If you had to make the following choice, how would you choose?
I prefer the second, because it’s the copy that converts visitors into customers. Good copy will do its job, even if the graphic design is only so-so. Because it’s the message on the page which brings you more clients or turns them away. If you have good copy that draws visitors into your sales process, you can always improve the graphic design. In fact, you can use that copy to fund those improvements.
You can frequently do this with the other elements of your website strategy, too. For example, let’s say you don’t have many people visiting your website. Even with just a few visitors to your site, if your copy draws those visitors into your sales process, your site can be profitable. You can use that money to invest in marketing that draws more visitors. In fact, as we’ll see in the chapter on web traffic, you need to use copy in order to build up a steady stream of traffic.
But if you have bad copy, all the traffic in the world won’t help you. In fact, your copy could actually be turning away potential customers. Without good copy, you could actually be losing money on your website.
Isn’t it ironic, then, that many small-business owners spend thousands of dollars on graphic design, but write their own web copy?
On the other hand, the best sales copywriters are millionaires, because they’ve made much more than that for their clients. That’s the power of good copy.
If the most important thing on a website is the copy, it sounds like graphic design doesn’t matter. And sites like Craigslist seem to bear that out. Here is an extremely successful site that has little graphic design. Some people have even called it “ugly.” Yet, it’s one of the top sites on the web.
But there’s a caveat here. Your graphic design does have purpose.
But there are things that you don’t necessarily need in a graphic design. Your graphic design does not need to be cool or creative, and it doesn’t need to be a custom design. Using a design template is just fine, as long as the final design does what you need it to. I’ll talk more about this when I talk about website technology.
If you’re a big company, you may put up a website just to have an online presence. These websites are frequently full of colorful graphics and whizzy animations, are difficult to navigate, and contain almost no useful information. They are the Superbowl ads of the web. Very expensive, seen by millions of people, and do little except get the company’s logo in front of as many eyes as possible. Check out Coca-Cola’s site for an example.
For a high-volume product or service that appeals to a broad market (like Coca-Cola), this strategy makes sense. Everybody knows what Coca-Cola is and what it tastes like. And Coca-Cola drinkers span age groups, regions, and occupations. Anyone could be a Coca-Cola customer.
But small businesses work in narrow, targeted markets. And when someone comes to your website, it’s most important that you tell him how what you do benefits him. Good copy does not “communicate.” It sells. It does not address a mass market, because it’s direct-response copy. This copy speaks to each individual visitor to the site. And it asks him to do something that takes him to the next step in the sales process. After one visit, he may not yet be ready to finance your next vacation to the Caribbean. But even after one visit, it’s important that you begin a business relationship with him.
And this is the “selling” part. Maybe you want him to buy your entry-level product. Or to sign up to your e-mail list. Or even to pick up the phone and call you. Or even just to fill out an on-line survey. Your website is part of your sales process.
And like other parts of the sales process, it may be part of a complex sale. You may need to provide him with lots of information, show him how your solution solves his problems, answer his questions, address his many fears and concerns. And above all, establish trust that you’ll come through for him.
You may have noticed, this free report you’re reading right now is designed to do these things. It provides information, shows you how to benefit from your small-business website. At the same time, it demonstrates how important are the expertise I provide. In fact, I structured this report based on actual sales conversations I’ve had with actual small business owners!
There are several important pages on your site: The front page, your product pages, your e-commerce pages (if you do e-commerce). But none of these is as important as the one critical page on your website, your landing page. Your landing page is critical, because it’s the first page a visitor sees when he comes to your site.
Or rather, your landing pages. Each marketing channel appeals to a slightly different visitor. Each visitor has a slightly different thought in mind when he comes to your site. Each is looking for something slightly different. And so each different kind of visitor should have his own landing page, because the perfect landing page enters the conversation going on inside his head. Then, the landing page leads him down a straight path that benefits him… and makes you money.
Even though the landing page is the most important page on a website, most businesses give little thought to it. They even spend masses of money on expensive advertising campaigns, and then they just drop visitors onto their website’s front page. But the front page is usually not the correct landing page for most first-time visitors.
And if the landing page fails, your website will turn away potential customers. Most of the time, the visitor will immediately give up, because he doesn’t find what he’s looking for. When he sees your landing page, you have less than 8 seconds to make an impression. Within 8 seconds, most people will decide whether to stay and read, or whether to click back and try something else. If he’s a potential customer, you want him to stay and read. But if this potential customer doesn’t immediately find what he needs, he’ll go visit someone else’s website.
And many businesses neglect other simple things they can do to make their landing pages work. Like the tips, tricks, and techniques Mark Widawer reveals in his ebook Landing Page Cash Machine. Frequently, business owners just aren’t aware of these insider secrets, because they’re not copywriters.
John Caples was one of the world’s best copywriters. He was an expert in measuring how well an advertisement worked. And I think he said it best in Tested Advertising Methods. He said that, in a print ad:
75% of the Buying Decisions
Are Made at the HEADLINE Alone
80% of the people who see a print ad will read the headline. Only 20% will read the actual ad. Therefore, you need a headline on your ad that will draw the reader in, make him want to read on.
The same applies to web copy. In fact, it applies even more to web copy. And especially landing page copy. Remember, when a visitor sees your landing page, you have less than 8 seconds to make an impression. That’s why your landing page headline needs to be dead on. It needs to enter the conversation going on inside his head. It must make him want to read on, to learn more about what you have to offer. It’s the single line that can make or break the deal.
Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to write better headlines. The first thing is just to realize how important the headline is, and to put more time and effort into it. A great headline will make a promise, present proof, and induce curiosity. You see this in the headline templates in David Garfinkel’s ebook Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich.
Here are three ways you can get good copy for your website.
I myself use a combination of the above approaches. Over the span of years, I’ve put many hours personally into learning how to write. For experiments, where the goal is to judge whether there is general interest in an idea, my own copy does the trick. Similarly for blog entries or e-books. But for important pages and sales letters, I’ll work with a professional copywriter to critique the copy I write or to write copy from scratch.