4 Questions You Must Answer!

December 12, 2008 · Filed Under Writing Copy · Comment

In the post “What’s Different About Copywriting For The Web” I talked about the mindset of the folks that read web copy and why it’s important to understand that mindset. This post is an important extension of that idea.

If you want to make money from your blog or website you must know your customer. That requires some planning and research. Gathering as many facts as possible about your website visitors is critical for success.

First, you should anticipate the questions your website visitors will have. Normally, there are four questions that a visitor will have that you will need to answer:

1. Is this what I’m looking for?
2. Can this help me?
3. Will I need anything else?
4. Where do I go from here?

There may be additional questions that some visitors have, however, you must always answer those four questions, at a minimum.

If your site’s design and navigation doesn’t provide obvious answers to these questions, then you should look at using copy to answer them. It is important that the answers to these questions be obvious to all your users, and not just those visiting your site for the first time.

Your copy is laughable. Less than 50% of your visitors will try to figure things out on their own. Less than 30% will actually succeed. The rules of thumb are: “Don’t try to make me think.”, and “Don’t make me click more than twice to find what I want.”

Next, when planning, focus on your core audience. Remember, you will not be able to reach everyone, so make sure that the copy you produce addresses your site’s most important visitors directly. Spend a little time explaining what your site or product can do for your targeted visitor. Use the jargon for the niche. Serious visitors know the subject and the jargon and they will recognize it and believe you do, also. Your creditability can be the difference between a person being customer or just a visitor.

However, if you are targeting more than one type of visitor to your site, then make sure that you can direct them to pages that are designed specifically for that micro-niche. A visitor will go elsewhere if they don’t feel your site has what they want. They make the decision to stay on your site or go elsewhere within 5 seconds.

When providing them with facts, let the facts speak for themselves. It is important that you make your descriptions compelling, although not excessive. Many visitors will leave a site within five seconds if they feel it is all hype. Some hype will almost certainly be needed in order to excite your visitor and get their emotions running. Keep it to a minimum. Take a look at this page on one of my sites. It has one of the highest click through rates of any of my sites. You won’t believe how simple this page is!
Cash Bootstrap Method

It is vital that during the planning stage of your copywriting you understand what it is you hope to accomplish. Do you want a sale? Do want a subscriber? Do you want both? If you want to reach a destination on your trip you need to know that destination before the trip begins.

You have already determined that you need to increase direct sales, build a subscriber base, circulate information, as well as provide technical support. But in order to do this, you must make sure that your web copy will help you to achieve these goals.

You must know who your ideal customer is and what it is that they want. Then find and craft the words that will most effectively bring these people to your site and compel them to take your desired action.

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