Copy That
Many thanks to Brian Burns for going out of his way to drastically improve the landing page copy on Ignighter.com. Check it out and let us know what you think.
Copy is really important, especially landing page copy. Think about what happens when you click a link to a website you’ve never been to before. Chances are you scan the top left side of the page looking for some keywords that jump out at you. Then as your eyes scan diagonally down and to the right you might look for some kind of imagery that conveys the idea of the site. But often times an image is ambiguous. Take a look at the current image on our landing page. Is this a group dating site? A social network for people in the witness protection program? A dissociative identity disorder support group?
If the image doesn’t cut it, and it usually doesn’t, then it’s time to find the words. As consumers we generally hate looking at the words because a) we’re really lazy and b) the words aren’t always crystal clear either.
We can’t do anything about the laziness, but if we try hard we can make the words more clear. It’s easier said than done though because writing copy is hard. Effin hard. We Ignighter fellas consider ourselves fairly capable writers, but it’s become immediately apparent to us that we suck at writing copy for Ignighter. Part of it is that we’ve been living and breathing Ignighter for many months now. We talk about the concept to each other and to outsiders multiple times a day. We’ve become so entrenched in our own worlds that it can be really difficult to articulate what we’re doing, why it’s great, and keep that all under 75 words. We’ve learned that as founders of a company it’s important to take a step back and get an outside perspective (we’ve found this to be valuable in just about every area of building a business, but copy writing is a prime example). In our case we were very fortunate to get the outside perspective of a professional copy writer. But even if you can’t get that, having your buddy explain what exactly you do back to you can be a great exercise in re-understanding your own company.
On his blog, Brian does a great job of explaining why copy is especially important for startups, and this really resonated with us:
Startup copy is ALL about the ideas. That’s because most startups (at least in new tech) are developing a new one. You’re not peddling blenders here… you’re selling a new way for people to relate and interact around RSS feeds (for example). Really, that’s what makes new tech so cool, and if you do it right, that’s what gives your copy (and your brand) life. But it also means you have to explain the ideas, and it means you have to explain them well.
We (obviously) love our concept, but if we can’t convey it well on our site, then the idea loses significant value. That’s pretty much a no-brainer since our site is the physical manifestation of the concept.
We think we’re finally on the right track now, but we’d love to hear people’s feedback, so please check it out and let us know what you think. Pretend you have no idea what Ignighter is and you’re stumbling upon the site for the first time. Do you immediately understand the concept? Did your brain try to skip the words first and then come back to them? Can you get a feel for the demographic we’re primarily targeting? (hint: 20-somethings with one personality)
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