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Makeover Your Website – It Starts With A Plan

Now What? Your Action Plan...

Over the last several weeks, we have given you a number of things to do to improve your website. You may find that some things work well for you and others may not. But you won’t know until you try and test them. And the more you test, the better you’ll understand what makes your target market take action. That is priceless information that will come in handy as you develop new websites, new products and so forth.

From here, you should:

Take Stock of Your Website, Web Pages & Products:

o   What is the main purpose of each page?

o   What is the secondary purpose of each page?

o   What is your target market & USP? (Each product/page can have its own.)

Analyze Your Current Statistics:

o   You can use your web stats and try some of the tools mentioned like Google Analytics, Crazy Egg and Your Ad Tracker.

o   What can you maximize now from the results you see?

o   Make it part of your plan to regularly analyze and make improvements.

Set up Your Split Testing and Test Copy & Design Elements:

o   Simplify your site with the design tips.

o   Incorporate the copy tips.

o   Test the results and keep improving them.

The important thing is to start doing something. You don’t need to do a huge overhaul of your website (unless you think it might need it), but start making small changes and building on those results.

Copywriting Tips For Effectiveness – Part 4

STRATEGIES #14, 15 & 16 : Copywriting Tips to Consider – Part 4 of 4

Design can have a big impact on your website’s success, but even more important is how you communicate with your target prospect. A well-designed and organized website is nothing unless it grabs your visitors attention, keeps it and compels them to take action. And you can achieve those goals with well-crafted copy.

• Focus on benefits. Every product has features, but consumers don’t buy products simply because of features. They buy because of the benefits those features provide. Here’s an example from my Copywriting Sweetie course:

An example: You sell a ballpoint pen.

The features are black ink, a felt tip, and it comes with a lid.

The benefits are that it reduces hand cramping and eliminates smudges.

Notice how when I mentioned features of the pen, it sounds like any other pen, but when I mention about benefits, it make the pen sound more interesting. Those are benefits and they help sell your product. People have a problem and they want to solve it by buying your product. Show them the benefits of your product.

• Create a sense of urgency: We all know that most people won’t buy from you on their first visit. In fact, most people that visit your website will NEVER buy from you. How can you reduce the number of customers that get away? You can do it by creating a sense of urgency. Make them feel like they need that product or a free sign up now.

There are a number of ways you can do this, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Show your visitor how they can’t afford to let their problem continue and they need your solution now.
• Offer a limited-time discount.
• Offer bonuses or other goodies with your product that are in limited distribution or only available for a certain amount of time.

It doesn’t matter what type of page you’re creating or what your call-to-action is…every piece of content should be designed and written to encourage people to follow through. That doesn’t mean that your articles have to turn into sales pitches, but you still need to create a compelling piece that people will read all the way through and click your links or sign up for your mailing list.

• Make Sure Testimonials Are Meaningful: If your customer said you can only publish her first name and she simply said, “This is the best XXX I’ve ever tried,” you probably shouldn’t post it on your website. Testimonials need to come from real people with real names and talk about real things. Make sure your testimonials have concrete detail about what your customer liked about your product and what results it produced for her.

Where possible, include:

• Full names (first and last)
• Location (city and state/province)
• Photos - Before and after photos, if applicable, can be very effective
• Other proof of results – For example, if your product helped a child’s grade improve in school. You can show photos or scanned images of reports showing the improvement.

Don’t be shy about asking. Respect their decision is they say no, but you’ll never know until you ask.

Copywriting Tips For Effectiveness – Part 3

STRATEGIES #12 & 13 : Copywriting Tips to Consider – Part 3 of 4

Design can have a big impact on your website’s success, but even more important is how you communicate with your target prospect. A well-designed and organized website is nothing unless it grabs your visitors attention, keeps it and compels them to take action. And you can achieve those goals with well-crafted copy.

• Eliminate excessive adjectives and exclamation points: Adjective and exclamation points convey hype. You want your words to convey the irresistibility of your product in a more honest and straightforward way.

Let’s look at an example:

“The biggest and best e-book that will make you the happiest person on your block!”

Here’s the problem: Outside of the fact that it’s pretty over-the-top with its claims, that sentence above is pretty meaningless. Nobody really cares if an ebook is the biggest and this sentence really doesn’t say anything about why it’s the best. Also, the word happiest is kind of meaningless. We all want to be happy, but if we are unhappy right now we have specific problems we need to solve. Telling someone they’re going to be happy doesn’t answer much for them. They want to know HOW you’re going to make them happy and how you’ll make their specific problems go away.

The real problem with the sentence above is that it’s filled with adjectives that don’t give specifics. Adjectives describe nouns and they don’t provide readers with good information. Make sure you answer these questions in your copy:

• How are you the best
• What makes you great
• How do you care for your customer

That’s what people want to know. If you use too many adjectives, it ends up sounding like too much hype and the meaningfulness is lost.

• Keep it simple and succinct: The average reading level of the typical Internet user is quite low. Of course, it depends on your market, but the simpler you can make your language the more easily digestible and understandable it will be. Avoid using jargon unless you are certain your audience will understand it or explain it fully.

Simple and succinct not only helps accommodate all reading levels, but it also make for easier on-screen reading. The fact is, reading online can be fatiguing to the eye, so always follow these tips:

• Keep your sentences short and simple. It makes your writing much easier to read.
• Use only a few sentences per paragraph. Traditional grammar rules don’t always apply and readability rules online.

Copywriting Tips For Effectiveness – Part 2

STRATEGIES #10 & 11 : Copywriting Tips to Consider – Part 2 of 4

Design can have a big impact on your website’s success, but even more important is how you communicate with your target prospect. A well-designed and organized website is nothing unless it grabs your visitors attention, keeps it and compels them to take action. And you can achieve those goals with well-crafted copy.

• Make Your Site Scannable

The sad fact is, most people who visit your website aren’t going to take the time to read what you have to say. You have a better chance of drawing them in and getting them to pay attention to your offer if you make your copy easy to scan.

A few ways to make it easy to scan:

o   Subheadlines: They serve a similar purpose to your main page headline. They are used to get people to keep reading your page or to get them to start reading. Internet users generally skim pages to see if the information they are looking for is on the page. If you use bold subheadlines to draw the eye in and show what each section is about, they are more likely to stay and read. This applies to your sales pages, content pages, blog entries…and all types of pages. Keep them interested in what you have to say.

o   White Space: Having a lot of white space around text makes it much easier to read your copy. Your website needn’t be crammed to be valuable.

o   Bullet Points: Using bullet points actually makes it easier for you to write your copy AND it makes it easier for your readers to scan the features and benefits of your products.

• Focus on YOU, not WE: Let’s face it, when we surf the net, we only care about what we want. We want a solution to our problems and possibly a product that will help us get to that solution. It’s the same with your own target market. They want to know how you can help them.

One way to convey that you’re there to help is to change a lot of your language to be “you-focused”. A lot of sales copy is too focused on the business who is doing the selling. For example:

“We sell this…”

“We’re great at this…”

“We believe in customer satisfaction…”

It’s simple enough to change wording around to focus more on “you” and how you can help your potential customer. Turn it around and write things like this instead:

“Are you looking for…”

“If you need reliable…”

“Your satisfaction is guaranteed…”

Go through your own pages and see where you can change “we” to “you” and see how much more appealing it sounds.

Makeover The Content of Your Website

STRATEGIES #8 & 9 : Copywriting Tips to Consider – Part 1 of 4

Design can have a big impact on your website’s success, but even more important is how you communicate with your target prospect. A well-designed and organized website is nothing unless it grabs your visitors attention, keeps it and compels them to take action. And you can achieve those goals with well-crafted copy.

• Improve Your Headline

When approving copy to appear on a website, many business owners don’t consider the effectiveness of headlines. The assumption is that readers will continue to the rest of the copy regardless of what is at the top of the page. This assumption can be a very costly mistake.

Make sure your headline is an accurate representation of what your product is it’s main benefit or USP. Ideally, your headline will represent your product and move it at the same time, as headlines are rife with the potential to sell your product before readers even begin reading your copy’s body. Two ways to ensure that your headline sends out the right signals is to be specific and to include benefits in it.

IMPORTANT: It doesn’t matter what type of website you have…an online store, a content site or sales letter…you need a headline! You only have a few seconds to grab your visitor’s attention. Do it right away with a headline or it might be too late.

Tips:

o   Be specific: Add specific figures (price points, time investments, results), instead of generalizations.

o   Benefits: Make sure you include (a) benefit(s) that will make your visitor want to read more.

o   Look at other headlines: View other sites and headlines and see what grabs your attention.

q  Price Testing

Testing different price points for your products should be done to make the most profit, but also to generate the most visitors on your website and the highest conversion rate. Like with headlines, the appropriate price can attract a slew of new customers.

There are several key factors that a business owner should consider when test pricing a product.

Tips:

o   Product Value: When pricing a product, make sure that your selling price is greater than its worth to ensure a profit, but don’t price a product low in an attempt to possibly generate more sales with a low price. Remember that you run your business to make money and not lose it.

o   Perceived Value: It’s true that target markets can differ in what they find valuable in a product, especially if it has many features/benefits. But what is also important is how customers perceive its value in the marketplace.

Pricing a product well below the standard could arouse suspicions in potential customers. They may believe that the product has been misrepresented somehow, that there’s a catch in the fine print, that the item is defective or just isn’t in demand. Don’t sell your product short by slashing prices so much that they become undesirable to the public.

o   Numbers in Prices: Some numbers prove to be more inviting than others when it comes to product pricing. You can test different numbers with your own target market. Test prices ending in 5, 7 or 9, for example.

o   Conversion ISN’T Everything: Do some math. You may find that a lower price results in more sales, but your profits may diminish as a result of a lower profit per sale. Sometimes it’s worth taking on fewer customers for more profit…plus you won’t have as many customer service issues to deal with.