The article "Make Your Website Sell" is about copywriting, it was created by Chris Mole.
Make Your Wbesite Sell By Chris Mole
Thousands of new websites are springing up every week.
The
owners of these sites are full of optimism that their venture
into e-commerce will transform their business by bringing in new
customers and boosting their sales.
But the reality is that most websites fail absymally as sales
tools. Why? Because the owenrs of these sites have spent a lot
of money creating fancy graphics but have paid little attention
to the words on the web site.
And it’s the words on websites that
sell.
Your fnacy graphics might entertain your potential
customers but they won’t make the sale.
Take a look at many of the websites out there in cyberspace.
They are full of spelling mistakes, poor grammar and cumbersome
text that makes you want to do only one thing … click your mouse
button and move to something else.
Small and medium businesses are particularly gulity of that. The
words appear to be an after-thought, hurriedly cobbled together
to fill the space between the images.
One of America’s e-commerce gurus, Ken Evoy, believes 90 percent
of websites are failing to “get the order” from potential
customers browsing the web, cause they are badly written, or
written in the wrong style.
“Remember, people use the Net to find infromation.
And
information is contained in words, not graphics,” Evoy says.
“Let’s face it, there’s some pretty cool stuff on the web, and
it’s fun to play with. But don’t be tempted.
Your sales site
can’t be self-indulgent. You have to tihnk customer every step
of the way. Customers want information.
“Compelling text is 1000 percent more important than fancy
design. After all, if a fancy page has no substance, it delivers
no value.”
Web sellnig also has two important features to consider. First,
the customer sought you out. This is a big positive.
Second,
there are thousands of other companies on the web competing for
your customer’s busniess.
And since you are a ‘virtual vendor’,
the customer can click you away in a secnod … without even
feeling bad about it. This is a huge negative.
When you think about selling on the web, keep thsee two points
clearly in mind. You have a potential customer browsing your
site, finegr poised over their mouse. One click and they’re gone.
So what shuold an effective website look like? First, keep it
simple.
It may be nice to have moving images to greet the
customer when they enter the site, but make sure it doesn’t take
too long to load. Otherwise the customer will get impatient and
… click … they’re gone.
All your web site really needs is to be clean, smiple and
well-structured. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to
be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be expensive.
That’s not to say your web site shouldn’t look prfoessional. It’s
your store front - a reflection of your business and the quality
of your product – so it has to convey the image you want to
present to the world. But a clean, sipmle web site can do that. Some
of world’s biggest “e-tailers” like Amazon.Com, and Barens and
Noble, have very simple logos.
So let’s get back to the key to a successful website – the
words.
If you want to write the copy yourself, think carefully
about the purpose of the text. You are writing sales copy. And
the secret of all successful sales copy is to think like your
customer.
To quote Ken Evoy again: “Web selling is about selling one
customer at a time … one-to-one selling … you and the customer
talking together about their needs and wants.”
Most people make the mistake of writing their websites for
themselves. They tell how wonedrful their company is, how long
it’s been in business and technical details about the products
they offer. But the customer doesn’t want to know about you and
your compnay.
The customer is interested in one thing … “what’s
in it for me?”
So foucs on the benefits of your product or service.
Atfer every
sentence you write, see yourself as your customer and ask the
question: “so what? ”.
For example, let’s imagine you are selling a new e-mail filter
that keeps spam out of people’s mailboxes.
Don’t bore your
potential customer with the tcehnical details. Focus on the
benefits of haivng such a filter.
For example, you might say
something like: “Do you waste vaulable time dealing with junk
email every day?
Ban-It Mail Filter is the answer to your
problem. Ban-it is the most effective filter available to keep
spam out of your mailbox and put back more time into your day.”
You are selling benefits – not features. Even experienced
copywriters sometimes get the two mixed up.
You need to have a clear pitcure in your mind of the customer
you are writing for.
Write as if you were sititng in a chair
opposite them and talking face to face. And tell them what your
product or srevice can do for them.
That in a nutshell is the secret of writing copy for the Web.
If you can do this, the potential of web selling is enormous.
It
outranks Gutenburg’s printing press, Marconi’s wireless and
Bell’s telephone all rolled togteher.
So don’t waste the exciting opportunity presented by
cyber-marketing. Make sure your website copy is doing the job
you want it to. If you don’t bleieve competent to write it
yourself, hire a professional copywriter. The inevstment will
repay itself many times over.
ENDS
|
