If there’s one thing that makes ‘copywriting’ what it is and sets it apart from other kinds of writing out there, its storytelling. An indispensable yet underrated part of the work when it comes to web copywriting.
It hasn’t been that long since the content on most websites was boring and factual, just a record of monotonous company information. And that, my friend, has changed.
Ever checked how the websites from the late 90s to early 2000s looked like? Do that and come back to this blog. Trust me it’ll make more sense! And I’ll show you more about how storytelling is more powerful than you can imagine and how we do it around here.
Why You Need to Transform Your Website into a Story
The reason is simple. Stories connect humans to humans. Just because we’re communicating electronically doesn’t mean we can forget the real person reading our words. And stories make them easier to read, remember and retell others.
Effective copywriters are no longer doing web copies the old-fashioned way. They’re moving away from robotic descriptions of the company – that does nothing to stir any emotion or convince people to take action. Because readers won’t settle for boring details anymore.
And facts don’t sell until people look to rationalize the buying decision they’ve made at an emotional level. And that is exactly where storytelling does its magic and is the reason why you need to transform your website into a story.
How We Do It
Take a look into how we, here at PIS, do it.
This is the website of IT Conquest, our parent company. And here’s how we did our copy to tell the story of our brand.
Writing copy is an art. And to make it one that perfectly captures the message you want to convey, as well as connect with your audience, you need a story that they’d find interesting.
Speaking of which, I’d start by asking, “Does this website NAME tell a story?” With IT Conquest , it certainly does. It tells you the company does IT and promises you to help conquer anything that comes along.
And this copy on the homepage banner further explains that.
Next, we displayed the brands we’ve worked with while demonstrating our experience of more than a decade.
Stories are a powerful copywriting tactic. This isn’t some sort of pop-psychology hack! You can use stories to connect, teach, inspire and persuade your target market. Like we did here with our short bio –
Then there’s the portfolio where we’ve showcased the projects the company has worked on, talked about the problem and solutions while keeping it conversational.
7 Ways to Use the Power of Storytelling to Strengthen Your Web Copy
Here are 10 creative ways to use storytelling to capture your audience’s attention and create high-converting web copy.
- Make your audience the hero of your story, NOT THE BRAND!
Nothing beats a good story. Brand messaging, whether it’s on a website, social media, advertisements, or internal communications, needs to position the audience as the hero while we (the copywriters) focus on guiding them to success.
People need to be able to see themselves in the narrative you are telling. They need to see themselves as the hero solving their own problems, just like we see the superheroes.
- Lead with empathy
This means we need to focus less on what your product does and focus more on the issues that your customer faces when the need for your product or solution is necessary.
Think about your brand messaging and positioning right now. Does it start with a statement that involves you or your product? Oftentimes, we’re trying to explain what it is we do, or what our product does instead of starting with what the hero needs. It’s more about them, not you.
- Use power words to capture your audience’s attention
Power words are descriptive words that persuade your audience to read your copy by triggering a psychological and emotional response. Now if there’s one thing every smart copywriter knows – it’s that being able to capture the attention of an overstimulated internet scroller. And that is more than HALF the battle.
Using these power words is one way copywriters do that because they are so persuasive that people simply can’t resist being influenced by them. For instance, instead of “DIFFICULT,” you could use words like –
- Herculean or
- Grueling
Instead of “GREAT,” you could probably use –
- Game-changing or
- Mind-blowing
Now, sometimes the perfect word will just “come to you.” And it does get easier with more time and practice.
- Read your audience
Don’t expect to be read if you haven’t read your audience. This is actually a bit trickier than it sounds. It involves research and a deep understanding of your target audience.
“The best copywriters are the most tenacious researchers. Like miners, they dig, drill, dynamite, and chip until they have carloads of valuable ore. Gather seven times more interesting information than I could possibly use.” – said legendary copywriter John Caples.
The best Big Ideas for copywriting strategies usually come out of compulsive research — combined with some creativity and enough time to think carefully about the problem you’re solving. And that in turn can help you with the narrative and storytelling.
Learn everything you could possibly need about the business, product and/or service that you’ll be writing about to ensure that the story you’re telling, no matter how engaging you may think it is, is actually relevant to the audience.
- Stimulate all the senses or lose the sale
Stories work. Our brains retain more information when all our senses are stimulated. We can recall facts if we’ve memorized them, but we have a much easier time bringing stories to mind.
So, when your copies create a consistent story, it stays with them, and they can easily associate your brand wherever it’s concerned.
- Simplify, simplify, simplify
Break complex information or details into bite-size chunks. Remember, you want to engage your readers in your story, not test their patience because they’re trying to figure out what it is you’re telling them!
- Tiny details breathe life into your story
Always remember, it’s the tiny details that bring the story to life. They are what allow you to show instead of tell. Let’s see how it worked for Mr. David Ogilvy.
While writing an ad copy for Rolls-Royce, Ogilvy spent three weeks doing nothing more than reading about the car. And that research process, although tedious, allowed him to find the one magic detail he needed to craft a headline that has lived on in advertising lore ever since:
‘At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.’
As Ogilvy said, “[The ad] ran in two newspapers and two magazines, at a cost of $25,000. The following year, Ford based their multimillion-dollar campaign on the claim that their car was even quieter than a Rolls.”
And this applies for any advertising channels like the web, social media etc. where copywriting is involved.
You want to take your audiences on a thrilling, imaginative journey that inspires them to commit to your mission and take action.
In other words, you want them to feel so seen and heard by your business that they convert as paying customers! And this is what storytelling can do for you.
