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Marketing Tips September 2008
How to Transform Your Website from an Expensive Electronic Brochure to a Hard-Working Online Revenue SourceIcan’t count the times a prospect has said – “We’re planning to redo our website, and we want somebody who can actually write to do the content for us.” Then, a few minutes later, the person adds, rather awkwardly – “Of course, it’s never made us any money, but we think it’s important to keep it up there.” Ah, the website that simply sits there – the “brochure site” listed on company business cards that rarely shows up on Google or makes a sale. It can be the biggest money-waster on a business budget, not only for the money spent keeping it up, but for the money it doesn’t bring in! Brochure sites are a relic of the early Internet days, when companies still used printed collateral to tell the public about their products and services. Back then, marketers didn’t realize the major differences between printed and online media. Those differences are time and competition. A brochure is designed for “slow time” – it may sit on your desk for a few days, be picked up again, thrown in a drawer and emerge a month later. With plenty of time to work its spell, it does not need to capture your interest immediately. It is interacting with you alone – unless you intentionally seek out similar companies, you are not distracted by competitors. Visitors to your website, however, are usually searching for something specific, and know that a screen full of competitors is just a few keystrokes away. If your content does not capture their interest within seconds, they will move on. And you will never know they were even there. Clearly this online audience demands a whole new level of writing – focused, direct, with no frills or fluff. No flowery welcomes, no Home page rhapsodies about your company – there simply isn’t time! So how do you create a site that brings an income? Basically, you follow these three steps: Define the purpose of your site and the audience you’re targeting, as precisely as possible. Who do you want to come to your site, and why? What do they need? What do you want them to find? Are you selling services to new prospects? Offering details about your newest product? Providing support to existing customers? Craft simple, strong, short headlines and text for your home page (the lobby of your site). Both your headlines and body text need to be laser-focused on benefits: How will your product or service make the visitor’s life easier? The one purpose of this text is to send visitors to a detail page giving all the features or specs of that product or service. Once your visitors have clicked through to the detail page, they’re already presold on your obvious knowledge of their needs and desires. From there, it’s a few clicks to the shopping cart and a sale! Phila Hoopes
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