Writing Effective Web Copy

Creating Web pages is easy. Creating Web pages that sell is hard. Sales letters that work great in direct mail campaigns fail miserably on the Web. Crafting a Web page that converts viewers to customers is an art. Maria Veloso, author of Web Copy the Sells, explains it this way:

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"You just got off work. You're in a hurry but you need to pick up a few things at the grocery store. You're hungry and impatient. All you want to do is find what you need and get out quickly.

You walk in the door and a salesman hands you a brochure for car insurance. You take it but you have no intention of reading it. You're not looking for car insurance. You head directly into the store to find the things you need.

At the end of the isle someone is cooking little sample potpies. They smell great. They ask you if you'd like to try one. Since you're hungry you say, sure. The potpie is delicious. You put two packages of potpies in your shopping cart."

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Did you notice the difference in the two selling approaches?

The first approach (car insurance salesman) is how most people try to sell on the Web. They stand in your way. They interrupt. They talk about what they have and how great they are. They focus on what they want. They pay no mind to your expectations. This approach fails miserably on the Web, yet this is how most sites operate. We get them off the screen as quickly as possible. If you approach the Web this way, you'll get nowhere.

The second approach (piping hot food) is how it should be done. We are in a hurry. We are impatient. However since the offer was framed in terms of what we want we were willing to give it a chance. Since it delivered on our expectations, they made the sale.

Just like the grocery store, Web people ARE in impatient and they ARE looking for something specific. To write effectively you must frame your offer in terms of what the viewer wants. You need to anticipate what they are looking for and entice them with an attractive offer. Treat your prospects like the person dashing into the grocery store. Craft your offer like the aromatic potpies at the end of the isle, instead of the insurance salesman, and your conversion rate will skyrocket!