You may use this image in your ezine or website if you choose to publish my article. Click here to see the picture full-sized.--- Alan Rigg

When I started my company in 2002, I knew I needed to have a 
website. Why? To provide credibility! How can a company be "real" 
in this day and age if it doesn't have a website? So, like many 
companies, I published an informational website that explained 
"here's who we are, and here's what we do".

I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about my website. I 
certainly didn't think of it as a strategic weapon in my 
company's marketing arsenal. That started to change in the spring 
of 2004 when a newsletter was forwarded to me by a fellow member 
of the National Speaker's Association. The subject of the 
featured article was something called "internet marketing".

The article caught my fancy, so I subscribed to the author's 
newsletter. Over the next month or two I picked up an eBook and a 
CD that were recommended in newsletter articles. The concept of 
internet marketing really started to intrigue me, so I decided to 
do some serious research.

During the next four months I invested several thousand dollars 
and a couple hundred hours learning about internet marketing. My 
conclusion? I was missing out big-time with my company's website! 
In fact, I concluded that just about every business website would 
be vastly improved if it was re-designed to do three things:


1. Help visitors RAPIDLY answer two questions:

 * What does this company do?, and

 * Is there anything here for ME?


2. Encourage visitors to opt-in to receive free information 
resources.

This keeps website visits from being one-shot deals. If you offer 
visitors the opportunity to opt-in to receive free, value-added 
information, and you provide truly useful information on a 
regular and consistent basis, you will earn trust and build 
relationships. This increases the likelihood that your website 
visitors will buy from you over time.


3. Motivate Action

If a website page is going to motivate a visitor to take action, 
the focus needs to change from you, your company and your 
products and services to your visitors and their problems.

Web pages that motivate action are not distant and aloof. 
Instead, reading them feels like a one-on-one conversation 
between you and the reader. The copy invokes the reader's 
emotions, plus provides enough supporting details to enable the 
reader to feel comfortable making a decision to buy online or to 
contact your company for more information.

This very specialized form of copywriting is called a "sales 
letter". You have probably received sales letters in the mail, or 
seen a similar type of advertising in television infomercials. 
Some sales letters and infomercials sound pretty "cheesy"; yet, 
for decades sales letters have repeatedly proven to be one of the 
most productive forms of direct marketing.

The biggest criticism you'll hear about sales letters (usually 
from corporate website designers) is, "This copy is much too 
long! Nobody is going to take the time to read that much 
information!"

You know what? The critics are almost right. Probably 95% of 
readers will not read any given sales letter in its entirety. 
That's OK, because sales letters are not written to appeal to 
everyone! They are written to appeal to specific individuals that 
have the specific problems the sales letter addresses.

Most people will skim a sales letter...IF it has a compelling 
headline or sub-headline that catches their attention. They may 
read a paragraph or glance at a few bullets. If the paragraph or 
bullets are compelling, they may read another paragraph. Once 
they have read several compelling paragraphs, they may decide to 
go back and read the sales letter from the beginning. At that 
point it becomes much more likely the reader will take the action 
the sales letter recommends.


Conclusion

If you want your website to generate online sales and/or leads, 
it needs to do three things:

1) Help visitors rapidly figure out what your company does and 
   whether you can do anything for THEM

2) Encourage visitors to OPT-IN to receive value-added 
   communications (so that you can build relationships and 
   earn trust)

3) MOTIVATE action

To motivate action, change every page that describes one of your 
company's products or services to a sales letter. Make sure each 
sales letter includes a "call to action", whether it is making a 
purchase or contacting your company for more information.

Change the focus of your website from you, your company, and your 
offerings to your visitors and their problems -- and watch the 
online sales and leads roll in!
 

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat 
the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform 
and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, 
helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales 
by implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing 
sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales 
management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.