For small businesses, online marketing is their one chance to reach their target audience. Unfortunately, most small businesses forget online marketing begins at home first.

Let’s face it, no matter how awesome your online marketing efforts are, if your website’s copy is drab, it’s never going to convert visitors into customers.

Luckily, turning your web content from drab to fab isn’t hard-if you know what to do.

If you’re not happy with the results of your web copy’s performance, try doing the following to improve it:

Write for one person – Instead of writing to a group of people, write to one. Don’t imagine yourself talking to a room full of people. Folks who visit your website are alone on their computer. You need to talk to each of them individually.

Avoid industry jargon at all costs – This one’s non-negotiable. Replace every industry jargon you come across with layman terms.

Write concisely – You know that wordy, flowery, almost poetic prose about your company? The one that doesn’t actually say anything? Yeah, that needs to go.

Get straight to the point and do it in as few words as possible. Your visitors will thank you for it.

Have one Call-to-Action per page – The whole purpose of getting someone to visit your website is to encourage them to take action. Give any more options and you confuse them.

Use power words – Words that invoke an emotion, get a reaction and compel your readers to take action. Use this list of power words as a reference.

Make it about your customer – Don’t tell your customers how awesome your company is. Instead show them how your business will change their lives for the better. That’s all your customer cares about.

Have a clear unique selling point – Figure out what makes you different from your competition and then spell it out.

Benefits over features – So many businesses focus on the features rather than the benefits in their web copy. Instead of listing the features of your product or service, tell them how your company will help them achieve their goals and dreams.

About The Guest Author: Kurt Birkenhagen heads marketing for  Vast Conference, an audio conferencing company based in Los Angeles, CA.

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