Short Copy Of Online Copywriting

Online copy often has only a small amount of space and short amount of time to get a message across to a visitor, and entice them to take action. This is especially true of banner advertising and PPC adverts on search engines, but also is important across all Digital Marketing disciplines. Probably the most important short copy is the call to action. 

Call to action – telling people what to do

A crucial element to online copywriting is the call to action (CTA). Users scan web pages and look for clues as to what to do. Tell them.

A call to action is a short, descriptive instruction that explicitly tells a web visitor what to do. Banner advertising usually involves a clear call to action, and they can also be used in paid search advertising. Call to action copy is not limited to short copy: email newsletters and promotions should also make use of call to action, and we even see them all over web pages.

Any time that there is an action that you want a web visitor to take, a call to action should instruct the visitor what to do. This means using active verbs when you write, and crafting hyperlinks to be clear instructions that resonate with your visitor at each step in the conversion process.

Passive sentence:

When your email has been received, an order number will be issued.

Active sentence:

Send us an email, and we will issue you with an order number!

A good call to action resonates with the action that the visitor needs to take, as opposed to the technical function that is performed. For example, if a user has entered an email address to sign up to your email newsletter, the action button should say “sign up” and not “submit”.

Consider as well what actions mean offline. Again with email newsletters, “sign up” can have very different connotations to “subscribe”. Further, “subscribe” is very different to “subscribe for free”. Whereas subscriptions have connotations of costs, “sign up” does not carry the same burden. However, “subscribe for free” could imply greater value – something that would normally carry a cost is available to you for free.

There is only one way to know what call to action works best on a web page, in an email, on a banner or in an advert: test, test, test!

Features and benefits

Writing compelling copy means conveying to readers why they should perform an action. While features may seem all important, you need to communicate the benefits of the features to the user. 

Feature: a prominent aspect of a product or service which can provide benefit to users. It describes what the product does.

Benefit: the positive outcome for a user that a feature provides. It can be the emotional component of what the user gets out of the product.

Features and benefits are very different. Features are what are important to the company that provides the product or service. Benefits are what are important to those who decide to use the product or service.

For example, consider a home entertainment system. Features could include surround sound and a large flat screen television. The benefit: a cinema quality experience in your own home.

Persuasive writing makes use of features, benefits and active verbs to create appealing messages for your personas:

Enjoy cinema quality movie nights in your own home with a surround sound home entertainment system.