Not every website needs a copywriter

(This originally appeared in my newsletter. Sign up now to get content like this every Monday.)

When people ask me to write an entire website, a new question I ask is whether they have strong positioning - a specific idea of who their ideal customer is, what problem they solve for that customer and why those customers hire them to solve that problem. 

In other words, I try to figure out if they're a specialist or generalised company. And if they're generalised, I usually advise that they are better off spending as little time and energy on their website as possible - including not hiring me. 

(To be clear, there's nothing wrong with being generalised. There are lots of successful generalised businesses out there! I just don't think they should be focusing on their websites.)

The reason I advise this is because companies with generalised positioning usually drive a lot of business from things like referrals, relationships with past/existing customers (this is particularly true for professional services) and (if they're big enough) overall brand. 

In other words: the people who go to a generally-positioned company's website have usually already made up their mind! The website's just a pathway to buy - it's not doing the selling. 

So if your target audience and/or offering is super broad, take the money you would have spent on a website, and instead spend it on stuff like email marketing and sales enablement. The type of stuff that keeps you top of mind with past and present customers, and helps your sales team close more deals. 

As for your website? Just keep it super basic. Who you are, what you do, contact details. Then focus on something else.  

(And if do have strong positioning, or want to develop strong positioning, drop me a line.)

If you like what you just read, you can get content like this delivered straight to your inbox at 8am every Monday. Sign up now.