Now that you’re thinking of a great domain name, let’s turn to the issue of web site content. In his book Roger C. Parker’s Guide to Web Content
and Design (MIS Press, 1997), Roger Parker says content should consist
of two components:
1. Information your prospects need to know in order to buy from you. 2. Information you know that will convince prospects to buy from you.
Information your prospects need to know in order to buy from you is the product information a serious potential buyer is likely to ask for. This “need to know” stuff includes the following:
• An overview of your products or services—usually found on your home page or an “About Us” page.
• Pages on individual products and services—one per product.
• Additional product information—specs, features, options, acces- sories, models, ratings, upgrades.
• Customers. Who buys from you? Some customers might wish not to be named specifically, so be sure to check before you post their names.
• Projects. What are some of the major projects your firm has handled? Make these descriptions results oriented.
• Applications. What applications is your product used for? What in- dustries do you serve?
• Testimonials. Are customers satisfied? What do they say about you? Product information can be of several varieties. A common tech- nique is to post product brochures on the site. Converting a printed color brochure to an html file can sometimes be tricky. Some companies
use typography printed over color photos, which can be difficult to read when put on a Web page. As a solution, the Web designer can change the design for the html versions, so that the copy is taken off the photo background and printed in black against a white background next to the pictures for greater legibility.
In industrial companies, it is common to photocopy product brochures and circulate copies to different decision makers while evalu- ating potential vendors. If you serve such a market, consider posting your product data sheets as pdf files which, when printed, look remarkably similar to a printed brochure.
Allow viewers to drill down to the level of detail they need. One chemical company has links in its product brochures to MSDs, or “Mate- rial Safety Data” sheets, on the safe handling of each chemical they sell. A prospect with a particular safety concern can get his question immedi- ately answered by accessing the MSD sheets online.
Your web site should not only contain everything the prospect wants and needs to know about you—but also everything you want to tell them. There are certain facts and information a prospect may not look for or ask about, but that you would want to tell them, nonetheless. These are items that establish credibility and expertise.
Many products are, to a large extent, commodities, with little to dif- ferentiate your goods from another vendor’s. What determines whether customers buy from you is whether you can convince them that you are reliable, trustworthy, knowledgeable, and competent. In other words, you know what you’re doing, better than your competitors. In the classic marketing book, Differentiate or Die, Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin talk about the importance of differentiating your product from the fray. Ulti- mately, you determine a core feature that you communicate through your marketing and advertising and convey in every interaction with your customer. Coke, for example, differentiates itself as the original, and Volvo differentiates itself as the car for safety. Other differentiating fea- tures might be heritage, ease of use, being the latest, or being the best (or even, in the case of Hertz, being number two).
Repetition is key for solidifying your differentiating features within the consumer’s mind—therefore, you might state outright what separates you from the competition, and repeat this quality throughout your site. If your differentiating feature is reliability, you would highlight in your client profile the long-term relationships you have established with cer- tain clients. In your client testimonial section, you would select blurbs that praise your long-term, unwavering reliability.
Another way to differentiate and to brand your products is by high- lighting your awards or record for innovation. Jericho Communications, a New York PR firm, has a large button on its site labeled “Awards.” Through that link, you can find all the PR awards Jericho has won. Al- though you may be more interested in PR results than awards, Jericho knows you’ll be impressed.
They also offer a document called “Five Point Equation for Ideas That Work.” Even though you may not intend to ask how they come up with PR ideas, they proactively tell you. The method establishes believ- ability—they have a system for producing ideas—and makes you feel you have learned something about creativity when you read it.
On the web site for my freelance copywriting practice, www.bly.com, I post samples of my work—because potential clients want to see promo- tions I’ve written for other companies before making the decision to hire me. They can also click on a page showing color images of the covers of the many books I’ve written on marketing. That’s what I want them to see, because it increases their comfort level regarding my expertise in my craft. Posting content on your site—useful information, such as white papers or how-to articles—is another, more subtle way of convincing po- tential customers that you are the qualified source.
Another technique you might consider is a button on your home page for “Recommended Vendors.” It opens to an html file or database of resources, in fields allied with yours, that your visitors might find useful. For example, as a copywriter, my vendor list includes graphic designers and html programmers I recommend. When you post a regularly updated recommended vendors section, visitors come to view your site as a useful resource. Knowing that they can find on your site the other products and services they need to complete their project increases the likelihood of them buying your product as well.
So make sure viewers give your site a passing grade. Show people what they want to see—and be sure to lead them to what you want them to see. Remember to differentiate your products and services from the competition, and repeat this core feature throughout your site.