5 reasons your online copywriting is not converting
No matter how much traffic your online copywriting generates, unless people do business with you or unless they do what you want them to do, it doesn’t matter much.
Your online copywriting must convert.
Read: 10 copywriting tips to boost your website conversion rate
What is conversion?
In terms of writing content for your website (even your blog) conversion means people doing what you want them to do.
Conversion can be macro and micro.
Macro conversion means more people buying from you and more people using your service.
Micro-conversion can be anything.
You may want your visitors to download your e-book or your white paper.
You may want them to subscribe to your email newsletter.
You may even want to encourage them to come to your website or blog frequently.
You want to engage them.
Your macro conversion is the sum total of your micro-conversions.
The more engagement you have with your visitors, the greater are the chances of them becoming your paying customers and clients.
Here is a comprehensive explanation of the difference between micro-conversions and macro conversion. A long read, it is also good example of a pillar page as well as long form content.
How do you know your online copywriting isn’t converting?
Of course, if you are not generating enough sales it means your online copywriting is not converting.
If you are not getting regular subscribers to your newsletter it means your content is not inspiring people enough.
If people are not downloading your e-book, they don’t find your content or your copy worthy enough.
Somehow, your copywriting isn’t making a mark.
People are not impressed.
They are not finding what they are looking for.
You need to evaluate your writing.
Unless you know why your conversion rate is very low or even non-existent, you cannot make amends.
Listed below are 5 reasons why your online copywriting is not converting.
1. You are focusing more on yourself and less on your customers and clients
When people come to your website, they’re not interested in you just for the heck of it.
They have a problem and they are looking for a solution.
They have a need and they are looking for someone who can fulfill that need.
If you come to my website looking for someone who can improve your SEO with online copywriting, you don’t want to know what a great copywriter I am.
You want to know whether I understand your problem or not and accordingly, I can improve your SEO.
YOUR problem should be my focus, not my skills and abilities.
Of course, you need to know my skills and abilities, but they should be integrated into a you-centric message.
If you focus more on yourself and less on your customers and clients, there is no emotional connection and people leave your website without doing business with you.
2. You don’t have a call-to-action
What do you want people to do when they are on your website?
If you are simply busy generating traffic from search engines and social media websites without making it clear exactly what you can offer, your conversion rate is going to be low.
Your copywriting should make it clear that you are in the business of providing solutions people are looking for.
3. Your online copywriting is not web friendly
People have a certain way of reading text on their mobile phones and even on their PCs and laptops.
I have repeatedly written on my website that people don’t read blogs and websites the way they read traditional magazines and newspapers.
The digital world is full of distractions.
While you are browsing a website or a blog, you are constantly being disturbed by notifications and by the possibilities of easily going to another website or blog.
Since most of the people may be accessing your website or blog on their mobile phone, they may be sitting at a crowded and noisy place.
The point is, online copywriting needs to take into account zillions of distractions.
Write very short sentences.
Be clear about what you are saying.
Cover every important point as quickly as possible so that even if someone leaves your website midway, he or she knows what you are trying to communicate.
Keep your copy easily scannable.
Organize your text under various headings and subheadings and bullet points.
Don’t beat around the bush.
4. You have a misleading headline or web page title
Many people come to your website after coming across your link on Google or one of the social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
They will be drawn to your website due to the title or the headline that they read.
Some writers create misleading headlines and titles to draw people to the website or blog thinking that the only purpose of their writing is generating traffic.
Many entrepreneurs mistakenly think that it’s all about getting traffic to the website, whereas it is not.
Yes, you need traffic, but more than traffic, you need people who are actually interested in doing business with you.
When you use misleading headlines and web page titles, people feel cheated and they quickly leave your website.
5. You are not getting rightly targeted traffic
Rightly targeted traffic means getting those people to your website who would like to become your paying customers and clients.
For this, through your online copywriting, you need to target searcher’s intent: why people are looking for that particular piece of information?
In the beginning, when people had just started doing business online, I was providing web design and web programming services.
I mostly focused on creating and publishing HTML and PHP tutorials on my website.
Though I was able to generate lots of traffic, I rarely got clients.
Instead of targeting people who were looking for web designers and web programmers to build their websites, inadvertently I was targeting people who themselves wanted to learn web design and web programming.
Routinely publishing educational content is not bad, but publishing educational content just to attract an audience who is interested in learning but not in doing business, can be counter-productive.
Even for my content writing and online copywriting business I share lots of educational content but now I don’t repeat the same mistake.
Even when I’m sharing my knowledge and experience with my visitors, I never neglect the keywords and search terms that bring me content writing and copywriting clients.
Hence, be careful of your targeting when regularly publishing content on your website or blog.
Remember that it’s very chaotic on the web.
People will come across your information among hundreds of other links.
When they come to your website, they may get confusing or mixed signals.
The job of your online copywriting is to make sure that you articulate the benefit of doing business with you, as clearly as possible.
If you don’t do that, you will have a low conversion rate.