Congratulations! You have created the business of your dreams. You have a killer product and-or service. All you have to do now is build a website and the people will be ready to pour their hard-earned cash into funding your enterprise. Correct?
Hold on! The public is a bit more complicated than that. Potential clients click on websites for a reason, they use social media for a purpose and they are raring to stay plugged in to the digital world as long as their needs are met and they are kept engaged. The bottom line is that you must feed your visitors and consistently consider their consumer mindset. When you do this, you will get multiple visits, returning customers and referrals. You will also convert sales.
Here is part of the key, as brought forth in the book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.” The book’s author and storytelling entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, indicates that every social media site and every digital application has a special mode of operation and targeted audience/use.
On a company website, for example, you should not be making a call to action nor trying to sell with every post or article. You should engage the viewers with rich language that is easy to understand. The premise of Vaynerchuk’s strategy is that you should give way more useful information without a pitch than you do useful information with a pitch. In other words, think of your “non-pitch” information as jabs and your pitch as the right hook.
You must make that right hook count if you plan to convert casual visitors to customers. They will not do that until they are “romanced” first. Below are a few tips for attracting them:
• Approach copy content based upon what you can do for them.
• Use headings and subheadings to break up the copy.
• Use some white space and great fonts in order to give their eyes a rest and make your content easy to read.
• Utilize higher resolution images to complement your posts and articles. Your images should rouse emotion from the user.
• Feature video on occasion. Studies show that users remain on sites the feature video content longer than they do on sites without video content. The quality of your video is important. I would recommend keeping your video under five minutes in length.
• Consider using infographics. They are pleasing to the eye and are great for simplifying the themes of your copy.
When it comes to the content itself, here is what you should include:
Use “personal” words such as “you”, “your family”, and “your job.” When sharing information about your company, try to tell a story. As Vaynerchuk points out, people love stories. Once again, words like “I”, “we” and “us” provide a major personal touch. On your “About Us” page, use personal terms and action words.
Do not skimp on good descriptions. Descriptive words such as “strapping” paint effective pictures that people can visualize. For example, “When I was a strapping young lad running a sturdy and colorful lemonade stand in front of our modest home, I knew I wanted to run a significant business one day.”
Use metaphors effectively and sparingly. If you are writing about friendships, you could write something such as:“Friendships are like bank accounts. You get deposits and withdrawals. Value goes in and some is taken out. You never want the withdrawals to outweigh the deposits.” On Paste Magazine, metaphors were likened to Post-it notes, so when you use them, keep that in mind.
You are implementing some image building and establishing your credibility. Because of this, you must do so in a professional manner. Do what you can to avoid typos, thick technical language – unless you cater to technical individuals – and maintain your relevancy.
Do not overlook search engine optimization (SEO). Include keywords that people use via search engines. Keywords should be merged and not stuffed. If you are a limousine service in Frankfort, Kentucky, you might wish to write something such as: “Our Frankfort bluegrass limousine customers love to take tours to see points of interest in our city.” You could break sentences like this up into two sentences.
Remember that the most popular social media channels have a specialty. Mothers, for example, often use Pinterest. One study indicated that 68 percent of the visitors to Pinterest are female. If you think of Pinterest as a “fantasyland for all kinds of people” and keep in mind that women are the bulk of those people, you have the opportunity to gain more audience engagement by writing accordingly.
When it comes to landing pages, balance “call-to-action” content with content that is engaging and informative. On you landing page(s), try to keep your copy brief so that people can quickly scan and understand the purpose of your brand. Use short but powerful words.
When writing calls to action, make use of the following words:
• Save now
• Discounted
• Deep discounts
• Save
• Limited time offer
In the end, one of the major keys to improving your online sales conversion is to make sure that you have written with your target audience in mind. Remember that your landing pages should funnel your customers deeper into the website. In the end, your persuasive copy will enhance the visibility of your brand, leading to increased sales and conversions.