When you are writing copy and designing offers for your web site, you have got to keep in mind classic marketing wisdom because web copy has the same goal as advertising copy – to get the prospect to take action. This action may be to purchase a product, or it may be to fill out a form for more information, or it could be any number of things. The percentage of visitors to your web site who perform the desired action is your conversion rate. Conversion is extremely important. Up to this point, we’ve mostly talked about ways to drive traffic to your site. But once they get to your site, the importance of Internet marketing drops off and the importance of sound business marketing kicks in.

You know (or should know by now) that you’ve got to have copy on your web site to achieve high search engine rankings. But that copy also has to sell. Don’t be shy about having lots of copy. True, you should pare it down compared to what would typically be in a sales letter. The main reason I see for this trimming down of copy is due to eye strain from reading a computer monitor. But if you don’t provide enough copy to convince the prospect to purchase (or fill out the form, or whatever), then the web page doesn’t do you any good, eye strain or not.

The copy should focus on benefits to the prospect. This has been preached by marketing consultants for years, yet few businesses do it, and even fewer do it online. If you have a web page devoted to a particular product that is a list of features (size, color, resolution, terms, etc.), it is likely going to convert poorly. Instead, it needs to SELL! List features, but later in the copy, after you’ve gotten the prospect’s attention. You can convert features to benefits by asking yourself what each benefit does for the customer. For instance, if you’re selling 21″ computer monitors, 21″ would be a feature, but benefits might be less eye strain or more work efficiency because of greater screen real estate. So those would be the things you would discuss first, with the technical features coming later.

You should think of your web site as a sales machine. Think of the web copy as words being said by a salesman. Remember that the point of your site is to get your visitors to perform some particular action. If you don’t know what that action is, then you need to step back and decide what you want your visitors to do. Then continue with writing or re-writing your web site copy. And sell, sell, sell.

If copy writing is not your strength, then call or email Work Media today.