80% of your Web site is Maintenance!
Once your Web site is up, you must maintain it. That means changes, and each time you make a change, you may make a mistake. I'm really grateful when people point out my Web glitches by emailing me, and these encourage me to be more proactive by checking my site each week.
If your visitors get a link that doesn't work, see incomplete instructions, or read your dull instead of passionate copy, they will leave your site immediately, and not bookmark it.
Before you invite potential buyers to see your masterpiece you need to check and correct all parts of your site, and especially the home page. Use the seven tests below to guarantee you loyal customers and clients.
1. TEST YOUR HEADLINES. You have four-eight seconds to get your visitor's attention when they arrive on your home page. Test your title or opening sentence of copy. This one item alone can make a huge difference in the responses you receive.
Instead of the wasted words "welcome," or a long mission statement or biography of you, put a benefit-driven headline with a link to your sales letter about your product or service. Remember to lace all of your top phrases on your home page with the right kind of key words and phrases. Check out www.goodkeywords.com.
When I placed "Quadruple your Web Sales in Just Five Months" as a link to my sales copy following it, my Web sales on one of my eBooks increased ten times from my original home page-- in only six months time! Those sales soared from the first month 3 years ago at $75 to mid 2004 sales of $4500 a month and more.
If your headline doesn't emotionally appeal to your potential buyer and give them a reason to buy, the game is over. Always think what's in it for them.
2. TEST YOUR OFFERS. People perceive more value when you add an incentive to buy. Give them a complimentary special bonus report, eBook, or a tips list with the order. It takes little time and effort to create, but increases sales thirty-fold. Many visitors will buy your product based on the extra bonuses.
Motivate your visitors like I do with a "Discounts of the Month" link (navigation bar). In this special page offer one or two discounts that are sure to increase sales. Under each discount offer such as a teleclass on "Boost your Book and Business Success with Free Articles," include the what, where, when, cost, but also put in benefits, testimonials from happy clients and details on how it will go. Some people need more information than others, so give it to them complete, so they are not confused. Confused visitors do not buy. Once a year, I offer a "half-price book sale" as long as purchase total is $25 or more.
3. TEST YOUR WEB HOME PAGE TESIMONIALS
Testimonials lend credibility. When potential buyers see that other well-known leaders or small business buyers like your products or services, they are more likely to buy. It's relatively easy to get these too with the aid of a book called, "How to Get Testimonials From the Rich and Famous."
Follow my lead and put your best, most specific testimonial near the top of your home page. Make it a link to its related product. Here's a few that worked:
- "Save yourself from headaches, disappointments, and money down the drain. Read Write Your eBook or Other Short Book-Fast! before you write another word. The author puts you on the fastest track to publishing success."
- "Wow! My sales letter worked! Thank you, thank you, thank you for presenting your 3-session teleclass "Create Your Homepage With Marketing Pizzazz." You helped me focus on who my target market really is--a major accomplishment. Knowing the difference between benefits and features helped me produce a sales letter that got me a sale the next day I put it up on my site."
- "In just one coaching session I learned how to strengthen my article's language, got a perfect acronym for my coaching business, learned the difference between benefits and features, got a new bio/benefits statement to use for networking, and most of all the "bigger picture" to see a series of products and services to sell--definitely worth her fees."
Test your testimonial copy by emailing several groups in your address book with several choices. Call it a Survey. Ask them, which benefits makes their heart skip a beat? Which words influenced them enough to take out their credit card and buy? Get people to tell you which benefit hooked them. Try out different headlines, phrases, power words or metaphors
Appeal to different senses like smell, touch, emotions or visual. Remember most people are visual and kinesthetic, so if your benefit is making money--give your audience a picture of what they can spend the money on such as a long-needed vacation to the Caribbean or college money for their children.
Here are a few ideas:
For a personal growth book one client submitted these benefits:
-Clean up the places of your life where you're out of integrity
-Create more time, energy, and passion in your life
-Uncover your deepest values and honor them.
Another book's benefits included:
-Be your self in a world that wants you to be like everyone else
-Develop positive expectancy to achieve real results
-Procrastinate into your hearts desires
-Balance work and home by mastering the joy of moseying
For tests 4, 5, 6 and 7 on testing your price, home and web site layout, and ordering process, read "Bring Your Visitors Back Clamoring for More! Part 2. When you test these parts of your Web site often, you make it easy for your potential customers to buy to make you financially successful to travel, invest, or even buy a new car.
Judy Cullins ?2005 All Rights Reserved.
Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month," blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.
===============
Email her at http://www.bookcoaching.com or http://www.bookcoaching.com Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743
QUESTION: Should I build and maintain my business Web... Read More
80% of your Web site is Maintenance!Once your Web site... Read More
If you have some experience in web site design and... Read More
An interesting eCommerce success factor that isn't precisely overlooked, but... Read More
The Internet car buyer is an elusive animal. Trying to... Read More
Before you jump into spending coutnless hours on designing and... Read More
With search engines putting a damper on direct reciprocal links,... Read More
Web sites are an Ongoing Part of Business.All too many... Read More
Like wine cars get more attractive to collectors as years... Read More
Starting a business online is no longer as difficult as... Read More
Installment 1Developing State-enabled Applications With PHPWhen a user is browsing... Read More
So you want to take a look at a real... Read More
"If you build it, they will come"; is an age... Read More
"I am a writer, not a business-person. I don't want... Read More
A lot of people these days are interested in getting... Read More
You work hard to build traffic to your web page.... Read More
There's been widespread speculation about the new legislation being introduced... Read More
How popular is online shopping? And is there room for... Read More
So your traffic is going through the roof yeah? It's... Read More
URL rewriting are major needs for your sites that produce... Read More
A website lets you put your products in front of... Read More
If you ever want to create a state directory, article... Read More
If one more business owner tells me their website sucks... Read More
A PHP Redirect automatically transfers a web user from one... Read More
Never has competition been so difficult in the Internet world.... Read More
house refresh service Glencoe ..It may come as some surprise to a traditionally off-line... Read More
Running an effective website is a continuous process. I have... Read More
Losing website sales and traffic is sometimes simply a case... Read More
Web sites are not just places to sell things; they... Read More
When I started my company in 2002, I knew I... Read More
One of the things that many people overlook when building... Read More
When you publish a content site there are times when... Read More
So what do you do if need to get a... Read More
If you have some experience in web site design and... Read More
The definition of the phrase "Content Management" depends on what... Read More
Your business website is a critical aspect of being able... Read More
Just like all things in life, the ways to run... Read More
Even with the steady growth of the World Wide Web,... Read More
Now that you have got your domain name registered, your... Read More
"I am a writer, not a business-person. I don't want... Read More
You hear a great deal about the Internet these days... Read More
Through the explosive growth of the Web, companies have realized... Read More
They might not be wearing a mask and carrying a... Read More
Starting an internet business can be confusing to non-veterans. The... Read More
There are hundreds of millions of Web surfers today. Each... Read More
Absolutely everything stems from the purpose of your website -... Read More
You know exactly what your organisation does and what your... Read More
Internet Marketing is not a miracle marketing strategy ? competition... Read More
Just starting out, you can start with a simple informational... Read More
Why do some web sites reap huge benefits while others... Read More
Web Development |