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Dan Furman
02-16-2011, 11:42 AM
I talk about this web copy mistake on these forums sometimes, I mention it on my website, and I wrote about it in both books. But I never made a post about it, so here goes...

Don't waste valuable website real estate (like the home page) preaching to the choir. What I mean by this is stop selling your industry, and start selling YOU.

I admit, this is hard for many people who write their own copy, because selling the industry is often the first / most obvious part of any cold sales pitch. But the web is not a cold medium. Truthfully, I would say a good 80-90% of self-written websites do this (and a good number of "copywriters" do this too, because they really have no clue about addressing visitors.)

Here's a good example: Say you're a copywriter. Your website's home page goes on and on about why a visitor should hire a copywriter, the benefits of such, etc. "Don't you hate writing your own copy"? etc etc...

But the simple fact is the prospect, just by being on your website, is likely already sold on hiring a copywriter. That's why they searched for a copywriter. THEY ALREADY MADE A DECISION ON THE INDUSTRY ITSELF.

In other words, they really don't need convincing on why to hire "a" copywriter - you are wasting time and likely boring them because you are telling them something they already know. Instead, you should already assume they want a copywriter, and be selling them on YOU instead.

Any business is like this: A business coach, a plumber, a bookkeeper, a graphic designer, a web designer, etc etc. Nobody came to your pet boarding website to buy steak knives... they came because they need (*gasp*) a pet boarded! So saying "boarding your pet is smarter than having a neighbor come everyday" up high on your homepage is a pretty big "well DUH" statement.

Now, I'm not saying you can't have an "advantages of pet boarding" section or the like, but keep it off the homepage.

vangogh
02-16-2011, 11:47 AM
Great point Dan and I completely agree. I think people do that in part because they haven't figured out why someone should specifically hire them over the competition so they focus on the benefits of hiring anyone. People should be taking the time to figure out what makes them different and what sets them apart and talk about that.

greenoak
02-16-2011, 02:00 PM
great point dan....for me it might mean ..you might find parts for your wildest plans here...
.instead of why antiques are so good...
also maybe a paint recipe instead of ...its good to rehabb..
i do use my main page for lots of pictures, which for my kind of buyer really stirs the imagination....the thrill of the hunt..i hope it shows them some of the depth of inventory we have, which always sets us apart..and more than words ever could...

Harold Mansfield
02-16-2011, 03:17 PM
I used to do that and this is kind of what I spoke about a few times about redoing my website. I was beating around the bush with fluff instead of talking about what people came there for. I completely agree with you Dan. Nice tip.

Paper Shredder Clay
02-16-2011, 04:55 PM
Wow that is a great insight. You are right man.

vangogh
02-16-2011, 08:05 PM
There is a place to sell people on your industry. It's generally not on your site, since you are likely preaching to the choir. I can see where you'd have content about it deeper inside your site, perhaps targeted toward people who are still unsure of what your industry has to offer them. One good way you can promote the benefits of your industry is with a blog. You wouldn't be writing copy specifically saying, "hey, my industry is important," though. Instead you could offer tutorials, opinions, etc about your industry in general that would show it's importance without having to explicitly say or or sell people on the idea.

A good place to sell your industry is offsite. Places like here. I'll use Dan as an example. In fact this thread is a good example. Dan started a thread with an observation about the copy on many websites. Starting threads like this one more often help spread the word that copyrighting is important. Also spread the work on social sites, but linking to articles showing the value of your industry.

You don't need to sell people on your industry once they've entered your sales funnel. You can show them the value of your industry without having to sell people on it, both onsite and offsite.

Spider
02-16-2011, 10:48 PM
My first reaction was, "Oh,shoot! I wonder if I do that."

I shall go and take a look now....

greenoak
02-17-2011, 09:05 AM
i think i would need to sell on my site..thats always my goal....to get them to come to the store......if my ideal customer happens to land on my site she already knows she likes my part of the industry,,,,but she probably has several places to pick from for her buying trip...i want to be the one she picks..... so i need to go like dan says ,deeper and differentiating,
his insight to me is not dwelling on the general bla bla bla about antiques or rehabbing,shes THERE already ,,but rather to sell her about us and get her to make the trip....
also marketing your web abilities on here really does seem like preaching to the choir, since so many here do generally the same thing...and there really arent very many on here actually in the market for buying what you do...i think you would do better to market your services to a site full of stores, or truckers, or hairdressers, where you would meet tons of businesses who might need you, just sayin, it would be slim pickins here imho....or maybe im reading it all wrong.maybe you all do buy from each other .....i see here is more about info and education and brainstorming

Dan Furman
02-17-2011, 10:39 AM
his insight to me is not dwelling on the general bla bla bla about antiques or rehabbing,shes THERE already ,,but rather to sell her about us and get her to make the trip....

That's exactly what I am saying.

And yes, like VG says, there is a place on your site for general "industry" talk, or, for example, (let's say for me) why choose a professional copywriter over DIY/etc.

Dan Furman
02-17-2011, 10:54 AM
A good place to sell your industry is offsite. Places like here. I'll use Dan as an example. In fact this thread is a good example. Dan started a thread with an observation about the copy on many websites. Starting threads like this one more often help spread the word that copyrighting is important.

actually, it's the opposite :) I would hope insight like this is why one chooses to hire me over another copywriter who writes nice prose, but has no idea how to address your audience.

vangogh
02-17-2011, 12:00 PM
I think this thread sells you personally, but I also think it helps sell the industry as a whole. It's able to do both. The content of your original post sheds a light on why copyrighting is important in general and the fact that it was you who brought it to our attention sells you specifically. After all if you could point this out I'm sure there are plenty of other tips you could offer and the thread clearly shows your knowledge and ability.

SCUBA9097
02-21-2011, 06:41 AM
Dan, your point really hit home for me and I will have to keep this in mind as I re-read my website. My problem is that I'm too humble. As a matter of fact, I think I lost a sale just the other day when someone e-mailed me asking what separated me from my competition. To be honest, I completely vapor locked and sat staring at my computer monitor for a good 30 minutes before I painfully typed out what I believe was my weakest sales pitch ever.

Ask me about a service we provide, or why one piece of equipment is better than another and my keyboard gets lit on fire... ask me about me and, well... are those crickets I hear?

Any advice on how to overcome suck crippling modesty?

Patrysha
02-21-2011, 09:46 AM
Any advice on how to overcome suck crippling modesty?

Hire a writer or a publicist to come up with copy for your website and a few canned email responses that you can adapt and tweak to send out :-) You'd be amazed at how many people cannot write about themselves effectively at all. Writers are the worst at writing their own promo materials and often freeze up on the personal bios and life summaries.

KristineS
02-22-2011, 03:14 PM
Hire a writer or a publicist to come up with copy for your website and a few canned email responses that you can adapt and tweak to send out :-) You'd be amazed at how many people cannot write about themselves effectively at all. Writers are the worst at writing their own promo materials and often freeze up on the personal bios and life summaries.

This is so true! I'm terrific at promoting our companies and other causes I espouse and have no problem doing it. When it comes to promoting my personal work, or writing a bio for myself, I have a terrible time. I guess when it comes to me talking about me it feels too much like bragging or something.

Blessed
02-25-2011, 09:58 AM
This is so true! I'm terrific at promoting our companies and other causes I espouse and have no problem doing it. When it comes to promoting my personal work, or writing a bio for myself, I have a terrible time. I guess when it comes to me talking about me it feels too much like bragging or something.

I'm just going to "ditto" what Patrysha and Kristine said - hire someone else to help you write some copy for your website and generate a few canned responses that are easily tweakable - it's definitely easier for someone else to do that than for you to do it. Also - after you get used to what someone else has written for you and start seeing how exactly to think along those lines it is easier for you to write your own upbeat responses and strong marketing pitches - not that you would ever quit using the copywriter, but when you can get yourself in that mindset it can help you and the copywriter work together to write even better copy.

I don't claim to be a copywriter - I do write copy, but it's not my strongest point, however - I have a local client (the one who has kept me away for the past week or so - busy with her Spring event) who I have done exactly this for. She runs a twice-a-year consignment franchise sale and has a lot of competition in the area - and some of that competition is under the same franchise umbrella she is under so it is important to play nice, but at the same time we want people to participate in her event before they participate in the other area sales. We constantly get requests to bend the rules and etc... and wording responses to those requests is so important - so that's what we've primarily concentrated on. I was able to see the forest and not just the trees - since I'm not in the owners chair like she is and crafted some basic responses which in turn she was able to take and re-write to even better fit her personality and event.

Long story short Ted - find someone to help you out - you'll be glad you did!

Patrysha
02-25-2011, 04:46 PM
Oh and I should say I only said Hire on the assumption that you don't have the time or inclination to learn how to do it well yourself. Copywriting is very formulaic and not difficult, but it takes time, practice and testing to do well but since the smallest improvements to copy can improve results significantly it's worth the effort :-)

Dan Furman
02-26-2011, 12:08 PM
Oh and I should say I only said Hire on the assumption that you don't have the time or inclination to learn how to do it well yourself. Copywriting is very formulaic and not difficult, but it takes time, practice and testing to do well but since the smallest improvements to copy can improve results significantly it's worth the effort :-)

I do agree with you that copywriting is not difficult to learn.

However, it's not difficult for the 10% of people out there who write ok to start with. The truth is, most people simply can't write very well.

Spider
02-26-2011, 12:38 PM
...The truth is, most people simply can't write very well.That is so true, sadly!

Patrysha
02-26-2011, 02:48 PM
I do agree with you that copywriting is not difficult to learn.

However, it's not difficult for the 10% of people out there who write ok to start with. The truth is, most people simply can't write very well.

Hmmmm, didn't really think of that really...writing has always come quite easily for me...so yeah, maybe that's why the learning of the basics seemed very common sense and not difficult. Plus I'd written for magazines, worked on fiction and had a fair bit of experience in writing press releases before I ever considered the thought of writing sales materials.

Dan Furman
02-27-2011, 09:44 PM
That is so true, sadly!

Truthfully, I don't think it's sad - it's normal. I'm not talking about a "readin / ritin / rithmatic" sense. That's an entirely different argument.

I'm talking about the talent to write well enough to express yourself in an engaging fashion; engaging enough so other people will read it beyond, say, a forum post (etc). I don't think that can be taught. Your brain either thinks that way, or it doesn't.

To me, that "base" is talent, not a learned skill. I see it no different than saying 10% of people are musically inclined, or 10% of people can draw, etc. Try as I might, I can't play an instrument - it's just not "in" me. I can't draw either - that "base" talent just isn't there.

greenoak
02-28-2011, 09:31 AM
i think its more than writing....ive had 2 great copywriting experiences..... one an interview on the phone for our regional antique trade paper about our 25 th anniversary in the business...and the other was our tv commercial which was a guy walking around talking to me for a half hour then putting words into a 30 second time frame for the commercial....
somehow both guys absorbed tons of info and got our thing just right, and conveyed just the right thing... it was good writing but also good insight and very good focus on the main idea...
and the tv guy got the right pictures too...
ive had mostly the opposite experience with other ad people...like the billboard guy who put a big tree on a billboard spec, becasue oak is in our name.....and didnt pick up any of the focus i was trying to give him....then was irritated becsue i didnt like his idea... thats so wrong!!!

...or the interview that picked out some little very minor tangent for our big spread in their paper....that one was embarrassing...it turned out all about me and not the store...
..or ad people who picked all the wrong words ..because they dont know the industry....like using the word collectible ..
so thats why we usually do our own thing when it comes to ads.....
..and also why i would get rid of any expert who tried to tell me what i wanted or why their idea about our message or visuals was better...i would look and maybe agree , but if they insisted i would find someone else... i would have to have the last word on style and message.... with the tv guy i got to see the whole thing and made just a couple of changes right on the spot...it was great....
on the other hand ,i would love to have an ad person who could make my thing look wonderfuil...my daughter has an art person who can do that for her ads...but they dont seem to work for any of the papers or radio stations i have used...

vangogh
02-28-2011, 11:23 AM
but if they insisted i would find someone else

Out of curiosity if a doctor did the same thing and insisted his or her diagnosis was the correct one even if you thought something else was wrong, would you trust his or her judgement or would you find another doctor?

The reason I ask is because I always find it interesting how most people will put absolute trust in one profession, but not give that same trust to other professions. Most of us will trust out doctor absolutely. We generally won't assume we know more about our health than our doctor does. Yet when it comes to hiring a copywriter, designer, marketer many seem to think they do know more than the person they hired.

I don't mean to suggest everyone should put absolute trust in the people they hire. Quite honestly I won't grant my doctors absolute trust either. Your business is yours and ultimately you have to decide what's best to do with it. However there's often a reason the person you hired is insisting their solution is better. There's a good chance it is the better solution. True experts are experts for a reason. Again that doesn't mean you should automatically accept whatever they say, but I wouldn't dismiss them just because they fight for their solution.

Business Attorney
02-28-2011, 12:36 PM
Out of curiosity if a doctor did the same thing and insisted his or her diagnosis was the correct one even if you thought something else was wrong, would you trust his or her judgement or would you find another doctor?

In many cases the right answer IS to find another doctor (or lawyer, dentist, insurance agent, business consultant, etc...). If a doctor's diagnosis is inconsistent with what you believe is the problem, or if another professional proposes a course of action that you believe is wrong, and you have enough knowledge to provide a reasonable foundation for that belief, I think you should definitely look around.

Now, just to be clear, I am not suggesting that you just seek someone to rubber-stamp what may be a bad judgment on your part. However, professionals are not infallible, whether they are doctors, lawyers or copywriters, designers, or marketers. Putting absolute trust in a professional when their advice seems clearly wrong is not a good idea in any situation.

greenoak
02-28-2011, 02:22 PM
thats how i feel too....
and dont forget you arent in the science world... i would believe a dr or honest car mechanic or the plumber way before an ad person telling me about my message ...unless you were a specialist there is no way you would know the market i am in and what works in that market.........i know the message and style and would be looking for someone to absorb my style view and message and make it better.... not someone to try and educate me into something they thought was right.....
also professional pr and marketing people are all over the map when it comes to advice.... or what they think is good.. to me marketing is in the art world and very subjective....not like science....if you were telling me why my website was offline , or why all my grreens were turning into blues, i would respect that...but not about my market or style....
i think it would be hard to do it right...you would have to put your feelings in the background and try to get into each clients goals. ...and take those ideas seriously ... kind of like an interior designer...

vangogh
02-28-2011, 02:29 PM
David, I completely agree. It's why I always put in time on my own to research the problem I'm hiring the expert to solve. If I felt a doctor was giving me poor advice I'd seek a second opinion and perhaps a third. I do find it interesting though that many of us will automatically grant more trust to people based solely on their profession. In some cases that's probably justified. Think doctor vs used car salesman. There are are number of reasons for why were trust of don't trust. Maybe a topic for a new thread.

Why I commented here though is I find it odd that people trust a copywriter, designer, or marketer enough to hire them, but not enough to listen to their advice. I get contacted by people all the time who say they're hiring me for a certain expertise that I have and that they lack. And yet when we disagree about a solution based on that expertise they invariably choose to follow their own opinion. It's certainly with their right and I always think my clients get to make the final call, but I also wonder why did you hire me if you weren't willing to trust the solution I would provide.

vangogh
02-28-2011, 02:38 PM
nless you were a specialist there is no way you would know the market i am in and what works in that market

Actually that's not true at all. People are people. There are things that apply to everyone regardless of market. Where the specialty comes in a good copyright, designer, or marketer will research your specific market and work with you to further understand your market. If you believe those people can't understand what works in your market then you shouldn't be hiring them in the first place. It's not fair though to suggest those people can't help your business because they don't spend 100% of their time specializing in your market. Part of what all these people do is understand how to learn about and understand different markets.


and dont forget you arent in the science world

If anything that's a reason why you should trust the doctor and mechanic less. If it's down to science then things are provable so you don't need to rely on any one doctor or mechanics opinion. Where things are more subjective the opinion of the person you hired is more important because of their experience.

Business Attorney
02-28-2011, 04:57 PM
... a good copyright, designer, or marketer will research your specific market and work with you to further understand your market. ...

I think this is the key. I have met a number of website designers who are too quick to generate ideas without really researching and understanding the target market.

For example, not only is marketing legal services different than selling widgets, it is different than selling other services. In fact, marketing legal services to entrepreneurs is different than marketing similar services to in-house general counsel of large companies; marketing business law services is different than marketing a personal injury law practice or family law practice. I have interviewed website designers who make very pretty legal websites, but once you dig below the graphic impact, the sites are all basically the same, not really differentiating one firm from another or directing the site's appeal to the firm's true market.

I would bet that the people Ann objects to are not listening to her and really learning about her market. Instead, they are trying to give her advice that is not tailored to her needs. If that is the case, and she believes that they are not taking into consideration facts and conditions that she knows exist in her market, then finding someone else is the right thing to do.

Patrysha
02-28-2011, 06:32 PM
I would bet that the people Ann objects to are not listening to her and really learning about her market. Instead, they are trying to give her advice that is not tailored to her needs. If that is the case, and she believes that they are not taking into consideration facts and conditions that she knows exist in her market, then finding someone else is the right thing to do.

I agree...the fact is that if she doesn't trust them she shouldn't be hiring them in the first place. Which is I imagine why she does so much of her marketing in-house...however with the extremely high expectations there are limited odds of finding someone that will be able to gain her trust enough to be of any help at all...because passion can outstrip professionalism when it comes to marketing only someone she trusts enough to handle her brand responsibly will be able to outperform what she has done so far.

vangogh
02-28-2011, 08:59 PM
I would bet that the people Ann objects to are not listening to her and really learning about her market. Instead, they are trying to give her advice that is not tailored to her needs. If that is the case, and she believes that they are not taking into consideration facts and conditions that she knows exist in her market, then finding someone else is the right thing to do.

Absolutely. I'm not trying to suggest that copywriters, designers, and marketers are always right, though I do think you can spot the ones who aren't going to listen to you before you hire them in most cases. Not all cases, but most. There's also a point where if you keep hiring people who aren't doing a good job you have to take responsibility for your own hiring practices and not always put the blame on service providers in general.

greenoak
02-28-2011, 09:46 PM
i havent hired and been unsatisfied....we have done it all ourselves....im not interested in hiring a marketer...
my connection with marketers has been the local newspapers and the local radio and the billboard company who has billboards in my area......i dont have much choice about who they send me.... but its true im not looking for outside marketers...im actually pretty satisfied with our marketing...and havent really felt the need for outside help..i havent been hiring people and kicking them to the curb....

our brand or whatever you want to call it is pretty strong...i think our success with marketing is for a lot of reasons... including being willing to spend lots of money on it and keeping at it for the long haul and mining our data.... and we have done it for ourselves.... i havent hired and fired marketers...and not sure why you think i have...we have always done our own....
i find a lot of it frustrating....but most of my job is on some days!!!lol...
actually i love marketing and always try and learn more... i have a lot of years of doing it... im pretty sure i wouldnt be called a professional marketer by professional marketers.....but i sure have planned out a lot of great campaignes and yearly plots.....

vangogh
02-28-2011, 10:18 PM
Ann my comments above weren't directed at you. They were just general statements directed at no one in particular. I wasn't suggesting you had or hadn't hired marketers or anyone else. Sorry if it came across that way.

It's just that over the years I've heard plenty of people say things like I hired 5 web designers and they all did x, y, and z. If you hire 5 different people and they all responded in the exact same way you have to start looking at what you might be doing, since you're the only consistent part of the equation. Again not directed at you specifically. Just general comments based on things many people have said over the years.

Dan Furman
02-28-2011, 10:44 PM
my connection with marketers has been the local newspapers and the local radio and the billboard company who has billboards in my area......i dont have much choice about who they send me....

For what it's worth, those are typically 99% salespeople, 1% marketers.

Patrysha
02-28-2011, 10:48 PM
i havent hired and been unsatisfied....we have done it all ourselves....im not interested in hiring a marketer...

I find that highly disconcerting...you keep saying marketers are this and marketers are that and yet the only marketers you've met are advertising reps and likely have little to no marketing training or experience and likely no business experience either. So that means the only other marketers you could be referring to are ones that you've read. listened to or watched...which isn't at all the same as hiring one for your business specifically...there's just no comparison.

If you're happy with what you do, that's great...in fact, it's pretty awesome because too many small business owners don't know how to do it, don't want to do it and do a poor job of it, which is very painful to see. It's really important to keep in mind though, that just because you can do it and know how important it is to get done, doesn't mean others can or that everyone realizes it's importance or that everyone out there with a small business has the budget to spend lots of money on it.

The thing is that you have instinctively (or through research) done what a professional marketer would have advised anyway...things like mining your data and sending out regular communications...these things do not come naturally to most small business owners. So while it wasn't necessary for you...that just isn't the case for a vast majority of small business owners out there.

But you seem to imply that marketers are somehow suspect because we all have different ideas, but what you'd be likely to find if you dug was that there were a lot of different strategies based on very similar foundations.

Yet, when it comes down to it you are a marketer...it's just that you specialize in just one solitary business through all it's operations and not several through just the marketing and promotions.

greenoak
02-28-2011, 10:58 PM
thats for sure dan..
..but they are my local experience with marketing ....and they present themselves as experts.... with all kinds of advertizing ideas ...

Steve B
03-01-2011, 06:55 AM
There is a difference between marketing and advertising. Just because these advertising reps may have used the word "marketing" in their discussions wtih you doesn't mean you have any experience with marketing people. Your experience is with advertising people.

greenoak
03-01-2011, 07:14 AM
thats probably right..but that wouldnt be their opinion....ha ha....some wear suits and say they are marketers....
but i still have opinions on the profession, and have been around a lot of other folks who are called marketers too, even tho i havent hired any.....mostly on line or in print , in forums, or experts trying to get me to sign up for webinars,,, or kind of famous folks in the gift industry, i would use one of those if i were choosing , or some of the authors in my business library..... i guess thats where i get my impression of the marketing profession...
i would say my best marketing learning has been from other stores and on places like this.... when its useful theory for me.... like what someone said last week about talking at the right level to the folks who come to my website...meaning they wouldnt be there if they didnt already believe in a big part of my message... go deeper....was that from dan? and spiders nice ideas about shrugging off irritations ..
still the best marketing info and way to learn the latest for me is a good discussion about marketing with business owners in your own industry...like a lot of years ago when one of my customers said her store did 30,000 at her christmas openhouse!!!!...that was a huge marketing moment for me!!!! ...ive gotten a lot on line in this way too, within the gift industry....like a forum i pay to be on....just to get other stores insights and how they do things...just good store talk about what works in marketing for our kinds of stores....
i do thnk the online marketers are all over the place in theories and probably abilities...there are an awful lot out there fishing for business....

Dan Furman
03-01-2011, 12:02 PM
i do thnk the online marketers are all over the place in theories and probably abilities...there are an awful lot out there fishing for business....

I do agree with this.

Marketing is one of those things that means everything, and it means nothing. I mean, what does a "marketing consultant" actually DO? It's a very soft, undefinable area. Any job I ever had, I liked hanging around the marketing department - it seemed like it was a good place to hide. :D I also noticed something else: in several of my jobs, some with big / name companies, the "marketing manager" was a close relationship / good friend of the president / higher up. In other words, the marketing manager was, in all probability, placed there not on marketing merit, but because it's a good place to put a friend. Like I said, it's a nice place to hide.

There is no real accountability in marketing. It's largely trial and error (and most projects / programs / events fail to produce a positive ROI). Plus, if you spend enough on advertising, you can probably succeed, no matter your marketing strategy. Just like the air force will carpet bomb.

Most people who call themselves marketing people can't make a full time living at it on their own. That's not a marketer, in my eyes. That's no different than "financial advisors" who are broke themselves.

CloptonCapital
03-22-2011, 03:11 PM
I started reading a book recently called "Secrets of the Written Word" and this isn't too far off from what he said. Also the goal of your first line is to sell someone on reading the second and so on.

Capitalist
03-23-2011, 02:04 PM
I think "selling the industry" can make sense, depending on how the visitor reaches your page.

With the example of pet boarding, if a user comes to you through Google, then yeah - chances are he's already decided to board his pet, and that content wouldn't make sense. If another user comes from a Facebook ad, though, which says something like "Going on Vacation? What are you going to do with Fido?", then it would make total sense to talk about the advantages of boarding a pet.

This doesn't really invalidate anything said here, but makes it clear that you're often going to need different landing pages for different types of traffic.

Dan Furman
03-29-2011, 10:42 AM
I think "selling the industry" can make sense, depending on how the visitor reaches your page.

With the example of pet boarding, if a user comes to you through Google, then yeah - chances are he's already decided to board his pet, and that content wouldn't make sense. If another user comes from a Facebook ad, though, which says something like "Going on Vacation? What are you going to do with Fido?", then it would make total sense to talk about the advantages of boarding a pet.

This doesn't really invalidate anything said here, but makes it clear that you're often going to need different landing pages for different types of traffic.

This is a good point.

vangogh
03-29-2011, 11:17 AM
It is a good point about having different landing pages for different types of traffic. You can also have your pages create dynamic messages depending on the traffic source.

@Dan. I have to disagree with your comment above about there being no accountability in marketing. Online it's pretty easy to account for your marketing. The tools are in place to test so many different things. For example I know you use AdWords. It's trivial to run tests on your ad copy in AdWords and measure which performs better. Same thing for testing different keywords and sets of keywords.

There are certainly some things that are harder to track than others, but so much is trackable and testable online. Offline it's harder to track, but not impossible.

I'm sure there are marketing people that are useless, but you can say the same of any industry.

Business Attorney
03-29-2011, 06:14 PM
you're often going to need different landing pages for different types of traffic.

I think a corollary of that is that you're often going to need different selling approaches even for traffic from the same channel.

Suppose you have home delivery of premium-priced high quality pet food in Louisville, Kentucky. Two people find you on Google. One does a search for "home delivery pet food Louisville" and lands on a page optimized for that term while another potential customer finds a different page by searching for "high quality pet food Louisville." The first person may be looking only for the convenience of home delivery and might need to be "sold" on the advantages of high quality pet food that carries a higher price. The second might be looking for quality food but need to be sold on home delivery.

Just a thought.

vangogh
03-30-2011, 11:48 AM
I think a corollary of that is that you're often going to need different selling approaches even for traffic from the same channel.

Even beyond your example of searching and landing on different pages is that people are different. The same page doesn't necessarily resonate the same way with two different people. This is where the idea of creating personas comes in and trying to build things into your site that appeal to different people. Some people absolutely need to know that others like your product/service before they'll buy. For those people you provide testimonials. Others need to know the detailed specs of your offer so you provide the specs for those people.

You don't want to push all that information in everyone's face though as the first person probably doesn't care about specs and the second doesn't care about testimonials. Instead you make the content easy for each to find while also making it easy to ignore the information they don't want.

Part of the challenge of building a website.