It’s not about any one thing, like good search engine optimisation, online conversion or copywriting…it’s also about having a great website that works.

I’m not just talking about how ‘pretty’ the thing is.  While aesthetics are really important, there are other factors that can make the difference between whether your website makes money for your business…or whether the only thing it’s good for is eating up hosting fees!

So what constitutes a website that ’sucks’?  Depending on your type of business and the sites purpose, generally it means it’s ability to attract good numbers of traffic and visitors who then take a desired action…that leads initially or eventually to your buisness growing.  And to achieve this ongoing.

If your website sucks, the good news is that you can create a successful website on purpose…And literally turn it into a sales machine over time.

The trick is knowing now to do it.  If you contact us, I’ll show you.

Strategic Thinking

A few years back, websites were brochure sites.  Nothing more than your business card online. But things have changed because of the way the ‘net (and especially search) is driving new consumer behaviours.  Just think of how often you you use Google instead of Yellow Pages, Finda or Trade Me.

Internet users just like you and me, are more savvy, sophisticated, cynical…and fickle.  It’s no longer a case of getting your nephew to bung up a website.

Today your website (or rather websites) must be about your business strategy.  And the reality is that ’search ‘ ie Google, Bing & Yahoo is the single most important aspect of business strategy right now.  Why? Because more and more, people are looking online for what you do, sell, offer or promote.

In fact, in the near future, I predict that your search strategy  WILL BE your marketing strategy.  In other words, when your potential customers (most of whom have never heard of your brand) look for what you sell using a search engine, where are you ranked?

Anyone Can Rank Highly (If You Know How)

Here’s the thing.  Most businesses that appear near the top of their industry or niche keywords are not there by accident.  They are the smart ones who have seen the emerging trends and have started to take action.

The days of being the biggest company offline meaning that you also lead the search engine rankings…are well over.  Sorry.

Here’s an example (healthinsurancequote.org.nz).  A small client of ours who is taking on the largest health insurance organisation in New Zealand – and winning.  Being at #1 means visibility, and it means leads.

Rankings + Traffic  x Conversion = Online Success

For a website to achieve high Rankings in search engines in your chosen category or niche must have the right architecture.  It needs to be built in a certain way that sends a clear message to the web crawlers about exactly what your site is about.  We call this concept ‘relevance’ and it’s one of the most important aspects of achieving good SEO rankings.

Sure, there are other important factors like backlinking and other off and on-page SEO factors, but we know now that relevance and what we call ‘theming’ are critical factors that are affected by how your site is built.

Traffic is simply the volume of visitors that come to your website over a peiod of time.  Good SEO rankings affect traffic because there is a link between your top 10 ranking and the number of clicks to your site.  But good SEO rankings are not the only way to increase traffic.  There are other strategies like dealing with returning visitors, permission (email) marketing, microsites, integration of  social networks (like twitter) and lots more.

The measurement of how many site visitors actually take some action that you desire is called Conversion.  Success with conversion is dependent on many factors.

Some of the main ones include site aesthetics (how pretty the site is), the use of compelling words and copy, the proper placement of the site’s key features like calls-to-action, newsletter sign up, the inclusion of list-building tactics such as whitepapers or mini email courses, the placement of different elements and lots more.

How Do You Stack Up?

How well is your website performing right now?  If you could double or triple the number of qualified enquiries you get over a month, and it continued without rest way into the future, would that be worth contacting us for a free strategy meeting to learn more?

If you’d like to get a written report outlining some genuinely practical ideas (assuming you have a site) that you can implement immediately, as well as some strategy and options for the future, please click on the button below.

We’ll send you a short questionairre to complete and within a day or two we’ll email our findings and suggestions – without any hard-sell or obligation.

I hope this information has been useful, and look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for reading this.

Rhys Coffin
Director
Strategic SEO Specialist
Internet New Zealand Ltd

E: rhys@internetnewzealand.com

]]> http://www.internetnewzealand.com/website-online-strategy/feed 0 http://www.internetnewzealand.com/online-conversion http://www.internetnewzealand.com/online-conversion#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:17:30 +0000 admin http://www.internetnewzealand.com/?p=206 If you’re a business owner or person responsible for increasing activity and turnover coming from your website, and you’re looking for some help from specialists who do this for clients every day, then please read on.

Why? because  I’m writing this article with you in mind.

And no-one else.

From one business owner to another, I know you”re busy so thank you for reading this short article on online conversion.

But first.  Did you know that success online is not just about search engine optimisation and getting lots of  ‘eyeballs’ to visit your website.

Yes, our company does that too, but success is also about getting visitors to your site to do something that you want them to do.

That in a nutshell is what online conversion is; selling more to the people who get in front of you.

Online conversion therefore, is the relationship between site visitors and the numbers that take certain action.

Principles Don’t Change

If you were in business before the inter-web thingy took off, you’ll see that the same principles still apply.  Back in the 80’s

I remember my old sales manager (his name was John Matthews) harping on about ’strike-rates ‘and ‘activity.’

He used to bang on about how the only way you can make more money in business was to:

• Raise your prices
• Increase the people you get in front of (activity and leads)
• Improve the ratio of how many people you get in front of who actually buy something (strike-rate or conversion)
• Improve the frequency of purchases that those customers make, so they buy more often.

This is simple and beautiful fact and it makes sense.

I am constantly amazed at how much so-called internet marketing experts manage to make this whole subject sound so complicated!  You would have thought that they invented the idea of people giving money in exchange for services.  Sheess.

BS Baffles Brains

So many internet marketers rabbit on about bounce rates, latent semantic indexing, theme relevancy and CMS open source websites that all they do is end up making themselves feel important.  In the process they miss out on what really matters…

Helping their clients to make more money.

Online Conversion is a Simple Process

Now, don’t get excited.  I don’t have a ‘Step-by-Step 568 Point Secret Action Report’ so you can ‘Get Laser-Hot Results and Explode Your Website Profits”.

No (sorry).

The point of this article is not to have you set off chasing butterflies by giving you ” 568 How-To-Tips” that will take you until 2013 to master.  Instead, I’m going to outline the basic process that we apply to improving online conversion so that when you’ve read it,  it makes sense to you.  And, if that happens we might earn the right learn how we can help you.

I promise, that if you follow some of the guidelines below and decide to get help from us, then I guarantee that you’ll see jaw-dropping results in your chosen market or niche.

Hold on, let me qualify that…

The guarantee above assumes that you don’t sell anvils or ‘belly button lint removal services’, or similar.  In other words, you need to sell or promote stuff that people actually want to buy.  The reality is, it doesn’t matter if you’re at the top of Google with your anvil store, there needs to be demand for what you do.

It’s pretty simple. Unless people who visit your website actually take some action, there is little point in spending time and resources getting them to visit?  Would you agree?

Online Conversion: Some Guidelines

Let’s assume that what you have to promote has value.  Here are some guidelines that apply to online conversion:

Guideline #1:
To get visitors to take action, you first need to decide the action you want them to take.  This is called the site objective, and there could be more than one.  It just depends on the site.  Is it an online shop?  Is it a brochure site?  Is it a lead-generation site?  Is it an authority site?  Are you selling information?

Once you decide what you want visitors to do (you may have more than one objective), you need to design your website with this objective in mind.

Here are the most common actions to consider:

• Telephoning or TXTing you
• Buying something online (either directly from your store or from an affiliate)
• Requesting contact or more information from you (inquiries or leads)
• Downloading some information such as a report or ‘whitepaper’
• Joining your newsletter list or email database
• Signing up to your information FEED or RSS

Plus others..

Guideline #2:
Structure your website using proven features that maximise the visits you get.  This could include having your primary message in the line of site of the website, putting the right call-to-actions in the right places and more.

Guideline #3:
The right use of words is vital to improve online conversion.  Your headline and message must align with your site objective.  The site must be written using compelling language in the right tone that fits the mindset of your visitor.

Guideline #4:
You need to present real value before visitors will take action.  So, what’s your ‘offer’?  You’ll need a reason for people to buy or sign up, and that reasons needs to be articulated clearly using the right words and the right tone.

Guideline #5:
Set up a system that sends valueable insights or information to people and invite them to subscribe.  There are many low-priced solutions that work that can turn returning visitors into paying customers.

Guideline #6:
If you can’t measure online conversion, you vcan’t improve it.  So, make sure you get web analytics set up on your site to measure online conversion rates and other important metrics.

Online Conversion Help

We work with ambitious, entrepreneurial and growing companies to navigate through the mire of hype, myths and unscrupulous operators…And help them to dominate their industry or niche online.  Really.

We combine SEO with online conversion to get results that last.

If you would like to find out more about how we can help you, (and to provide proof of how we’ve done it for others) please click the button below.  We’ll provide a free online marketing  and conversion review and provide insight and ideas irrespective of whether we end up working together.

Thank you for reading this.

Rhys Coffin
Online Conversion Specialist
Internet New Zealand Ltd

E: rhys@internetnewzealand.com

Online Conversion

It tickled my fancy.

Even now when I take my kids out to a new restaurant, one of our bestest games is picking out the typographical errors or grammatical mistakes in the menu. My wife just sits there and rolls her eyes.

It gets worse. Not many people know this but in 1997, over the course of the year I read all 1258 pages of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1983 Edition). My wife thought I was nuts (she still thinks I’m strange).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not that intelligent to know or remember what all that stuff in the dictionary meant (thankfully as a professional sales copywriter you don’t have to be), but I found it incredibly enjoyable.

I know…It’s a bit sad, really.

So what’s that got to do with Paedophilia?

Words Evoke Emotions

Words evoke emotions.  I find that whole concept intriguing and delicious. Words evoke emotions because ‘meaning’ is attached to words.

Just think about it for a second. Compare how you feel when you read or hear the word ‘paedophile’ compared to, oh I don’t know… the word ‘Caucus’. While you could probably argue there might be a connection between those two words (we won’t go there), for most adults the word ‘paedophile’ probably evokes a moderate or even extreme emotional response.

So why is this concept so relevant to business? Because emotion causes action. And buying stuff is an action! Capturing minds is one thing; capturing hearts is quite another.

No matter what your business is, if you are serving people, you need to be able to tap into the emotions that motivate them. In fact, legendary marketers like Claude C Hopkins and later on David Ogilvy, and Gary Halbert figured it out early and started to apply it to the advertising message.

And it’s still been dished up today.  Why? Because it works.

Emotions Cause Action

Someone once said that ‘selling is the transfer of emotion’.  I agree. Marketing strategies (including copywriting) without emotion just will not work. We live in an emotional world. Emotion stimulates the mind 3000 times faster than rational thought.

Emotions drive our behavior; the world is driven by emotions. Rational thought leads customers to be interested… but it is emotion that sells.

We know from research that generally, people really aren’t much interested in features or attributes of a particular product or service.  What they really want to know is if a product or service suits their needs, wants and personality. It is all about benefits and peoples’ values.

Creating Winning Sales Copy

To me, the definition of ‘winning’ sales copy is copy that can sell stuff.  Period.  I reckon it’s the only measure of success.  But in the majority of cases, that’s not what happens!  Most of the time it ends up being boring, unengaging, full of platitudes (my pet peeve) or else tries to be too clever, like it’s trying to win some award for creativity.  Advertising agencies are repeat offenders for this kind of palaver.

No, great and winning sales copy needs to be founded in the basics that have been proven to work.  These include:

• Researching all of the features & benefits of the product/service.  In my view, thorough research is 80% of any furture success.  Questions like why, how, when, where and who need to be asked and the writer needs to connect with the ’sweet spot’ of the customer.
• The headline is one of the most critical factors to consider.  It’s argued that 80% of the decision to continue reading the ad or message is based on the headline.
• Suitable structure is next.  I, and many other direct response copywriters  use ‘AIDA’ which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action – as a a basis for which to structure a piece of writing.
• Compelling writing – with no platitudes – that draws the reader to the outcome you seek is everything (even if the outcome is just to read on).  The right words used in the right place and at the right time are less about science and more about art.  You (and your audience) will know when it works!
• Your offer needs to be strong.  Compelling copy with a crappy offer helps no-one.  It’s like low alcohol beer. Pointless.  A solid risk-reversal like a guarantee and social proof like testimonials, reviews and video all contribute to the overall effect.

There are others, but I’m sure you get the point.  And besides, I dont want this article to be a cure for narcolepsy!

Success online is more than just being at the top of Google and having a website that looks prettier than an Aston Martin.  Nope.  What we need is visitors to the site to do what we want them to do.  It could be buying something, giving us their contact details, getting them to join our newsletter, blog or RSS or whatever.

We call this ‘conversion’.  And one of the biggest things that drive conversion is…the words that people read on the page.  It’s a fact.

What’s Missing From Most Website Sales Copy?

This may sound queer, but in my opinion the thing that’s missing from good sales copy – that stops the bank account growing…is the selling!

Salesmanship (or should that be salespersonship) is the juice that can turn average sales copy into volatile and urgent growth.

But wait. Don’t confuse salesmanship with hype, sleaze or that creepy feeling you get after you’ve shaken hands with a desperate real estate agent.

No, what we mean are the following skills and attributes that can get us genuinely excited about parting with our money – with absolutely no buyers remorse later on.

They include:

• An ability to create an immediate connection with me that doesn’t stop
• An ability to hold my attention throughout the transaction
• An ability to empathise and understand what my real concerns, problems or issues are (even if they are unrealised by me)
• An ability to express benefits easily and match the attributes (features) of your product or service to my actual situation
• An ability to ’speak to me’ in a manner and tone that I understand on an emotional level
• An ability to reasure me and develop trust that leaves me confident that your solution can solve my problem and improve my life
• An ability to bring me to take immediate action, because it makes complete sense to

And a few more…

So, think about this question:

If the sales copy on your website and marketing collateral ticked all of the points above in your business, what difference could that make to your company’s turnover?

Sales Copy Services

Good sales copywriting is like a pair of happy rabbits …it keeps on producing.  When you combine that with a top search engine ranking and a hot offer…the results can be spectacular.

Would you like to learn how to transform your business with winning sales copywriting and salesmanship? We’d like to show you how we’ve done it for others, and how we can do it for you.

Please go ahead and request a free interview and let us help.

Thank you for reading this.

Rhys Coffin
Director
Strategic SEO Specialist
Internet New Zealand Ltd

E: rhys@internetnewzealand.com