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Sticky Copy
Sticky Copy
Remember how we wanted to take our important friend to lunch? Consider sticky copy -- lunch. In other words, now its time to share your ideas that will impress your visitor enough to do business with you, or at least seek more information from you.
There are some important rules to follow when constructing your copy. I’ve outlined some here from the Reverse Marketing Hotline.
6 Rules For Writing
Effective Web Copy
Writing copy for your web site can be very different than writing copy for other mediums. Many of the rules of writing good copy still apply, but in addition, there are a number of special considerations if you want your web copy to be as effective as possible.
In this issue, I'll cover 6 simple rules that can help you create the kind of copy that will make your web site more successful. All 6 are easy to use, have proven effective in many tests, and won't cost you anything more, in time or money, than you're already investing in your copy.
Web Copy Rule #1: Your Site Must Have It's Own Headline
At first, I thought this point would be too obvious to include in this issue. But after surveying about 30 different sites at random, I found that very few web marketers are taking advantage of this simple rule.
What is the most common headline that most companies use - the very first thing people see on a site? The sad answer to this question is...
the company's name
What a foolish waste of space. First and foremost, you must remember that on the Internet, people have extremely itchy trigger fingers. Lose their interest for half a second and they'll click the back button to return to wherever they came from.
To overcome this, you must have a headline that rivets prospects with the major benefit they get by visiting your site. It must make them a promise that's so enticing yet so believable, they'll naturally want to find out more.
To see an example of a great web headline in action, take a look http://www.pitching.com This is the site of my friend and client Dick Mills. Dick is a former Boston Red Sox pitcher who has one of the most effective pitching programs in the country for pitchers of all ages.
Here's Dick's headline:
Dick Mills welcomes you to the secrets of
Pitching Mastery
Discover how to throw harder with pinpoint
control, build a compact - powerful delivery, and learn a complete pitching strategy with mental toughness This is a powerful promise that no coach, parent, or pitcher would want to pass up. It draws people like lawyers to a four-car pile up - yet only those people who are truly candidates for Dick's products or services.
If your web headline isn't as direct, benefit-oriented, and full of promise as this, spend an hour or so to tune it up. Show your prospect precisely what's in store for them by continuing to stay on your site. Make them feel like they'll be missing out on something truly exceptional if they don't continue to browse through your site.
Web Copy Rule #2: Your Visitor Controls The Flow
The most significant difference between web copy and offline copy is that the visitor is in complete control of how they navigate your site. With multiple entry points and countless opportunities for your visitor to click over to different areas of your site, you have no control over how your material is presented to them.
In this sense, your web site is like a magazine. Visitors find a topic that interests them, click on it, read for as long as they want, and then click off to somewhere else. And that somewhere else may not even be on your site.
To use this to your advantage, there are a couple of things you can do. First, make sure your home page has a number of enticing options "above the line". By this, I mean that you must create two or three compelling reasons for visitors to click through to other pages - and you must place these right at the top of your home page.
Let's visit Dick Mill's site again. Immediately beneath his headline are two options that offer visitors even more of what they want to know the most. These are:
(Option 1)
FREE REPORT
What 9 out of 10
coaches don't teach
that stops pitchers
from throwing harder
with better control
(Option 2)
Pitching Help Talk Online
Discussion Board
How many pitches should
a pitcher of
any age throw?
If you aren't a baseball fan, let me assure you that both of these options are very compelling to a student of pitching. Major league ERAs have gone up considerably in the past few years due to the poor quality of coaching at the little league, high school, and college levels. Pitchers have less command and control of their pitches than ever before. So if a former big leaguer can show them how to get more speed and better control, you'd better believe they'll listen.
Another crucial topic for all pitchers is pitch counts - how many pitches can be thrown and how many days of rest are required in-between to avoid serious damage to your pitching arm. So here again, Dick has set up a compelling link that few pitching students, coaches, and parents will want to pass up.
The second thing you can do to take advantage of the fact that visitors have all of the control when browsing your site is repeat your most important links on every page of your site. This seems like it should go without saying, but again, check out 5 or 10 of your favorite sites. You'll be amazed at how many of them overlook this simple technique.
If you don't make it easy for visitors to get to your most important pages - from anywhere within your site - the results are all too predictable: they won't see what you truly want them to see.
Web Copy Rule #3: Make Your Site Click-Worthy Do you remember the Seinfeld episode where, because of a limited supply of her favorite contraceptive, Elaine would rigorously judge each date as to whether they were "sponge-worthy"?
Visitors to your web site are constantly putting your content to a similar test - they are constantly testing to see if they should stay with you or click off to some other site. In order to keep them from leaving your site, you must do two things.
First, make sure your content is truly valuable to your visitor. By doing so, you guarantee that they'll stay longer, browse more, and look at areas they may not have planned on visiting.
Second, imbed links within your content to other pages on your site. Offer multiple opportunities to navigate over to other pages on your site you'd like visitors to see. The key to making this work is to offer a compelling reason to click on the link.
For example, if I was creating an article on writing direct response copy for ads and sales letters, I'd tell the visitor that writing direct response press releases requires a very different approach. I'd then provide them with a link to another article that has all of the details on writing direct response press releases along with sample releases that have produced exceptional results.
Web Copy Rule #4: Write All Your Copy From The Reader's Point-Of-View To keep visitors at a peak level of interest, your copy must be written from their point of view. Specifically, you must always show the visitor what's in it for them. What benefits do they gain in reading your copy? What critical problems can you solve for them? How can you make their life easier? How can you make their life better?
These are the underlying wants and needs that all people long to have fulfilled. These are the reasons why people visit your site.
Time is precious. Very few people will waste time on a web site that doesn't have a direct benefit to them - written in language that always reflects their main interests and their point-of-view. If you make the mistake of writing from your own self-interest (what would benefit you or your company, rather than what will benefit your visitor), you nearly guarantee that your visitors will spend very little time on your site.
Web Copy Rule #5: Keep Your Copy Short-
Short-Long
If you go to many of the online advertising discussion lists, a common topic is "Does long copy work on the web?" And the general consensus is that it does not.
Unfortunately, if you believe this faulty logic, you're doing yourself a great disservice. The fact is long copy works exceptionally well on the web - but it requires a different method of application. A method I call the "Short-short-long" approach.
Before I show you exactly how this approach works, I need to give you a little background on why it works so well. When someone visits your site, their first few clicks represent a test of your ability to deliver something of value to them.
A visitor will browse your home page, find a link that interests them, and click through to it. They will then read a little bit of what you're presenting, and if it's of value to them, they will then click on another link which takes them to another one of your web pages. As they reach successive pages, they will repeat this same process as long as you continue to pass their test.
This is the natural way the vast majority of people navigate any web site. If you try to fight it, you'll damage your sales. But if you integrate it into the way you present your copy, it can work wonders for your sales.
The "Short-short-long" approach incorporates this natural way most people navigate a web site. What you want to do is offer short blocks of copy on your top level pages and increase the length of your copy the deeper visitors get into your site.
Some of the sales copy for my products is very long - 10 to 12 printed pages. While I would never attempt to pull a visitor into this long copy right away, once they've clicked down a number of levels, proven to themselves that I've passed their test, and want more detailed information, I give them precisely what they're after.
Long copy on a topic that's of significant value to the reader, presented after a few shorter bursts of copy that got them to the destination, can be very effective for selling your products or services. People never tire of hearing about all the good things you can do for them - but you must first earn the right to tell them when marketing on the web. Once you have, long copy is an exceptional tool for increasing your web sales.
Web Copy Rule #6: Provide Many WaysTo Reach The Same Objective
Let's face it, if you're reading this newsletter, your main objective is to sell more of your products or services on the web. One of the best ways to insure that this happens is to offer your prospects many different ways to get to your sales copy.
I've already covered a number of them in the previous rules, including: provide links to all important web pages on every page on your site; imbed links in your content; and use the Short-short-long copy approach. Here are a couple of more techniques for making sure your visitors ultimately get to the destination you want them to reach.
Not only should you have links available on every web page, but in many cases you can have differently worded links for the same product or service. Different people have different hot buttons that cause them to click on a link. If you have an important product or service you want all your visitors to be made aware of, include different links that point to that product or service. These can be on the same page or on different pages.
There's no reason to guess about which is the best hot button. Many times there are more than one - and you can capitalize on this by creating links to the same web page built around multiple hot buttons.
You should also include important links in your ezine if you have one. And if you don't have one, seriously consider starting your own ezine today. It's one of the best ways to establish ongoing communication with your prospects and build credibility for yourself and your products or services.
Finally, when replying to email from your prospects, always include information (or a link) in your signature file that shows your prospect a powerful benefit of doing business with you. I've had dozens of clients tell me they booked consulting time with me or bought one of my products as a direct result of information they received in my signature file. And that they wouldn't have known about that consulting service or product if I hadn't mentioned it.
So do yourself a favor and make your signature file work for you in all of your email. Don't assume that just because someone has visited your site, they're familiar with all of your products or services - even your flagship product or service. People navigate sites in the order they want to, not the order you want them to. Many times, they'll completely miss something you'd really like them to see. Often, a short message or link in your signature file can correct this problem and result in thousands of dollars worth of sales.
Here are a few of my own tips for sticky copy
Sticky Tip # 1 Talk in terms of BENEFITS rather than FEATURES
By telling your visitor how they can benefit versus talking about what you or your product can do is going to make a dramatic impact on your conversions. Benefits are why you’re in business in the first place. You have something to offer that is of interest to whoever you are offering it to. Why hide that fact? You should shout it from the roof tops. “This is why you should pick us!”
Sticky Tip # 2 Keep it EXCITING
Keep your copy equally or more exciting than the material that is being represented. Nobody likes to read boring text. Spice it up.
Sticky Tip # 3 ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOUR GOAL IS
Each page of copy should be telling a story about who you are and why you’re the best. You should have a clear picture of what you’re trying to get your visitor to ultimately do.
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