Know where your Web site and marketing collateral copy falls flat on its proverbial face? Count the number of times you use the word you. If you can count the number of you’s on one hand—with plenty of fingers to spare—a change in approach may be in order.

Why? Well, chances are if you’re not using the word you all that much, the focus of your copy might be too centered on your company and not the needs/problems/issues facing your customers/clients. Customers/clients may visit your site to learn about your company, but what they really want to know is whether you understand their problems and can help fix them.

For example:

“HiRoad Communications writes great web copy with a fast turnaround time and great results.”

Now, if you’re looking for some content in short order, this message might work, even though its claim is quite subjective with no real way to substantiate it.

Compare that to:

“Keeping your Web site current is a full-time commitment. Unfortunately, when you run your own show, there’s only so many hours in the day and only one of you. HiRoad Communications can write the copy you need, in the time frame which meets your deadlines.”

More or less, each paragraph says the same thing. Only the latter paragraph shows an understanding of the client’s reason for needing HiRoad Communications: not enough time or staff. And even though the sentence says nothing about HiRoad Communications or how well we write, it does say, “we understand your situation and can help solve your problem.” Nine times out of ten, that’s what your customers and clients want.

So, copy and paste the text from your Web site into a Word document and do a search on you. The answer to why your Web site or marketing collaterals are not as effective as you might like could be right under your nose.