Have you noticed?
~80% of websites stop working after 1 year.
Especially for new professional business people (freelancers, consultants, coaches, etc.).
Because, they are busy following the crowd.
They are engrossed in imitating famous website templates, but lose themselves and forget the customers they will serve.
That leads to:
Readers enter the website and then immediately exit because they feel the website is not for them.
The website has a lot of traffic but does not bring conversions.
Spend too much effort to write content, but most of the time do not receive positive feedback.
In the end, it leads to waste of money and effort, then abandonment after 1 year of expiration.
And then miss the opportunity to build a solid foundation for business. Because, they have been instilled with a limiting belief that: websites are not effective.
Making a wise choice from the start helps you:
Keep readers on the website longer.
Create and keep awareness of your brand.
Build deeper trust.
Ultimately, the likelihood of early-stage survival increases, and sales grow steadily over time.
Just spend 30 minutes thinking and carefully answering the following 3 questions:
- Who is this website for?
- What do they want?
- What do you want?
Now, join me in diving deeper into these three foundational questions.
Who do you write for?
Making love to the whole world makes the pen nib and makes the content boring.
Writing to someone shows interest and creates a deep connection like two friends talking to each other.
So before starting, you need to answer the following questions.
Year old?
What is their gender? Male, Female, or do you write for both,…
What do they do for a living?
What is their annual income?
What is their role? Bosses, managers, employees, freelancers,…
What is their personality like?
Have they graduated from college?
Determine their level of knowledge about the topic you plan to write about.
How will answering these questions help you?
You will identify gaps in your audience’s knowledge and fill them.
You’ll find out which terms they use frequently and which they’re unfamiliar with.
For example:
You provide website content writing services for businesses, and you know that the manager or boss will be the audience viewing your website.
They are generalists, so instead of talking about writing techniques, you will focus more on problems, risks, goals and solutions.
Avoid using complicated terms like copywriting, SEO Entity, etc.
If you use it, remember to explain it simply and easily. For example, Copywriting is writing to persuade customers.
The word Copywriting has many lengthy and complicated explanations. But don’t try to be smart. Be as short and simple as possible.
2. Determine what they want?
Users are always selfish.
Selfishness in this case is 100% correct.
They only care about how your website will help their work and make their lives easier.
So you need to answer the following questions:
What are their work goals and life goals?
What are they struggling for now?
What is their value system? Freedom, health, thinking, money, relationships,…
What information are they looking for that will help their work or life?
Are they looking for specific solutions?
Are they trying to deeply understand a problem?
Are they looking to connect with you, or simply looking for a solution?
Identifying these questions will help you format and structure your content so it best serves your readers.
For example:
Home page.
The title should say that you will solve your audience’s biggest, most painful problem. The subheading should clearly explain how you will help them achieve their goals.
In other parts of the page, you need to highlight important content, clearly dividing each section for them to skim.
Making this clear allows you to attract targeted customers, and repel unsuitable customers.
This is something that free blogs like Substack and Beehiiv cannot do.
3. What do you want?
Before designing a website or creating content (articles), it is important to determine:
What do you want from the audience?
What do you want from this article?
What do you hope will happen?
More specific:
What impact do you hope this content has on readers?
Do you want to increase traffic to make money from advertising (google adsense) or attract attention?
Do you want readers to join a meeting with you, sign up for a service, or buy your product?
Do you want them to sign up for emails, download free resources, connect with you on social networks,… or not?
Each business model will have different purposes. So, you need to determine the answer that is right for you.
For example: You provide advertising or content writing services. Registering for services directly on the website is not effective. So it makes sense to ask to join a zoom meeting with you.
Conclude
We (including me) have been engrossed and overwhelmed by majestic websites of famous people or big businesses. If they have a lot of money and reputation, they just need a beautiful and majestic website.
But for independent business people (individuals) or small businesses, this cannot be done. We need to be more detailed, more specific and more customer-oriented.
Therefore, paying close attention to every small detail is the weapon that helps you defeat giants.
- Who is this website for?
- What do they want?
- What do I want?
Remember to always carry these 3 questions with you. You will need it throughout your business to continuously improve and grow.
Hope this article is useful to you.
Good luck.
Writer – Duc Thong