Is your website copy good or not?

You can check this by looking at the behaviour it causes.

If it doesn't make people do what you want them to do - it's not good website copy.

Good website copy causes people to do what you want them to do.

Don't confuse this with buying something or booking hotel rooms - not many people leap straight for your "book now!" button.  Your sales process is likely to involve a number of stages and your copy will be critical to the success of each one.

Your website copy is effective only if it means something to the person who reads it.  Unfortunately, a lot of copy is written in such a way that it never gets read. 

There are three reasons why people don't read your copy:

1.  It's too difficult to read - perhaps full of big words and jargon.  If this is the case, try to use smaller words and punchy sentences.  Avoid using jargon.

2.  It is all about you and not about the reader.  Your readers want to read about their favourite subject - and it's NOT you!  It's THEM!  Say "you" a lot in your copy, just as you would if they were sitting in front of you.

3.  It doesn't make any attempt to connect to the reader.  Your reader needs to be guided and encouraged through your words.

To give you a chance there's a handy mnemonic to help you structure your copy, it's called AIDA:

A = Attention

I = Interest

D = Desire

A = Action

There is a fifth element -  "Satisfaction", which we'll talk about another day.

To give your copy a fighting chance of getting read (and this holds true in print and online) you need to work on the following:

Attention - Your headline.  You need a great headline for every article or advert you write.  How do you get a great headline? 

Interest - Having attracted the attention of your reader you have a very short time in which to keep it.  You need to say something of interest very quickly.  How do you know what people find interesting?

Desire -  Now you can start talking to your prospect about what it's going to be like to use your product or service:  What will they get?  Why should they want one?  What does it do for them?  Make them want to do whatever it is you want them to do.

Action - If you've got your readership so worked up that they want to buy your product or ask for a quote or download an information pack (whatever it is you want them to do) it makes sense for you to give them a clue about what they should do next - what Action should they take?  TELL THEM - and make it easy for them to do.  The action needs to be one click, one motion.

...and there you have it.  The foundations for good hotel website copy.

So, How do you get a great headline?  How do you know what people find interesting?  Research, practice and test.  Nobody really knows how people will respond to your headline, your copy or your offer until you put it in front of some potential customers.  Not your boss, not your partner, not your employees.  Test headlines with your potential or existing customers until you find one that works well.

Good website copy follows these rules.  Always.  It doesn't need to be verbose, in fact often the shorter and sharper the better.  In other cases your prospect will need lots of copy in order to convince them to do what you want them to do.  You don't know until you test.

Good copy is tested copy.