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Archive for April, 2011

Website Language that Motivates Action

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Search engine optimization can be of vital importance to a company’s growth, success, and even survival. Being at the top of any key search term list is highly important and will give the company that  guides visitors (business prospects) to the site a much better chance of gaining a new client. But once you arrive at that top site and begin to read the contents, what happens if you get confused? What if the message does not resonate with you? You leave and go to the next one in line, right? But if the message had been crafted properly, you would be more likely to stay, read on, and be far more likely to make contact.

Sellers of inexpensive or commodity items can start and finish a sale on line with a couple of clicks. The cost of acquisition to the seller is minimal per unit transaction. But what about providers of professional services? Their cost of acquisition per client is vastly higher and more complicated. They can start to win a client’s interest on their Website, but they cannot finish it there. They must somehow persuade the Web visitor to call or email for more information. But how?

To meet the demands of people who search Websites for beneficial information, regardless of how they arrived at the site (search, direct referral, information from a business card) the message must be direct, beneficial to the reader, and get to the point quickly – faster than most people realize. Most Website language is simply factual, detailed, and accurate. What could possibly be wrong with that? Plenty.

Factual and accurate language frequently contains no requisite motivation – no compelling reason to take action. People make purchases based on emotion of some type – happiness, compassion, fear, competitive spirit. In the negative, if they are put off by confusion and frustration, they will disappear quickly. The Website owner may never know that any opportunity actually existed.  If your Website content contains no such motivational appeal, you have a major problem. Once someone has formed a negative opinion, regardless of why, they are not likely to change their mind.

Don’t think it matters much? Take a look at this video produced by a company in the UK. I wish I had created it. After you watch it, you decide if a few simple words can cause a powerful response.

A special thank you to Chandler Turner, President of Accurate Business Communication, for this powerful post. Working to create excellent SEO content is only part of the issue. There must be a great user experience to go along with it. For a better understanding of why these seemingly unimportant changes can be critical to your success, please visit Mr. Turner’s website at www.accu-biz.com.