This is a guest post by Rodney Laws of ecommerceplatforms.io.

 

In the writing world, aspiring authors are often told: ‘show, don’t tell’. This means guiding the reader to a message or meaning rather than simply telling them what they should think or feel.

 

‘Show, don’t tell’ is an important technique for delivering meaning and value to the reader, especially in fiction writing. But the same applies for website content too.

 

Look at any website and you’ll see that the best ones embrace the ‘show, don’t tell’ principle throughout their web copy.

 

Read on to find out why and learn some tips on how you can embrace it too.

Why the Best Website Copy Shows Rather Than Tells

 

Emotions Compel People to Convert

There are myriad reasons why people make a purchase. Perhaps the cheap price sways them, or the perceived quality of a product compels them to purchase.

 

But more often than not, what really drives a person’s decision to buy something is emotion.

 

Emotional web copy resonates with customers, tapping into their minds on a deep level and compelling them to make a purchase. Perhaps it fills someone with inspiration, or it makes a prospective customer feel nostalgic.

 

Whatever it is, this is achieved through showing, rather than telling. You can’t successfully command someone to feel an emotion, but you can weave a narrative that evokes a certain feeling.

 

Craft a story around your product or service that places your customer at the center. While storytelling works best for B2C companies, B2B businesses can also benefit from the technique.

 

Use pain points as plot devices that speak to your audience. For instance, perhaps they want to implement a digital transformation initiative but are concerned it might impact their day-to-day business — build a narrative around this and position your brand as the solution.

 

The Best Website Copy Inspires Trust and Confidence In a Business

Your website copy is a valuable opportunity to establish trust between your brand and your customer. While there are many elements that go into nurturing this trusting relationship — site security, website design, customer testimonials, and so on — your copy is what permeates all of this, and it’s an opportunity worth seizing.

 

Your words can show prospective leads that you are a brand worth trusting. Lazy brands might offer thin copy with randomly capitalized words and an emphasis on exclamation marks to convince their audience that they’re reliable.

 

Through well-written, comprehensive, and thoughtful content, you can go beyond simply telling prospective customers that you are worth their time by reflecting your professionalism in your copy.

 

You can complement this by using certain words that inspire trust and confidence from your audience. Examples include:

 

• Care
• Fair
• Competent
• Quality
• Privacy
• Trust

 

These are just examples, but they give you a feel for what kind of language appeals most to wary customers and how to speak to them.

The Best Website Copy Complements Design

Good web copy works in accordance with visual elements to better communicate your message to your audience. As well as showing through words, you can combine copy with fonts, colors, shapes, and so on to deliver meaning too.

 

Take logos, for instance. These are easy enough to design, but to really create a good logo it’s important to take advantage of these design elements in conjunction with your copy too.

 

Take Amazon’s logo, for instance.

 

Image Amazon

 

You might have noticed the smiley arrow underneath, but did you notice that it goes from A to Z? This echoes Amazon’s USP of making ordering products online as easy as A-Z.

 

This is a perfect example of how copy works with design to cleverly show the user a meaning, rather than telling them.

 

Use subtleties of design to better complement and inform your website copy. This lets you craft copy whose meaning is aided through visual design elements.

People Don’t Want Features — They Want Benefits

Anyone in the sales and marketing world has heard the phrase ‘benefits, not features’ at least once during the career. It’s almost a cliché, but with good reason.

 

Benefits are what really impact a consumer — they are what actually have an effect on a person’s life. Features, however, are simply a path towards the benefit. they’re what allow the product to benefit the user.

 

Consequently, if you tell your customers about a feature of your product, they’re not likely to care. Show them a benefit, however, and they’ll have a reason to care about it.

 

In the same vein, telling your customers about something doesn’t help them engage with it. If you want them to engage with and care about something, you need to make it explicit — you need to show them.

 

Telling is quick and easy but lacks meaning. Showing takes time but delivers a deeper and more meaningful resonance for the user.

 

If you want your message to land with your audience so they engage with it, you need to explain why it matters. Don’t tell your audience why your words are important — show them. Follow the tips above and let this simple principle elevate your web copy in 2020.