Making Your Homepage
Copy Sticky in 30 Seconds
By: Glenn Beach
Yes indeed,
that's all you've got, 30 seconds to make your website
visitors decide to stick around...The internet has changed how
we think about the customer, the product and the competition.
I'm going to take you on a journey through these new ideas and
show you what has changed and how you now can approach your
marketing.
You have to put yourself in the customer's shoes and talk
directly to her about how she benefits from your products. She
wants product information and lots of it, but in due time. No
more hard sell focused on the product. And the word
competition is useful only to identify the people we need to
observe and emulate, but no longer are we out to destroy them,
we're out to partner with them. Confused? Good! That means
there's learning on the way! We're going to concentrate on
your homepage, because you don't have long to capture your
customer's interest. She has 3 main questions and you have
thirty seconds at most to lure her to continue reading,
clicking and finally clicking for the sale.
First you need to do your homework. You need to know who your
customer is in terms of demographics, needs, desires, and
dreams.
Now think about how she behaves on the internet. If she's like
me, she has a huge list of things she has done and would like
to do. Today she may be paying bills, looking for a new bank,
planning a vacation, researching cold remedies, looking for
recipes, researching books to take out of the library, reading
the news and looking for a home business she can do in her
spare time. All in one day. How much of her time is she
willing to give you to convince her you're worth
reading...worth bookmarking...that your opportunity or your
product is The One for her? Not much...30 seconds...
Now you need to identify your competition. Where may your
imaginary customer already be buying the products you offer?
Where else may she be considering a home business opportunity?
Why is she looking or buying there? What does she like about
that site? What do you or your product have to offer that is
missing there?
By now you're starting to identify your advantage, your edge,
that relates to what this customer needs and wants. Staying
focused on your customer, turn your edge into a sentence or
sentences starting with You, directed at how the customer will
feel or be.
We've already dealt with the customer's first question, So
what? What's in it for me? Now the second and third: Why
should I trust you or take a risk on your product? and, What
do I do next?
So, with your customer (not YOU, not the PRODUCT) in your
mind's eye, you have 30 seconds to grab her interest or her
curiosity enough to make her want to read more, click and get
more info, or click and buy.
Remember that old song that went something like this?: If you
wanna be happy for the rest of your life, Better make a pretty
woman your wife. Or for my personal point of view, Get an ugly
girl to marry you.
Then if I remember correctly, the singer goes on to explain
the circumstances that made him an expert ;) in this area.
What's in it for the listener? All the right buttons were
pushed: happiness forever, marriage, advice from an expert,
and curiosity about the rest of the song. Maybe he could have
thrown in some financial security and a home, but pretty much
all the bases were covered.
So hit your customer with what pretty much everyone wants:
happiness, security, health, family, freedom...whatever fits.
But don't just talk about happiness and security, talk about
feeling happy and secure. It may seem like semantics, but it's
really a huge difference.
You've nailed your customer's needs and emotions, so now just
write copy that flows from needs and dreams to information to
the click that will sell or sign her up. If you lead her to a
product information page, lead her to the final click. If it's
testimonials, or all about you, lead her to the click. When
she's ready to leave, ask her to complete a survey, sign up
for a newsletter, sign a guestbook, and offer her a free ebook
as a way of thanks for stopping by.
And if this ebook was written by your competition, now you're
starting to see how drown the opponent has been replaced by
what some call fusion marketing: in essence, partnerships for
a win-win situation. His ebook gets out there, with his
branded links inside; you benefit from his expertise and
reputation and the ability to give your visitors a quality
gift.
This relationship continues with reciprocal linking, contests
with prizes, testimonials, co-authoring ebooks or co-writing a
course or seminar, and any number of other collaborative
possibilities, only limited by your imagination.
And, as you can see, you don't have to be a novelist; we're
talking about writing for 30 seconds of reading for starters,
then a bit more. Welcome to the New Paradigms of Marketing,
compliments of the Internet.
About the author:
Glenn Beach is a poet, writer and home business entrepreneur
in Nova Scotia, Canada. Free newsletter, more articles, and
business start-up info at:
http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com
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