1. Converting Visitors to Buyers Stephan Spencer Managing Director, Netconcepts sspencer@netconcepts.com www.netconcepts.com

2. Your Visitors are Tough Customers They don’t read; they scan –We read 30% slower off the screen than off of paper They don’t scroll –Over 60% of the time –Anything important ‘below the fold’? Hope not! They’re impatient; they won’t wait –8 second rule They can’t remember much –Our brains can’t handle more than 7 items at once

3. If Your Site’s Not Part of the Solution, It’s Part of the Problem Do you make it easy for them to do business with you? Do you solve their business problems? Do you save them time or money, or help make them more productive?

4. Make It Easy for Them Less is more. Keep it short and punchy. Don’t just reuse content from print Minimize scrolling Use bullet points Use white space Restrict the number of choices available

5. Writing for the Web Must be value-added, compelling, interactive, fresh, well-written, concise, readable, tailored to the individual’s needs No marketingspeak WIIFM Content needs to be written as much for search engines as for humans

6. No Marketingspeak! Skip the meaningless blather and cut to the chase –Everyone’s “leveraging,” “monetizing,” “repurposing,” “disintermediating,” and “synergizing” –And they’re all hawking “solutions” that are “next-generation,” “best-of-breed,” “innovative,” “scalable,” “mission critical,” “real-time,” “dynamic,” “customer-centric,” “24/7” –Did they use the B.S. Generator? (http://tinyurl.com/1wvi) Avoid industry buzzwords and jargon Put your site to the test –the B.S. Detector (http://www.streettech.com/bs)

8. Don’t Over-hype Soft sell Avoid exclamation points Avoid words like “premier,” “leading,” and other hyperbole No ALL CAPS (except in your legal disclaimer, where you must have it) “Keep it real.” You’ll instill trust.

9. WII-FM Your visitors listen to WII-FM … What’s In It For Me They don’t care about your –Letter from the CEO –Mission statement –Assorted press release hype Your site should not be a ‘temple to the brand’ or a testament to the company’s ego

10. “You” & “your” vs. “We” & “our” Web site copy that’s all about “us” We all love talking about ourselves. But does the visitor really care? Should be a 7:1 ratio of “you” and “your” to “we” and “our” Is your site ‘company facing’ instead of ‘customer facing’? Then you’ve got your butt to the customer.

11. Active Tense not Passive Conserves words Less wishy-washy More persuasive Read “Think Active!” article by Jeff Eisenberg

12. Verbs With More Punch Inject more ‘punch’ into your verbs and concomitantly cut down on your use of adjectives For example, “Immerse yourself” rather than “Take an audio visual journey” It’ll give your prose more personality. Set a tone appropriate for your target audience, though. Read “Pump up Your Verbs” article by Jeff Eisenberg

13. Writing for Search Engines You’re writing for search engines as much as for people Keyword-rich copy (“keyword density”) Keywords should be not just relevant, but also popular –Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool (http://inventory.overture.com) and WordTracker.com Prominent placement of keywords at beginning of first paragraph, in headlines, in titles, etc. (“keyword prominence”) Text-rich, constantly changing home page

14. The Offer Give a compelling value proposition Make it relevant Sign up for e-newsletter Free downloads (white paper, screensaver, etc.) A sweepstakes Etc.

15. Call-to-Action Invite your visitors to act Every page should have a clear ‘call-to-action’ to get your visitors to take the next step

16. The Follow-up Maintain contact at least once every 90 days With each contact, try to get increasing levels of permission –e.g. email -> phone -> in-person meeting -> proposal -> sale

17. Get Personal Mass customization = a mass of markets, not a mass market Tailor the content, speak to the user Rules-based personalization vs. collaborative filtering Example: Amazon.com’s “1-click ordering”, Recommendation Center, & Email Notification Service Use to highlight relevant products/services/information, to auto-fill in order & inquiry forms, for targeted promotions and for email reminders

18. Acquisition Funnel Map out the stages in your customer acquisition process E.g. Visit web site, sign up for e-newsletter, download white paper, trial user, customer, loyal customer, evangelist

19. 80* 1%* 50* 75* 90*70* Acquisition Funnel Example Click to Web site Download attempt Download success Regis- tration 4-wk viewer 12-wk viewer * Fictitious conversion rates, for illustration purposes only CPM = $100 CPV 0 =$30 CPV 0 = cost per new viewer CPV 84 = cost per viewer retained for 84 or more days CPV 84 =$53 Slide courtesy of Ann Shepherd of PointCast

20. A Hypothetical Step-by-Step Permission Marketing Strategy First contact: visitor signs up (e.g. for a free BMW screensaver) and opts in for emails Email campaign: come in for a test drive and go in the draw to win At the test drive, invite them to become a member of BMW Owners Club, free Follow up with formal invitation letter Follow up by phone Maintain contact at least once every 90 days

21. Hyundai Case Study Campaign cost$75K Contest entries39,502 Handraisers25,418 Cost per lead$2.95 Test drives1,204 Cost per test drive$62.29 Sales 210 Cost per sale$357.00

22. In Summary Writing for the Web means writing for unforgiving humans and search engine spiders alike Manage the acquisition process - the offer, the call-to-action, the follow-up, etc. Personalize

23. Further Reading Net Words: Creating High Impact Online Copy by Nick Usborne (http://www.nickusborne.com/networds.htm) Guide To Killer Copywriting by Debbie Weil, a downloadable e-book, free when you subscribe to Debbie’s free email newsletter (http://www.wordbiz.com/signup.html)