Introduction
Whatever your web site is about you are in the business of selling. If you have a shop you are obviously selling your products. If you have an information site then you are selling content or ideas. If you have a club web site then you are selling joining your club.
Most of us don’t like the idea that we are selling something. We associate selling with cheesy salespeople who badger you at your door or on the phone. Selling should be about helping people get what they want. Most of us want to buy. When you are selling you are helping people.
Here I have highlighted six simple things you can do to help people who want to buy from your web site. They are simple but most web sites seem to ignore them. If you start to put these ideas into place you will be moving your site above your competition – or at least the majority of your competition.
1. Know your customers
Any book on marketing you read will tell you this one basic truth – that you need to know your customer. What kinds of things does your customer do? What do they do at the weekend? What newspapers do they read? What do they dream about? What do they complain about?
The better you know your customer the better you can help them on your site. The better you can help people the greater your sales. The greater your sales the stronger your business will be. The stronger your business the happier you will be.
If you don’t yet have any customers (I know what that feels like because I’ve been there myself) then you need to invent your customers. You can do some research on the kind of people who buy what you sell. You can imagine what kinds of things they like and do.
2. Don’t overdo the information
One of the big mistakes that web sites often make is that they overload people with information. Don’t get me wrong here because I’m an information junky but I also know what it’s like when you are trying to find something out and the information is buried deep in a block of web text.
Think about the problem your customer is trying to solve and then provide clean, simple text that answers that problem. Use as few words as you can. There should be no words on your site that are not doing a job. Words that are pointless need to be removed.
If your product requires a lot of information then make the information easy to get at and to understand. See my next point below.
3. Arrange the information so it is easy to understand
There are many tools available for web sites to arrange information in a user friendly kind of way.
Start with the essential information in just a couple of sentences. Think of the information in the same way a news paper reporter does. The first paragraph on a page is the most important. If you overdo it here then you have lost the sale.
You can then use things like: bullet lists, numbered lists, headings, etc. to lay out the information in a meaningful way.
Always remember that information on a web site needs presenting in a different way to any other information.
If someone is looking through brochures they may have three or four to get through. If they are looking through a book they may have just a couple to choose from. If they are using the Internet the choice is measured in millions. If you don’t give people the information they want then they will go somewhere else.
4. Provide easy ways to purchase
It never ceases to amaze me that web sites make the process of buying so complicated. I have been on several major web sites (no names to save embarrassment) where I just couldn’t find a button for purchasing a product.
Come on people! Have several buttons if you must but make them as obvious as you can.
What’s the point of getting people to your web site and then not making it as easy as you can to buy from you?
If your site is all about information then help people to buy your information. Think about what you want people to do with the information you provide and then help them do it.
5. Use simple words
I’ve read stuff written by professional copywriters that is very hard to understand. They use words that I know but might only use twice in a lifetime. Make sure your words are ones that people understand easily. When you glance through a web site looking for information you don’t want to have to get your dictionary out to look up a word.
You are trying to help people with the text you provide on a web site. It is not there to demonstrate how clever you are or how technical your subject is. Use words that your customer will understand.
Of course if you are providing technical information for technical people then feel free to use the technical words but make sure you don’t use jargon.
Always remember that a significant number of people who read your information might not have English as a first language. Use simple words.
6. Make the content king
Here is a basic truth that many designers struggle with: words on a website do the selling not the design or the images.
I’ll just take a moment to put the shutters up over my windows and barricade my door. Please don’t send any death threats by email!
That’s better.
Design can help raise your credibility and make people think how wonderful your business is but it is the words on a site that do the actual work of selling. Even the pictures on your site only encourage people to buy – it is the words that do the work. Pictures will get attention and help make your business look better but it is the words that will sell people on buying from you.
Don’t put all your effort into the design and neglect the words.
Conclusion
Know who wants what is on your website, keep things simple, use as few words as possible, make the site easy to use, don’t neglect the words. Thank you for reading.
Chris Brown has been in web site production for over 10 years. First as a web site designer, then as a web site developer and now as a website copywriter. He knows the business intimately and has a profound grasp of the many issues involved.
You can visit his web site at: http://www.browncow.co.uk