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If you want to make your formatting flawless and the reading experience for your website visitors a breeze, I would recommend looking into 9 Painful Formatting Mistakes That Ruin the Best Content.
#2 Nobody cares what university you went to or what company you worked for
Raise your hand if you tell your prospects all about your education and career path, or display the badges of the organizations you're a member of.
Now, think about what you do when you're looking for a new doctor.
Do you check what school they went to and what training they completed, or do you read the reviews of their patients?
Exactly!
If this doesn't help, think about your time at school. That moron you thought would never graduate actually did, and although he barely made it and you were an A student, both of your bios are now proudly stating "went to X".
Your website visitors aren't naive.
They don't buy into all this name-dropping and badge-flashing and:
- don't care what uni you went to
- may have never heard of the companies you worked for (and, thus, don't care)
- may have never heard of the organization you're a member of (and still don't care)
- or worse: have heard of it but know that everyone who pays a fee could be a member
What they do care about is what real people like them who worked with you say about you.
So, if you want your prospects to trust that you'll do a good job, quit all the name-dropping and badge-flashing, and include client testimonials.
Exception: Name-dropping does help if you worked for a company that your prospects consider famous. Don't link out to their websites though but mention what results you've achieved for them.
#3 How to use questions in your copy not to drive your visitors crazy
Ask questions, they said. Your readers will be more engaged, they said.
What they didn't tell you was how it may drive your prospects nuts.
I was recently reviewing a website that had 31 out of 39 sentences in the copy posed as questions. 80% of the page... just questions.
Are you struggling with this? Do you feel like this? Maybe you feel like this? How about this? What if I told you you could feel like this? Or like this? Or fix this problem? How would you feel if you wouldn't feel like this anymore?
Phew...
So, here's the deal with the questions in your copy.
Questions are frictions
Every time you pose a question, it creates friction. Not all frictions are bad, though, and questions, if used properly, are "the good ones" as they indeed keep the readers engaged.
But if a reader would have seamlessly read through a definite sentence, a question is a speed bump that forces her to stop and reflect on an answer (even if it's just half a second).
This is a great tactic to keep your readers awake, but, as any speed bump, it needs to be used sparsely because your readers don't appreciate miles of a bumpy road.
Questions as headlines may backfire
Using questions as headlines is a good idea, but:
"Are you ready to upgrade?"
"Would you like to work together?"
"Do you need magic content?"
...are all pretty sucky questions because they don't guarantee you a "yes".
Seriously, who is ever ready to upgrade and what's magic content anyways?
The moment your visitor answers "no", the connection between you and them becomes weaker or breaks instantly.
That's why you need to use question that your website visitors are most likely to answer with a "yes":
"Want to do more in less time?" (Sure!)
"Want to grow your business faster?" (Who doesn't?)
"Want to sell more?" (You bet!)
Which brings us to the main point of how to use questions effectively:
- Questions are frictions. Don't overuse them.
- Use only questions you're sure your ideal clients will answer "yes" to.
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