How To Waste Money On Your Website: Stupid Idea 8

Whether you’re blatantly throwing money away on bad ideas or losing potential revenue by failing to capitalize on good ones, here are some surefire ways to make the least out of your investment.

Here’s a conundrum: how can you waste money on something you’re obviously saving money on by doing it yourself instead of hiring someone to do it for you? While you ponder that one, here’s another question: are you a copywriter?

If the answer is yes then stop reading and go write yourself some copy. But if you’re not then why are you writing? Stop right now and read this stupid idea before you waste another cent.

Stupid Idea 8: Write The Copy Yourself

Everyone’s got a story that goes something like this: Kitchen sink leaks. Woman tells man to call plumber. Man tells woman to stop wasting his money, takes out wrench, bangs on pipe. Pipe bursts, water floods kitchen. Woman yells at man. Man calls plumber.

Forgiving the cliché/stereotype, what might have been a simple fix is now an expensive one with “pay for new pipe” added to “pay plumber” and maybe even “replace damaged hardwood” and “see marriage counselor”.

The point we’re trying to make is that everyone has a skill set, a specialty, something they get paid to do and do well. If you’re not a copywriter then get someone to write your web copy that is. Otherwise you could be sacrificing not only your time but your business’s credibility along with sales and leads.

If you’re investing time and money in a web site you want it to be the best it can be and work for your business. Your website needs to do more than sit there and look pretty. It should speak to your customers, provide them with a call to action, and give them information that influences them to contact you, join your Facebook page, sign up for your newsletter or use your service.

You may have every good intention of telling customers what you think they need to know but there’s no substitute for the perspective of a professional copywriter. A copywriter will take into account things you may not think of… the attention span of a web shopper, the positioning of your call to action, the overall flow and readability, the relative lengths of paragraphs and words within paragraphs. A copywriter will consider your audience, the demographics, their expectations. A copywriter will agonize over the verbs and suffixes and nuances of meaning so that you don’t have to and so ultimately your business conveys its message meaningfully and professionally.

A copywriter will also provide you with a new point of view.

Sometimes it’s simply too difficult to convey a message you could recite in your sleep. When you know your products and services inside out and are emotionally and mentally immersed in your business you lose a sense of objectivity that can lead to either a self-aggrandizing tone or an inadvertent lack of detail, either of which can cost you customers.

A copywriter’s job is to look in from the outside, ask the right questions, and compose the right message for your audience.

So don’t spend time that you could otherwise invest in the job you do well (running your business). Don’t sacrifice leads or sales with bad copy that diminishes your credibility and fails to capture your customer.

And don’t lose business because of good copy that doesn’t work for the context it’s written.

Who writes the copy for your website?

How To Waste Money On Your Website: Stupid Idea 8

Stupid Idea 8: Write The Copy Yourself

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