Web Copy - What You Should Know First

Written by Gary Glasscock


Copyright 2005 Gary Glasscock

Just what is web copy? Some people think that web copy is anything that is written on a web page. But that is "content" and it is decidedly different than web copy. Simply stated, web copy isrepparttar copy that is used to sell anything on a web page. So now you say, but that's "sales copy." And you would be partly correct, but traditional direct mail copy and web copy are two different animals.

You see, people are used to a certain way of expression onrepparttar 148006 web, and you must be able to tap into that to make your web copy effective. Traditional direct mail copywriting is filled with hyperbole and exaggerations, and people are used to seeing that in direct mail. However, onrepparttar 148007 'Net, it's an entirely different ball game. People are used to a more relaxed style onrepparttar 148008 Internet and most won't tolerate anything else.

With that said, what should you do if you're writing copy forrepparttar 148009 web? Write in a friendly, engaging style. Userepparttar 148010 soft-sell approach with web copy. Make your copy more informational. Maria Veloso recommends writing in an editorial style. And I agree. I've been usingrepparttar 148011 Internet since 1993, when it first became available for use byrepparttar 148012 general public. I've read thousands of web sites. I've been exposed torepparttar 148013 traditional direct mail copywriting onrepparttar 148014 Internet and I've read it all. I have to side with Maria on this because of my vast experience onrepparttar 148015 Web.

People are more relaxed onrepparttar 148016 Internet. And they are more open to writing that is more relaxed, has a personal feel, and doesn't scream of selling this or that. People don't want that type of message. So you have to write just like you are talking torepparttar 148017 individual, but don't make it sound salesy. Use testimonials that have more of an editorial feel to them. And make sure that what you write engagesrepparttar 148018 reader. Give them information that they didn't have before coming to your web site. That's what they were looking for to begin with. Information!

Automating your customer support...

Written by Richard Grady


Copyright 2005 Richard Grady

My regular readers will know that one ofrepparttar things I highly recommend doing with any online business is automating as many of your day to day tasks as possible.

From a personal point of view, one ofrepparttar 147958 tasks that takes up a lot of my time is answering emails. It isn't just answering email that eats uprepparttar 147959 hours - sorting through and deleting spam and junk mail absorbs a lot of time too. Inrepparttar 147960 good old days, I used to get a couple of spam emails a day. Now it is closer to 1000 a day!

In fact, when you look at it, email isn't alwaysrepparttar 147961 best form of online communication. Not only is thererepparttar 147962 junk mail issue to contend with but alsorepparttar 147963 fact that email is not 100% reliable. Emails do 'go missing' far more regularly than you might expect. Often this is simply becauserepparttar 147964 recipients email software has decided that a particular email is junk and has transferred it directly torepparttar 147965 'Delete' folder. Other times it may be becauserepparttar 147966 recipients ISP has decided thatrepparttar 147967 email is junk and deleted it BEFORE it has even been seen byrepparttar 147968 recipient! (Yes this really does happen - imagine if your postman sorted through your mail and maderepparttar 147969 decision of which letters you want and which ones he should throw away?!)

One way to help avoidrepparttar 147970 spam problem when dealing with customer support enquiries is to make use of a contact form on your website instead of posting an email address. This will certainly help to cut down on spam but it still means that you haverepparttar 147971 problem of emails not getting to their destination (and when you have a frustrated customer waiting for assistance this is not ideal).

Therefore, probablyrepparttar 147972 best option onrepparttar 147973 market presently is a full-blown helpdesk system. Setting up a dedicated helpdesk is a superb way of automating your customer support and speeding uprepparttar 147974 process of dealing with enquiries and support emails. Not only that but if you use a system that allows customers to create 'tickets', you don't have to rely on email as your customers can login to a special web page and view both their tickets and your replies online.

Another feature of many helpdesk scripts is an 'FAQ' or 'Knowledgebase' section. This is simply a collection ofrepparttar 147975 most frequently asked questions/queries/problems along with answers and solutions. This means that customers can searchrepparttar 147976 knowledgebase and hopefully findrepparttar 147977 answer to their question without having to contact Support at all.

Some ofrepparttar 147978 more advanced scripts will even scanrepparttar 147979 customers support ticket prior to submitting it and then list a few possible answers to their questions just in case they didn't read throughrepparttar 147980 knowledgebase before typingrepparttar 147981 ticket out - very clever stuff.

These scripts are also very powerful in terms of how they can benefit you. Just think how much time you could save if, say, 40% of your customer support emails just stopped coming due torepparttar 147982 fact that your customers were now able to findrepparttar 147983 answers to their questions automatically.

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