Web Design, Development & Online Marketing - Serving the Central and North Texas Markets

Sequencing Copy for Maximum Conversion

Whether its online copywriting or offline, don’t “sell” on your pages.  Rather tell a story to get significantly better results.  This method is referenced from Marketing Experiments.  The case study showed 200%+ conversion improvement using this sequencing process…just by changing the copy. 

Tell a story.  People respond to stories.

Each part of the conversion process is tied to the ideal story progression.  It’s a process of transitions from set up to confrontation & rising action to climax then resolution.  The following will help to outline the structure for your own writing. 

1.  THE HEADLINE   - setup  

The “story” might start with your paid ad, for example, that sets up the promise leading them on the next step to your landing page.

Start with the “why” they may be on your page, what is driving them to look and confirm that in the title and text.

Action/goal:

a.  Attention grabbing headline that will resonate with the target audience

b.  Get them to click through or read on to the next paragraph

 2.  THE SUPPORTING PARAGRAPH/S - confrontation, rising action intensifies

 On your landing page, continue emphasizing the pain/problem you can solve with your very specific value as unique solution.  Several transitions can occur on the landing page.  Keep clarity to the viewer’s level of understanding.

First paragraph  (do NOT skip this):

a.  Where am I

b.  What can I do here

c.  Why should I do it

Body paragraph/s:  (Intensify with these elements now)

Proof  (data)

Benefits (before features)

Features  (only AFTER benefits)

Incentives  (offer)

Urgency   (today, save $200)

All of these can appeal to the external and internal motivators

Example: Boss wants you to gain/solve xyz (external) vs. advance your career by gaining experience leveraging the Internet for lead generation (internal)

3.   CALL TO ACTION  - resolution, climax

The Call to Action is the request for physical action or interaction by the reader.  It can encourage a phone call, a form completion, view a video, add-to-cart and so on. 

The Call-to-Action (CTA) must:

Be VISIBLE

Apply VALUE

Encourage IMMEDIACY

COME IN THE RIGHT TIME IN THOUGHT SEQUENCE

Call to action is presented such as  “Add to cart”, “complete the form”.  But use text in the action buttons that reassure that their action will deliver on the value promise.  Do not put “submit” or “click here”; instead use words to further the promise.  (Ex: “to receive info…”,  “Learn the xyz”, “Get the product to improve your life”, etc….)

Getting started

This is easy and it’s not easy.  As with most things, the hardest part is getting started.  With practice and ongoing experimentation with your web copy writing, the data (analytics) will prove the results of structuring your content for clarity and connection to what the viewer wants.  In doing so, in the right sequence, you will get what you want.

We are uniquely able to help you evaluate and take action on the breadth of factors influencing conversion:  Web design, website development, Internet marketing, driving traffic, conversion tactics, applying business intelligence through data.

We are here to help you achieve great things online.  As for copywriting services:

1.  We can write for you or help guide you (or your designated writers) to ensure you have the greatest opportunity for conversion success with your text & graphics.

2.  We can technically SEO (search engine optimization) your copy so it will gain better visibility on Google and other search engines.

3.  We can strategize a plan for content topics and delivery channels for strong “inbound” marketing.

Contact us today and together we’ll evaluate your most important website pages.

Two features to boost PPC results.

1.  Dynamic Landing Pages for your PPC campaigns!

In order to improve the performance of your PPC campaigns, WSI Local Ad Works now has the ability to dynamically route a potential customer from your PPC ad to the most appropriate page on your website based on the actual search phrase (keywords) used by the searcher. We do this by employing some of the same algorithms used by the search engines to determine the most relevant page for a specific search term.

By way of example, if someone is searching for an 'orthodontist in dallas’, clicking on your ad would take the searcher to the page on your site describing the dentist's orthodontic services. If, on the other hand, someone is searching for a 'teeth whitening center in dallas’, we would take the searcher to the page describing the dentist's cosmetic dentistry services.

If you choose to do this, we will route customers to different pages on your website based on the keyword term. In many cases, this may be the landing page you specify when we set up your campaign.   The options remains to direct all searchers to the landing page you have specified, regardless of search term.  

2.  Keyword Highlighting:

This feature will highlight all occurrences of words used in the search query that appear on the page. This makes it easier for the searcher to quickly see the relevance of your page to the search term they used. For example, if the visitor searched for "SCUBA lessons Dallas" and clicked on your site, all instances of "SCUBA", "LESSONS", and "DALLAS" will be highlighted on your site.

You have 2 options as to how much highlighting you would like displayed on your site.

1) Entry Page Only - This option means that the search terms will only be highlighted on the first page the visitor hits, and all subsequent pages will not be highlighted.

2) All - will keep highlighting on for all pages that are part of your site.

A wireframe is the foundational starting point of where to start thinking about how a web page is going to convert the customer from a visit into a prospect to generate revenue.  It is often surprising to hear how little emphasis is put on creating a visual wireframe of a web page before thinking about the creative design. 

The Concept

Would you build a house without having blue prints?  I certainly hope not.  The same applies when thinking about how you are going to build a web page.  A wireframe is essentially your blue print for designing a page and formulating the ‘flow’ of your customers on the page.

The Goal

The goal of any web page is to convert visitors into customers.  The first step in the process is to think about the customers goal of the page.

The clearest way to achieve your page’s objective is to clearly define 3 answers for your customer.

1.)  Where am I?

2.)  What can I do here?

3.)  Why should I do it?

Next start thinking about what the customer’s primary objective is.  Is it to have the customer call a phone number?  Purchase a product? Sign up for a demo?  If you haven’t defined what your customer needs to do what makes you think they know what to do?

The Strategy

The strategy of wire framing the layout of the site comes directly from the goals you have defined above.  For instance if you know the primary goal is to have your customer signup for a free demonstration then every call to action on the page needs to lead the customer to this conclusion.  If designing a landing page for one specific product avoid having more than 1 call to action if possible. 

Rule of thumb is you have about 7 seconds to capture the attention of a visitor.  If they have too many options and too many things to think about they will bounce off the page.  Keeping one clear goal in mind for the visitor to accomplish will result in much higher conversion rates.

The How

One of the best free wire framing tools I have found online is www.Cacoo.com which offers free membership for creating professional looking wireframes and allows easy sharing options.

Once a clear strategy has been defined and a wireframe of the layout has been created it can easily be passed on to the creative team to make look elegant and beautiful.

How Can You Make Money Off Website Visitors Who Find You By Mistake

I happened across a company who is seizing the opportunity to do just that.  They have set up one of their websites to earn residual income from useless visitor traffic.

It is a genius idea and probably makes the company a good bit of money.  If your company name is a common misspelling of another popular company consider doing what this company did.  I’m sure there are other ways this tactic can be applied.  Look for creative ways to make money from your website.

Here’s the story:

I was in search for a replacement for my lost Canon HD camcorder AC adapter. I could not find it through normal retail channels here in Dallas and no generic power cord will work.  Apparently Canon does this on purpose.  Smart for them, very frustrating for me…but that’s another blog topic.

So like 99.9% of the human race (made that up, but probably close), I went to the web.  Since I knew the brand, I assumed I’d just type the website address directly rather in the browser rather than going through a search engine query.  Problem was, I misspelled the name.  Instead of canon.com, I typed cannon.com.

The 2 “n” company obviously gets tons of spelling-challenged visitors, like me, to their site who are looking for cameras, printers and imaging products produced by the 1 “n” company.   What they’ve done in response is brilliant, in my opinion.

Creative solution to an annoying issue:

The company may have just gone on living with the hassle of unwanted volumes of global website traffic and let those visitors just jump back to another search query.   Rather, the company provided an easy “sign-post” for those who’ve taken a wrong turn on the Internet highway.  As one of those lost shoppers, I knew immediately where to click towards my objective – maybe even before I realized I was on the wrong site.

The next page is their money-maker.

Besides having a courteous message informing you that you cannot spell, the page is filled with Google Ads for the products you ARE actually looking for.

As an Internet Consultant, I recognize that these are not just helpful links, they are Google Ad Sense ads.  The company is allowing Google to place text ads from the Google ad network on their web page.  These ads are relevant to cameras, printers and imaging – remember, these are things the company is NOT selling.

How do these lemons (non relevant traffic) turn into lemonade (cash)?

Every time the lost visitors move to this page and click on these Ad Sense ads, the company earns a portion of the ad’s click cost.  These Google sponsored ads are Pay Per Click advertising available through Google.  (Other engines have similar programs).  The advertiser gets visibility for their ad through Google network channels but only has to pay Google if someone clicks on the ad.   This company, allowing the ads to show on their web page, earns a portion of the click cost for each and every click.  Click cost for these ads are around $1-3 per click. 

I applaud the way Cannon (two “n’s”) found a way to make money off of Canon (one “n”).  The useless traffic, even though it’s not in quest of their industrial products, is now money-making traffic for them.  It also goes to show the  power of owning a good domain name.

Now I must go correct my spelling and find that AC adapter!  Happy Internet Marketing.

Is Your Website Missing the Grocery Bags?

This may be a nit picky thing from an A-type personality, but it drives me nuts at the grocery store when I have to search for bags in the produce department.  It spoils the joy of my grocery shopping experience (those who know me will laugh at that comment) when I have selected the perfect handful of apples and can’t find the darn bag dispenser anywhere close by.   Close by to me means, within 1 step.  The level of frustration is enhanced because I’m normally in a hurry.  But, isn’t everybody?

When you’ve invested in building website traffic, you want them to turn into leads and customers.  If a visitor is interested in taking the next step with your business, you don’t want to frustrate them or make it hard for them to know what to do next.   They are probably in a hurry and if the site is confusion or there are too many steps, they are likely to just jump to another website that is easier to understand.

Internet Conversion – keeping the bag within 1 step

There are a lot of factors to consider when implementing a good visitor to conversion strategy for your website.  But for simplicity here, once the visitor is persuaded and interested, you’ll want to clearly offer next step guidance so your visitor will flow easily toward your next step call-to-action.  Don’t make them search for “the bag”.  Of course this is obviously important for e-commerce sites, but it is just as important for all business and service websites who may want to build an email database or encourage a phone call inquiry in pursuit of lead acquisition.

Adjust, Measure, Repeat - for more successful conversion rates

Our recent white paper on Conversion Architecture goes into detail on experimenting and testing for conversion improvements.  But some of the on-page factors that influence flow toward action which can be critiqued include:

Depending on your business, you may want to get an Internet Consultant to interpret your analytics and make recommendations.  But don’t discount opinions of a few valued customers who may be willing to offer onsite ease of use suggestions.

With improved conversion fundamentals in place for your website, success is in the bag!