by Corey Rudl

We see so many web sites that are simply an online version of a printed brochure. That's fine and dandy if people are calling you up and asking for your sales brochure. You don't want them to have to wait a week to get it, so by giving them your website address, they can get the information immediately. The problem is that an online brochure is not going to attract any new business.

Designing your site to be just a sales brochure is a real waste. Unfortunately the internet is becoming littered with these types of useless sites.

Generally speaking, when it comes to writing copy for your website there's one thing and one thing only that you have to tell your visitor: "What's in it for me?". Every time your visitor comes to your website, they are asking one question... "What's in it for me?" You have to make sure you answer that question immediately, even when they are just scanning the page.

You can answer the question. "What's in it for me?" in the first line or the first few paragraphs, but you have to bring it out in bold, bring it out in headlines. And you have to answer this on every page of your site.

Use bullets. I like using bullets everywhere. By using bullets you get people excited. It makes things very straight-forward, and actually makes everything very clear and concise. You can list off exactly what benefits they are going to get. And at the risk of repeating myself bullets should be totally about benefits, benefits, benefits. NOT features, features, features.

In addition, it's critically important that you know your audience and who you are trying to attract. You need to understand their relationship with the product, what their needs and desires are and how you can get them to "want" your product. You have to understand what kind of people your clientele are, who they are, what they do, what kind of mind set they have, what kind of education they have, how old they are and exactly what their hot buttons are. You need to know what they want to hear and what they want to learn about. This will make a huge difference in how you sell your product.

When I say "sell your product" I have to tell you that people don't want to be sold online. Don't try to "SELL" them something, "HELP" them and then let them sell themselves. Build credibility, build rapport with them, and give them heaps of information in the process!

You can build rapport in a multitude of ways, by telling them a story, by giving them qualifications about you, showing them great informative information, etc. After you have done this, they will make up their own mind and buy from you. This step is essential for online selling. People want to make their own decisions, they don't want to be sold. So educate them with good information and let them make their own buying decisions.

In other words, if you "help" them, you will "sell" them. And they will then buy from you.

I'm going to back up a bit and talk a little more about the importance of understanding your prospects. If you have your website all set up and you are aiming it at technical people, you will need to include all sorts of technical things. You'll use techie talk and have pages full of all sorts of stats, numbers and specs. Technical "geek speak"! However if the techies and computer people aren't the ones who are buying your product, you are giving them the wrong information and are attacking the wrong market.

If your buyers are ordinary folk, you will need to explain your product in layman's terms, simple easy to understand
language. You will need to show the benefits using glamour words. If you are talking to moms, you will want to be soft and considerate. If you are talking to business people, you want to be clean, to the point and professional. You will need a different attitude for each and every type of client you are talking to. That's why you have to know your audience before you build your website.

When you build your website, my main belief is. "talk to me like I'm a twelve year old". I write my webpages so that a twelve year old can understand them. When I consult with clients over the phone, I tell them to go over their website and make sure a twelve year old can find their way through it and understand every single detail in the website.

Don't use big words unless you absolutely have to. make it simple to navigate.

Don't assume anything.

Make it simple, simple, simple and really simple.

Don't get caught up in all the hype, fancy graphics, and cool, flashy things. Keep your site neat, clean and basic so that people feel comfortable at your site.

When you are writing copy, you don't want your visitors to be thinking about what you are trying to say, you want them to be absorbing and understanding the concepts as they are reading it.

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