Another fantastic website related blog from one of our favourite Copywriting sites; Copyblogger.com. This one talks about the psychology of passive selling, a sales method which all business websites work with no matter how well the website design is done where visitors are anonymous and make the most of that fact. Copyblogger I found fairly recently but after reading from article to article I found much of the content was well worth noting. They state facts and give advice to website owners and marketing alike and make the most of those facts… Anyway waffle over as per article, the blog starts here:

Have you ever stood in a store with something in your hand and then looked up to see if there was a clerk nearby you could ask for help?

Sure you have. We all have. Good help is hard to find.

Companies have been cutting costs by moving towards self-serve more than ever. Depending on where you live, you may have to bag your own groceries, pump your own gas, or bottle your own water.

Put yourself in the mind of the consumer. Consider what happens at that very moment you realize you need help. You were focused on buying two seconds ago, but then something happened—something very important.

Your brain skipped a beat.

“Find someone,” it said.

“Don’t buy. You have questions. Get answers.”

Your focus shifts. You aren’t thinking about buying anymore at all. You were almost ready to shell out your money, but now you’re in search mode. Now you’re seeking answers.

“Hello… Can anyone help me? Anyone at all?”

Now, think about your website. There are no clerks. No sales associate lingers nearby. The store aisles are empty and the cashiers are gone. There is no one who can help – not immediately, anyways.

The copy on your website is the single solution. Useful content mixed with meaningful messages is the only salesperson on staff. If your site content isn’t meeting, greeting, and convincing people, then it isn’t doing its job.

You need more than a website… you need a website that sells.

And to help you sell more, here are seven copywriting tips for a website that operates like a well-staffed store:

1. Get a professional salesperson – Overexcited content full of exclamation marks and sunshine-bright enthusiasm very often has the opposite effect of calm, confident copy. It just doesn’t work well. Tone down the cheerleading and collect your wits.
2. Eliminate the dress code – Calm and collected doesn’t mean bland and boring. It’s fine to show some personality, so get naked with your content. In fact, most consumers enjoy a good peep show (minus the pom-poms, that is).
3. Tell staff to talk less– Readers quickly lose interest in long, verbose paragraphs and end up walking away. No one likes the guy who can’t shut up, after all. Trim your content. Use concise sentences that create impact – not unnecessary fluff.
4. Inform consumers better – Tell consumers about your company. They want to know your story – the way they want to hear it. What makes you special? Why should they choose you? What can you offer more than the competition?
5. Bring in the specialist – The quality of your content reflects on your business image. If it isn’t well written, it isn’t going to help you sell. Do-it-yourself copywriting is fine for people with the skills. But if that isn’t you, then hire a writer to help.
6. Hire a clerk – Make sure people can contact you quickly and easily with a visible contact form. Ditch the coded (emails) supposed (to) cut spam, as well. That just forces consumers to take extra steps to contact you – steps they may not be interested in taking. There are other ways of verifying that a user is human without having to type out badly displayed letters!
7. Don’t goof off on the job – There’s a time and place for playing the class clown. Snagging a customer lead isn’t that time. Give straightforward information, offer a clear message and cut the clowning around.

Ending here, I would also like to mention a related article from the same blog entitled: ‘I don’t care about you’ which in principal states that your website viewers want to find out how you can solve their problem and don’t want to sit reading about how wonderful you say you are!

When you go to the cafe for a coffee… you wouldn’t email your clients or family about it would you? If you want 5 minutes peace, or are even bored and WANT a phone call… do you email people to tell them?

Introducing Twitter, another social networking platform. Simple but effective and allows you to do the above quite effectively. Below you’ll see my live feed.

Right now I can update my status on Ecademy, it will pass through to Twitter and then onto Facebook… now that’s true power! Graham Jones explains how to do this.

Is there a real use for this tool? In terms of online networking which is becoming increasingly popular with people of all ages and business sizes absolutely!In terms of instant advertising or even communicating with those people at home who share your living room who you don’t often get to see.

With real time updates, you could even have separate boxes with current status’ next to your staff on the company key members page. (Yes we can do this with more customisation than twitter themselves.) With the way today’s small or personal businesses work, if you’re not in, you’re out.

Follow me?

I’ve been nominated at the next chapter director in BNI Broadway. I feel honoured to be granted this opportunity. The current director told me that I’d need to choose my team… How was I supposed to do this?

Ultimately, I went on the first impressions I got from any BNI chapter, went through each stage of the BNI script methodically and came up with a winning team. All of whom accepted the role.

As a visitor, you enter the room. You’re greeted (or not) by a variety of people. I decided my visitor hosts need to not suffer from bad breath (I’m harsh) but should be friendly, well presented and speak on an Adult-Adult level. I’ll put them aside for the moment.

Ok, I’ve been ushered around the room talking to different people, I’m now armed with a stodgy fry-up and a cup of unbranded coffee and sat down next to some interesting people. The chapter director stands up and introduces various people around the room. This stage is harmless so we’ll skip through. Eventually the Education coordinator stands. (S)he is the first person so far to offer any real value to the meeting. I want an Education coordinator who will offer advice and information, not one that will shame and guilt the rest of the room for not bringing enough visitors.

Mental note: Education coordinator needs to be good at constructive critisism and equally friendly, knowledgable and well presented.

Everything is going well, I recite my 60 second speech and listen to everyone elses, I’ve decided on two people I’d like to speak to after the meeting.

Suddenly, the secretary/treasurer stands up and starts talking about money! Watching the reactions on the other visitor’s faces, I realise I’m not alone. The BNI script is quite pushy considering how well things had been going so far!

Mental note: Secretary/treasurer must be someone who appreciates BNI’s value already, someone who charges at least £1000 per average sale in their own business. The person I saw in one chapter obviously didn’t and looked almost ashamed for asking.

Not forgetting the dreaded MC position; Membership Coordinator. (S)he’s the one who got us here to start with, so he needs to be methodical, down to earth, constructive and goal orientated.

Working backwards, my chosen MC for our BNI chapter accepted on the spot. We discussed the Secretary/Treasurer and came up with two ideas. My first declined for his own reasons, but the second was over the moon.

Education coordinator, events coordinator and visitor hosts quickly followed.

We have a winning team and aim to wipe the floor with any other chapter in BNI by increasing membership and bringing Broadway back to it’s former glory.

Anyone for bowling?

One of my biggest source of clients come from other designers and are unhappy with their service, costs or support.

Sometimes it turns out that they’re not being ripped off at all and that their prices are perfectly reasonable. Other times they’re being fleeced for every penny they have.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had an expert who could look at a quote, invoice, website or proposal and qualify or dispel your fears?

Wouldn’t it be great if you, as a web designer could point clients at someone to give an unbiased opinion?

Now you do!

If you know anyone who is worried about their websites costs, drop me a message and I’ll be happy to have a look for free.

Fellow web designers, I am an ethical person, if you want to point worried clients at me, I will not quote my own prices nor try to poach them from you. I will simply confirm that the prices you are charging are justified if they truly are and the service is good if it truly is.

Facebook, Ecademy, Myspace, Xing, LinkedIn, Bebo… and many more.

The generation of networking sites has been around for some time each appealing to it’s own genre of people… and I’ve been addicted to all of them at one time or another. Now, it’s Ecademy!

Ecademy, coupled with BNI now forms the main part of my business strategy. Ecademy is daunting to use for a beginner but it’s easy to focus on getting to grips with the control that grabs you the most and move forward one step at a time exploring each aspect. Ecademy has tools for blogging, messaging, watching educational videos, listing adverts and much much more. Ecademy is also loved by Google so anything you post is on Google within around 20 minutes!!! Unfortunately, it also drops off fairly quickly, so regular contributions are a must.

In three months of using the site, I’ve had 391 Ecademy people read my profile, 110 of them talked to me, and not too many were direct sales. I’ve found a great local businessman who wants us to work together and potentially share an office later in the year. I’ve found energetic people telling me how great I am, and I’ve had the opportunity to help a large number of people. I get to advertise any special offers and people do actually read them, and often this generates leads. I get to post general information/questions or just ask for advice, and at least 3 people reply with the right answer.

In these months, I’ve gained around 8 leads in total through Ecademy, and 2 good clients. I have a small network of people I could call for advice, including a copyright lawyer, graphic designers, marketeers, accountants and many more

Ecademy is mainly a paid-for service. But it’s cheap for what it gives to me and my business. The paid service means all the Internet loiterers aren’t involved.
Ecademy is a large, constantly changing site and Google loves it! This means a link from Ecademy to your website (on your profile, blogs, adverts etc etc etc) will boost your site through the rankings. You are rewarded for contributing!

What’s the catch with Ecademy? Occasionally you get someone trying to ‘spam’ your inbox with direct and unwelcome sales literature. This has happened to me and still I turned them into a valuable contact and potential future lead.

Ecademy, like all forms of networking does of course need you to work at it, work doesn’t fall into your lap without giving some time and effort to it. But Ecademy works. You can put as much or as little effort in as you like. You can also gain as many or few leads as you like. Get onto Ecademy Now and see what I mean!!!!

Contact me if you want help with Ecademy or any other part of your online marketing strategy, including web design, Google rankings or general internet advice.

Also see my Ecademy HTML Cheat Sheet – Download the cheatsheet to print and help you add some html styles to your profile, blogs and Marketplace listings.

Or upload images for use on ecademy (and even get the code! upload Ecademy images)

Ecademy Rocks!!! I dare you to try not making some good contacts!