80% of your Web site is Maintenance!Once your Web site is up, you must maintain it. Maintenance means changes, and each time you make a change, you may make a mistake. I'm really grateful when people point out my Web glitches, and I can be more proactive by checking my site each week.
If your visitors get a link that doesn't work, see incomplete instructions, or read your dull instead of passionate copy, they will leave your site immediately, and not bookmark it.
Before you invite folks to see your masterpiece you need to check and correct all parts of your site, and especially
home page.
TEST YOUR HEADLINES. You have four seconds to get your visitor's attention. Test your title or opening sentence of copy. This one item alone can make a huge difference in responses you receive.
Instead of wasted words "welcome," put a benefit with a link to either a benefit story or sales letter about your product or product itself.
When potential clients clicked "Quadruple your Web Sales in Just Four Months" link, they were led to my sales letter for my book "Ten Non-techie Ways to Market Your Book Online." My Web sales increased ten times in four months from my first home page that had no benefit driven headline.
People learned about my eBooks and Teleclasses on Write Your eBook or Other Short Book--Fast!, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, and Quadruple Online Sales in Four Months with Free Articles. In 2002, after being Online eight months, Web sales are consistently over $3000 each month.
If your headline doesn't say benefits, game is over.
TEST YOUR OFFERS. People perceive more value when you add an incentive to buy. Give them a bonus FREE report or a tips list with order. It takes little time and effort to create, but it increases sales thirty-fold.
Each month, I motivate my visitors with "Discounts of Month" available as a navigation bar on home page. In each discount I include testimonials and benefits, And perhaps a bundling of several books or teleclasses For a deep discount--often half price.
1. Testimonials. They lend credibility to you. When people see that other well-known leaders like your products or services, they are more likely to buy. It's relatively easy to get these too.
Here's a few that worked:
- "Save yourself from headaches, disappointments, and money down drain. Read Write Your eBook or Other Short Book- Fast! before you write another word. The author puts you on fastest track to publishing success."
- "Wow! My sales letter worked! Thank you, thank you, thank you for presenting your 3-session teleclass "Create Your Homepage With Marketing Pizzazz." You helped me focus on who my target market really is--a major accomplishment. Knowing difference between benefits and features helped me produce a sales letter that got me a sale next day I put it up on my site."
- "In just one coaching session I learned how to strengthen my article's language, got a perfect acronym for my coaching business, learned difference between benefits and features, got a new bio/benefits statement to use for networking, and most of all "bigger picture" to see a series of products and services to sell--definitely worth her fees."
2. Benefit statements. Test your copy by emailing several groups in your address book with several choices. Call it a Survey. Ask them, which benefits makes their heart skip a beat? Enough to take out their credit card and buy. Emphasize different benefits. Try out different headlines, phrases, power words or metaphors. Appeal to different senses like smell, touch, emotions or visual. Remember most people are visual and kinesthetic.
Here are a few ideas:
For a book one client submitted these benefits: -Clean up places of your life where you're out of integrity -Create more time, energy, and passion in your life -Uncover your deepest values and honor them.
