Web Marketing All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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When it comes to writing marketing promotional copy for your website, there comes a point where you need to stop presenting more features and benefits and start proving that your offer solves the problem. Here are several methods for proving to your visitors that your product or service solves their problem:

  • Use testimonials in your website copy. The best testimonial you can have on a website is a video of a customer telling the world how your product or service helped his specific situation.

    A recorded audio file is an adequate substitute. Printed testimonials are acceptable but are believable only if you can print the first and last names of the testimony provider, along with the city and state he or she lives in.

    You must be given written authorization to use someone’s full name and city and state residence for a testimonial!

    When asking for a video or audio testimonial, you can help your customers decide what to say by giving them a checklist. You can use the following list for virtually any video or audio testimonial occasion and even try it yourself the next time you attend a seminar where testimonials are being taken onsite:

    • Your name and website address

    • Why you attended (or purchased a product)

    • Your result or at least some bit of information you learned

    • A strong recommendation for others in a similar position to attend the next time (or to buy now)

    • Repeat your name and your website address

  • Provide links to letters of recommendation. A three- or four-line testimonial is adequate, but getting a formally written letter of recommendation printed on your customer’s letterhead with a signature of the person at the bottom is exceptional.

    When you receive such a letter, you will need to have it scanned. Save the scanned copy as a PDF or JPG image, upload it to your website, and add a link from within a page on your website to the document.

  • Share the fact that you’ve tried similar products. You should always know your competition and the quality of product or service they are delivering. Buy as much as you can afford of your competitors’ products so that you can speak wisely about how your offer fills gaps that the other products do not address.

    Most importantly, you must mention on your page that you’re familiar with similar products but that certain elements of your product are what really set you apart from the rest.

  • Show that no competing product is as easy to use. The last thing people want is to learn something difficult or to implement something that takes time to figure out. They want speed of implementation and speed of results. Convince your prospective customer that your solution is simple. And, if it’s not simple, you need to work on its methodology so that it is simple.

    Don’t invite your visitors to “check out the competition” — because they will! In the automotive sales business, salespeople will do anything they can to get you to buy their car while you’re on the lot, because they know that after you leave, there is a slim chance you will return to buy their car.

  • Describe the product’s popularity. Everyone likes to be part of something that’s popular, and they shy away from being the first to experience something new.

    Include a paragraph in your website copy that suggests to readers that they’re really missing out on something and that your product is used by either a large number or a wide variety of people.

    The objective of conveying your popularity is not to lie! Never lie to your audience. You don’t need to fabricate numbers to be seen as popular, even if your business is in the start-up phase. Simply identify something about your business that really is popular and talk about it.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

John Arnold is the author of E-Mail Marketing For Dummies and coauthor of Mobile Marketing For Dummies.

Ian Lurie is President of Portent, Inc.

Marty Dickinson is President of HereNextYear.

Elizabeth Marsten is Director of Search Marketing at Portent, Inc.

Michael Becker is the Managing Director of North America at the Mobile Marketing Association.

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