Simple Copywriting Secret, eh? Is this going to be about benefits? About using a conversational tone of voice? Or perhaps it’s time we revisited talk of sentence length and the controversy that is the Oxford comma.

Not today.

Today we’re going so far back to basics, so very old school that we’re almost back in the classroom humming Fool’s Gold and learning King Lear from back to front.

Real world problems

But we’re in business now, not the classroom. All grown up and out in the real world. And we deal with real customers with real problems – like websites. Websites cause people who are in business a lot of problems.

The concept of a website is, at first, a simple one. Your customers need to be able to find you online, and so you need to have what’s known as a web presence. So, you sit down with your colleagues and decide, “We’ll put up a company website and we’ll tell people what we do. We’ll fill it with photos, and blog posts and possibly an Instagram feed – if we’re feeling artistic and a bit hip…”

Welcome to our website

And here’s the catch: it’s at this point that it’s very easy to get lost. To talk about vagaries and concepts. About ‘executive solutions’ and ‘strategic thinking’ (read more about my thoughts on business jargon in this article), instead of drilling down to the nuts and bolts and telling your customers what you do. Because, actually, they don’t really care what you do. They care about:

• What you offer
• Why you’re good at it
• And why they should choose you above everyone else

We’re guilty of it here. Or at least we were. Sitting in a meeting with a prospective client I was asked if we did copy editing. We’re copywriters, of course – in my mind at least – it’s obvious that we can help with that.

Today’s simple copywriting secret

But the client had to ask – because until I’d had that meeting we hadn’t mentioned it anywhere here on the site.

And there’s your simple copywriting secret.

And we were guilty as charged, M’lord.

So what is it that you do that you’re not telling people about?

Because you could be missing an awful lot of business by assuming your customers already know.

Keywords aren’t just for your website

Try this exercise.

Gather as many people from your business together as you can. Then, on a white board or a large sheet of paper (A1 works well here) get people to tell you the things they do as a part of their roles. The chances are, someone in a department somewhere offers a key service as part of your operations. And that key service is currently hidden away in a process or a manual. Which is a shame as it could bring you more business, if only you had it written down and were able to promote it.

I held a copywriting training course with the team at Epsom and Ewell Council to help them develop their new website. These are some of the services they offer – and that they are now promoting for the benefit of residents in the region.

So, what are you missing?