Contact  Affiliates  Client area 

Website Content: Who are you writing for?

Home > Ecommerce  > Website Content: Who are you writing for?

Published on February 02, 2012 Website Content: Who are you writing for?

Posted at 2:04 pm in Ecommerce by

Last updated on October 30, 2018

Whether you’re writing a product description for your online shop, a technical manual, a newspaper advertisement, a product brochure or a children’s book, you must always think about who you’re writing for. Pitch your content above or below your audience’s level and you’ll end up with content that does not connect with your target customers. When it comes to converting visitors into sales, this can be a fatal mistake.

To write for your audience, it’s crucial you understand who your audience is.

Some steps to take when thinking about who you are writing for.

  • Understand who buys your products, and why they buy them
  • When people are buying your products, or looking for them, what are they thinking. Is there a particular problem they are trying to solve? Are they just shopping for price because the item is a commodity? How complicated is the product to understand? Do particular types of people buy it? How do those people think? How much do they know about your products already? Try to visualise example people that you are writing for, and write for them. In your mind pretend you are explaining that product or idea to those people.
  • Use words that those people will use. This doesn’t mean use jargon, it means write like your audience reads. That said, always try to keep your writing as clear and easy to understand as possible – but still targeted at your audience.
  • Always spell check and grammar check your articles and content before uploading it. If you have a colleague or business partner, proof read each other’s work. If you’re writing for an Australian audience, don’t use American spellings for things as this will start to alienate those Australians – even if it happens subconsciously.
  • Be visual. No matter who you are writing for, people in general prefer images to words. If you products don’t lend themselves well to images, then by all means use words – but don’t fill up your product descriptions with paragraphs of text. Use bullets, use whitespace, make it easy and inviting to read. Use diagrams if they’re relevant. And if you do use images, make them relevant to your audience too. Think about how the text will be presented within the base design of your actual website.

Writing to your audience is important, and if done well can help convert more customers into buyers.

Print page
0 Likes
No Comments

Post A Comment