How to write a web page
Last week a prospective client asked me to explain how I would write their website.
I don’t really sell myself as a copywriter because, as any marketer will tell you, we’re supposed to sell the sizzle and not the steak.
And copywriting is the steak.
It’s basic. Yes, it’s full of protein (am I taking this analogy too far?) and calories (nah, we’re good). Your copy is your marketing’s actual meat, the substance, the part that tells people how to buy from you. Without it, you’ve got nothing.
But it isn’t sexy.
That’s why I tend to sell “strategy” or “branding” or “consulting,” or one of a lot of other terms that basically mean “I’m good at thinking about this stuff.”
But really, it’s all the same. Because good copywriting is good thinking.
And if you get better at copy, then the other things you do that require thinking – from selling and speaking to making plans and managing employees – will get better, too.
Here’s how I write.
FIRST, WRITING ISN’T WRITING
It’s curation.
Decide what your goal is.
Get all the ideas on the table.
Decide which ideas serve your goal.
Decide which order they belong in.
Put them in that order.
Decide what words best express them.
Did you see how many times the word “decide” showed up on that list?
This is why copywriting is the steak and not the sizzle. 90% of it is making choices – you choose what you want, what you think, how the things you think connect to what you want.
The writing process is the thinking-and-deciding process.
Below, I’ll walk you through that process as I shared with my client* on that call last week. If thinking and deciding are part of your work, maybe this will make you a bit sharper.
*hell yes, I got the job
THE STRATEGY HIDDEN IN YOUR WEBSITE
I love websites because they are the Trojan Horse of strategy discussions. Everybody thinks they’re talking about a bunch of html on a web server, so they lower their defenses.
But they’re actually talking about the way they understand their business.
The client who asked me to explain my process wants a website redesign. They don’t want new content or a new message; they want to be easier to find and buy from online.
So they asked me to write, not to strategize.
But it’s really the same thing.
A website rewrite is a purer way to get at strategy, in some ways – because all your questions have already been answered in the old site. The ideas have been gathered up into one place for you already.
When I work on strategy or rebrand a company, that’s not the case. I have interview leaders and salespeople to ask what the business means and how it needs to be positioned. We decide together.
In a website rewrite, they already made those choices. They’re saying, “don’t change our choices, just communicate them stronger.”
So I start by figuring out what choices they already made.
PERSON, ACTION, REASON
I look at the old website and ask the same 3 questions we ask every month on our Group Clarity calls:
➡️ What person is this page for?
➡️ What action do we want them to take?
➡️ What reason do they have to take that action?
These three things should be explicit.
When I say “explicit,” I mean you should literally be able to point to a set of words or sentences that answer the questions:
“This sentence says what they should do. This sentence says why.”
If I can’t answer these questions by looking at the old web page, then I decide for myself what action would be good or who is taking it or why. I make the choices my client didn’t make or didn’t communicate – then check those choices with them for approval.
This is strategy.
Once I am clear about the person, action and reason, I know what I’m being asked to build.
Now I can gather bricks to build it.
GET IDEAS IN PILES
Writers’ bricks are called ideas. I comb through the old web page, identify the ideas there and sort them into piles.
What piles? A framework helps here. For example, here’s Don Miller’s Storybrand framework:
Person (your client)
Problem
Plan
Guide (your company)
Action to take
Results they want
Results they don’t want
If you like Miller’s framework, you can sort the ideas on your client’s old website into those 7 piles. Maybe a section that lists your company’s qualifications is “guide” content, while a section that lists the benefits of your service goes under “plan.”
Usually, I do this and find holes.
Companies often talk about themselves and their product too much – so they’ll have lots of ideas in the “plan” and “guide” piles, but the person/problem/action piles are nearly empty.
Mostly, though, I’m not so worried about the size of the idea piles.
I’m worried about their sequence.
START WITH PAIN
Copy’s first challenge is getting anyone to read it. Companies blow this when they lead with “guide” or “plan” ideas, because they’re talking about themselves.
Readers don’t see how that relates to them, so they tune out.
Reverse it. Tell them why to care before you tell them what to care about.
Most of the time, an idea from the “problem” or “result” bucket justifies your page’s existence best. The trouble you solve, the pain it’s causing them or the pleasure they feel when that pain is gone – that’s usually your first sentence. Maybe even your headline.
From there, you weave a story – probably some benefits of the plan are next, then some guide info to prove you know what you’re talking about, then some more details of the plan.
Mention the action you want them to take up front. Remind them every scroll or two.
Go lighter than you think you need to on the guide stuff. Readers need to trust you, but your page is NOT about you.
It’s about your reader.
EASY ON THE SIZZLE
Think you’ve got your ideas in good sequence? Go ahead and choose the actual words to say them.
This part is the part my clients think of as “writing,” but I find it almost happens by itself if I’ve been focusing on the sequence of ideas.
In fact, my challenge isn’t choosing the most beautiful word – it’s avoiding the temptation to be beautiful or clever or write anything that gets in the way of the ideas.
The goal is not to write. It’s to be understood.
And you won’t actually know if you’ve achieved that without someone else’s help.
EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY
When you’ve got a draft, the best thing you can do is get some outside insight. Show a person who knows nothing about your business; can they name the person, action and reason behind what you’ve written?
You won’t know until you ask. The best marketers and the greatest writers don’t know. None of us knows what it’s like to be another person.
That’s what makes communicating hard – but why it matters, too. Your job’s not just expression. It’s connection.
Want to see how this unfolds in practice? We hold Group Clarity calls the first Friday of most months. Learn more here.
