I’ve been selling things online since the fall of 2006. What I learned before I started and the knowledge and experience picked up in the last six years has led to my ability to carefully scrutinize the content of any website.

When we work with clients there’s always a chance we’ll frustrate them while putting them through the “content phase” of web design and development.

The content phase of building your website is nothing to be left to chance, apathy or assumption that anyone else can capture your message for you. If someone tells you they can “whip up” the text for a page on your website you should run in the other direction.

Content, wording and marketing text must come from the business owner or a key player in the organization. That does not mean you have to be perfect or nail it on the first try. It means YOU are better off providing the first version of your “website words” to your internet marketing team.

3 Ways to Get Wording…

Your internet marketing team can interview you about your products, services and business and be able to formulate a good message based on the recordings of the interview.

Another way to get good content is for you to block out thirty to sixty minutes of focused time where you type away! Yes, I know this could be agonizing to some but it is (in my humble but accurate opinion) the best way for you and your internet marketing team to come up with a winning message.

The last way is a combination of both. You can type out the answers to certain questions. I used this strategy recently to pull some really good bullet points for a client’s website. The question was… “Which pains does your market have in common and which pains do you cure for your market?” With a little massaging the answers made for some powerful words.

Whatever way you choose just remember… Absolute clarity is of extreme importance.

The common mistake I see when first evaluating a client’s text is extreme fuzziness, confusion and lack of focus. If you have decided on a page for your website that sells “service a” at no time can you mention or talk about “service b.”

The next big problem is EGO! When creating words for your website you must get your ego out of the way. Everything has to be framed as “what’s in it for the prospect.” Using platitudes to describe your business is worthless! Instead speak to your prospect and show them you empathize with them.

Since we’re on a roll… One more Mistake…

Speaking in “Industry Terms!”

Unless your market consists of prospects that are “IN” a particular industry you’d be wise to leave the technical language out.

To sum it up…

If you resist the temptation to rush and cut corners during the content creation part of your website design you’ll reap rewards with better results and more leads from your website.

When I speak about internet marketing to groups of small business owners the subject of opt-in offers, lead capture and email marketing always comes up. Before we dive into the two types of offers you can make on your website to generate leads and build an email list let’s first tell you a story…

I kick myself…

I’ve been collecting leads online, generating business and regularly emailing my prospects, customers and clients since early 2005. Making tweaks, updates and testing new “lead generation offers” on our various websites is something that has only increased over the years and really will never stop.

On a recent Saturday I noticed a higher number of “opt-in subscribers” to one of our sites. When ever there is a jump in traffic to your website it’s a good idea to have your web-person (or yourself) pull the analytics to see where the visitors are coming from. We noticed another website had picked up one of my articles which included links in my bio. A spike in traffic and subscribers, yes! But I kicked myself! Why?

Because a week or so prior we had discussed a better “opt-in offer” to implement on this very same site. But, we didn’t get it implemented in time. So how do I know our new offer would have pulled more opt-ins? Good question… And that leads me to the first kind of offer…

“The Informational Offer”

The informational offer is when you think about the questions your prospects ask you. The knowledge you have. The ideas you have that others want to know. Then, you take that info and package it into some sort of white paper, report, audio or video training. How you package it depends on you. But never forget the title is so very important. Here are few ideas for titles…

• How To…
• What Never To…
• What You Need To Know Before…
• 5 Reasons To Never…
• 7 Ways To…

The key is to offer some sort of instant gratification. Then, you deliver what you promise and maybe more. From there, you mention how you’ll stay in touch via quality emails two (or more) times per week. Just never forget – the additional emails you’ll provide the prospect are secondary and mentioned as an “OH, BTW.” Remember, It’s the title of your info that makes your visitor want what you have.

Next…

“The Transactional Offer”

The principle behind the transactional offer is again – “Instant Gratification.” Can you make it a no-brainer for a visitor to pop in their name, email and maybe phone number to get some sort of coupon or “sweet deal” from you? This strategy is key if your goal is to get them into your place of business right away or have them buy right away on your site.

You can combine the two kinds of offers as well. “Get Your Super Wiz-Bang Deal & Discover 5 Ways To…”

The point is to make sure you’ve got one of these key online marketing principles working for you.

Why? Simple…

Not everyone who comes to your website is ready to take some action and do business with you. But there’s a percentage of those visitors who will gladly give you their name, email and phone number (and sometimes more) for something of value to them. Once you have that info you have permission to follow up. Naturally, the art of email marketing and follow up is another topic but the starting point is lead generation.

Every once in a while I will speak to a business owner who wants to “just get something up” on the web.

Here’s what I mean…

Maybe they’re new in business and just get started or they’ve been around for a while and are just now discovering the true power of the internet. Some of these business owners say “for now, we just need to get something up – we can come back to all this internet marketing stuff another time.” This is a bad idea… Here’s why…

Yes, I am all for taking some simple action to generate momentum. But the problem with “just getting the website up” is two fold…

1. That site ends up being permanent and not temporary. We do so may redesigns of website that were “only supposed to be temporary.” Chances are the designer or the business owner simply forgot about it and it just sat there. Finally, the business owner realizes she is not proud of it and wants to make a change as bad as Pookie did in New Jack City.

2. As they get a little busier they quickly outgrow their website and it actually ends up costing them. Why? It’s not an accurate representation of their business. Further… It doesn’t work. Because it was just thrown up there. It is not optimized for search results and it is not ready to capture leads. It’s a big waste of space!

Bottom line…

If you’re gonna do it – do it right.

It’s your lucky day, someone made it to your website – A prospect who is interested in your products and services. Now don’t get too excited because this prospects is not “totally hot.” They’re not ready to whip out their wallet and make a purchase, call you to order or arrange a meeting. The reality is this prospect is still not sure if they want to do business with you. Your prospect is still “gathering information.” Keep the gathering information thing in mind as you read the rest of the article.

Transition…

Before we get back to your fictional prospect we have to cover something that’s so important it can make the difference between success and failure – between steady movement toward your business goals and being stuck on a treadmill.

In my day to day adventures I come across a lot of websites. Business owners often reach out because they know there’s some UN-tapped potential buried in their website. There are two very common mistakes that doom a company’s website to mediocrity.

Mistake #1…

The first and very common mistake made on most small business websites is the total absence of any form of lead capture. We’ll talk about lead capture in a second.

Mistake #2…

If there is a “lead capture” mechanism present it’s usually dull, boring, lame, has no urgency and gives no compelling reasons why someone should exchange their name, email and other information for it. This is the mistake of offering your “newsletter” as a lead capture mechanism. Here’s a news flash…

No Body Wants Your “Newsletter,” Get Over It!

Do you see where this is going?

First: You need a lead capture mechanism to fill your funnel with prospects. Second: The lead capture mechanism needs to be exciting, fun, interesting and have a little sense of urgency.

So where to begin?

Remember we said up top that your fictional prospect is in “information gathering mode.” The place to start is with “information.” The question to ask at your next marketing meeting is simple: “What sort of information can we package up for our prospects and give them in exchange for their contact info?” Take it further by making sure the information you are packaging up has real value.

Step it up a notch…

You’ve decided on the valuable information but that’s not enough. To get your prospect to act you must offer some sort of immediate gratification. You do this by making sure your information will deliver an immediate benefit, give them something to look forward to (in some cases sending your prospects information in the mail works great!)  or help them begin to solve a problem they have.

Here’s where your newsletter comes in…

After you’ve helped your prospect take one step closer to becoming a client or customer then you can introduce your “newsletter” as an added benefit and way to stay in touch.

So the message…

Be sure you are employing “lead capture” on your site. More importantly, make sure your lead capture will stop your prospect in their tracks and make them respond to your offer.