7 characteristics that make your website copy persuasive + free checklist

The last time you created or revamped a website for your business, you probably spent a lot of designing what it would look like, figuring out which pages you would include, and deciding where to place your logo. What didn’t you spend as much time on? Writing the copy for your website.

Although the appearance and functionality of your website are important, you won’t score subscribers or customers just on good looks alone. You also need to have persuasive website copy that convinces visitors that you’ve got something valuable for them.

What does persuasive website copy look like? It’s got these 7 key characteristics:

Stop letting potential subscribers and customers slip through the cracks on your website. Make sure the text on your website has the 7 characteristics of persuasive website copy. Download the free checklist today.

1. Customer focused

When people visit your website, their #1 goal isn’t to learn about you and your company. It’s to find out if you can help them in some way. Can you solve a problem they have, make their life easier, or give them a good laugh? That’s what they want to know.

Make your website copy customer focused by writing primarily about the value you have to offer and using second-person pronouns (“you” and “your”). This helps you write persuasive website copy that allows you to start a conversation with your visitors.

See how HubSpot uses second-person pronouns to speak directly to prospective customers on its website.

2. Useful

When you write persuasive website copy that’s customer focused, you don’t want to talk just in general terms about how you can help people. Instead, you want to show people why your business is useful to them by homing in on a specific problem they have and highlighting exactly how you can fix it.

Think of specific questions your ideal customers would search for on Google (e.g., “How can food bloggers make money with affiliate marketing?”). Answer these questions in your headline and throughout your copy (e.g., “Learn the formula for making $10,000/month on your food blog using affiliate marketing”).

Check out how Crazy Egg’s copy zeroes in a key problem most businesses have.

3. Specific

Let’s say you’re reading a landing page with the headline “How to skyrocket your income by making better use of your time.” You’d love to make more money while having a better work-life balance (who wouldn’t?), so clicking on the page seemed like a no-brainer. After checking out a few sections of copy on it, though, you decide to peace out. It was easy to see how much the product promoted on the page costs. But you couldn’t figure out if it was an online course, mastermind group, or one-on-one coaching service.

Persuasive website copy doesn’t make people guess what you’re offering and what they’ll get out of it. It sells your product or service in simple and specific language. Remember, your website copy isn’t a mystery novel. There’s no need to create suspense by holding back the details.

See how Dropbox uses simple language to tell prospective users exactly what they’ll get.

4. Unique

Website visitors are used to being slammed with copy that’s trying to sell them something. That’s why truly persuasive website copy takes the road less travelled. Instead of sounding like the copy on every other website out there, it uses a different approach. It explores a problem from a new angle, presents a solution in a novel way, or even simply encourages people to think differently.

People get used to seeing things they’ve seen a thousand times before. So what captures their attention? Something that’s unlike anything they’ve ever encountered.

Soul Cycle was founded with the goal of redefining the spin class. And redefine it does, even in its website copy.

5. FOMO Inducing

Truly persuasive website copy gives people a serious case of FOMO – fear of missing out – if they’re thinking of passing on what you have to offer. That’s because it tells people that if they don’t act now, they’ll miss out on something that can make their life a whole lot better.

How do you write persuasive website copy that’s high on the FOMO index? Paint a picture of what people will lose if they pass on buying your product or service. Craft copy that makes being on the fence unsettling.

See how Melyssa Griffin tempts her website visitors with benefits too good to resist.

6. Scannable

If you’ve read some of our recent blog posts, you know that most people don’t read online copy the same way they read books and magazines. Instead of reading online text from beginning to end, they scan it.

So if you want to write persuasive website copy, you’ve got to write copy that’s scannable. This means writing short sentences and paragraphs, using subheadings, adding bullet-point and numbered lists, and leaving lots of white space. When you write scannable website copy, you make it easier for visitors to pick up on your key messages even if they’re not reading every word.

Check out how Hello Alfred uses a bullet-point list to make this copy super easy to scan.

7. Polished

This one may seem obvious, but businesses still make the mistake of overlooking it. Sure, people may be willing to excuse one tiny typo in copy that’s well written and mistake free otherwise. But if your copy is peppered with typos or riddled with grammar errors, people may think twice about sticking around. That’s why crafting polished text is essential for writing persuasive website copy. It show your website visitors that you give what you do enough attention to get it done right.

Innocent’s website shows that having polished copy doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun with your words.

Persuasive website copy makes all the difference

Writing good copy for your website isn’t just about avoiding mistakes that will make your visitors flee in record time. It’s also about putting in the time to craft compelling text that allows your products and services to sell themselves.

Write persuasive website copy by focusing on your ideal customers, grabbing their attention, telling them exactly why they need you, and making your text polished and easy to scan. If you do, you’ll end up with a website that does an important chunk of your work for you.