This is a response to a client that we have been working with, and a website they are building that will sell an eBook on "Hair Styling Tips". We thought the information was important and relevant enough to include in this months newsletter.
==CREATING A WEBSITE THAT SELLS==
The website that we'll be dealing with sells an eBook based on hair styling tips, but these concepts should translate very easily into any website that sells a product or service.
In this article, we touch on subjects such as:
The use of graphics on a web page
Copywriting insights
Web Page Headlines
Benefits, not features
And more.
Our hope and desire is that you find this article of value, and that you find thoughts and ideas you can put to use in your own online business.
Let us begin...
==COPYWRITING SUGGESTIONS==
Copywriting is probably one of the most mis-understood elements of marketing, and I am not going to claim I know it all. Website copywriting is more than just your typical "one-liners" that we see so much in today's Internet marketing arena.
I've learned a couple of lessons over the past few years that are usually pretty tough for people to get a-hold of, and most of them I have learned from my beautiful wife Marsha.
My wife Marsha has been a hair stylist for over 22 years, and for more then 18 of those years has managed one of the largest hair styling salons here in Ohio.
I've learned more about advertising from her then I ever have from any Internet guru, although that's not to say we cannot learn from them. "Internet guru's that is"
Here are our suggestions for the copywriting on your web page.
The first thing to understand is:
People/Customers only care about themselves.
At first, at least until the customer gets to know you a little better, they are only concerned about one thing, and that is "whats in it for me".
Think about these thoughts for a moment:
I want to feel better
I want to look better
I want people attracted to me
I want more money
I want to be accepted
And there are many more thoughts that run through our minds as human beings everyday. They are all natural thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and everybody has them, although some may not admit to it.
Also, we must understand why people buy things. Do we as shoppers buy what is needed in life, or do we buy what makes us feel good, look better, feel happier, etc?
If we think about this for awhile, and think about it with honesty, we will find that 98% of the time that we are buying something, it's because we think that it will make us feel good, be happier, or look better in some way.
With that being said, now we can ask ourselves what is it about our copy that presents something to our customers that will benefit them in some way?
If I am selling a book on "Tips for quick and easy hair styling solutions", then I am going to put myself in my customers shoes, and ask what is it that is going to catch my attention?
If I write something like the following:
Hello, my name is Marsha, and I've been a hair stylist for more then 20 years now, and I guess you could say, I know a little something when it comes to hair styling.
And I would continue on here with more about what I know, etc.
As a potential customer, would you really care to read anymore? Most likely not.
But, what if I were to write the following:
Give me just 5 minutes, and I'll show you 5 simple tips you can use to have the most beautiful, full bodied hair you've ever seen... And I'll teach you how to do it in as little as 7 minutes a day.
or how about this one...
Imagine, you wake up in the morning, wash your hair, and just 7 minutes later you've got the most full bodied, beautiful hair you've ever seen... Warning, don't be surprised when you get more attention at the office today.
And there are many more ideas, but the bottom line is, what one of these would grab your attention, and make you want to read more?
When writing anything on your website, always think "customer BENEFITS".
Again, we can help more in these areas if you want them, but the greatest single gift we can give you to help convert visitors to sales is to teach you to sell benefits, not features.
==WEBSITE GRAPHICS - SUGGESTIONS==
Graphics on websites are a heavily debated issue, although we feel very strongly that they shouldn't be, and here's why.
It all depends on what your selling or trying to sell.
Internet marketing information based products do not need all of the graphical content as would a company trying to sell a new video game for the Play Station, Game Boy, or any of the game boxes available.
These types of customers want to see what they're buying before they shell out $50 or more for that "next big game".
Internet marketers are looking for usable information on how to market their businesses online. They typically do not need the graphic intensive website design that a game company would.
BUT, we also have to remember that just because we may not classify ourselves as a "typical" Internet marketer, we are never the less marketing our products on the Internet, whether or not they are PC games, Internet marketing information products, or how to best style your hair.
With that being said, what we need to find is a "middle" ground that will lend itself to our products and services.
Back to our hair style website idea, I would recommend the following, which we feel will lend itself greatly to enhancing the "over-all" effect, and would help increase sales of your product.
Suggestions:
1) Thinking back to our "Copywriting" insights, and the natural human emotion of wanting to look better or feel that we are "attractive", it would play in nicely to have a few pictures of very attractive people peppered through-out the website or sales page.
We would suggest that these images would lend themselves to the content at very precise moments, and help add "effect" to what is being stated.
Example:
If your explaining how they will learn that they can have better, more natural, full-bodied hair, then you might want to add a small, but very clear image of a beautiful woman throwing her hair back. This image would be of a woman with "full-bodied" hair, and of medium length.
Focus on a picture that you, yourself may feel deeply inside that "I'd sure love hair like that". You need to find that "emotional" moment, and then use it to your copywriting's advantage.
2) It has been shown that by adding a 3D graphical image of your book or eBook can increase sales by as much as 300% and more.
It has been found that this gives the potential customers "subconscious" mind something to hold on to and feel.
"Touch"
Touch is something that we as marketers lack greatly on the Internet, and we see no such abilities of this in our foreseeable future.
The only option we have at this point are graphics, and images, along with sound.
We know that graphics and images, along with proper copywriting skills can sell a lot of products. We know this to be fact for the simple reason that we witness this type of content everyday, all day through TV commercials.
How do we know this to be fact?
No one would spend the billions of dollars they do, each year, creating TV commercials if they did not increase the sales of their products.
Example:
Without mentioning a name, have you seen the TV commercials where the women who wash their hair with a certain hair care product, seem to be in Ecstasy?
OOohh, AAaahhh, Oh Yes, Yes, YES!!!
Sound familiar?
And do we honestly believe, that if those commercials did not increase sales of that product, that this company would really spend the millions of dollars a year they spend for them?
Of course not. Spending with no return on investment is the fast way to kill a company.
==FINAL THOUGHTS==
There are many more areas that will help create and generate more sales from a website, and we have hardly scratched the surface here.
But, you should be able to pull out the beginnings of a very good start at creating a website that can generate revenue very early on.
We must come to understand, that although there may be ideas, and thoughts that seem foreign to us, and some may even feel uncomfortable, if we want to create sales, we will have to over-come some of those boundaries within ourselves.
==IN CLOSING==
Whatever you decide to do, one thing to remember is, it's one thing to focus on benefits, and peoples emotions, but a completely different thing to lie.
We never suggest lying to customers.
If a product cannot produce the results that the sales page says it can, then the sales page needs to be changed to fit the product.
If not, customers will not be happy, it can ruin a business, and people who do it can get into more trouble then it has ever been worth.
Focus on benefits in your sales copy, a website that is fresh and new (not a look-alike), build brand awareness, and customer service, and you will have the beginnings of a great website, and online business.
