Creating Attention, Interest, Desire and Action Online
When you go out and create a web site with an intention of
selling products and services through it, you have no option but
to be on the good side of buyer behavior. If you wish to
succeed, that is. Funny enough, on the web a lot of business
owners forget that buyers do have a behavior, the way they are
accustomed to doing things. By now you probably have heard or
experienced that just having a site, no matter how good it
looks, won't convert your visitors into customers who actually
buy something.
Let us start with what we know about buyers:
1. Most sales are never made the first time a prospect sees the
product or service. They are made on a subsequent encounter.
Translation: it is a sure thing that unless you get that guy
visiting your web site the first time ever to return another
day, he wont be buying anything from you. So you must make sure
he returns.
2. The 80-20 rule. 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your
customers. Which 20% are these? These are the people who buy
from you a second and a third time and so on. It is easier to
make more sales out of your current customers than new ones.
Which means that your web site has to have features that, again,
keep your customers coming back.
The above two facts should encourage you to think very clearly
about your web site. If you have one of those sites that just
advertise your product and offer no other features that
encourage returning visits, you need to do some major redesign
and add some features that do so. Now let us look at how buyers
get to the decision that they will either return another day or
buy your product or service on any particular visit. First,
something grabs hold of their attention. If not, they go - there
are other better things to do. If their attention is taken, they
have a quick look to see if they are interested. If they are
interested, they spend some time. During that time spent on
whatever they found that was interesting, they may develop
desire for the product or service or information. If they have
desire, they will take action to fulfil that desire. That action
is either purchasing or returning or doing something else
related to either of those two. This process of attracting
attention, creating interest, building desire, and getting
action should be the biggest - yes, biggest - driving factor
behind your web site design and content.
There is a lot of ways to achieve this depending on your
industry. A real estate site will not employ the same methods as
a parenting community. You will need to sit down and look at how
you can do it best. You should visit some leading sites in and
out of your industry and copy what they do (there is no point in
inventing mediocrity when you can copy genius). You may also
want to get a suitable consultant on this. For now, let us look
at the four steps in general.
Attention People will enter your site from any of your pages.
Whatever page they enter through, you must make sure that the
headlines, design, navigation, etc grab their attention! No
matter what page they get in from, they must know what it is
about and get their attention engaged. Do not have those dull
pages in your site just because your home page is great.
Interest The primary reason people go online is to get
information. Not to get advertised to, but to know something
about something. That is how you create interest, by providing
the appropriate information. You must have a good amount of free
information that is relevant, constantly updated, exciting and
different. Obviously you still want to tell them about your
product but that should only be a major part of your site, not
an only part. You should get an arsenal of news, articles,
facts, newsletters, polls and other features to keep them coming
back. Yes, it sounds involving but remember, most sales occur
after the first encounter, so you must make sure you get more
than one visit to your site. And very few people will return to
your site just to re-read your product brochure.
Desire You create desire in a multitude of ways, the two best
being letting the client experience the product or service first
hand. So you have to build interactivity. If you have a software
product you are selling, give out a free downloadable demo.
Financial services? Offer free online calculators. Real estate
agent? How about an interactive room planner. The idea is to get
someone experiencing the product or service in some way or
another so that they can desire to own it. See what you can do
in your case, just make sure it is a useful free trial. Most
purchases take place after the buyer has seen the product or
service several times, better still when they have used it and
experienced its benefits.
Action You will find that the number of actions you want taken
are quite a few. You probably will want someone to subscribe to
your newsletter, get your free demo, recommend a friend or, most
of all, buy something. Whatever the action, create the attention
on it, get interest, build desire, then ask for the action. You
must ask for the action to be performed. If you want them to
click, put that down clearly. If you want them to buy, ask for
the sale very clearly (as in "Buy Now"). Most sales are lost at
the last moment because no one asked the buyer to buy. So don't
be shy. Ask for the action.
There you have it. Probably the only fundamental information you
will ever need to get your web site to perform as it should. The
reason I refer to it as fundamental is because if you use it as
a foundation on which you build your entire web site, no matter
how small or big it is, it will work. Well, granted you must
have the right products at the right price, but even with those,
the fundamentals must be there for optimum results. Use this
information when you decide on your site navigation, your pages,
your graphics, etc. It will not fail you. If you need any more
information on this topic, please see the articles at
http://www.positionweaver.com/articles.shtml.