Result-Producing Websites
There are literally hundreds of thousands of people out there capable of building a nice-looking website for your business.
You may have already had one built.
Is it doing what they promised it would do?
Is it producing a steady stream of customers who are pre-sold on your product or service?
The Difference between a Website Designer and a
Web Copy Specialist
Most of the people building websites these days aren’t copywriters. They’re technological wizards, and they certainly have their uses.
I hire them myself when I work with unfamiliar programs and tools.
But there’s a HUGE difference between someone who can put up a website and someone who can build an effective online marketing system.
Website Designers are trained to build pages, create links, and add graphics. They will put whatever you’d like on your pages. You just have to know what to tell them.
Web Copy Specialists are trained to create sites that attract your ideal customers, grab their attention in the first few lines, and lead them down a structured path to your desired result.
A Structured Process to Build a Killer Marketing Machine
I use the following process to create content that deliver sales:
1. Install Analytics – If you currently have a website, we need to know how people are using it.
Analytics tools show how they arrived, what they did once they landed, and how effective each page has been in producing the desired result.
If we’re building a new site, I’ll install analytics before it is published for future optimization efforts.
2. Conduct Extensive Research – To be able to create effective content that grabs people when they land on your page, I’ll need to know all about your business, your competition, your customers, and their concerns.
3. Create your Website Structure – Website “usability” is very important. The last thing you need is for your customers to get confused when they get there.
Navigation needs to be easy to see, use, and understand. Your links need to flow and your graphics need to be uploaded properly so the page doesn’t take forever to load.
4. Write Content that Causes Action – Too often, content is written by people who are good at offline marketing. Online marketing is completely different.
People arrive at sites through search engines looking for specific things. This means your headline and opening paragraph have to line up exactly with the search term they entered that brought them there. If not, they hit the back button and go to the next site.
After you’ve grabbed their attention, you lead them to a specific action.
Do you want them to buy your product? Call your store to make an appointment? Set up an in-home consultation? Subscribe to your monthly marketing letter?
Web Copy Specialists write content that connects your customer’s needs with your strengths through their emotions.
5. Optimize for Search Engines (SEO) – SEO is an abbreviation that everyone likes to use these days. Most people lead with this because it makes you ask for the definition, engaging you in conversation that they can lead.
SEO is the process of getting your site ranked higher on the page when people search for products and services like yours. It’s a combination of tailoring keywords, links, and content to the most popular search terms in your industry.
I don’t optimize pages until after I’ve written the content. By the time your strengths are incorporated into the text, the terms to optimize the page pop out.
Again, the key is to line these terms up with your unique strengths. There are several keyword tools that let you know which terms people are using to find products and services like yours.
Chances are, I’ll have done extensive keyword research before this point to align your content with the most popular search terms.
6. Evaluate – After the site has been up a while (4-6 months), it’s time to do an assessment on how it’s working.
Sometimes we’ll discover a better way to state an important point, or your customers may bring something to your attention that doesn’t flow quite right.
At this time, we’ll evaluate the analytics, identify opportunities for improvement, and go from there.
Our Profits are Linked
The success of my business is directly related to how well my marketing strategies work for your business. Rest assured that once you’re my customer, I’ll always be on the lookout for opportunities to boost your profits.
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