15 Tips
to improve your Web site's click through responses and Sales
By
John Alexander
In addition to the usual SEO and Internet Marketing skills that enables your Web site with ability to be easily found, probably one of the next most overlooked aspects is the work you do to get visitors to respond to their experience.
Let's talk about some of the easiest things to keep in mind for pages where you really want a call to action to work more often.
Here 15 tips for improving your Web site's click through responses
and get more sales.
1. Are you writing in a way that communicates your message with simplicity?
The old problem is that often when you write to compel response, people forget to make their Web page easy to understand. The Web is not the place to try and plug heavy or complicated language, yet we see this quite often. It's nearly like
some folks are trying to impress readers with their command of big
multi-syllable words.
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It's far more effective to keep your message simple, easy to understand and write sales copy "for voice" so that it flows like dialog.
2. Are you sure that the benefits of your product are described properly to reflect the value of your product or service.
Sometimes, people feel that their readers should automatically understand the value of their product or service. This just does not happen unless you focus on the real benefits and never assume the reader can immediately grasp the value.
3. Have you put some work into how you are different from your competition?
Note that a good sales letter should never sound like you are telling people that your product is "the best." Instead, let them learn about how your product is different. If you do this properly, people will clearly understand those unique aspects that make you different. You will never convince someone that your product or service or your guarantee is "the best," simply by saying so. If anything, it may come across with a negative reflection if your copy simply sounds like you are bragging. Remember that anytime your text could be taken two different ways, often it'll be taken the wrong way.
4. Build your benefits list in a way that adds extra value.
How many benefits should you have listed in a good sales letter?
List as many as you can to build that sense of desire for your product or service. Remember that people generally make their buying decision based on the value added, not just having a low price. My suggestion is to have at least 25 to 30 bulleted benefits in your copy. Something that only
outlines 2 or 3 benefits will not build the readers desire significantly enough.
5. If the dialog has the objective of making a sale, then be sure to never stop thinking of how you can enhance your benefits list.
Some of the most effective sales copy can be tested and re-tested until you find what combination of elements bring the best results. How your Web page reads to you and how it reads to your customer, may be entirely different. You may want to experiment with a service such as
Crazy Egg to see where your visitors are clicking on the page.
6. If you have not downloaded Michael Campbell's free e-book called
"The Ultimate
Heatmap," then grab it now included
in Michael's huge Vault of Internet Marketing Secrets.
This e-book gives you schematics where Michael overlaid hundreds of
heat maps, click maps, web usability studies, eye tracking reports and ad placement suggestions from the bigger ad networks. He then created 30 templates based on this data, and tracked the amount of ad revenue generated, depending on ad position.
It includes a definitive set of nine templates. You can double or triple your ad revenues, without any additional traffic, clicks, or page views, just by moving the ads to the hot spots.
The e-book The
Ultimate Heatmap is only one of hundreds of instructional
materials that are all included in Michael
Campbell's Lifetime Vault Membership.
7. Start thinking beyond keyword research
Remember the idea is not just to create content based on your own objectives (to sell a product or a service) but to write content based on your audience’s interests. There are plenty of ways to attract that perfect audience to a page if you can get your mind set free from focusing on only your own objectives.
Ask yourself:
What is your audience looking for?
People are using the Internet everyday for the purpose of research.
They’re looking for articles, interviews, product reviews instructional tutorials, statistical data, internet based tools, software reviews, movie reviews, stock quote information, medical articles, photos and graphics not to mention online price comparisons and shopping interests for retail and wholesale type services plus a whole lot more.
8. Create original content that speaks to your specific ideal audience
It’s important to relate to your specific readers in a way so they can relate to you. You might want to talk about a common challenge that your entire audience will be able to relate to and feel for, before you start introducing your solution. It's very important to create content that speaks to a specific audience.
9. Remember to think in terms of "topics of interest."
This will be different for every business, but for example
here are a few to get you started:
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Explore peoples interests or hobbies
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Explore people's "health" related interests
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Explore people's security or safety related interests
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Explore people's "common challenges" that can relate to your solution.
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Explore people's "opinions"
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Explore people's "political views"
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Explore people's "religious beliefs"
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Explore peoples "historical interests"
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Explore people's "statistical interests"
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Explore people's favorite "tools"
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Explore peoples "niche interests"
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Explore peoples "nostalgic interests"
10. Remember to include strong calls to action
What do you want the reader to do once they finish reading your content.
You need to clearly build these options into each page and leave nothing to guess work. Describe what action you would like them to take and never assume that they will just know, because they won’t act - unless you spell it out. It may be to place an order or a call to action may be to simply have them sign up to your newsletter. Whatever it is, make sure and give them a taste of the value instead of just telling them what action to take.
11. Remember to monitor your own industries news
Many people forget that news is 100% legitimate white hat, because the search engines understand "news" is meant to be syndicated.
The additional link reputation can be beneficial if your press release is carried in huge publications like Forbes or perhaps AOL Money & Finance.
12. Be sure that any page that you want response from, has a clearly established objective.
Your content pages can be optimized for nearly any type of purpose.
By having an objective defined, it allows you to write your dialog to fullfill
that objective to:
-
Make more sales
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Building your list of permission based subscribers
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Teach readers something useful (such as offering a tutorial)
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Answering Frequently Asked Questions
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Helping to dispel misinformation about a topic
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Offer useful statistics
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Create popular topic related informational pages
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Offer up pages that have some interactive social media purpose
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Create Advice columns
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Pages that communicate using Audio and/or video
13. Remember to use the confidence builders
-Include your store's address or location
-Have a policy page that explains what you do with e-mail
-Use credit card logos near the "Buy now" button.
-Define your policies with a unique difference from the competition
-Give the reader several options to buy
-Think of ways to offer extra bonuses (free shipping still works.)
14. Always review you sales copy by reading it out loud
This will not only help you detect any errors but you can also test it for the flow of dialog and how it will sound. Some people even say that it's good practice to also read it
backwards, which forces your eyes to see each word.
15. Remember the all important sales triggers or reasons why someone will buy.
Does you product or service do any of the following?
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Does it save your customer money?
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Does it make them more profitable?
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Does it somehow streamline the customers service or save people time?
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Does it improve the customers communication
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Does it improve the customers appearance some how?
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Does it teach the customer something new?
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Does it help settle an age old argument or help prove the customer is right?
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Does it relate to a solid established brand?
About John Alexander:
John Alexander is Director of Training at Search
Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his
group of Associated SEO Workshop Trainers located
in
communities across North America, Australia
and and
Internationally in Asia and Australia. John
has
taught SEO skills to people from 87 different countries world
wide and has written articles for EvanCarmichael.com,
The SEO
Mentoring Blog and John recently presented a solo session
for the Toronto
Search Engine Strategy Conference. John also assists a
variety of businesses with organic search engine optimization
services and can be reached at 905-716-4472.
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