Web Copy Tips

One of the greatest assets and least used marketing tactics on the Internet is the use of a sales letter at your Web site. Ad copy or "Web" copy is essential on the Internet if your goal is increased sales and profits... even more so than the "real" world.

The Internet is very impersonal. No voice is ever heard, pictures are rarely used (a picture of the person or owner(s) of a site, not just graphical images) and obviously, no physical contact of any kind.

With the above problems or obstacles, your prospects need more assurance and credibility from your business, product and/or service.

Get Physical

Because you don't have an actual physical employee or sales person doing the selling for you and your online business (unlike the regular world where an actual sales person can physically help out your customers), you will need to and have to use a sales letter (or Web copy) to do the selling for your site.

That's why, many times, a sales letter has been referred to as "salesmanship in print", or in our case, "salesmanship in HTML". Your sales letter acts as your physical employee... it does the selling for you, just like a live sales person!

Listen, you may have heard otherwise on someone else's web site that "online sales letters just don't work...". But that's just a bunch of crap! Don't buy that for a second.

In fact, that's one of the biggest mistakes and fallacies about online promotions. I've proven many times that use of Web copy is essential for online success. Not only on my own web site (check out my report broker site for a sample of great web copy), but also for many of my online clients (who easily make a healthy six to seven figure annual income)!

In fact, I can promise you that the use of Web copy will be one of the biggest changes you will see on the Internet in the year 2000 and beyond!

Minor Changes... Big Results

Anyway, Web copy is very similar to regular ad copy... but there are a few changes that must me followed or else your web site/web copy will end up being a total disaster (and you'll lose sales!).

So, let's discuss some of the minor differences and how you can take advantage of them to produce automatic sales, with even less effort!

Before getting started, note that none of these rules are set in stone. These are proven and test guidelines, but that doesn't mean you have to stick to them 100% of the time. Be creative, always test... but keep things simple!

Your Web Site's Design & Look

The first thing customers (or anyone) sees when they first visit your site is something visual... colors, images, etc. Not words (that's the second thing they see). So, let's get the coloring and background straightened out first!

Whether it's a sales letter written on paper or Web copy typed in HTML, keep the background color simple. Studies have proven many times that black text on white background is best for reading. Don't get cute or creative by using all sorts of weird colors like yellow, green or pink.

Those funky colors hurt the eyes. And if your customer's eyes are tearing and straining because your pages look more like a clown's face, rather than a sales letter, then you can assume that you've lost the sale for good!

Font Types, Sizes, Colors & Rules

Types & Sizes

The most used font on regular paper sales letters is Times New Roman in 8pt. In fact, this is the default setting on most browsers (Internet Explorer and Netscape). As you can see, the 8pt is a bit too small for Internet reading.

So, Times New Roman is just fine, but up the size to a 10pt. or 12pt. font size for regular text and maybe use 14pt. for headlines and subheads. The other most used font size on the Net is Arial at 10pt (which is what this page is written in) or even Verdana at 10pt.

Stick to these basics and don't get too creative by using Brush Script MT, Mead Bold, Rockwell Condensed, etc., etc., etc. When you make it difficult or strange to read, the reader stops reading and clicks out of your site.

Graphics, Colors & Style

People on the Internet get bored very fast. So, not only does the reading have to be lively, interesting and entertaining, so does the look of it. One thing that most people do is add in lots of images and graphics for "special effects" in attempt to grab the reader's attention.

This is fine if you add in a couple here and there.. but not when you get carried away with it. If your page takes too long to download, guess what?... the customer will leave your site!

Maybe you have a cable modem or DSL access to the Net. But most people still have a regular 28.8 modem connection, so keep these people in mind when designing you next masterpiece graphic.

The easiest and most effective way to add some emphasis to your words is to bold or color your words (red is most effective). Again, don't go overboard, keep it simple.

NO CAPS, NO UNDERLINES & NO ITALICS

Whatever you do, don't go around using "caps lock" on your keyboard. Not only is it super difficult to read and understand (that's why most legal notices are written in all caps!), but on the Internet, it's considered as SHOUTING!!!

Also, italics are horrible... even more so on a Web page than on paper. It's been said that italics can reduce reading by as much as 50%. The only times I would even considering using italics, is if I'm quoting someone... like in a testimonial or something similar.

Lastly, don't underline anything if you're trying to give it some emphasis. This works fine in a regular sales letter on paper, but on the Net, underlines are considered as hyper-linked text. All this does is confuse and irritate the reader... so don't do it.

Headlines, Sub-Headlines & Indents

Another way to make emphasis on a particular subject is to use headlines and sub-headlines. Just make sure that they are teasers and contain benefits of some sort.

For example, a bad headline would be:

"Introduction"

A good headline would be:

"Introduction To The Secrets Of Web Copy And Advertising"

Also, one other tactic is to use sub-heads left justified on the page, and then indent each of the "text" sections below it (exactly as I have done on this page). It gives the eyes variation and keeps the reader reading to the very end!

Page & Paragraph Length

One HUGE misconception is that long ad copy doesn't work. As I've discussed earlier, long copy works and it works damn good! The only kind of copy that doesn't work is boring copy.

Now, this doesn't mean that you need to write a novel. Just tell your story and anything and everything regarding your product or service and nothing more or less!

But, one difference is that your Web copy should be a little bit shorter than your regular sales letter copy (try to keep it about 20%-25% shorter in total length). Why you ask... because page by page, a web site looks longer than a printed sales letter. Also, looking at a computer screen makes things even more difficult to read, so a little bit less reading can be beneficial.

Keep'em Clicking

On the Net, most people are "click happy". This means that they love to click on anything clickable... links, images, etc. So, it's best to turn one long page into 2 or 3 mini pages with a link at the bottom to the next page. Try to keep each page to a maximum of 30 KB in size.

One thing you do NOT want to do is have 10 tiny pages where after one or two paragraphs they need to click on to the next page. This is ridiculous and annoying to say the least!

6 Sentence/75 Word Maximum Rule

When writing your paragraphs, don't go on rambling endlessly where one paragraph turns into a long run-on novel. People have low attention spans and if they look ahead and see one, huge, ugly paragraph, they are going to be automatically overwhelmed (thinking it's gonna have too much information).

Keep each paragraph to a six sentence maximum... or 75 words. Sometimes it'll go over that... and sometimes you can just have one sentence paragraphs.

Invite Friends & Colleagues

Once you've written everything out, make sure you read and reread everything. In fact, it's probably best if you take a day off from it and then reread it the next day or so when you can see your work from a fresh perspective.

Proofread your web copy for both spelling and grammar mistakes. View your Web pages in both Internet Explorer, as well as Netscape because minor changes will happen between these two popular browsers (sometimes your site can look great in IE, but looks like crap in Netscape... so take a couple minutes and check it out in both browsers).

Then, tell a few of your friends and colleagues to take a look at your web site and web copy. Ask them to see if things "flow" well, if ideas are easy to understand, etc.

For me, I always make a million mistakes and many times, some of my thoughts haven't even been finished yet. So, I have a few of my copywriting and marketing buddies take a look and give me their honest feedbacks (ask them to tell it like it is and no "sugar coating" please... you are trying to make money, not friends!).

Their comments are priceless to me because I usually end up rewriting a lot of the copy after this. Remember, your ad copy/web copy is never really finished. Always test all variables, one at a time until you've perfected your sales letter!