Images Vs. Plot: Why Copywriting Is More Important Than Web Design

By Stephen Palmer • January 9th, 2009 • Email This Post • Print This Post

soapopera Images Vs. Plot: Why Copywriting Is More Important Than Web DesignI was recently holding my one year-old, Avery, while my three year-old, Libby, was watching the Disney movie Tarzan. Of course, Avery is never interested in TV and I was thinking about why.

Then it hit me — since she can’t understand the dialogue, plot, and characters, TV is nothing but a series of colorful, flashing images to her.

While babies are drawn to such things they also become quickly bored and move onto something else. They’re not engaged in the story line, the drama, the human connection born of communication.

Your website visitors are the same — if all they see is a pretty design, without understanding the character (you), the dialogue (what you do), and the plot (the persuasive process), they’re going to become bored and click out without engaging with you.

I’ve seen too many sites that have world-class design but poorly written, and/or incomplete, content. Conversely, I’ve also witnessed many poorly-designed but well-written sites that are lead generating machines.

Website persuasion and conversion have far less to do with design and far more to do with the written message and proper navigation.

Quality design is pretty, but you must capture more than your visitors eyes — you must win their hearts. They must engage with your story and be pulled through a natural process, or a “plot development.”

Do they relate with you? Is your content relevant to their needs on their terms? Does it present the drama of unpredictability that keeps them moving forward? Are they riveted throughout the process, or do they drop out quickly?

Without professional copywriting, your beautifully-designed website is nothing but TV to a baby; interesting for a few seconds, but not engaging enough for them to spend time with you.

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2009-04-22_palmer_1131-copy-111x135-custom Images Vs. Plot: Why Copywriting Is More Important Than Web DesignStephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and persuasive writer with KGaps Consulting, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela. Stephen and Karina blog about their magical life on Palmer Journeys.

Connect With Stephen:

Email: spalmer [at] kgaps [dot] com
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Comments(2) Better Websites, Copywriting, Popular, Website Conversion

Comments

By aharon smith on February 24th, 2009 at 12:32 am

What exactly do you mean by copywriting? Are you saying one should literally copywrite his material or is it inferred that they should focus their site more on words rather than the bling?

By Stephen Palmer on February 24th, 2009 at 6:35 am

Aharon, copywriting is an industry term that means, according to Copyblogger, “The art and science of…strategically writing words that promote a person, product, business, opinion, or idea, with the ultimate intention of having the reader take some form of action.”

Your website copy, then, is simply the written words.

 

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