Make This Simple and Powerful Tweak to Your Website Copy Today
In the copy reviews I’ve been doing with creative business owners, there’s one mistake I see more than any other.
When writing copy, businesses focus too much on themselves.
If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, hang with me here for a second.
Imagine reading this on a landing page:
We have the power to transform your brand. At Fancy Company, we use a strategic design approach, which centers around people. We design brands and experiences that create personal connections and value for a wide array of innovative Fortune 500s, world-renowned universities, and growth-oriented businesses.
Count the number of times you see the word, “we.” Do you really care about this company?
Your potential clients don’t care about you.
They don’t care because people are selfish. This isn’t bad or wrong. People like feeling heard and feeling like they’re important. There’s a super simple shift you could make to make this speak directly to their audience.
Let’s take that same landing page copy and write it in a way that focuses on the website readers and less on how brilliant the company is:
Transform your brand. With your new branding, you get a strategic design focused on your business. Your brand experience will create personal connections and grow your business.
I’m not going to touch on the jargon in here. I’m guessing the last time you were thinking about a branding update, you didn’t tell someone, “I want to transform my brand.” Well, maybe you did, and you’re weird. We’ll chat about jargon another time.
Do you see the simple shift with the rewrite? It’s still not a compelling piece of copy, but at least the “We’s” are gone. It’s written directly to your people, like you were standing next to them at a party, talking about what they get when they work with you.
Intuitive Copywriting Tip: The simplest way to check if you’re using a voice that’s focused on your readers is to look for “we” and “I.”
Count how many times “We” or “I” appears on any given page of your website. Then, see if you can rewrite that same sentence without the "We" or "I" and write it like you're speaking directly to one person.
The only place on your website where you’ll find it all about the business is on the About Page. There’s a strategy to writing About Pages that I use with all my clients that focuses first on the reader and then on the business, and we do it in a way that feels totally clean. No salesy or spammy tactics required.
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