Issue 19, August 10, 1996

This article contains older information. Go here for newer information on ecommerce and selling online.

In this issue:

• Billboard or Branch Office?
• How to Apply Direct Response Methods to Get Results from Your Web Site, by Al Bredenberg
• What Others Are Saying about Wilson Internet Services
• Presentation: Getting the Most from Your Web Site Investment

Billboard or Branch Office?

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

A Web site is all in your mind. The usefulness of your Web site can't outgrow your own mental concept.

So how do you see it? The on-line equivalent of one of those eighth-of-a-page display ads which appear near the back of magazines? A headline, a few words of text, a special, perhaps a splash of color and a phone number? Are you hoping a reader will spot your ad as she finishes an article which concludes near the back of the issue and give you a call? Maybe she'll miss your ad altogether. Web site as small display ad.

If you're a Fortune 500 company maybe you'll have a large, splashy, Shockwaved Web site, on-line equivalent of a one- or two-page spread near the front of the magazine. Striking image, catchy phrase, company logo, and no telephone number. Web site as large display ad.

But the Web can be more than a glorified billboard if you can grasp a new concept, make a paradigm shift (to employ a well-worn but still current expression). Many businesses are coming to see their Web site as a new locus for doing business, a branch office in cyberspace.

There was a time when people went out to a fast food restaurant, sat down at red plastic-topped tables, and ate their fries and burgers on colorful paper placemats. Then some hare-brained restaurant owner invented the drive-through window. My local Burger King manager tells me that nearly 50% of their food now goes out of the store through that window. I can hear the old fogies sputter "It's undignified!". Undignified or not, times are changing, people are busy, and they'd rather not cook, but neither do they want to dress up. Since they've outfitted their restaurants with drive-through windows, Burger King is both reaching people who were never customers before, and retaining people who would otherwise go elsewhere. Half their business!

Try looking at your Web site as a drive-through window, a locus where you can do business with people as easily in New Orleans as in Bismarck.

What will have to change? Maybe your contracts will be in HTML rather than on watermarked paper. Maybe you'll need to supplement your cash register with shopping cart software. Maybe you'll develop a whole new way to relate to customers, stay in touch, provide product support, and let them know you care about their needs.

Put yourself in your prospective customer's place. What will she need? What will make him feel more comfortable? How can you design your system so ordering food through a two-way speaker becomes the way some people prefer to get dinner?

Paradigm shift? Yes. The scary unknown? You bet! But business people who refuse to be scared off will learn how to do business on the Internet. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of their lives. And those of us who have the most to offer, who learn how to communicate effectively via this brand new medium, will have built national and international businesses two or three years down the road.

The stakes are high. Last week one of my clients called me: "Ralph, how can we translate our Web site into Chinese?" Times are changing. Today, I can buy egg rolls to go. Soon, who knows, maybe the Golden Dragon will offer a drive-through window on the Internet.

How to Apply Direct Response Methods to Get Results from Your Web Site

by Al Bredenberg
Author of "The Small Business Guide to Internet Marketing"

"I get plenty of hits, but nobody's buying!"

That's a cry we hear a lot in the Web marketing business -- accompanied by the sound of gnashing teeth and rending garments!

Many have quickly concluded that Web users just aren't serious customers, that the Web isn't yet a viable marketing medium.

But hold on! Just because your effort isn't going as well as you'd hoped doesn't mean Web marketing is a washout. At the risk of treading on fragile egos, let me ask a question: Could it be that your creative approach is what's at fault, rather than the Web itself?

Why not give your Web marketing effort a fighting chance by applying direct response advertising methods in the development of your Web pages?

As a direct response copywriter and online entrepreneur, I'm convinced that many Web efforts, large and small, would show greater results by taking a cue from the direct response profession.

A direct response (or direct marketing) communication, such as a sales letter, seeks to generate an immediate response from the prospective customer. By borrowing principles and techniques from the direct marketing industry, you'll be able to make your Web site a source of sales and leads -- and profits.

Focus On Results

First, be clear about what you're trying to achieve. What response do you want from the user who visits your Web site? Are you looking for direct sales of a product? Or qualified leads? Are you building a database, perhaps the mailing list for your print catalog? Or are you trying to obtain research data?

Knowing what response you're looking for, you'll be able to work out an offer and key selling points.

Put simply, your "offer" is: What you're going to give them and what they're going to give you in exchange.

If you're selling a software program, they're going to give you an amount of money and you're going to give them the program. Want to increase your response rate? Figure out a more exciting offer. Maybe you can sell the program at $50 off for Web customers -- or give away a "light" version free.

Are you trying to get answers to a survey? Nobody's going to spend 10 minutes online filling out your form just for the fun of it. You've got to offer them something. How about a chance to win a prize?

The more compelling the offer (and your presentation of it) the better the response will be.

Build Your Site around a Compelling "Call To Action"

If you want the user to respond, your entire approach should be built around that objective. Deliver a strong "call to action" and structure the entire presentation around it.

For example, if you're selling a motivational seminar on tape, you will probably have an order form somewhere along the line. Make that order form the focal point of the whole presentation. You might even start your design with the order form, rather than the home page.

A call to action is a clear, compelling statement of your offer, urging the user to accept it. Let them know what you want them to do, and ask them to do it:

Free offer! Order "5 Easy Steps to Happiness" today, and we'll send you Bob's new video, 'Keep on the Sunny Side' -- absolutely free! Follow this link to request your copy -- while they last!"

Make it easy to respond. I don't know how many times I've searched high and low on a Web site and been unable to find so much as an e-mail address.

The best response is an immediate one. If possible, provide a way for the user to respond now -- a button to click, an online form, an e-mail link. A toll-free number, fax number, or postal address is better than nothing. But if you force them to wait and contact you later, you risk losing the urgency and excitement you've built up through your Web presentation and call to action. Remember that most people only have one phone line, so they can't call you when they're surfing the Web.

Apply Direct Response Copy and Design Techniques to Get Results

Important: Grab them as soon as they hit your site.

This means putting a strong headline on your opening screen. Your offer and the response you're looking for should determine how you open. Most likely you'll only have a few seconds to get the user's attention and convince them to follow your presentation.

That means firing a big gun to open the battle. "Welcome to Plotnick Screws and Bolts!" is not a big gun. Offer a major benefit for continuing on into the site. Try something along the lines of: "Save $100 on your first shipment of Plotnick fasteners!"

Want to send users scurrying back where they came from? Just present them with huge blocks of text in long paragraphs. On the other hand, if you want users to stay with you, make your Web pages friendly and easy to follow by breaking up the copy. Use frequent headlines and bulleted lists. Write short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

Write in a personal, one-to-one, natural style. Imagine yourself having a face-to-face conversation with the other person. Use contractions -- "you'll," "don't," "I'll." And it's okay to start a sentence with "And" or "But" -- and to use sentence fragments. Like so.

Be discerning about the use of graphic design, artwork, and Web magic. Make sure that your design and visuals support the marketing purpose of the site. Poor design can interfere with the direct response process. For example, you may have written a killer headline. But if you display that headline in brown lettering on a dark green background, it will be hard to read.

It's possible that beautiful pictures, background images, sound or video, or a Java applet will enhance the selling power of your message. But make sure that you're not including them just to satisfy your own (or someone else's) creative urge.

Test the Results

Work out a way to measure the response to your Web presentation and to test the effectiveness of various elements of the site. Objective testing and measurement tell you what works. When you change an element, does the response rate go up or down or remain unchanged?

You can test many elements of your site -- offer, creative concept, headline, graphic design, order form design, or other factors. It's better to test only one element at a time. Testing different offers might be the best place to start.

Even the most basic Web provider these days can offer you an access report for your Web site. Suppose you have a six-page linear Web presentation leading the user from the front page to an order form, one page at a time. Check your access reports. If the number of visitors drops off sharply after page three, that's an indication something's wrong with that page. For a more sophisticated report or for measurements on a large site, it might be good to invest in specialized software or even the services of an outside firm.

In many ways, the World-Wide Web is unproven as a marketing medium. Web experts love to pontificate about how to be successful, but the truth is that "what works" and "what doesn't work" depends on your individual business situation and marketing plan and how you go about incorporating Web marketing into them.

Applying direct response advertising techniques in your Web effort gives you a chance to take a sound, results-oriented approach and to prove for yourself what works and what doesn't.

Al Bredenberg is a direct response copywriter, Web content producer and Internet marketing consultant. He is author of "The Small Business Guide to Internet Marketing," an electronic book he sells over the Web. He can be reached by e-mail at ab@copywriter.com or on the Web.

What Others Are Saying about Wilson Internet Services

Louis Grimm, a Dutch-expatriate partner at Indofurn Solid Teak Furniture in Surabaya, Indonesia, wrote us the most delightful e-mail on the eve of his Web site's grand opening. I thought you might enjoy it.

There it is. Our little baby designed with care and love.

Very nice, well done. We are very pleased with your work. In now and a week, our little one (also yours) will grow up on the Internet. That, he may be a real strong competitor in furniture Web site land. Someone with a different radiation power, competitors have to watch out, and clients to look out for.

Bless you Ralph, I am jumping around in my office of joy. Now we can start to do business.

I am really pleased. The site is harmonious. Like Mozart. I will make a dance again. The office already thought I was mad, now they are convinced I am crazy. I am looking forward to hear from you.

Warm greetings,
Louis

His letter underscores our own vision and values -- our determination to delight the customer, even when working astride 13 time zones, the International Date Line, and the equator. Why don't you visit Indofurn Solid Teak and drool over the new pieces and restored antiques you'll find there.

Other nice words come from Charles Sayer, editor of Who's Marketing Online, who listed us among "The Web's BesT Marketing Resources".

I have a confession to make. I take Ralph Wilson's (who I affectionately refer to as Dr. Ralph) Web Marketing Information Center for granted. It's a tremendous site and resource -- with links to more than 300 marketing-related articles. But its real value is in the insights written by Dr. Ralph himself, who has a personal and practical grasp of successful online marketing tactics. It's a site that will take several visits -- and every one you make will be well worth it.