1 goal to get someone to subscribe to your email newsletter? Once you identify this, you can design a website and write copy that drives your target audience to take this action.

In addition to keeping a site-wide goal in mind, you’ll also want to know the goal of each page of your site.

3. How Will Your Visitor Accomplish That Goal?

Once you know your #1 goal, establish the steps it will take for your site visitor to accomplish that goal and how they’ll logistically go through those steps on your site.

For example, let’s say your #1 goal is to sell your life coaching services. What’s the process that will get someone to hire you? Do you start with a complimentary consultation call and get them to book once they’re on the phone? If that’s the case, then even though your #1 goal is to get hired, your site really needs to drive your target audience to book a call with you. That’s going to get you to your goal. See what I mean?

Once you’ve established the process, think about how it’s logistically going to work on your site. Will there be a calendar link they can book a slot on right on your site? Will they fill out a form and you’ll reach out to schedule a call? Figure this out ahead of time and creating your website will go much smoother.

If your goal is straightforward like getting someone to purchase a product right on your site, then maybe all you need to do is drive them to the product purchase page and provide compelling sales copy along the way. Basically what you’re doing is determining the sales funnel on your site.

4. What Are the Benefits of Your Product or Service?

No one knows your offering better than you, but one mistake many business owners make is focusing on the product features rather than the benefits. Why? Because your customers or clients don’t care about what your product or service can do, they only want to know what it can do for them or how it will benefit them.

Once you transform your product or service features into benefits, you’ll have true selling points to use in your website copy.

And don’t worry, turning a feature info a benefit is really easy! Simply imagine the customer asking “So what?” or “Why does this matter?” about a feature to turn it into a benefit.

Let’s do an example. I’ll list the features of a high end reusable water bottle and convert them into benefits to the customer.

• BPA-free plastic lid > So you can have peace of mind that drinking from this water bottle is healthy and safe
• Durable steel construction > Meaning it will last for years and be resistant to dents when you drop it

See what I did there? I took a “technical” feature and turned it into something that actually means something to the person buying it.

This process is a bit more straightforward for products than it is for services, but it still applies. Here are questions you service providers out there can ask to give you tons of ideas of how your offering benefits your customers.

• What does your product or service change in your customer’s life?
• What happens to their problem or in their life, right after they buy your product or hire you?
• What are the long-term positive effects of their purchase?
• What will they say about your product or service after using it?

5. What Is Your Unique Selling Point (USP)?

There’s competition everywhere and you have to show exactly how you’re better to beat them. The way you do this is with your unique selling point. It’s what makes you different from your competitors (that they can’t replicate) and the exact reason someone will hire you or buy your products instead of a competitor’s.

I won’t go into detail in this post because I’ve already written an extensive post that shares how to identify and write your unique selling point.

Gather Your Info & Write Your Website Copy!

Okay, let’s recap.

Before you write your website copy you need to know:

1. Who your target audience is
2. The #1 goal of your site (and each page)
3. How visitors will accomplish that goal
4. The benefits of your product or service
5. Your unique selling point

I promise that taking the time to gather this information is worth it and will help you not only write your website copy, but also help you understand your business and customers better.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email! If you have any comments or thoughts to share, spill in the comment section!

And if you want to make the process of writing your website copy 10x easier and save valuable time, check out my website copywriting course. I made it specifically for freelancers and small business owners selling their services. It covers everything you need to write your home page, about page, contact page and services page in a flash.