Photo by Dan Hodgett

You want potential customers to buy from you and you want existing customers to come back for more. If you want to reach your target audience, you need to speak to them in terms they will understand. I’ve seen far too many websites and watched too many corporate videos that either use a lot of vague language or technical jargon. This often leaves a potential customer confused and they leave the website, or finish watching the video, without learning any answers to their questions. If you want to communicate effectively with your target market, the copy on your website and the script for your video needs to be…

1. CONVERSATIONAL – Write as if you were meeting with your audience one-on-one.
2. CLEAR – Avoid vague terminology that doesn’t specifically state your core values, mission, identity and services. Avoid generic, cliched words, like “synergy.”
3. CONCISE – When someone visits a website, he/she doesn’t want to read a book. They will scan the content. They won’t read everything thoroughly. Hit the highlights. When you are writing a script for your video, write sparingly. Let the visuals do the talking for you.
4. COMPREHENSIBLE – Make sure the benefits of your company’s services are well-defined. Tell potential customers why doing business with you will be a valuable experience for them. If you work for an accounting firm and you perform business valuations, don’t simply tell your audience that you can do business valuations. Tell them how that service affects them. Tell them why it’s important that they use a business valuation service. Tell them when they would need it.

When someone first lands on your website or watches your video, he/she should be able to grasp the basic information about your business quickly. Remember, there’s nothing more valuable than time. If you can hook a potential customer with engaging content, he or she will spend more time with your brand. And the more time they spend with you, the more likely they will be to buy from you.