As a professional copywriter and marketing consultant, I continually see a huge mistake marketers make on their websites.
They use content, not sales copy.
I’ve stopped counting the number of business owners who have told me their website isn’t generating any sales inquiries.
As soon as I visit their site, it’s easy to see why.
Often, the website look and feel is predictable. Lots of colour. Different sized, multi-coloured fonts. Some formatting. A few stock photos that just take up space.
And not much in the way of compelling copy. That’s IF there’s much copy at all.
I can’t help thinking to myself…’And just what do you think is going to put you in position to make the sale? The fact that your site looks and sounds the same as your competitors? Or that you aren’t explaining the value your prospects can expect to get by doing business with you?
There’s only one thing that is going to consistently convince your prospects to buy your product or service.
To borrow from James Carville, the campaign strategist behind Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush, ‘It’s the sales copy, marketer!’
Carville’s original phrase, ‘It’s the economy, stupid’, was meant for the internal audience of Clinton’s campaign workers as one of key three messages to focus on.
Here’s the point:
In the limited copy they DO use, far too many online marketers plaster it with the words “we, our and us”.
Your prospect doesn’t care about you.
But if you help understand WHY he should buy from you, you’ll give yourself a chance.
Sales copy is what converts web visitors into sales leads.
‘Oh,’ I hear marketers say, clutching their pearls, ‘that means more words.’
They have it tattooed in their minds that their prospects won’t take the time read long copy. They’re too busy. They have short attention spans. They like their information in sound bite form.
That IS true for about 70% of your website visitors.
The thing many marketers fail to understand is that many of the visitors to their site or on the receiving end of their email marketing campaigns aren’t qualified prospects.
They aren’t going to buy anyway. No real need. No money. No authority. Just tire kicking. Whatever.
The copy and information on your web site is for the qualified prospect who has an immediate or future need, has the authority to buy, has the money to pay and is looking for reasons why he/she should buy from us.
They will read longer copy because they have to make an educated buying decision. But just a bunch of words stuck on a page ain’t going to get the job done.
No, to convert qualified prospects into buyers, you need to use the same balance of emotion and logic and selling structure you would use if you were standing there talking to your potential customer.
If you are getting traffic but few sales results, take a look at the copy site from this new perspective.
You should be able to see the issues in fairly short order.
