Depending on your current social circle, proclaiming at your next networking event that you run a successful drug cartel might not be the best way for you to attract prospective clients. Instead, ignore the shady law-breaking elements and look closer so you can discover the underlying business model. These well-guarded tricks of the trade will provide you with great insight to draw upon when you write your website content.
Stalk your audience
Not literally of course, but before you put the virtual pen to paper, you need to know what your target market wants and what information is going to motivate them to choose you. Listen to the stereotypes for your target market and then go out and discover if they are true. Talking with people in your target market can provide a lot of helpful guidance and there are many easy ways to achieve this.
For instance if you sell luxury cars, go spend some time in high end art galleries or arrange for a round of golf at a course with a 'high-end' reputation – then try striking up a conversation with a stranger who may fit your target market. I have had many an interesting conversation whilst standing in the queue of a grocery store and most people are open to random chit-chat if it helps them pass the time. Remember this isn't a sales pitch, so stick to light, generic questions!
It's all about them
You will never hear a sales pitch from someone peddling heroin. Contrary to long-held popular belief, your clients don't really care about what you want them to read about your company or your products. Instead, use the knowledge you've gained by stalking your target market to provide the information that is relevant to their needs, both in terms of language and length of content which is appropriate.
Imagine you are the owner of a small Bed and Breakfast located very close to an airport. Your typical guest stays for a single night between Monday and Friday and is in town to attend a business meeting or to catch up with out of town clients. You can choose to make the following choices with your website:
Bad Choice: Fill your website with pages of pictures and information about your family, your tabby cat Molly, and the in-depth workings of your well established native garden.
Good Choice: Have a brief section introducing your family and Molly the cat. Have pages of information on your well established native garden and heaps of information on each of the three bedrooms that you have available, along with their prices.
Great Choice: You decide to pay close attention to the people who stay at your B&B and you notice that they are starved for free time due to the high number of things which require their attention. You rework your website so that it includes a few pictures with most of the information being presented in easy to read bullet pointed lists. Instead of spending time talking about the décor of each bedroom, you now point out the quietness of the rooms and the comfort level of the beds making sure to mention that this ensures your clients are well rested. You promote takeaway breakfasts, late dinners, free wireless internet, and free airport pickups and drop-offs to help optimise your client's time.
In short you stop wasting time providing information which (while it may be nice to know) isn't important to your client, and instead focus on giving them exactly what they need to know.
Solve problems
Ignoring the pure chemical addictiveness of their products, the reason why drug dealers are so successful is because they successfully solve problems for their clients; want to forget that your boyfriend just left you for the redhead in the skimpy dress? Here take this pill. Do you need to stay up all week to complete an essay that you left to the last minute? Take a sniff. Are you feeling sad that you've never seen a pink floating elephant? Then you want that pill.
Before you write a single page of content for your website, you need to ask yourself two questions:
What problem am I solving for my clients?
How am I solving this problem?
Using the above B&B example, the reason the good choice became a great choice was because the website owner (we'll call her Sally) went from simply providing information to actually solving problems. Sally knew that many of her clients didn't have a lot of time to sit down and read her website, so she opted to use short sentences and bullet pointed lists to make everything short, to the point and easy to digest.
She discovered that her breakfast service was being under-utilised because of the time her clients had to leave to make early morning meetings, so she created a takeaway option – not only that but she thought about how difficult it can be to eat foods whilst driving, so she created a flavourful option that didn't fall apart, drip or require use of a spoon. Then she promoted that on her website in a short insightful manner which addressed typical concerns of having no time for breakfast and how typical takeaway options can mess up clean clothes, and went on to address these concerns presenting her option as the ultimate solution. Not only did this give her an advantage over the other accommodation providers in the area, but perspective clients who had been avoiding B&B options because they didn't like paying for an included breakfast service they didn't have time for, started making enquiries because they could instantly see the value in not having to locate, and then queue in, a local café.
The first taste is always free
Granted this approach works extremely well for drug dealers because of the chemical addictiveness of their product, but people can be cautious of trying a product especially when they have been burnt in the past by someone who offered something similar.
Whilst it's easy for an ice-cream shop to provide a small free taste of the product, it doesn't mean that this approach can't be replicated by any product or service provider. For instance if you sell software that you've created yourself think about offering a cut-down or time limited demo on your website. We choose to give away our knowledge in the form of these articles as well as offering a money-back guarantee on the work we perform .
But feel free to get more creative in your approach, for instance if you owned a Day Spa business you could give 10% off to first-time clients signed up to your email newsletter, or if you were a mechanic you could hold a by-invitation-only event which covered the basics of car maintenance (like how to check your oil and tyre pressure).
If you do choose to provide a 'teaser,' make sure you mention it on your website so that any perspective client can easily find out about it.
In summary
Don't assume you know what your target market wants to hear – go out and mingle with them to gain insider knowledge of what they want.
Always look for opportunities to strike up conversations with people who are in your target market.
Don't get attached to your sales pitch; your website isn't about providing you with a bragging opportunity.
Always solve problems and show how you are solving them. If your content doesn't do this, get rid of it.
Look for ways that you can introduce that first taste to help perspective clients feel comfortable choosing you.
Don't become a drug dealer; it doesn't have great long-term health benefits! And feel free to share this article with everyone you know :-)
P.S.
if you would like assistance with your website content writing or if you would like further information about the points contained within this article.
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