The Maintenance and Advertising of Websites - More tips
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9. Use testimonies - obtain testimonies from satisfied customers and include them throughout your web copy. These are powerful motivators because it is someone else (not you) testifying to the use of your product ie
"I am so relieved that I don't have to chase my kids into the bathroom anymore to brush their teeth. My kids now run to the bathroom to use the teeth whitening gel and are smiling much more than before. They now have a more positive attitude and have made many more friends."
Sandra Smith
ssmith@msn.com
10. Include graphics - graphics should only be used to support the content of your web copy. In this example, you could include before and after photos. The first photo could show someone alone smiling and showing their yellow teeth. The second photo could show a smile with shiny white teeth standing together with their friends (to emphasize why this person became popular).
11. Get the order - include several ways for your visitor to take action and order your product. Include order buttons throughout the sales copy (sometimes visitors have read enough and want to order immediately without wanting to read through the whole page). Use several payment methods (ie credit
card or paypal) to capture the largest number of paying customers.
12. Include bonuses - most people love to receive something extra on top of what they are getting already. This increases the perceived value of your product. Add a few bonuses to the end of your sales copy. This may consist of e-books, offering extra help after the sale, or having access to special
information only available to those that purchase your product. Create a password protected directory on your site where only people that have purchased your product, have access to this special information.
13. Create a sense of urgency - it's very easy for visitors to procrastinate, thinking they will come back later...they rarely do, especially on the Net. Most will purchase on impulse. You could right something like:
"Get your order now as supplies are very limited" or
"These bonuses are available for only a limited time"
Be truthful in what you say. You don't want a visitor to return to your site and still see the same number of products listed from when they last visited your site. There may be a script you can use on your website that automatically shows the decreasing number of products or time available to receive the bonuses.
14. Provide a solid guarantee - guarantees help reduce the anxiety the customer may have ordering from you. ie "30 Day Money Back Guarantee". The longer your guarantee, the fewer returns you will receive. You will receive fewer returns for a one-year guarantee than you will for a 30-day guarantee. This is because they won't feel rushed to return to review your product in order to return it.
15. Provide contact information - this allows visitors to ask questions which you may not have clearly addressed in your sales copy. You may also want to include a personal photo of yourself or an "about us" page. This shows customers you are not trying to hide yourself behind your site but want to win
their trust.
16. Check spelling, grammar and formatting - run your sales copy through a spell checker like MS Word. Typos in your sales copy project an air of unprofessionalism, sending your visitors away. Keep your sentences short and to the point. Most Internet users will scan your sales copy for headlines,
sub headlines, bulleted, bold, or colored text. Proofread your sales copy several times or have someone else read through it.
By following the formula outlined above, you can now create sales copy that enables visitors to stick to your site and purchase your products instead of trying to "wow" them with flashy graphics that may take forever to download.
Resources:
Make Your Words Sell! (http://myws.sitesell.com/webselling83.html)
Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/)
Overture Suggestion Tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles at: subscribe@isitebuild.com You can read more
of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
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