Selling is Selling – whether on the Internet or in a traditional media like advertising. The rules of effective selling haven’t changed. So here’s a few web selling tips with old-skool roots that’ll improve your web communications:
1. Dump the Postcard. Contrary to what you might think, big fancy photos on your homepage can be a yawner. This is particularly true if you use the same photos in print or video collateral to get folks to come to your website. Think of your web presentation as the next act in your play. Don’t replay the same scenes over and over: get on with your story. On the other hand, if you tell a visual story that they haven’t heard yet, postcards can effective.
2. Provide Useful Information. Viewers go to websites looking for answers and information. Don’t keep them waiting – give them the intel or they’ll turn you off.
3. Make Content Skim-able. Internet viewers skim more than they read. So make your content skim-friendly. That means plain, simple and direct. Short sentences or even fragments are fine. Plain English is superior. Less is more.
4. Start with a Bang. Internet advertisers pay more to be on the first scroll. We all get that. But you should also get that is makes sense to also get your most important stuff up high on the page. You gotta grab and impress them before they’ll read the fineprint.
5. Activate Your Punchline. Sales folks call this a “Call-to-Action” which in web lingo generally means a link to the next step in the selling process. That might mean more information, linkage to a shopping cart or up-sell to more products. As a general rule, every page of your website should have a link at the end of the page that pushes the viewer to a Next Step. You might also consider Next Step links at the top of each page and in intermediate positions if the page is a long scroll.
STEP INTO YOUR AUDIENCE’S SHOES: The next time you look at your site, look at it from their perspective: does it grab you?
