- "Buy online and get . . ." depresses response over "Start shopping now."   And it doesn't seem to matter what offer follows the word "get . . .".   

- "Add to cart" works better than "Buy now."

- "Read more" depresses click-throughs over "Continue."    

What's the pattern in each of these tests?

It's hard, though, for the first-time visitor to get past the busy main menu system.  Special offers and utility-type menu choices are inter-mingled with e-commerce main menu choices stretching over 3 to 4 rows of real estate.  And the use of numerous type treatments makes it look all the more jumbled.

I recently reviewed the OprahStore.com website -- which scores high usability marks for its clean design and easy-to-use menu and sub-menu system, but totally fails with its search function.

When a visitor is hit with big paragraphs of copy, however, the visitor is not engaged.  So how do you deliver your content without hitting visitors with paragraphs of copy?

There are those at interactive agencies that believe they have a brand-new solution to this challenge, specific to websites, that they call "chunking"  (an unappealing -- and unappetizing -- term, to say the least .. .) 

But Direct Marketing has, for about the last 3 or 4 decades, referred to this technique as "nesting short copy within long copy."   And we effectively use this  technique across print ads, direct mailers, web sites, email messages -- yes, virtually anywhere a prospect might turn his or her gaze.  Because it turns out that prospects don't view content differently just because it's a website. 

The company was trying to drive traffic to an e-commerce site -- a site for which no marketing had really been done to date.  So awareness of their premium product was non-existent, and the web site didn't really tell the story of why the product was unique.

The company asked us for a mailing list recommendation, and we developed a full direct mail plan, suggesting they test an envelope package and two different mailing lists, with separate landing pages to track results.

They didn't take our advice.  They mailed a postcard that never addressed the "why should I buy yours" uniqueness of their product.  They used one mailing list, and drove traffic to the home page of their web site.  And as a result, they completely wasted every cent they invested in that direct mail effort.

You can't write your web site like a book, where you assume each visitor to your site will visit certain pages, visit pages in a certain order -- or actually read certain pages.  So where do your unique points of differentiation go, to ensure the maximum number of visitors understand why you're different?   Here's a short list:

- Home page, About Us page, every product page, every solution page, your Customer Service page -- in other words, pretty much every page. 

With search dominating Internet usage, virtually any page in your well-optimized site could show up in the organic search results.  So your unique points of differentiation need to be woven into virtually every page.

And as you ramp up your social media efforts, you'll (hopefully) be linking to various pages on your site -- another reason why your unique messaging points need to be virtually everywhere on your site. 

But website visitors rarely (read: almost never) do that.  In fact, website visitors first scan the page they're on -- about 85% of visitors will only scan.

And few (if any) website visitors will visit every page on your site.  It's also true that few will click on each of your menu options in order.

So if you include your key points of differentiation only on your home page -- or maybe on your home page and on your "About Us" page -- but nowhere else, it's highly likely that a huge percentage of your visitors will never learn the answer to the key question, "why should I buy from you?"

That means a large percentage of the money you've spent driving traffic, leads, and potential customers to your site will also be wasted.

So how should website copy be crafted?  And if 85% of visitors are only going to scan, how will they ever learn what you're all about?

What if those few pages featured very little information?   What if the copy really didn't answer the all-important "why should I buy yours?" question (or even the simpler "why should I stay on this site and look around further?" question)?   Wouldn't you think this company wasn't worth your time?

The question of "how much copy is enough copy?" is actually an easy one to answer from a make-the-sale perspective.  Here's the standard we use:

- Say everything you would say to me if you were face-to-face and had to convince me to take the next step.  

You should talk about your brand look and feel with your web strategy team.  And you should review the look, feel, and elements of competitive sites.

You might provide examples of some web sites that you like.  It's useful for you to review with your web strategy team exactly what you like about each site -- is it the overall visual look of the site, do you  find the navigation particularly easy to use, do you like the use of video or Flash on the site, etc.

It will be important to talk about what strategy might be appropriate for the type of site you need, if the sites you provide as examples aren't the same type of site you're looking to create.  You'll want to talk about logical elements of the site that should be included.

And it will be critical for all to understand the types of target customers -- or personas -- the site will be built for.

So we'll assume your web team understands the brand image you wish to create online, what elements of other sites you like, what elements should be included in the site, and who your target personas are.  And they've proposed a web strategy for your site, in terms of navigation and specific elements to be included.  Now you're ready for some design concepts -- what could go wrong?

When last we left Company C, they had hired a web design firm that focused on great Flash effects to create an e-commerce site. ( Yes, someone should have seen this train wreck coming, but they didn't . . .).

The web design firm created an all-Flash site that was supposed to sell.  Unfortunately, the resulting site was frustrating to visitors.  The all-Flash menu system kept disappearing.  Visitors had no idea where they were within the site.  And the copy panels featured reverse type that was very dim -- until you figured out that you had to move your mouse over the copy to "brighten" it and make it readable (no, I'm not making this up). 

Flash can be a wonderful tool to make a web site come alive and dazzle and involve visitors.  But web designers need to use Flash in the right places -- Flash, essentially, needs its own strategy.

Company C told the web design company they wanted a site modeled after the Prada site.  The web design company was experienced at creating visually beautiful web sites with lots of Flash effects.  Unfortunately, they weren't very experienced at developing the right web strategy for each client. 

The resulting site draws the eye away from the copy and focuses on the visuals.  The visitor can't always locate the navigation.  And there is no way to tell what area of the site you're actually in.  

But beyond the visual,  there is no clear point of differentiation to make the visitor want to spend money on this premium -- and unknown -- product.  How did this happen?

"When we started the project, we told the web designers we wanted a site similar to the Prada site."

And so, the project began, seemingly without thinking about whether the overall approach of the Prada site made sense for Company "C".  The web design company was experienced in creating sites in Company "C"'s industry.  What could go wrong?

Who would have thought that copying the overall look of another site, without thinking through your own strategy, could be a recipe for disaster . . .

"Think of every page on your site as a book."

When you pick up a book, you read the book title.  Then you might read the short description on the back of the book.  Then you might browse the table of contents to see what the chapters are about.   This, suggested the speaker, gives the SEO copywriter a great analogy for writng SEO tags for every web page.

Have you recently checked your ranking for your most important keywords -- and then checked out what all of the sites ranked above you are doing in terms of SEO?   SEO isn't a "set it up once and forget it" effort -- it should be addressed at least monthly.

What about your keywords themselves?   Have you checked their search volume lately?   Have you looked to see what other keywords may be hot right now and generatng more search volume?  

Selecting the keywords your site will focus on is now a much more far-reaching decision that it has been in the past.  Every press release you send out, every blog post you make, every Twitter tweet you make -- all should be supporting those keywords on which you focus.

"One effective technique when you have a lot of information on a web page is to organize it into 'chunks.'"

"When testing various search engine pay-per-click programs, you should always allocate some funds for 'exploring' new options."

Speakers at an online marketing conference made these web marketing "best practices" pronouncements.  But is this anything new?   Aren't these the same "best practices" that direct marketers have been using for decades in magazine ads and direct mail?

Unfortunately, I had no idea what the answer was to any of the 7 Riddles.  No phone number or web address appeared on the 7 Riddle pages.  So I tossed the mailer in frustration.  Why would such a creative package fall apart when it came to Offers?