C
Colin Parker
- Original Poster
- #1
Website conversion skill is, without a doubt however, the area of greatest weakness in SEO's, SEM's and website designers in general.
And that is because website conversion is not a technical skill, a function or even a process. You might argue that it IS a process of split testing to continually improve results but I would only accept this up to a point.
In an earlier post on another thread I likened website conversion to painting a masterpiece. You could make the finest paints, the finest brushes, the finest canvas and the finest easel ... but it does not guarantee that you could paint the Mona Lisa. You need a Da Vinci for that.
For paint, brushes, canvas and easel read SEO and SEM, for Da Vinci read the skill to manipulate, excite, inspire, move and stir human emotions to take the actions that you desire your prospect to take. Truly great copywriters have that skill in abundance.
The internet is the greatest direct sales tool ever invented.
I have long defined direct sales not as selling direct to the prospect (although of course that is what you do) but being 'direct' with your prospect ie., ask what their wants, needs and desires are and what is THE main problem they have which has motivated their decision to buy NOW.
A professional direct salesperson will then try to close the sale there and then, on the first visit, because they know that once the prospect talks to other companies they may forget the benefits they found so appealing previously.
This URGENCY to identify wants and needs and URGENCY to close the sale on the FIRST visit is a paramount requirement of a would be website conversion specialist.
A truly professional direct salesperson also knows that every word, tone of voice, body language and sequence of their sales process affects conversion.
Also, they ask more questions, offer more choices and confirm more agreement with their prospect than the amateur who simply goes into a sales 'spiel' and boringly lists all of the features and benefits of the product/service in the hope that the prospect will be so impressed that at the end of this 'speech' they buy. Amateur, amateur, amateur!
Which brings me back to website conversion.
Another long held belief of mine is that anyone who do does not have professional offline experience of direct response marketing (mail order, direct mail etc) or direct sales may inevitably struggle to understand the physcology behind selling online - because in essence it is little different to offline.
A website must DIRECTLY answer the visitors questions and problems and IMMEDIATELY capture their ATTENTION.
By capturing the ATTENTION of the prospect we spark their INTEREST and that interest will keep them on the site and get them looking at your pictures and reading your copy.
The pictures and copy must creat DESIRE in your prospect for your product or service and raise that desire so high that they are motivated to complete the ACTION or SALE which is the goal of your site.
A.I.D.A or ATTENTION : INTEREST : DESIRE : ACTION (or SALE) is the basis of ALL advertising and selling. If you purport to understand website conversion and this is news to you I suggest you accept you have some way to go before you can tag yourself a 'specialist'.
And ... just as in offline every word, headline, picture, font, font size, paragraph length, picture and colour will affect conversion.
But the ability to do all of this AND write truly inspiring copy that stirs the emotions of a prospect is the real 'Da Vinci' skill.
Search engines rank the efforts of SEO by algorithms and with spiders ie., robotically. But never forget that humans are not robots, we are the most complex living creature ever on this planet ... and we buy and make decisions mainly on emotion not logic.
The true function of a website conversion specialist is to stir human emotions so skillfully that by the time the visitor has left the site a high proportion have been so motivated that they took the ACTION or SALE you desire. Because NOTHING ELSE matters.
Colin Parker
ONEPORTFOLIO
And that is because website conversion is not a technical skill, a function or even a process. You might argue that it IS a process of split testing to continually improve results but I would only accept this up to a point.
In an earlier post on another thread I likened website conversion to painting a masterpiece. You could make the finest paints, the finest brushes, the finest canvas and the finest easel ... but it does not guarantee that you could paint the Mona Lisa. You need a Da Vinci for that.
For paint, brushes, canvas and easel read SEO and SEM, for Da Vinci read the skill to manipulate, excite, inspire, move and stir human emotions to take the actions that you desire your prospect to take. Truly great copywriters have that skill in abundance.
The internet is the greatest direct sales tool ever invented.
I have long defined direct sales not as selling direct to the prospect (although of course that is what you do) but being 'direct' with your prospect ie., ask what their wants, needs and desires are and what is THE main problem they have which has motivated their decision to buy NOW.
A professional direct salesperson will then try to close the sale there and then, on the first visit, because they know that once the prospect talks to other companies they may forget the benefits they found so appealing previously.
This URGENCY to identify wants and needs and URGENCY to close the sale on the FIRST visit is a paramount requirement of a would be website conversion specialist.
A truly professional direct salesperson also knows that every word, tone of voice, body language and sequence of their sales process affects conversion.
Also, they ask more questions, offer more choices and confirm more agreement with their prospect than the amateur who simply goes into a sales 'spiel' and boringly lists all of the features and benefits of the product/service in the hope that the prospect will be so impressed that at the end of this 'speech' they buy. Amateur, amateur, amateur!
Which brings me back to website conversion.
Another long held belief of mine is that anyone who do does not have professional offline experience of direct response marketing (mail order, direct mail etc) or direct sales may inevitably struggle to understand the physcology behind selling online - because in essence it is little different to offline.
A website must DIRECTLY answer the visitors questions and problems and IMMEDIATELY capture their ATTENTION.
By capturing the ATTENTION of the prospect we spark their INTEREST and that interest will keep them on the site and get them looking at your pictures and reading your copy.
The pictures and copy must creat DESIRE in your prospect for your product or service and raise that desire so high that they are motivated to complete the ACTION or SALE which is the goal of your site.
A.I.D.A or ATTENTION : INTEREST : DESIRE : ACTION (or SALE) is the basis of ALL advertising and selling. If you purport to understand website conversion and this is news to you I suggest you accept you have some way to go before you can tag yourself a 'specialist'.
And ... just as in offline every word, headline, picture, font, font size, paragraph length, picture and colour will affect conversion.
But the ability to do all of this AND write truly inspiring copy that stirs the emotions of a prospect is the real 'Da Vinci' skill.
Search engines rank the efforts of SEO by algorithms and with spiders ie., robotically. But never forget that humans are not robots, we are the most complex living creature ever on this planet ... and we buy and make decisions mainly on emotion not logic.
The true function of a website conversion specialist is to stir human emotions so skillfully that by the time the visitor has left the site a high proportion have been so motivated that they took the ACTION or SALE you desire. Because NOTHING ELSE matters.
Colin Parker
ONEPORTFOLIO
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