Persuasive Online Copy Writing

Many websites today write their web site copy as if they are trying to address a stadium full of customers. The problem with this approach is that the message becomes diluted and confusing. Instead, pick one customer, perhaps someone you know and write the copy as if you are targeting just him or her. American Novelist, John Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 states “your audience is one single reader; and I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person - a real person you know, or an imagined person - and write to that one”. Literature is no different than writing website copy. In fact, with practice, this becomes really easy to do.

Know Your Metrics

It is highly recommended that you set measurable benchmarks and identify conversion goals based on current web site traffic. A conversion can be a sale, or a form submission; basically, whatever action you want the customer to take when they arrive at your website. This can be easily done with web analytics software (like Omniture, Website Story or Google Analytics) with features that track the following:

1. User behavior - where visitors click, how long do they stay on any given page etc. 2. What pages are customers abandoning the site 3. ROI/ROAS 4. Revenue tracking per conversion for all our campaigns 5. Real time reporting.

Improve Your Navigation

There is nothing that irritates me more than not being able to find the navigation when I get to a web page. Ease of navigation on a website is a very important part of converting visitors into customers. If visitors to your site don't know where to click to find what they are looking for, they will abandon your site in the blink of an eye. I do it all the time.

The most common place for your navigation is on the left side and/or the top of the page. There have been several studies that show an increase in conversions when the navigation is one of these two places. Take a moment to look at online retailers like eBay, Dell, QVC, HP and Amazon and see if you can find any similarities.

In addition, navigation should be consistent on each page. Most retailers are already facing huge abandon rates and inconsistent navigation will increase the chances of visitors dropping off. Studying drop-off data indicates that would be customers visiting your site lose the relevant message of what put them there in the first place.

Further evidence was provided on March 8, 2004 - Onestat.com reported that 9.52% of visitors abandon a website after viewing one page; 54.60% of visitors abandon a website after viewing two pages and 15.56% of visitors abandon after viewing three pages or more (based on a sample size of 2 million visitors). This data illustrates the importance of having consistent navigation on every page of your website.

Call to Action

The idea here is to reinforce (or validate) the purchase decision while the visitor is going through the check-out process. You can communicate anything that is unique about your product or service, whether it is a customer testimonial, a new promotional offer; or perhaps the services that you offer that differentiate you from your competitors like 24/7 customer service, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, etc. This helps build credibility, reassures customers that they are making the right decision; and most importantly, decreases shopping cart abandonment and buyers remorse.

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