Getting Your Foot In The Door, Webpage Strategies

By Kevin Nunley
Posted Monday, September 27, 2004

With all the waiting we have to do, you would think that we Internet veterans would be a patient lot. In truth, the exact opposite is true -- Internet users (especially customers) have absolutely no patience when it comes to waiting. This has led to an amazingly low attention span for the average user.

This poses a serious problem to the Internet business-person. How do you make it so that you can capture the interest of a potential customer before he or she gets bored or frustrated and leaves? The answer is simple: Simplicity. You want to make it so that your customers can find out what they need to know quickly and easily. Here are a few tips that might help you achieve this:

Strategy #1: Target Your Audience With Your Entry Page

One reader once asked me why some web promotion experts say "Never send people directly to your web site's opening page. Always send them to an entry page."

By having different entry pages, you can customize your look and copy for specific groups of people. This will allow you to focus only on the information that the specific audience would be interested in.

Let's say you sell products to the general public and you also sign up people to distribute your products for a cut of the profits. The headlines and copy you use to interest a product customer will probably be quite different from the way you pitch someone interested in your business opportunity.

Remember to have your entry pages clearly tell readers what you want to offer them. Give them some exciting copy. Don't make them click through several pages to find out what benefits you offer.

Strategy #2: Simplify your Web Copy.

Some time back I beefed that too many web sites didn't have enough words to explain their offers. "Some sites are all pictures with very little copy. It's hard to figure out what the site is selling and why you should buy it," I complained.

Now it looks like a lot of sites have gone the other direction. In an effort to maximize sales, they put dense copy about all their offers on the opening page of their site. Did we over do it?

The latest thinking among advertising experts is a page filled with lots and lots of copy is jarring. People click to the page and think "Gee! I don't have time to read all this."

It's often better to trim your opening page offers down to just your most essential elements. Plenty of white space is good. Rather than having a batch of graphics on the opening page, you might focus on one larger more powerful graphic that unifies the page.

Some big corporate sites are moving to this philosophy of "less is more." See (http://prodigy.com) for an almost extreme example.

The bottom line is that customers are pressed for time. Many are surfing the Net while on their lunch break or between office chores. If they can't figure out your offer quickly, they may click elsewhere.

Strategy #3: Organize Your Web Copy

Once you have simplified your copy to the point where it is persuasive AND understandable, you need to consider how to organize your copy so that the "important stuff" gets noticed.

Newspapers have long known that anything "above the fold" gets far more reader attention than articles "below the fold." When an important story gets placed below the fold on the front page, it is considered a slap in the face. The editor doesn't think the topic is important or doesn't want to offend an important advertiser by giving the story a more noticed position.

Web sites work much the same. The top of your opening page gets by far the most attention. A headline will always get more attention than plain copy. I find that if I list five small linked headlines at the top of my opening page, visitors click the links in the order they appear from top to bottom.

The main thing to remember with all these tips is that you are not only selling a product or a business opportunity; You are selling SERVICE -- and if a customer can quickly and easily find out what they need to know on your web site, your service will seem to shine.

About the AUthor
Kevin Nunley provides marketing advice, copy writing, and promotion packages. See his new, lower priced, better value deals at (http://DrNunley.com) Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536.