People buy from those they know, like, and trust. To succeed online, you need to create a comfortable environment where prospects can get a feel for who you are and what you’re all about. It’s important that you establish credibility at every opportunity and help foster good feelings about doing business with you.
The proliferation of products and services online has inevitably led to an increase in frauds and cheats. Media stories bring some of the larger scams to light… but only after hundreds or thousands of people have been victimized. Buyers have their guard up as a matter of self-protection. It’s not a case of being innocent until proven guilty. Online, you’re suspect from the beginning and need to earn the trust of consumers before they’ll ever buy from you.
Visitors arrive at your site presumably due to your lead generation efforts. They’re interested, but unsure. Perhaps they’ve never heard of you. The fact that you live half way around the world is another cause for concern. Your job is to alleviate any uncertainty and make visitors fee comfortable about you, your product and business.
When you know your market and you communicate such an understanding, your prospects soon develop an affinity towards you.
Talk to your prospect as a friend. Be warm and personal. Tell them the way it is in a straightforward and truthful manner. Don’t beat around the bush. Be direct and forthright – the same way you’d communicate with a friend. Show you care. Demonstrate a knowledge and respect for your audience and they’ll be inclined to like you too.
Trust begins with a professional presence -- and that begins with your own domain name. It’s shocking to me how many marketers attempt to sell products from a site that clearly exposes their amateur status. Domain names cost only a few dollars for a full year’s use. And professiona web hosting can be had for just $5 a month – even free in some cases. So there’s absolutely no need for anyone to be marketing products from a Geocities or Angelfire site. Get your own domain and find an affordable host that doesn’t demand an advertising banner or pop-up window promoting their services on your site. That’s all it takes to get started on the right foot.
Make full use of endorsements, testimonials, and associations. Give people something that’s a little easier for them to accept and believe – like the comments of a recognized authority who has used your product.
Project an image of stability. Let people know you’ve been in business for xnumber of years and show them your real world business address and facilities.
The proliferation of products and services online has inevitably led to an increase in frauds and cheats. Media stories bring some of the larger scams to light… but only after hundreds or thousands of people have been victimized. Buyers have their guard up as a matter of self-protection. It’s not a case of being innocent until proven guilty. Online, you’re suspect from the beginning and need to earn the trust of consumers before they’ll ever buy from you.
Visitors arrive at your site presumably due to your lead generation efforts. They’re interested, but unsure. Perhaps they’ve never heard of you. The fact that you live half way around the world is another cause for concern. Your job is to alleviate any uncertainty and make visitors fee comfortable about you, your product and business.
When you know your market and you communicate such an understanding, your prospects soon develop an affinity towards you.
Talk to your prospect as a friend. Be warm and personal. Tell them the way it is in a straightforward and truthful manner. Don’t beat around the bush. Be direct and forthright – the same way you’d communicate with a friend. Show you care. Demonstrate a knowledge and respect for your audience and they’ll be inclined to like you too.
Trust begins with a professional presence -- and that begins with your own domain name. It’s shocking to me how many marketers attempt to sell products from a site that clearly exposes their amateur status. Domain names cost only a few dollars for a full year’s use. And professiona web hosting can be had for just $5 a month – even free in some cases. So there’s absolutely no need for anyone to be marketing products from a Geocities or Angelfire site. Get your own domain and find an affordable host that doesn’t demand an advertising banner or pop-up window promoting their services on your site. That’s all it takes to get started on the right foot.
Make full use of endorsements, testimonials, and associations. Give people something that’s a little easier for them to accept and believe – like the comments of a recognized authority who has used your product.
Project an image of stability. Let people know you’ve been in business for xnumber of years and show them your real world business address and facilities.
Give them something they can relate to -- something that makes you seem like a real, legitimate business with a physical location somewhere on planet earth. It’s comforting and reassuring for prospects to know that yours is a real legitimate business.
7. Strategy Is More Important Than Creativity
Creativity doesn’t sell. It’s not the creativity and design skill that go into your web site that makes a difference – it’s the appeal of your message. Sure, you may get a lot of people commenting on your beautiful layout, choice of colors, fancy enhancements, and so on. But ‘fancy’ and ‘beautiful’ don’t sell. Whatever doesn’t contribute directly to sales is a waste of time, money, effort, and megabytes.
A proven online strategy is to target a specific market, deliver powerful and unique benefits -- and then introduce a truly irresistible offer. Those three elements alone account for 90% of the effectiveness of any website sales letter. That means 90% of your effort and time should focus on these key elements and only 10% of your time should be allotted to layout and design.
Visitors show up at your site with certain expectations. You’ve already piqued their interest, whet their appetite, or aroused their sense of curiosity to get them there in the first place. They anxiously anticipate a payoff. It’s like walking into a restaurant -- you go there with the expectation of receiving a meal. Everybody does. Now, your visitors are looking for that special something to quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger. So now’s the time to feed those freshl activated emotional drivers.
True prospects arrive in search of something – they don’t just land on your site by accident. You triggered a spark… now it’s a matter of turning that spark of interest or curiosity into a burning desire to buy now. The best way to accomplish this goal is to use proven techniques of targeting a hungry market, unveiling your most appealing benefits and introducing an offer that’s too good to resist.
8. Think The Way Your Market Thinks
Creativity doesn’t sell. It’s not the creativity and design skill that go into your web site that makes a difference – it’s the appeal of your message. Sure, you may get a lot of people commenting on your beautiful layout, choice of colors, fancy enhancements, and so on. But ‘fancy’ and ‘beautiful’ don’t sell. Whatever doesn’t contribute directly to sales is a waste of time, money, effort, and megabytes.
A proven online strategy is to target a specific market, deliver powerful and unique benefits -- and then introduce a truly irresistible offer. Those three elements alone account for 90% of the effectiveness of any website sales letter. That means 90% of your effort and time should focus on these key elements and only 10% of your time should be allotted to layout and design.
Visitors show up at your site with certain expectations. You’ve already piqued their interest, whet their appetite, or aroused their sense of curiosity to get them there in the first place. They anxiously anticipate a payoff. It’s like walking into a restaurant -- you go there with the expectation of receiving a meal. Everybody does. Now, your visitors are looking for that special something to quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger. So now’s the time to feed those freshl activated emotional drivers.
True prospects arrive in search of something – they don’t just land on your site by accident. You triggered a spark… now it’s a matter of turning that spark of interest or curiosity into a burning desire to buy now. The best way to accomplish this goal is to use proven techniques of targeting a hungry market, unveiling your most appealing benefits and introducing an offer that’s too good to resist.
8. Think The Way Your Market Thinks
Give your prospects exactly what they want. Help them solve a particular problem. Provide an edge that will bring them closer to the magical result they dream of. Pile on benefit after benefit, so they clearly understand the tremendous value they get when they purchase from you.
Make your presentation exclusively for that particular group. If you’re marketing to dog owners, resist the temptation to include the owners of different kinds of pets. Shape your offer to fit the market. Dog owners generally wouldn’t be interested in knowing your product was also perfect for cats too. In fact, making
such a revelation could actually harm sales. Your product might then be perceived as a ‘generic’ item, rather than a specific solution for a specific category of prospect.
Present your strongest benefits… then, mention the features that make key benefits possible. Provide credible proof that your product delivers what you say it does. Introduce an enticing offer and tell your prospect the exact steps he needs to take next to be able to enjoy all those promised benefits for himself.
Give your prospect all the information he could possibly need to make an intelligent decision. Leave no question unanswered… no stone unturned.
But how you go about it is equally important. Make your key components the most visually dominating parts of your copy. Use headlines, sub-headings, bullet points and frames to suggest important points – points that shouldn’t be missed.
9. Provide Value For Your Prospect’s Time
Marketing online means catering to an audience. With time at a premium, anything that wastes the precious resource of time is quickly shunned. It’s crucial that you stay on target with your message. Look out for any area where you might have drifted off course. If you go off on a tangent, you’re inviting the prospect to click away -- and that’s exactly what he’ll do.
Maintain a benefit-laden focus. When you’re revealing benefits, you’re discussing what the reader gets. In essence, you’re talking about the reader, so you have his undivided attention. But shift gears for a moment and you may never recover. Launch into a spiel about how wonderful your company is and suddenly you’ve turned off your previously riveted reader.
Make it easy for readers to get your essential message by starting with the benefits of greatest importance to prospects. Highlight key points and sections of your sales letter. Make it fast, easy convenient, and pleasurable to order from you. Maintain a prospect-centered approach and you’re much more likely to retain readership and interest – essential prerequisites to getting the order.
10. Make An Instant Connection With Your Target Audience
Since people ultimately buy from those they know, like and trust, make an effort to establish rapport early on. Strive to make a connection with your prospect from the start. Your lead-generation ads and marketing pieces should be in alignment with the first screen of your sales letter. This tells the prospect he’s arrived at the correct location, thus justifying his presence there.
First impressions are critical. If you fail to make a quick connection, your prospect will venture off to another site. Perception is everything. Exist for your prospect. Be agreeable and open – like a friend. Maintain a commitment to helping solve your prospect’s problem and getting him closer to wherever he wants to go.
Perception begins as the first screen of your sales letter loads on the user’s screen. You need to reach out to prospects right away – beginning with the headline.
Not only must your words be relevant and of crucial importance to your target market, your message must also appear easy to read. This means organizing the information and providing adequate spacing. It also means highlighting key areas -- without overdoing it. Online, you can use plenty of white space to make your message appear easy, understandable, and not intimidating in the least. This usually isn’t an option in traditional direct mail as there’s only so much space you can utilize without exceeding standard postage costs.
Short paragraphs with adequate spacing in between is quite appealing to the eye. It tells readers ‘this is quick and easy – keep reading’. It’s also a good idea to avoid really long sentences. Short paragraphs, short (though somewhat varied) sentences, and short words make for easy, effortless reading.
Make your presentation exclusively for that particular group. If you’re marketing to dog owners, resist the temptation to include the owners of different kinds of pets. Shape your offer to fit the market. Dog owners generally wouldn’t be interested in knowing your product was also perfect for cats too. In fact, making
such a revelation could actually harm sales. Your product might then be perceived as a ‘generic’ item, rather than a specific solution for a specific category of prospect.
Present your strongest benefits… then, mention the features that make key benefits possible. Provide credible proof that your product delivers what you say it does. Introduce an enticing offer and tell your prospect the exact steps he needs to take next to be able to enjoy all those promised benefits for himself.
Give your prospect all the information he could possibly need to make an intelligent decision. Leave no question unanswered… no stone unturned.
But how you go about it is equally important. Make your key components the most visually dominating parts of your copy. Use headlines, sub-headings, bullet points and frames to suggest important points – points that shouldn’t be missed.
9. Provide Value For Your Prospect’s Time
Marketing online means catering to an audience. With time at a premium, anything that wastes the precious resource of time is quickly shunned. It’s crucial that you stay on target with your message. Look out for any area where you might have drifted off course. If you go off on a tangent, you’re inviting the prospect to click away -- and that’s exactly what he’ll do.
Maintain a benefit-laden focus. When you’re revealing benefits, you’re discussing what the reader gets. In essence, you’re talking about the reader, so you have his undivided attention. But shift gears for a moment and you may never recover. Launch into a spiel about how wonderful your company is and suddenly you’ve turned off your previously riveted reader.
Make it easy for readers to get your essential message by starting with the benefits of greatest importance to prospects. Highlight key points and sections of your sales letter. Make it fast, easy convenient, and pleasurable to order from you. Maintain a prospect-centered approach and you’re much more likely to retain readership and interest – essential prerequisites to getting the order.
10. Make An Instant Connection With Your Target Audience
Since people ultimately buy from those they know, like and trust, make an effort to establish rapport early on. Strive to make a connection with your prospect from the start. Your lead-generation ads and marketing pieces should be in alignment with the first screen of your sales letter. This tells the prospect he’s arrived at the correct location, thus justifying his presence there.
First impressions are critical. If you fail to make a quick connection, your prospect will venture off to another site. Perception is everything. Exist for your prospect. Be agreeable and open – like a friend. Maintain a commitment to helping solve your prospect’s problem and getting him closer to wherever he wants to go.
Perception begins as the first screen of your sales letter loads on the user’s screen. You need to reach out to prospects right away – beginning with the headline.
Not only must your words be relevant and of crucial importance to your target market, your message must also appear easy to read. This means organizing the information and providing adequate spacing. It also means highlighting key areas -- without overdoing it. Online, you can use plenty of white space to make your message appear easy, understandable, and not intimidating in the least. This usually isn’t an option in traditional direct mail as there’s only so much space you can utilize without exceeding standard postage costs.
Short paragraphs with adequate spacing in between is quite appealing to the eye. It tells readers ‘this is quick and easy – keep reading’. It’s also a good idea to avoid really long sentences. Short paragraphs, short (though somewhat varied) sentences, and short words make for easy, effortless reading.
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