Website Content — 4 Pages That Can Make or Break the Sale
Your website can and should be the marketing hub of your business–a place where prospects can go any time of day or night to find out exactly how you can help them. And every page on your website should somehow smooth the path toward the sale.
But four pages in particular are key…
The Home Page
Like a Wal-Mart greeter, your home page needs to immediately convince the visitor she’ll quickly find what she’s looking for before she turns around and walks back out the door.
This means sharing a little about what you do–in your prospect’s language, of course–and why she should care. It also means offering guidance as to where she may want to go next on the site. (Based on your most popular offerings.) And overall, it’s good to keep the layout and navigation simple.
But before she goes to another page, you want to encourage her to sign up for your newsletter. That way you can keep in touch even if she decides not to take action on anything today.
The About Us Page
That’s right–the page we often think about last actually plays an important role in building credibility and enhancing your likability. In fact, one Marketing Sherpa study found that a personable About Us page can boost website conversions 30%!
Remember…people buy from people, not companies. (Plus, they’re generally skeptical about buying from unknown businesses on the internet.) So your About Us page is critical to establishing yourself as an expert and developing the all-important know, like and trust factor.
Here are a few key dos and don’ts:
- DON’T post a formal bio (save that for your media page)
- DON’T start off with a dense but essentially meaningless mission statement
- DON’T post long lists of journal articles, previous speaking engagements or other similar items. Put a link to them on the page instead so visitors aren’t overwhelmed
- DO tell them about you– your experience, your story (if relevant) and a little about who you are personally
- DO use a more casual, conversational style
- DO include a photo or two
Sales Pages
The workhorse of your website–each product or service should have its own sales page. The style and format is designed to minimize distractions, and the copy is makes a compelling logical and emotional case for your offering. The goal is to motivate her to act now–whether that’s buying through an online shopping cart or contacting you for a free consultation.
Unfortunately, sales pages are usually the weakest link in a website–offering a paragraph or two of information and a price or “contact us” for more information.
The problem is…no one wants to email or call you for more information. It takes too much time and she dreads being trapped by a hard-core sales pitch. She won’t bother until she’s fairly sure you can meet her needs. So you need to give her the full scoop upfront. There are a number of key building blocks for a good sales page, which I’ll go over in the next post.
Contact Us
Yes, even the Contact Us page is critical to your credibility. Even if you’ve given them a way to respond on your sales page, people will check it to see if you’re a “real” business. I often look to see where a business is located so I know when a good time to call or email may be.
One huge mistake is NOT having the company name, street address, phone, and email listed. If you’re concerned about privacy, get a UPS box or rent a virtual office. Because not having those items makes your business look sketchy. And more people check than you think.
A second common error is offering a contact form as the ONLY way to contact you. Some people just won’t do it. Plus, the slightest internet breeze seems to break the forms and then no one can reach you at all. That’s why the best route is to offer as much contact information and as many ways for them to contact you as possible.
In short, all four of these pages are essential to creating an effective, website marketing strategy that brings you more clients and more sales.
Next, we’ll talk about the core elements you need for a killer sales page.
Posted: March 16th, 2009 under Copywriting, Online Marketing.
Comments: 15
Comments
Comment from Eric Torres
Time: March 27, 2009, 9:57 pm
Makes sense. If people don’t understand the Who, What and How’s of your website they will just keep on clicking to the next website until they find what they are looking for.
Eric Torres´s last blog post..Send in a photo of you wearing Different Trends and get 25% off discount!
Comment from Steve Levy
Time: March 29, 2009, 2:46 pm
The Do’s and Don’ts are spot on. Well done
Steve Levy´s last blog post..Glass Half Full or Empty?
Comment from Jef Nance
Time: March 29, 2009, 2:54 pm
This is great stuff, basic enough that we can forget it, and just complicated we can overlook it!
Thanks for your to-the-point insights, very good… jef
Comment from admin
Time: April 2, 2009, 3:33 pm
Thanks for your comments!
Tracy
Comment from Jessica
Time: July 10, 2009, 8:27 am
You’ve mentioned two pages that are often overlooked: About Me and Contact. Most folks either forget them entirely or just throw something up. The About Me will make people like us – or not – and we should only talk about ourselves as it relates to the products we’re selling. If we’re selling a ‘how-to’ product on making videos, we need to convince a potential customer that we really understand how to make terrific videos. “I was born in …” is meaningless to our customers. And on the Contact page we should include as many ways to contact us as possible. Best of all is a phone number. I can’t even guess how many products we’ve sold because a customer can talk with a live person. Most sites hide behind an email address – not smart.
Comment from admin
Time: July 10, 2009, 12:29 pm
Yes, most people are surprised that I include these two, but when you look at a typical site’s web stats, About Us is usually pretty high up there. People like to know who they’re dealing with. And I guess it’s lucky for you that your competitors haven’t caught onto the importance of having a phone number yet!
Tracy
Comment from homebrew beer recipes
Time: July 10, 2009, 5:39 pm
I think you make a valid point about about us and a contact page. Most if not all salesletters don’t have this. It makes it difficult to appear as a legitimate company with them. Thanks for enlightening me. I will be adding this to my sales letters.
Comment from Leo J. Vidal, JD, MA, CPA
Time: July 11, 2009, 6:40 pm
What a helpful column. Very concise and to the point. This will be good to keep in mind. This will be great because I work with local businesses doing local internet marketing .
Comment from Ron
Time: July 11, 2009, 11:49 pm
Some very sound advice. I tend to be lazy on my Contact Us pages and just place a form, knowing I should be doing more, thanks for the reminder.
Ron´s last blog ..7 Must Read Squeeze Page Tips 
Comment from Homeschool Learner
Time: July 13, 2009, 7:44 pm
Tracy, your article is dead on. I’d add two points:
- coherence – make sure that the pages together tell a coherent story. An About Us page should both be charming but also illustrate an interest and capability in the core business issue
- interaction – people like to press buttons and to try things. The stickiest site that I’ve seen in awhile is http://www.SpellingCity.com – who can resist giving it a try?
PS – I like your dogs
Comment from Karl
Time: July 17, 2009, 12:29 pm
I hadn´t thought about the importance of a good about me and contact page, this might be something worth enhancing.
Comment from Steve Levy
Time: July 20, 2009, 10:05 am
Nicely done and well thought out.
Steve Levy´s last blog ..Cell Phone Laws
Comment from Naomi Shy
Time: July 24, 2009, 12:53 pm
Some great ideas! I am going to go back and review some of these pages you mentioned, especially the Contact Us page. I only give one option to contact me and I can change that. I have recently included my address.
I have also found adding a FAQ has helped close many sales!
Naomi Shy´s last blog ..Naomi Sky is now a member of Babyspot.com
Comment from Bracelets
Time: August 2, 2009, 6:27 pm
Good article, lots of intersting things to digest. Very informative
Comment from admin
Time: August 5, 2009, 10:31 am
Tons of great comments!
Homebrew–sales pages are a bit different because they usually fold the About Us and Contact Us info into the sales page to minimize the possible distractions. Relevant About Us material is usually included in the “your story” part of the sales page or woven in throughout. And the contact info is usually placed at the very bottom without links–there for the credibility but focusing response on that buy button.
Homeschool–Yes, definitely you should have info demonstrating your capability on your About Us page. Often in the sites i see that info is there, it’s just not communicated in a reader-friendly manner. And yes, interactivity is great as long as it’s relevant. Quizzes are a terrific way to do that and help build the case for hiring you. And thanks for the compliment on my dogs!
Naomi–Yes, FAQs can be very helpful as well–especially if you’re not using a traditional sales page. In fact, I might add that one next time. Especially if it’s done more as an interview than the typical dry FAQ.
Thanks everyone for your feedback!
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