SMA January 2008 Newsletter

Does Your Web Site Need an "Intervention"?

What is the first thing the eye is drawn to on your home page? Is that the most important thing on the page?
(If not, your home page may need to be redesigned.)

Is there a strong benefit headline on every page of your site - to give the visitor a reason to read further? And is each headline coded as an H1 metatag to help with SEO?
(If not, new headlines and metatags need to be created.)

Is the visitor confronted with chunky paragraphs of copy - rather than shorter paragraphs and frequent subheads? Remember, 85% - 90% of visitors SCAN, rather than read line-by-line, word-for-word.
(If your web site is suffering from long-paragraph-itis, some editing needs to be done.)

Can I take any of the key actions your site is designed to drive, no matter what page I'm on within your site?
(If not, you're missing response opportunities on every page.)

Can I quickly see the most unique things about your site, no matter what page I'm on within your site?
(If not, you're missing involvement opportunities - and reasons to stick around - on every page.)

It may be time for our "12-Step Program" to improve your web site. Download our white paper, 12 Steps to More Effective Branding and Response or contact Karen Marchetti at 858-456-5894 for a personal web site "intervention."

The Latest Response Studies on Web Page Effectiveness Found . . .

Headlines and subheads are more effective when positioned flush left, rather than centered. Centered headlines on a web page (as well as within emails) can be missed by the scanning eye.

What color are your text links? The eye notices links best if they appear in blue type.

More prominent action buttons - with more specific benefit copy on them - generate better response. Make your action buttons bigger - use a more prominent size and color. And use more specific benefit copy on the buttons.

One of the simplest tests that can yield the biggest change in web response is a test of button text. Longer, more specific action-oriented copy ("Get your free sample now") is working better than "Submit" or "Enter."

Human faces and plain text (!) are attracting more attention these days than any type of graphic. But that plain text needs to LOOK easy to get through. Be sure you lead with the most important words (last month's newsletter reported the first word in the headline and each paragraph is critical), and consider using bullet points to make things stand out to the scanning reader.

Contact Us: What Should Be Included in Your Form

Ask for:

First and last name
Age. Legally, you can only keep information and communicate directly with requesters age 13 and over. Consider including two choices for age: 12 or younger, and 13 or older.
Comments or specifics about the question
Email address
Zip code. Legally, you may just want to respond to US consumers.

Ask for, but don't require:

Product code (which may be helpful in generating the most useful reply)

Be sure to include on your Contact Us page: your 800 number, your mailing address, and a link to your FAQs.

Your Opt-Out Procedure: How to Keep More People "Opted-In"

You likely send out several types of email messages, perhaps:

Newsletter
Promotional offers
Transactional messages (thank you for registering, etc.)

When recipients click your "unsubscribe" link, be sure to take them to a page where they can "selectively opt-out" if desired. Don't just assume everyone who received your last product sale email wants to be removed from your email newsletter list. For example, you might consider adding choices like:

Would you like to receive:

Our newsletter and promotional offers
Our newsletter only
Our promotional offers only
No email at all from us

OR

Would you like to receive:

News and special offers about these specific brands or products only: _______________________ (please specify)
News about all new products
News about all products on sale
Product use tips only

You don't want the opt-out process to be laborious. But it's a good idea to give your unsubscribers a few choices as to WHAT they want to unsubscribe to, and you'll likely keep more names on your email list.

Also include a "Why are you unsubscribing" question to see what you can learn.

How to Improve Your SEO Link Strategy: "Link Relevance"

When I talk about making offers that attract attention, I always advise clients to avoid the boring non-offer, "Send me more information." (yawn)

So it is with naming text links within your site, avoid the ultra-boring and no-help-in-terms-of-SEO "click here" text link.

Known as "Anchor Text", the actual words that form your text link are weighted highly by search engines. The actual link words are indexed as part of the page content by the search engine, and assumed to be relevant to the destination page.

Links surrounded by text (links within body copy, for example) are generally assumed to be of higher relevance than other links (within a navigation bar, for example).

Of course, your basic SEO efforts should also include:

Unique page title for every page on your site, using keywords prevalent on that page.
Keyword list for every page. Be sure the keyword list for a particular page reflects the most critical keywords on that PAGE, rather than on your entire site.
Description for every page, again reflecting the information on that PAGE.
Body copy on your optimized pages with keyword density for the keywords you've specified for that page.

Designing Your Email Messages for Better Response

What are the most important elements for better response from email now? Beyond the Subject line, and avoiding the latest "spam trigger" terms, there are 2 critical elements of email design . . .

1. Get the most critical words at the top

What are you placing in the top 2 to 4 inches of your email? That's about all that will show within the "preview pane" of many email programs. You should have the single most important thing you can say to the email recipient in that top 2 to 4 inches.

Be sure you include a benefit-oriented headline that gives the recipient a reason to read further. If you've merely got a big masthead or big logo there, you may not be getting all the response you could be.
If you're sending a newsletter, the first items in your email should be a list of headlines of your articles - NOT your newsletter masthead. You want to entice the recipient to read your articles, and your masthead may not be the best way to draw the reader in.

2. Call to action "above the fold"

What's "above the fold" now that the majority of email recipients are viewing your emails in a preview pane? It's that same 2 to 4 inches mentioned above.

That means your benefit-oriented headline needs to introduce the offer, and be clickable.

With a newsletter, each article headline should also be clickable, to take the recipient directly to the complete article.

Comments? Have you noticed any good or bad Copy examples lately?

Check out more copy reviews at blog.SMAresource.com

Email Karen at info@SMAresource.com.