… That’s why you need to make sure to give them the information they need, in words that catch their attention and compel them to sign up for your opt-in offer or purchase your product.

Too Many Websites Don’t Follow Proven Copywriting Conventions

However, on our journeys through the Internet universe we come across way too many websites that aren’t using effective salescopy techniques to convey the value of their product or service to their visitors.

This applies to professional companies with super slick websites just as much as it does to Internet marketers who are just starting out — so don’t think the “bigwigs” have an edge on you just because they have a $10,000 website!

It doesn’t matter how attractively designed your website is… if the words don’t do the job, you’re going to lose out on sales.

For example…did you know that:

“When visitors first arrive at your site, they take only seconds to
decide whether or not they want to stay or move on to another site.

That’s why you need to hit them right between the eyes with a headline
that communicates the biggest benefit your product or service
in compelling, attention-grabbing language.

It doesn’t matter what you sell or what kind of website you have — if
you don’t immediately tell people how they will benefit from checking
out your site, they’ll get bored or frustrated and leave to go somewhere
else.

And you can’t accomplish this with pictures or graphics or logos… you
do it with words.”

In The June 2010 Startup Newsletter our experts shared Seven Fatal Mistakes website owners make with their salescopy.  This includes everything from your Headlines, to WHAT you focus on and what NOT to focus on in the body copy, what your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is, how you ASK FOR THE ORDER! and more!

Since we’ve worked with thousands of Internet Business Startups over the lifecycle of IMC – - we’ve pretty much seen many of these same mistakes result in the “death of a sales letter” when YOURS doesn’t need such a sad demise.  It just needs an experts touch.

Please, if you have not done so already, go to our Startup page right now and sign up to gain access to this months installment.  It is sure to provide you with some easy tips on how to avoid these common pitfalls and make sure the words on your website help you generate maximum profits.

The rules aim to protect consumers from:

• unrealistic expectations
• unverified results claims
• paid endorsements disguised as editorial content
• endorsements that don’t tell the truth

Here are the basics:

Testimonials

Testimonials turbocharge your marketing. If you can quote happy customers who have achieved great results, it’s almost as powerful as somebody recommending your product to a friend.

And of course you always want to quote the happiest customers who have achieved the greatest results.

Until now, all you had to do was add a disclaimer saying “Results not typical” and you were within the law. Now you need to:

• Verify that the person giving the testimonial has actually achieved the stated results
• Verify the typical results a consumer can expect to achieve, and state them (e.g., “Most consumers will save $20 – $35 per month using this product.”)
• Verify that the testimonial still stands if you make a change to the product being endorsed

That means it’s still okay to use testimonials that boast about spectacular results as long as you also make it clear what the average results are. Check the FTC’s official guide for examples demonstrating what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Endorsements

This one is a much bigger can of worms.

Endorsements are a highly effective way to get word out about your product or service. People in a buying frame of mind seek out good reviews and recommendations on other sites before they make their decision.

So smart online marketers offer free products for bloggers to try… or put their products in pay-per-post programs where bloggers get paid for reviewing them… or get their products mentioned on their affiliates’ websites.

That way, they get word of mouth PLUS links back to their site (which are invaluable for search engine optimization).

Now the FTC wants anyone endorsing a product on their own website to “disclose clearly and conspicuously” when they are being compensated for their services.

The spirit of these rules is to ensure that anything that appears as a spontaneous endorsement actually reflects the true opinions, experience, and beliefs of the person doing the endorsing.

If there’s a chance that that person’s opinions, etc. might have been swayed by money, free product, or other considerations, then they must disclose.

However, there are so many gray areas in here it’s almost impossible to figure out what “compensation” is. If a blogger gets a freebie and writes about it, is that compensation? Depends on the value of the item, how often this blogger is given free samples, and how the blogger got it for free in the first place.

How about affiliates? Looks like they’re covered by this:

“When there exists a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience), such connection must be fully disclosed.”

AdSense advertisers? Social media posters? We can think of lots of other cases that might lie in that gray area, and don’t appear to be covered in detail in the full-on 81-page document. Still, if you think you might be affected, better read it.

Who’ll be affected most? “Review” bloggers and affiliates, seeing they’re the ones who have the clearest and most consistent relationships with producers.

How will this change affect you? Let us know what you think about it.

This comes from the results of a recent study published in Psychological Science. The subjects looked at  two made-up names for food additives and had to decide which would be more harmful. Another experiment did the same thing with roller coaster names, asking which ride would be more exciting and more likely to make people sick. It didn’t matter whether the risk was something desirable (a more exciting roller coaster) or undesirable (something harmful in your food) — hard-to-pronounce words = risky.

Definitely something to keep in mind when you’re naming a product or buying a domain name! It also means you should check out all the copy on your site and try to replace any hard-to-pronounce words with more familiar ones. Use the common names for things. If you absolutely have to use a word that’s hard to pronounce, say what it rhymes with, or give the pronunciation (pro-nunce-ee-AY-shun). It’s also a good idea to break it down and say what each part of the word means so readers will get familiar with it. Two points here:

1. People view whatever is familiar as less risky and more comfortable.
2. People make decisions even when they have no information to base them on, so they’ll decide based on things like the “comfort factor.”

Clicking through to a website, deciding to stay or go, reading the copy, and buying the product involves a whole cascade of decisions. So everything about your copy has to make visitors feel comfortable.

That is, unless you’re selling roller coasters. (Click here for a good article on the study.)

Here are a few more rules for good copy:

• Short words beat long words
• Short sentences beat long sentences
• Short paragraphs beat long paragraphs
• BUT mix it all up a bit
• Verbs beat adjectives
• Active voice (I did something) beats passive voice (something was done by me)

People don’t come to a website looking for pretty pictures or funky design elements — they come looking for INFORMATION.

… That’s why you need to make sure to give them the information they need, in words that catch their attention and compel them to sign up for your opt-in offer or purchase your product.

Unfortunately, when it comes time to writing salescopy (the words on a sales site), so many website owners commit a FATAL mistake:

They focus on the features of their product or service — in other words, what it does, how it operates, or what it looks like.

However, good salescopy doesn’t focus on the features of the PRODUCT — it focuses on the USER, and how he or she will benefit from using the product.

The difference between a feature and a benefit is this:

A feature is something the product has or does, while a benefit is something it does for you.

A FEATURE is one of the components or functions of your product.

A BENEFIT is a way in which your product improves the life of the user.

… In other words, a benefit is an answer to the question, “What’s in it for ME?”

If that distinction is hard for you to grasp, just keep in mind that benefits are directly related to features. You can usually list all your features first and then go through your list and identify the corresponding benefits.

Here are some examples of features and their corresponding benefits:

• Feature: Deluxe Autowasher reduces use
• Benefit: You save money!

• Feature: You can wash, wax, and rinse with the same unit.
• Benefit: You save countless hours every month because it’s just so darned easy to use!

• Feature: Sturdy, polished stainless steel construction
• Benefit: Unit will last longer, so you’ll save $100s on replacement costs.

If you’re still having trouble distinguishing between the two, ask yourself this:

Did you buy a car with air conditioning just because it had air conditioning — or because it would keep you cool and comfortable on hot days?

Did you buy a minivan simply because it had anti-lock brakes and airbags — or because it was safer for you and your family?

Do see where I’m going with all this?

Benefits are not “quality and service” or “cheapest.” They are the answer to “What’s in it for me?” or “Why should I keep reading?” or “How will buying this make MY life better?”

People don’t want shampoo — they want clean, great-looking hair. So shampoo companies have made their fortunes by stressing how their shampoo solves the problem of unmanageable hair, giving people shiny, healthy-looking locks.

By offering benefits instead of features, you will create a higher perceived value, which will translate into MORE SALES.

… And that’s a HUGE benefit for you!

You’ve got your site up. NOW what?

"Derek, there’s so many things I need to do to my website… I don’t know where to start! What should I focus on?"

I agree — the list seems ENDLESS!

You need to drive traffic… grow your opt-in list… make sales… improve work on your SEO…

Okay, step back for a minute and realize it’s just NOT POSSIBLE to do everything at once!

So once you’ve built your website, here’s the FIRST THING you should do:

Make your sales process watertight!

There’s no point spending cash on pay-per-click ads to drive targeted traffic to your site if none of those visitors buy anything.

Here are the top 3 ways to make your site a sales machine — BEFORE you spend a bundle on attracting visitors.

1: Get your salescopy in top shape

You’ve got under five seconds to convince people to stay on your website… so your headline has to grab them by the eyeballs and compel them to read on!

The best headlines tell visitors they’ll find exactly what they’re searching for, and intrigue them enough to keep reading.

Don’t let your readers slip through your fingers once you’ve grabbed their attention with a hot headline.

Salescopy is the most important part of your website — because it turns visitors into customers!

So make sure it smoothly guides people through a streamlined process that:

• Identifies with their problem and builds your credibility
  
• Engages them — and explains why you can help
  
• Tells them how they’ll benefit from your product
  
• Overcomes any objections they may have
  
• Compels them to take action — and tells them what to do!

Give people a clear call to action that motivates them by re-stating the biggest benefit they’ll get from buying now.

Instead of saying, "Click here to buy now!" go for something like, "Click here for instant access and start changing your life for the better in the next 30 minutes!"

Funnel your readers through a tight sales process — and don’t give them a reason to click away. If you do, they probably won’t come back!

2: Collect testimonials

What’s more trustworthy than a personal recommendation?

A good testimonial can persuade even the most skeptical potential customer to buy from you.

Testimonials prove that your product really works — it DOES do exactly what you promise. And if you run a small business and haven’t built your reputation, testimonials are absolutely indispensable

You NEED testimonials when you’re getting started.

Here’s how to gather quality testimonials and benefit from them immediately:

• If you don’t have any customers yet, give your product away to a group of people in your target market, in exchange for their feedback.
• If you have some positive feedback from customers,
  ask permission to use their comments on your site.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials! Invite customers to give you their vote of confidence with an email link that says: "Click here to tell us what you think!"
• Email your buyers after they’ve purchased your product to ask them how they’re enjoying it.

Make sure each testimonial has a first name, last name, and location to prove they’re from real people.

Aim to get testimonials that are packed full of concrete benefits telling your customers exactly what they can expect to gain from buying your product.

Use them on your homepage, within your salescopy, and on a special testimonial page, and on relevant product pages.

3: Make it easy to buy!

I’m always amazed how many sites make it difficult for you to buy from them.

According to market research from the Gartner Group, more than 50% of web sales are LOST because visitors can’t find what they’re looking for!

Don’t make that mistake.

• Name your navigation buttons clearly so it’s obvious what people will find when they click on them.
• Keep your site’s navigation simple and consistent throughout your site, so people don’t have to click any more than necessary. Ideally, it someone should be able to buy from you in two clicks at most.
• Use "Buy Now" buttons that link to your shopping cart or order page every time a product is shown– especially if you have a catalog site.

And when people click to your sales page, make things easy for them!

• Provide a range of payment options — PayPal is a great place to start because it gives you an easy way to accept credit cards — an absolute MUST.
• On your order form, ask ONLY for the information you need. For example, if you sell an eBook, it’s unlikely you’ll need a home address.
• And here’s an extra tip… don’t underestimate the power of including a phone number people can call if they have any questions.

As you work on your sales process, feel free to use our monitoring and testing tips to see which changes are most effective, so every element you add is an improvement.

If you DON’T test your site, you can be sure your visitors will be testing it anyway! So make sure there aren’t any leaks in your sales process for them to find.

Build a solid sales process first, and then prioritize more advanced business-building strategies.

Once you’ve got these three crucial parts of your sales process shipshape, you can drive targeted traffic to your site — and ramp up your sales even more.

So the other day a shopping bag appears in our hallway, and on the side somebody’s scrawled in felt pen, FREE PANTS.

Well they might as well have written DEADLY POISON or LIVE RATTLESNAKES.

People would approach this bag and lean over it and peer inside. They’d talk about the mystery of the free pants with other people in the hallway. Were they men’s or women’s pants? What size were they? Were they new or used? Were they clean? Who left them? Why would anybody give away pants?

Nobody knew.

But what was really interesting was that nobody found out!

Nobody took a pair of pants out of the bag and checked them to see what condition they were in or what size they were. The bag of free pants sat completely untouched in the hallway until the cleaning crew took it away.

This strange little non-event reminded me of some valuable lessons about online marketing.

1. Grab the attention of your target market. These aren’t just pants. They’re men’s pants with a 32 waist and a 36 inseam. Only men with those measurements (or women with men with those measurements) would be even remotely interested.

Effective online marketing depends on identifying a small market that wants something specific… and then telling them you’ve got it.

Our pants benefactor needed to grab the attention of the people in his small target market with something like this:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36

When people find your website, you need to tell them right off the top that they’ve found exactly what they were looking for so they’ll keep reading.

That’s what your website’s headline does.

2. Explain the benefits. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in online marketing is to list the features of your product without explaining how they will benefit the buyer.

It may seem obvious to our pants philanthropist that free used pants will be great for any W32/L36 guy who wants something he can wear when he’s lying under his car changing the oil…

… But the reader can’t make that logical leap without help.

It’s up to the marketer to make the potential customer see himself using and enjoying the product… like this:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36. Great for painting or gardening! Get ‘em dirty and don’t worry.

Demonstrating benefits is one of the most overlooked aspects of online selling.

3. Overcome objections. I’m pretty certain the reason nobody would dig around in that bag of pants was the “gross” factor: “Ewww, what if they’re dirty.”

It’s natural for people to come up with objections when you’re offering them something. So let them know that you’re already aware that this could be a problem… and you’ve solved it.

The people who wouldn’t touch the pants with a barge pole needed to be told something like this:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36. Great for painting or gardening! Get ‘em dirty and don’t worry.

Used but very clean. Been through the wash so often they’ll never shrink.

“Oh, OK then! I can touch these without getting a disease. And they’re my size! Hmmm, maybe… ”

Answer questions and objections before they come up.

4. Build value. There’s a ton of competition out there for almost everything (well, maybe not free pants). That’s why in every salesletter you’ll see bonuses on top of the product offering. As an online marketer you need to add value to your product to make it stand out from all the similar ones out there.

Often it’s just a matter of offering information that helps the buyer use the product better. Doesn’t cost you anything, but if nobody else is offering it, it’s enough to tip the potential buyer in your direction.

And as I saw this week in our hallway, you even have to add value to something that’s free! So maybe someone would have taken those pants home if the bag had read:

FREE PANTS: Men’s W32, L36. Great for painting or gardening! Get ‘em dirty and don’t worry.

Used but very clean. Been through the wash so often they’ll never shrink

BUT WAIT — THERE’S MORE: Keep this EXPANDABLE shopping bag!

Added value is something you need to build into every offer you make.

Now you might think that’s a lot to get on the side of a shopping bag, but that brings up one last point:

5. Long salescopy works. At the Internet Marketing Center we’ve tested every possible length and format, and long salescopy wins time and time again.

The salescopy on your website should take visitors through the whole selling process: getting their attention, telling them what they’ll get and how it benefits them, overcoming their objections, and then tossing in something extra so they won’t be able to resist.

And you know, what works for online selling would have worked just as well for a bag of free pants. If you want to sell, you have to tell!

Forget about it.

Want to get them to read MORE of your salescopy?

Then make it eyeball friendly… by breaking up your blocky paragraph text with ellipses. These three little dots pack a punch, according to Anne Holland, Content Director of MarketingSherpa.

Check out her blog post here…

Imagine: After weeks of hard work, your website is finally live. You’ve officially been open for business an entire week. And yet you haven’t made a single sale.

Not. One. Single. Sale.

Arggh!

Don’t despair — we’ve all been there before. In fact, it’s one of the most common problems people ask us to solve for them.

Here’s something that’ll help ease the pain of turning a "dud" site into one that rakes in the profits…

You need to ask yourself every single question on the list below, starting at number one. Once you’re able to answer "yes" to all ten questions, I guarantee the sales will come rolling in.

Print out the following checklist and start your troubleshooting right now:

#1. Is there actually a market for your product?

By that I mean, are you positive you’re selling a product or solution people are actively looking for online — and not finding? That is the formula for a successful business.

The best way to answer this question is to do keyword research with a tool like Keyword Discovery or Wordtracker to confirm whether people are using search engines like Google and Yahoo to hunt for something just like your product — but not finding it.

It all comes back to supply and demand… You want to make sure people actually want to buy your product before you try to sell it!

#2. Are you getting enough traffic?

Before you can really judge your website’s effectiveness, you need at least 1000 unique visitors (not pageviews). If you’ve only had 100 visitors and haven’t made a sale, be patient! You just need more traffic.

Once you’ve had 1000 visitors, then you can begin to assess how effective your site really is.

#3. Are you getting the right kind of traffic?

If you’ve had 1000+ visitors to your website and you still haven’t made a sale, find out where your traffic is coming from. That’ll help you know if it’s targeted or not.

(By "targeted," I mean, visitors who are actively seeking out your product and are therefore extremely likely to buy it.)

The best way to get the RIGHT traffic to your site is by bidding on extremely targeted keywords in the pay-per-click search engines.

If you drive 1000 visitors to your site — using extremely targeted keywords in your PPC ads — and you still don’t make a sale, then we know the problem isn’t the quality of traffic you’re getting. It’s your website.

So let’s take a look at that next…

#4. Is your headline effective?

If your site doesn’t have a compelling headline that clearly communicates a powerful benefit, your potential customers aren’t going to stick around to see what you have to offer.

Writing a better headline is typically the easiest way to fix a floundering website. If you get more people to stay on your site and read your offer, more people will buy your product.

#5. Are you distracting your visitors from your main sales message?

You need to get rid of everything that encourages your visitors think of something other than the product you’re selling and the problem it solves.

This includes: links to other websites, Google Adsense ads, banner ads for other products, free articles that don’t support the sale… the list goes on.

Keep your visitors focused only on buying your product — and your sales will go up.

#6. Are you using testimonials effectively?

Like I said in last week’s editorial, testimonials are one of your most powerful selling tools. Nothing says, "Buy it now!" like an unbiased third-party recommendation.

If your site is brand new and you don’t have any testimonials yet, give your product to a few friends and ask them to provide you with testimonials on how well it worked for them.

#7. Does your guarantee take away the risk of buying?

A good guarantee is an essential selling tool — especially on the Internet. Unless you’re a major brand (like Sony, Wal-Mart, Pepsi) that your customers inherently trust, you need to let them know you’ll stand behind your product.

Reassure them that if they’re not 100% satisfied they can return it to you and get all their money back. And remember, a longer guarantee usually results in more sales — and fewer refunds!

#8. Is your price too high? Or too low?

Most people know that if you price your product too high, you’ll hurt your sales. But this can also be true if your price is too low.

People get suspicious when the price is far below their expectations. They think it’s probably "too good to be true" — and as a result, they don’t feel confident making a purchase.

#9. Is your ordering system easy to use?

Just because you can figure out how to navigate through your ordering process, it doesn’t mean your average customer can.

If you want to make sure your ordering system is "user-friendly," find a few friends who aren’t very Internet savvy and get them to order your product.

Watch over their shoulders and take notes. Where did they get stuck?

Make sure you fix whatever problems they encountered — because your potential customers are encountering them, too — and most likely leaving your site in frustration without buying!

#10. Do you have good salescopy?

If you aren’t using well-written salescopy to sell your product, then you’ll never achieve online success. It’s that simple.

Your copy needs to use all of the selling tools I mentioned above to present a strong, linear sales message. It doesn’t matter whether your particular site needs short copy or long copy, the fact will always remain: Your product isn’t going to sell itself! You need words to do the job.

So there they are… the 10 questions we ask whenever we look at a website that’s not turning visitors into sales. I have never answered "yes" to all 10 questions without seeing a substantial improvement to the site’s conversion rate.

Now, if you’re scratching your head, wondering what a good salesletter looks like… how to test pricing… how to write a headline… or how to use the pay-per-click search engines — then I have to be honest and tell you, you need more help than we can provide in a single newsletter!

If you want detailed, step-by-step training on everything I mentioned above, then you’ll want to check out our new program!