Lately, it seems I’ve been spending a hell of a lot of time developing or helping develop people’s blogs. I dig it, but it’s not nearly as fun as writing persuasive copy. However, the similarities between the two (copy and development) are pretty big.
In fact, if you have a blog then this might be pretty pivotal in how you (and your readers) look at it…
Stop Competing For Attention
When writing copy you focus on the words you choose and the pictures they create in people’s minds, the emotions they create.
Great blog posts are written this way, too. But, reading your blog is not the same as reading a letter. Your words share attention with menus, links, browser buttons (the back button!), and every other widget that’s on the page.
All these things vie for attention. Especially when you have doo-hickeys flashing, rotating, sliding, and people’s faces. How are your words going to compete with all that?
Stripping Is Persuasive
Your words are what persuade your visitors to do what you want them to do. An effective blog design removes all distraction from the page so you don’t stop them from doing whatever it is you want.
Sort of like writing good copy, you strip away the things that aren’t important, don’t matter, and that don’t affect your goal.
You minimize friction and highlight calls-to-action.
The Real Estate Version Of “Buy Now”
Whether you’re using social media, SEO, or paying for traffic with AdWords you have a goal you want met when folks come to your page. Now, they’re not going to click a “Buy Now” button for a new home so the typical strategy for a Realtor is to convert those visitors into email subscribers.
Both your copy and your design can facilitate folks meeting that goal. It’s a matter of removing the things that distract from the goal and highlighting what it is you want folks to do.
Is Your Goal Obvious?
If your goal is to capture subscribers so you can drip on them then make it abundantly clear that’s what folks should do…
- Have a page where folks can subscribe to updates
- Place a subscription box in your sidebar
- Encourage folks to subscribe in your post footer
If your just want to capture folks via home search then in send folks there. The point is, optimize your copy and your blog design to encourage the action by removing the things that don’t advance the action.
What can you get rid of on your blog?
