Visitors aren’t what you want

With all the buzz around SEO it’s surprisingly easy to be lured into thinking that it’s visitors you need. You don’t. You want customers not visitors.

Copywriting helps you convert, not covert visitors.

Sales copy is about getting visitors to respond, whether that be to buy a product or service, to sign-up for a newsletter, to support an idea, even click on an advertisers link… however you define a ’sale’.

There are many other elements to a website — images and graphics, functionality, layout etc. All these are important in facilitating the buying process but the actual selling is done by words. At it’s simplest that is “click here to buy this for this much”. But there’s so much more to it than that.

Ever bought anything off Amazon? If so, how much copy did you see? Whenever I’m agonising over what product to buy it’s not Amazon’s design, the images or even the one-click ordering that actually sells to me.online payday loan After a quick check of the manufacturers’ description to ensure it does what I need comes hours of reading through all the reviews and comments to see if it’s something I want. That’s when I buy. It’s no accident that Amazon is so copy-centric or that it allows user reviews, they understand their customers.

Is your web copy working hard to get sales?

I see this all too often, websites that provide visitors with a whole bunch of information about who they are and what they do, some of it quite interesting. The trouble is it’s bloated and lazy, just passively filling the page. Every word you write should be working hard to ensure you have the visitor’s attention, to get your message across and lead him/ her to the response you want.

Don’t forget to sell!

“So we’re talking the hard sell and persuasive copy right?”

If that’s what works best for your target market then absolutely yes. But in most cases I would say absolutely not. High pressure, pushy sales techniques don’t tend to work too well online where there’s a back button.

And what is persuasion? For me it conjures up images of two largely built gentlemen in tailored suits inviting me to try on a pair of concrete boots. A better technique must surely be to provide the visitor with compelling reasons, appeal to their wants and build trust? It’s not about trying to steam roll resistance, it’s about making the visitor want to respond.

This is possibly the hardest challenge facing any business and any copywriter. But there are many ways in which you can increase your conversion rates through well written sales copy.