Three Things Every Website Should Do

When I started my company in 2002, I knew I needed to have a website. Why? To provide credibility! How can a company be "real" in this day and age if it doesn't have a website? So, like many companies, I published an informational website that explained "here's who we are, and here's what we do".

I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about my website. I certainly didn't think of it as a strategic weapon in my company's marketing arsenal. That started to change in the spring of 2004 when a newsletter was forwarded to me by a fellow member of the National Speaker's Association. The subject of the featured article was something called "internet marketing".

The article caught my fancy, so I subscribed to the author's newsletter. Over the next month or two I picked up an eBook and a CD that were recommended in newsletter articles. The concept of internet marketing really started to intrigue me, so I decided to do some serious research.

During the next four months I invested several thousand dollars and a couple hundred hours learning about internet marketing. My conclusion? I was missing out big-time with my company's website! In fact, I concluded that just about every business website would be vastly improved if it was re-designed to do three things:

1. Help visitors RAPIDLY answer two questions:

  • "What does this company do?", and

  • "Is there anything here for me?"
2. Encourage visitors to opt-in to receive free information resources.

This keeps website visits from being one-shot deals. If you offer visitors the opportunity to opt-in to receive free, value-added information, and you provide truly useful information on a regular and consistent basis, you will earn trust and build relationships. This increases the likelihood that your website visitors will buy from you over time.

3. Motivate Action

If a website page is going to motivate a visitor to take action, the focus needs to change from you, your company and your products and services to your visitors and their problems.

Web pages that motivate action are not distant and aloof. Instead, reading them feels like a one-on-one conversation between you and the reader. The copy invokes the reader's emotions, plus provides enough supporting details to enable the reader to feel comfortable making a decision to buy online or to contact your company for more information.

This very specialized form of copywriting is called a "sales letter". You have probably received sales letters in the mail, or seen a similar type of advertising in television infomercials. Some sales letters and infomercials sound pretty "cheesy"; yet, for decades sales letters have repeatedly proven to be one of the most productive forms of direct marketing.

The biggest criticism you'll hear about sales letters (usually from corporate website designers) is, "This copy is much too long! Nobody is going to take the time to read that much information!"

You know what? The critics are almost right. Probably 95% of readers will not read any given sales letter in its entirety. That's OK, because sales letters are not written to appeal to everyone! They are written to appeal to specific individuals that have the specific problems the sales letter addresses.

Most people will skim a sales letter...IF it has a compelling headline or sub-headline that catches their attention. They may read a paragraph or glance at a few bullets. If the paragraph or bullets are compelling, they may read another paragraph. Once they have read several compelling paragraphs, they may decide to go back and read the sales letter from the beginning. At that point it becomes much more likely the reader will take the action the sales letter recommends.

Conclusion

If you want your website to generate online sales and/or leads, it needs to do three things:

  • Help visitors rapidly figure out what your company does and whether you can do anything for them

  • Encourage visitors to opt-in to receive value-added communications (so that you can build relationships and earn trust)

  • Motivate action
    • To motivate action, change every page that describes one of your company's products or services to a sales letter. Make sure each sales letter includes a "call to action", whether it is making a purchase or contacting your company for more information.

    Change the focus of your website from you, your company, and your offerings to your visitors and their problems -- and watch the online sales and leads roll in!

    Copyright 2005 -- Alan Rigg

    Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform and What to Do About It. To learn more about his book and sign up for more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020performance.com.

    In The News:

    pen paper and inkwell


    cat break through


    Up The Sandbox!

    Go to any internet marketing forum you want these days... Read More

    Thinking Of Taking Money Online? Whats Best For Merchants? PayPal, WorldPay or Something Else?

    It's now easier than ever to take payments on the... Read More

    2 Key Ways to Make Your Site a Success

    If one more business owner tells me their website sucks... Read More

    The Dos and Donts of Launching a Small Business Website

    Launching a new small business website is often a long... Read More

    Top 10 Webmaster Challenges

    Webmasters deal with a myriad of complex design challenges every... Read More

    Website For The Company Store

    If your company own one or more stores, you might... Read More

    Make Your Own Brand!

    There are millions and millions of websites on the Internet.... Read More

    Web Content: How Much Should I Pay?

    When web content gets discussed on webmaster bulletin boards, the... Read More

    The 2 Most Common Web Site Mistakes

    When we review the sites of potential clients, there are... Read More

    How to Handle Web Surfers Who Disabled JavaScript

    There are hundreds of millions of Web surfers today. Each... Read More

    How Disabled Users Access The Internet

    In 1995 a new era of accessibility for disabled people... Read More

    Top 7 Tips for Building an Antique Car Website

    Like wine cars get more attractive to collectors as years... Read More

    Three Things Every Website Should Do

    When I started my company in 2002, I knew I... Read More

    7 Golden Rules For Building Mini Sites

    First, an eye opener. Making your fortune through affiliate programs... Read More

    Five Essential Questions to Answer Before Creating Your First (or second...or third) Website

    Right after the thought, "I need a website," people usually... Read More

    4 Marketing Tips for Resourceful Webmasters!

    The internet is a sea of knowledge. Getting your information... Read More

    35% Revenue Increase? from Your Website!

    2 Golden Rules for an Engaging Website35% of visitors fail... Read More

    Getting One-way Inbound Links: the 5 Major Strategies

    With search engines putting a damper on direct reciprocal links,... Read More

    Why You Need A Web Site

    "I have a small business with just a couple of... Read More

    Selecting a Web Content Management Product

    So you want to take a look at a real... Read More

    Find the Purpose of Your New / Proposed Website

    Absolutely everything stems from the purpose of your website -... Read More

    Make Your Artist Website Sell!

    SummaryHere's the scoop on what you must know when designing... Read More

    Better Web Site ROI: Efficient Online Business with SEO, PPC, Split Testing, and Forums

    If you're looking for better web site ROI, chances are,... Read More

    Are Web Graphics Stealing Your Money?

    They might not be wearing a mask and carrying a... Read More

    Make Your Communication Come Alive

    Design and layout can make your communication come alive and... Read More

    Free Webmaster Tools - 7 Things Every Webmaster Needs in Their Toolbox

    Webmaster tools are vital to becoming both efficient and effective... Read More

    Ebooks for Webmasters

    Internet has opened a whole new world for web developers... Read More

    Website Development: Become Your Own Expert

    Starting and maintaining a business is challenging enough without the... Read More

    Guidelines for Web Page Optimization

    Below, I have listed 8 simple steps that you can... Read More

    Business Website Building Do?s and Don?ts

    First, using a lot of web graphics, flash, banners and... Read More

    MySQL Database Handling in PHP

    Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically... Read More

    Maximizing ROI via Web Site Traffic Analysis

    We are clearly well past the innocent "golden age" of... Read More

    Learn What 98% of Targeted Visitors Do On Your Website

    Getting a Targeted Visitor to a website is a waste... Read More