3 Tips For Writing Content That Will Make You Sales

Content is king. Without content your website is an empty shell, a skeleton with no flesh, an empty vessel. Content can redeem the worst designed website. The right content can make your phone ring off the hook and flood your inbox with people wanting your product or service. Content is the most important ingredient in the recipe for your website's success. If you have engrossing, valuable and relevant content you are onto a winner..

Tip 1 - Keep It Customer-Focused - What You Like Is Irrelevant

I land on the homepage. I want to buy a bathroom from this company. I want to know what bathrooms they have available. I want to know how much it will cost, when they can deliver, if they have any special offers and what their previous customers have said about them. Instead, upon landing on the homepage I get the following all-time classic;

"Welcome to ABC Bathrooms. Our company was formed in 1985. Our Managing Director John set up the company at the age of 25 after spending thirty years in the position of.."

Who cares?! I want to know exactly what you sell and how much it will cost me. I have 10 spare minutes today to find this information out and if I don't see it on your site in a few seconds I will click off to your competitors so don't bore me with the life story of your managing director. I do not care. Give me content that I like - not what you THINK I would like. Key difference.

Tip 2 - Sell Benefits, Not Features

Potential customers do not want to know how your product was built, how old the production manager is or what colour the wallpaper is in the production plant - they want to know how buying it will enrich their lives. They want to see evidence for the benefits of owning your product or using your service. People don't buy things - they buy benefits and they buy feelings. People buying a Ferrari are not buying a mode of transport they are buying prestige, luxury, envy, success - they are buying a symbol, a way of life.

Think about your product or service from a customer's point of view - what are the real, measurable and provable benefits to them of buying from you? Include these over and over in your content and it will bring more sales for you. Don't be afraid of blowing your own trumpet - stick the benefits right on the homepage for a start!

Tip 3 - Include Calls To Action - Everywhere!

Excellent - you've written killer content and people are coming back to your website time and again for the information. Your traffic figures are shooting through the roof. It's brilliant! You can't believe you've cracked it. And then you look at the number of orders placed last week - zero. Oh. What happened there? Better to have one person visiting your site each month who actually places an order or produces a sales lead rather than have 1000 people who do neither.

If you don't have clear benefit-focused calls to action peppered throughout your content people will not get in touch with you or place that all-important order. You hook them in with the winning content and then you offer them more information vial email or a free quotation if they phone you - anything! You must have calls to action present throughout your site - combine this with the other two tips and you are on the way to having content that actually makes you sales.

Michael Cheney
Sales & Marketing Director, magnet4web.com

About The Author

Are You Getting Your MagnetMail? - Mike Cheney's World-Famous Free Magic Mail To Make Your Website Magnetic, Get Yours Now: www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=magnetmail

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Copywriting Information:

Related Articles

Six Reasons You Don't Need a Technical Writer (and Why They're Dead Wrong!)
I know, I know. Times are tough.
3 Tips For Writing Better Headlines
The single most important element of your website's copyis the headline. Take away practically everything elseand you can still manage a sale (if the headline's good enough and you have a strong enough call to action).
How To Find A Copywriting School
Have you heard the good things about the field of copywriting? If you have, then you know that a qualified copywriter is an invaluable asset to those looking for them. Becoming this asset means going to a copywriting school.
How To Write Powerful Headlines
I want to tell you how I go about writing headlines. I like to keep swap files of headlines around for future use.
Writing Effective Sales Copy
Whether you run a home-based business or Microsoft, one thing is always true: products do not sell themselves. So what makes customers buy? Words.
10 Tips for Writing Effective Web Copy
On the Internet programmers and designers rule, not the writer. Yet words drive targeted traffic to your site, carry content, make the sale, convey marketing messages, persuade people to buy and make the difference between your site's success or failure.
How To Ethically Use A Swipe File For Your Ad Copy
Did you ever wish you could afford to hire one of thoseprofessional copy writers who charge $5000 or more to write asimple sales letter? Or worse, have you laid down yourhard-earned cash for a self-proclaimed "professional" writer, andgotten back something your 3rd grader could have written?If you spend countless hours staring at a blank page trying tocome up with compelling ad copy for that "killer" sales letter(you know, the one that's going to make you rich beyond yourwildest dreams?)..
Making Your Purpose Your Business Step #4 - Organizing & Developing Online Content
If you have done your homework then you are ready to organize and develop what will be your online content. Your content is very important as it will be used for promoting you, your work, and your website.
Revealed: The $12,500 Copywriting Formula
Have you heard of Brian Keith Voiles? Probably not, but if you have eyes you've seen his ad campaigns and you probably even bought products that he created ad campaigns for. Would you like to have the formula he gets paid $12,500 to put into use for Fortune 500 Companies?Well then, today's your lucky day, isn't it? If you follow this formula whenever you write a sales letter or an ad you'll see how well it increases your success.
Prevent Procrastination With Positive Pressure
My wife and I recently bought a house.It's currently being built and moving day is slated for December.
Copywriting Tricks: Nailing the Voice
Professional copywriters are well-familiar with what's commonly referred to as "the voice." What is this exactly, and why do you need to master it in your writing?If writing is icecream, then "the voice" is the flavor in your scoop.
Keeping It Real: The Only Copywriting Trick That Works
Much of today's accepted copywriting wisdom comes from old books written for a different, quieter world.For most of the twentieth century, widely promoting a successful message was expensive and difficult, requiring control of significant resources and substantial time commitments.
Copywriting Makeover: Making An Emotional Connection - Part 2 of 2
In part one of this article series we began looking at the Cruise Vacation Center site: a travel site whose copy was sorely lacking in emotional appeal and visual imagry. (You can see the previous version of the copy here: http://www.
Why Is FREE The Most Powerful Marketing Word You Can Use?
As the famous cowboy Will Rogers once said, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there".So what does that have to do with "FREE"? Quite a lot really.
Copywriting Secrets Of Indias Mystics
Hi everyone,Been ruminating on this one for a little while now but it's probably one of the most profound discoveries of my life. It all began with a little book about music and it's had such a deep influence on my copywriting and small business, indeed my whole outlook on life, I'd like to share it with you all now.
Segmenting Your Target Audience Through Your Copywriting
Ask any copywriter what the first commandment of copywriting is and they'll quickly tell you "Know Thy Target Audience." In order to write effectively you have to know this one group of people and know them well.
Website Promotion: 10 Secret Motivational Triggers That Make People Buy
Unless you know the secret motivational secretsthat make people buy, your efforts in websitepromotion may not be fruitful.Here are some website promotion triggers to help you:1.
How To Test The Body Of Your Sales Copy For Weaknesses
Your sales copy is the life source of your business. If your sales copy isn't pulling in a decent conservation rate, then your business is suffering.
Quotations as Expressions in Life
Quotations are expressions, usually in the spoken form or in literature, which are referenced to by others. Usually, quotations are written within quotation marks, as a verbum dicendi, to indicate that it was an expression given by a particular person.
The Lead: Sinking The Hook Into Your Prospect
You only have an instant to capture your prospect's attention. No matter the medium - a sales letter, print ad, or commercial - she's going to make an almost instantaneous decision about whether you are worth her time or not.