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Article: Small Business Owners: Create an Easy Trail That Leads
to More Sales
Author Name: Karon Thackston
Email: kt@copywritingcourse.com
Word Count: 671
Category: Internet > websites
Copyright Date: 2011
Web Address: http://www.copywritingcourse.com
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Small Business Owners: Create an Easy Trail That Leads to More
Sales
By Karon Thackston © 2011, All Rights Reserved
It's something I hear quite a bit. Half complaint and half
frustrated rant, many small business owners tell me they simply
can't compete with the big boys. Even online they find their
sites at the bottom of the rankings and, if they do rank well in
the engines, their conversions are low.
The bad news is, this immediately tells me there are most
probably some very common mistakes being made on their sites.
The good news is, these errors can almost always be corrected so
the site produces better results.
Once fixed, you'll find you've created an easy trail for
customers to follow that leads directly to your door. Let's look
at the top three.
#1 Poor Title & Description Tags
This is your prospect's first exposure to your site so it had
better be good. Instead, all too often I see title tags that
read something like:
Blue Suede Shoes | Red Suede Shoes | Green Suede Shoes
A list of keywords may have appeal to a search engine spider, but
it does very little to let your prospect know why s/he should
click to your site as opposed to the 1,459,327 others that pop up
in the Google search results.
Instead of simply stuffing your title tag full of mere
keyphrases, give it some human appeal.
Buy Blue Suede Shoes & Save 25% | Free Shipping on Blue, Red &
Green Suede Shoes
Several important things have happened here.
1. You've included a call-to-action using the word "buy."
2. You've differentiated yourself by including a discount amount
and the benefit of free shipping. 3. And you now have a title
tag that actually says something valuable to a human being rather
than a mere (boring) list of keyphrases.
The same applies to your description tag. Continue with the
topic you used in your title tag (savings and free shipping) and
go into more detail when you write the description tag. Answer
your customer's burning question, "Why should I click on your
listing instead of all these others?"
#2 Unrelated Page Copy
There's a flow. or at least there should be. when a prospect
enters your site from a banner ad, a search engine listing, an
email, etc. The headline and page copy need to be consistent
with the title and description tag, the banner ad, email text,
etc. If it isn't the customer gets confused and leaves.
If your title tag reads "Buy Blue Suede Shoes & Save 25% | Free
Shipping." then your page needs to clearly communicate the
details of this. Likewise, a local veterinarian wouldn't want to
place a banner ad on a pet supply website that read "New patients
save $20 on first annual exam" and lead visitors to a website
page that says nothing about this offer. From whichever trigger
(traffic generator) the prospects comes, follow up with the
information in your page copy.
#3 Unclear Call-to-Action
Once on your site, don't be shy about letting visitors know what
to do next and how to purchase. As the old marketing saying
goes, "If you don't ask for the sale, you won't get it."
Service-based businesses need to have obvious and easily located
contact us forms. Ecommerce sites should employ clear sales
funnels that explicitly direct customers through the shopping
cart and payment process.
Draw a map. Where are your visitors coming from? And once on
your site, where do you want them to go? Now outline what needs
to happen to get them from point A to point B. Chances are, when
you use a human-friendly, informative title and description tag,
clear and enticing page copy and input an easy-to-follow sales
funnel, you'll see conversions increase dramatically.
Are you looking to revamp or build a small business website but
aren't sure where to start? Karon's book Effective Websites for
Small Businesses helps you work with professionals to make it
happen. Learn more at
http://www.EffectiveWebsitesForSmallBusinesses.com.
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