Online marketing is all that it’s cracked up to be and isn’t as difficult as it’s cracked up to be.
It doesn’t even need to be a wazoo marketing campaign. In fact, it’s already on every page of your website. It’s your copy. If crafted thoughtfully and clearly, your entire website is the Marketing Manager who sells your company, your brand, your product or your service 24/7/365 (or 366 depending).
Great website content is the foundation for driving great qualified leads to your site. But what makes the content great? Snappy writing? Tech-speak and pop culture buzzwords? Lots of it? Not really…and it’s much simpler than finding your inner-copywriter.
GET IN THE 10-RING…KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Who are you speaking to? What is your niche market? What does your target audience want and need? Define these users and tailor your copy to them. Your copy should address their specific wants, needs, questions or “yeah, but…” hurdles, just like an in-person sales pitch would do.
Take some time to figure out your users’ behavior and habits on your site. Your website host, Google Analytics reports or other web stat program can tell you a lot about things such as:
- ~ What page gets the most user time?
- ~ What time do you get the most visitors?
- ~ From which page do users most often bail from your site?
PUT OUT A CREATIVE WELCOME MAT
Here’s where the snappy writing does help.
Your site headlines are quick snippets of information. Your users often decide whether they are interested in your site and/or page right here. So easy-to-understand, attention-grabbing headlines will help make users want to hang on your door step and then delve deeper into your website.
Choose your words wisely and keep them relevant to what your users want to know.
THE SCAN ARTIST
A copy-heavy page is not well-received or read in full. But don’t distract your user with a ton of images, flash, slideshows, automatic videos or intro music either.
Users tend to skim through websites and scan pages, so large paragraphs are not useful, even if you think it will help with key word relevancy. Your user will skip out before you know it.
- ~ Write short 4-5 line paragraphs. Even a one-liner, now and then, adds good je ne sais quoi.
- ~ Use bullet-point lists.
- ~ Mix the above two to break up the page.
- ~ Use subheads to divide longer chunks of copy.
- ~ Use easy-to-read, web-friendly fonts like Verdana or Arial.
- ~ Avoid dark, patternend backgrounds; a light-colored plain background gives the most readability.
- ~ Less is more – choose your images and graphics carefully and make them applicable to the copy.
Hot Chillys does this really well …
HOW’S YOUR STREET CRED?…OK, WEB CRED?
How is what you have to say more credible than the rest of oh, say, every other company in your industry that has a website? Yep, those hundreds, maybe even thousands of sites?
People want to know and trust that what you’re offering has credibility, integrity, quality…you need to establish this quickly and early on in your users’ visit.
- ~ Your About Us section – what about you? Talk about your credentials and what separates you from the rest of the herd. Show your users you are solid.
- ~ Who are you? Not your company, product or service as a business or commercial entity, but as a person. Make your offering relevant as a person, not as an object. Your users want to relate to the total package and the way to do that is tell them who you are, what’s your story?
- ~ Use testimonials to build trust. Testimonials from your happy clients or customers pack a powerful punch to your credibility. Engage past clients to write about their expectations and results they received by partnering with you. Make sure to include your client’s name, business name and their website URL…it helps the user know the bandwagon is real.
GOOD TO GREAT
Features are good, but get to the real great thing: what benefits do you offer? How do you fill a need and make your future client’s life easy, painless and stress-free? Anticipate that your client will want to know “what do I get out of this?” and show them how you can solve their problems.
- ~ Good: ElementsLocal offers Franchise companies a website platform that provides a local website for each of their Franchisees.
- ~ Great: ElementsLocal provides each Franchisee with a customizable local website in one-third the cost AND capitalizes on the strength and power of national branding and established online presence.
CALLS TO ACTION
Now that your user must absolutely have your product or service, you need to let them know how to get it. Make your calls to action clear and easy to find. Include them in several places (tastefully) on each page, for example as a side bar button.
- ~ Use the online wizard to purchase your site in 4 easy steps. (inline copy)
- ~ Purchase your site now! (button copy)
- ~ Click here to receive your sprocket, risk-free! (inline copy)
- ~ Order your sprocket! (button copy)
Your website copy, especially that on your home page, is your 15 seconds for a great first impression—that awesome smile and pleasantly firm handshake. Your clients need to be crystal clear about why you are the person they should partner with.
You don’t need to embark on a site overhaul and rewrite all your content. Employing some of these techniques will help you build your website into an effective marketing tool. Employ all of them and you’ll produce an outstanding online marketing manager who will sell your product or service 8760 (or 8784 depending).
