Revenue Journal®

Your website is one of the most important "employees" in your company. It is your company's most important salesperson and service person.

What kind of employee is it? Is it friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable? Or snarly and surly, thwarting the customer (and sabotaging the sale) at every turn?

I just bought a new laptop and its associated software and accessories. As I purchased and configured the computer, I was reminded again how stark the difference is between companies with a helpful website and companies with an obstructive website.

On the good side of the equation, we have CDW, the large computer company based in Illinois. I was considering buying my new laptop from them, but became convinced it was a good idea after talking to Jim Sterne. He told me he had gotten a cold call from them one day, which quickly turned into a warm call, which caused him to go to their website, and actually buy something. He has continued buying from CDW, over and over. Having now gone through a very pleasant and successful buying experience with them, I can understand his enthusiastic loyalty. More on CDW in a moment.

On the bad side of the equation, we have Qualcomm. I use their email client program, Eudora, partly because I like it and partly to avoid Outlook, a favorite target for hackers.

But Qualcomm doesn't make it easy to be a customer. Let's look at how unfriendly their website is, starting with this "answer the question and get your registration code" screen.

You'll note that something is missing, i.e., the question. I won't go into all the details here - it's just another one of those boring stories about how a company made it impossible to do what you should be able to do - but this screen is a good example of one of the "barriers to the sale" that I encountered while trying to pay for Eudora. And yes, my question is on file in Eudora's servers. And no, this webform didn't accept my answer, even though I know for sure it is the correct answer.

You might also note that the copyright dates are "1999, 2000" which tells me that no one at Qualcomm has actually bothered to go through the customer's buying process. If they did, they'd notice that the copyright footer hasn't been updated for five years. Qualcomm also does everything in its power to avoid interaction with customers. Here's their "support" screen. It should be called a "Go away and don't bother us, we're busy with much more important matters than your stupid issues" screen. Or, "Screw you" for short.

Note that there is no phone number here, and "Live person-to-person technical support is only available to Paid mode users."

Now, granted, Eudora is not Qualcomm's main focus these days; the company generates most of its income from its wireless chipsets and phones. But the company continues to support Eudora and has developed a version of it for wireless phones called Eudora2go. Qualcomm's own press materials once set the email program at 20 million users, now they say the number is 7 million. Even so, some CEOs would kill for an installed base of 7 million users. At the very least, they would not be treating those users the way Qualcomm is treating its users.

This page is a very rude salesperson: "I won't give you my phone number. I won't tell you my name. I won't give you my email address; you'll have to use a web form. And when I respond, it will be with an automated email that tries to answer your question (and fails), then refers you back to this page, filled with obstacles, so I can avoid interacting with you."

Contrast this closed, no-way-Jose site to the CDW site. The best apples-to-apples comparison is their "Contact Us" page, which gives you dozens of ways to contact them. They show email addresses, phone numbers, and fax information. They give their support hours, including Tech Support, which is 24/7. They provide direct links to other website areas and departments. They provide street addresses where appropriate. They list corporate headquarters - including the street address (it's amazing how few companies actually do this). They also provide a general Feedback link.

They have obviously gone to the other extreme - providing every possible opportunity for customers to contact them. And why not? Isn't that what you want customers to do? Isn't that what your website is all about? Aren't the best salespeople the kinds of people who pat you on the back and smile and shake your hand, and say, "What can I do for you?"

Here are some of the other things they're doing right. The left-hand nav is all about what the customer would want to do. It is an action-oriented list, starting with "My Purchases," and "Order Status." CDW is doing everything it can to make it easy for you to buy. Again, isn't that what you want customers to do?

If you click on "Account Team," you see a page (mostly) filled with smiling faces, including your "primary contact," the person who helped you with your order. Note how the page is personalized. The impression you get is there are a lot of people who can help you at CDW. Liz Keevan, my "primary contact," called me after I received my laptop computer to make sure everything worked out OK.

CDW even makes it easy for you to send them email via a webform; it's partially filled in with your information:

The people running CDW's website understand how to make the customer as familiar with the company and its people as possible. One way of doing that is to let the customer watch their commercials on the website. Maybe marketers are the only ones who would do that, but I think not - because the commercials are mildly entertaining, suitable for a business audience, and refreshingly void of the grossness so common in today's commercials.

The more you click around this website, the more you find tools that will help you spend more money with CDW. For example, on the home page, there's a section where you can build your own comparison charts, brands, bundles, and individual products. Note that they didn't just stop at "products," but they also included "brands," and "bundles." They obviously understand how people buy tech products, and have accommodated all the common methods. A CDW Account Manager helps you set this up so that your employees can go to this area, pick from the list, and buy their products from CDW.

If you want to follow CDW's example, you'll create a laundry list of all the ways you can make it easy for someone to contact you, and all the ways your customer might purchase your products. What are the actions associated with their buying process? Are you making it easy for them to compare products, mull over their choices (I did a lot of research before I bought my new laptop computer), and send info and images to others involved in the buying decision? Have you then given them access to individuals who are able to answer their questions?

Before you create the website resources that will make it easy for them to buy, make sure you understand every aspect of their buying process. Get on the phone with customers and ask them to describe it to you. Ask them what you could do on your website to make it easier for them. Ask them to refer you to any websites that made it easy for them to make a purchase and get help.

Turn their wish list into a prioritized project list, and chip away at it. Your website will start being a much more productive salesperson for your company. It will stop stabbing you in the back and start helping you make sales.

I just finished interviewing dozens of salespeople for a client as the first step in redesigning the selling section of their reseller portal. The salespeople were very clear about what they wanted: Information they could use to answer the questions customers were asking about the manufacturer's products. They wanted to be able to find this information in a couple of clicks. They wanted to spend their time selling, not searching for the information they needed to sell.

Here's what you need to do to make sure your sales force has the information they need at their fingertips.

1. You should offer an obvious link to "products" right on the home page of your website or portal for sellers. The product page should list all of your products, by category.

2. Each product should have its own page, and each page should use the same format, so salespeople can quickly learn where to find everything.

3. At the top of your product page should be a short (1-paragraph) description of the product that is filled with facts (not "selling" copy). That way, the salesperson can sound smart even as he's viewing your product's selling copy for the first time - when he's on the phone with a new customer. "Ah, yes, the FrigFram6000," he'll say, with confidence. "...600 megabits of servo memory, three parallel processors...[now he's clicking on a hot link to a case study, and sees that another company in the same industry has purchased a FrigFram6000]...and one of your competitors has built their whole assembly line around them."

4. Under the short product description should be hot links to the fundamental information about your products, in a question/answer format. Questions that might be asked during the selling process include:

- Who is most likely to buy this product?
- What problems does this solve?
- What concerns do customers have about this product - and how does this product address them?
- What does the product include?
- What does it do?
- How does it do it?
- What else does it work with?
- How is it installed?
- How is it used?
- How much does it cost?
- Who else bought it, and what did they think of it?
- How does it compare to competitive products?
- How available is it, and when can it be delivered?

In addition to these generic questions, you must also answer specific questions that are asked about your type of product.

5. Included in each answer should be a link to complete details on that subject, provided in the most appropriate form. For example, you might link to a web page with the nitty-gritty technical details, or to the selling tools the salesperson would expect you to provide:

- Technical specifications
- Presentations
- Case studies
- Short testimonials
- White papers
- Brochures
- Datasheets
- Price sheets
- Templates for proposals, direct mail, email, online and print ads, and press releases
- Short and long product descriptions salespeople can use in emails and letters
- Installation and maintenance manuals

Most manufacturers spend too much time focusing on "incentives" for the sales force, while failing to provide the basic tools that salespeople need. Salespeople get frustrated when they can't find these tools. They convey their frustration to the customer ("Their technology is awesome, but they're really hard to do business with.").

If you do the best job of providing the sales tools that resellers need, your selling partners will personally believe that you are the best company in the field, because you have already met their needs. Your sellers will convey that personal conviction and confidence to the customer, especially in those offhand comments that customers use to detect what the salesperson really thinks. Your sellers will assume you will be able to take care of each customer, because you have already taken good care of them.

When you use your web tracking tool to identify the search terms that people type in before coming to your website, what you're seeing are the words that finally got them there. What you aren't seeing are the words they typed in first, at the beginning of their search.

People who are searching for your product or solution start out by typing the phrase that makes the most sense to them. Then, as they see the first set of results, they learn that their logical search term isn't producing the results they needed. They add a word or change a word, and try again. This learn-and-refine process leads to relevant result...and (hopefully) to your site.

Your web tracking tools record this last search term, but do not capture the first search term or even the interim search terms that they used to find you.

Of course, it would be better for you if your site came up earlier in their searching process, when they type in the phrase that makes the most sense to them.

You can use a variety of keyword tools to analyze the most common search terms that might relate to your product or service. But those terms are often too broad. And you still won't know what your customers are typing into search engines as they hunt for what you sell.

There is a straightforward way to zero in on the terms that potential customers use first, and the terms they use as they're refining their search: Ask your customers, when they first contact your company. If they have just made a purchase, call the customer who placed the order. Chances are good you'll catch the person at his or her desk. "Hi, my name is John Smith. You just ordered our software program. Can you tell me the search term you used when you first started to search for it?"

If you sell a product with a long sales cycle, and they register to receive a white paper, for example, you can call them when they register. "Hi, my name is John Smith. You just downloaded our white paper. Can you tell me the search term you used when you first started to search for it?"

You don't have to contact every customer to find out what their initial search terms are. You'll start seeing obvious trends after the tenth or fifteenth customer.

You'll then be able to include their terms in your search optimization strategies. You'll also end up having very interesting conversations with your buyers, who will be pleased to talk to you - because you contacted them when they were thinking about your product or service. You'll learn what their concerns were as they sought your solution. You'll be able to address those concerns in your paid search ads and subsequent landing pages.

Web logs are useful, but they only reflect one aspect of your customer's search process. If you want the whole story, ask your customer - soon enough that they still remember what they did.

Our first Revenue Journal podcast, in which I interview Brian Livingston, President/Editor of WindowsSecrets.com, who was just named Entrepreneur of the Year by MarketingSherpa.

1) Building plans and getting funding
2) Researching and developing a content management and creation system
3) Manufacturing, including systems and processes
4) Quality control
5) Distribution
6) Promotion
7) Feedback / service / improvement

Chief Content Officer
To win the content battle, someone will have to own it. One person has to be in charge of content creation and content management. Otherwise, content efforts turn into a hodgepodge of warring standards, content repositories, templates, and content management systems.

The owner, a "Chief Content Officer," should do the following:

- Research what customers want to do when they come to the company's site, and how they want to do it

- Set up and manage the company's content management system, so that all chunks of copy, images, and finished pieces/pages are stored in one database and all pages containing those content elements can be simultaneously updated

- Have all content tagged so it can be easily found by logical search or selection criteria

- Hire and manage professional writers

- Train the writers - so that they understand the company, its products, and its customers

- Insist that the writers conduct at least two interviews every single week (with customers, salespeople, and selling partners)

- Consolidate interview findings into a report for management each month

- Establish and manage standards for the content, including templates and instructions for the writers

- Hire people to perform quality control on the content that is produced

- Set up a content obsolescence system that "pings" content creators when the content needs refreshing - and continues to ping them until the content is updated

- Promote new content to all appropriate audiences

- Set up usage tracking and feedback mechanisms, so the content can be continuously improved

Good content brings people to you, engages them, builds trust and appreciation, and leads to new sales. It's time to get serious about good content. Your competitors are.

Your website is a building with many rooms, and each room has a door. Each door has a sign on it, supposedly identifying what's behind the door.

Let's assume a visitor in your building is looking for the restroom. He's in a hurry. But some self-important people have been naming the rooms in your building. As your visitor attempts to find the restroom, he whizzes right past a door labeled "Executive Corporate Relief Center.

"If the door had simply said "restroom," your visitor would have gone right in.

Customers have consistently told me that if a website link name isn't clear, they won't take the time to investigate. They only click the links that have obvious names, such as "products," "about us," "support," and so on. If they encounter a site where the navigation isn't clear, they bounce right back to their search engine results and keep looking elsewhere.

Usability tests back this up. In a recent test, we asked users, "What would you expect to find when you clicked on this link?" The only link that "failed" this test--where the user was unable to identify what was behind the link - was one that had been inserted into the website for political reasons. The link name was the name of a program that top execs were particularly fond of. Fully 100% of the users were unable to answer the question, even though the company had been "pushing" this particular program to those same users for years.

Why doesn't every site use plain-language, obvious links? Because the executives approving website designs - from the small business owner to top execs in large companies - want their site to be important, exciting, and unique.

Ironically, those same executives will achieve their goal, if they stop messing around with link titles and start approving plain-language titles. Customers will find exactly what they're looking for, which is important because it leads to higher sales. Customers will be excited that their experience was so effortless, so they'll come back again and will tell others about the site. And, because most competitors will still be using self-important link names, the site will be unique.

How do you find out which words to put on the doors? Ask your customers.

Your own customers will tell you how they expect to find information on your website, if you call them on the phone and ask them correctly.

Ask logical open-ended questions For example: "What do you want to do on our website, and how do you want to do it?" "What would you expect the link title to be for the section that contains X?" "What sites are a good example of this?"

Take careful note of their answers. Record the conversation so you can refer to it after you have finished the call. Summarize what they said, placing their verbatim comments into categories, in a written report.

Make sure you interview all types of website users. If you're selling enterprise software, you'd want to interview managers, IT folks, and end users. Interview 10 to 15 people in each group, and you will have enough data to be sure of their preferences. Their suggestions will be surprisingly consistent. Customers will use the exact same phrase to describe a preference or desire, even though they have never spoken to each other.

The data you collect and analyze will make it easy for you to make decisions about what your links should be called and how your content and navigation should be organized. Your correct course will be clear.

If you're a small business owner, your next step is simply to defer to your customers' preferences, and implement the changes.

If you are in charge of upgrading a website for a larger company, you will have a harder time of it. You will need to convince your execs that they will achieve all the importance, excitement, and distinction they desire - if they let you give customers what they want. This will be a battle.

You must arm yourself for the battle with evidence, or you will lose. Once again, your customers can help you. When you are conducting the interviews, ask a simple question: "If we were able to implement all the changes you have suggested, how would that affect your behavior?" You can also ask a "one to ten" question during your interview: "On a scale of one to ten, how much more likely will you be to [buy more products, tell others about our products, etc.]?"

If your execs still insist on calling the restroom a "Corporate Executive Relief Center," conduct some usability tests and present the results. If they still insist that you can't call that link a "restroom," maybe it's time to work for another company.

A typical business person begins the day…

Booting up computer…OK, 200 emails that I am expected to respond to…18 phone calls I must make today…7 hour-long meetings…this email says that we can't use the approach we all finally agreed upon…sigh…phone rings…boss…wants me to call into a meeting he's holding now…there goes my "quiet" time…calling in…hmmmm boring…why did he think I needed to hear this?…May as well do something productive while I'm listening…briefcase handle broke yesterday, need a new one…let's see…Google…typing…

briefcase leather black computer pocket Briggs & Riley

Hmmm…MSN Shopping shows a bunch of them, looks like…clicking…ah, good…wait, boss is asking me a question…yes…yes…yes, we've got that under control, I'm sending you the project plan…email to boss…OK, back to briefcases. Man, they're expensive. Better sort by price…OK…I'll look at this and this and this…

We all know that this is the reality of a busy person's day, and the reality of a busy person's buying process. Yet we write as if they are sitting around with their feet up, luxuriating over every precious word of our promotional copy, like a recreational shopper with too much money and all day to spend it.

Time to snap out of it. No one wants to slowly wend their way through long-winded selling prose. They just want to get the right information at the right time. They want to scan the facts, fast. They don't want to waste a second getting bogged down in superfluous copy. They want copy that works, hard. They need every word to count. If they think you're wasting their time, they'll click away. You will have lost your chance to sell to that customer--not only today, but next time he wants your type of product.

Here's how to write in the age of the rushing reader.

1. Make it modular. Organize the copy into categories. Use bullets and subheads. Standardize the way you present information. For a great example of information organization and modular chunks, go to ebags.com.

2. Use fewer words. Don't wax eloquent. Don't beat around the bush. Just spit it out.

3. Make it active. Avoid passive voice. Yes, that means you can't say, "This product enables you to…" Start almost every sentence with a verb: "Enjoy the summer breezes…" "Print a 30-page document in less than 30 seconds…" "Convert files with two clicks…"

4. Be conversational. Use plain, every day language. Talk to your customers the way you'd talk to someone you are comfortable with, someone you respect, and someone who trusts you because you're telling the truth. You are telling the truth, right?

5. Know who you're talking to. When you write an email to a friend, you can type four words, and they'll know what you mean. You should be so familiar with your reader that you know exactly what they know and what they want you to tell them.

6. Don't tell them what they already know. This is the most common mistake copywriters make. They describe the reader's problem in detail. Readers already know what their problem is. What they want is a concise and compelling description of the solution.

7. Write for one type of person. If you sell a product to different audiences, divide your website into areas aimed at those audiences. That way you won't bore one type of buyer with copy aimed at another type of buyer. And you won't bore all of them by writing copy that is complex and caveated because it's attempting to address too many types of readers.

8. Tell, don't sell. The person who comes to your website already has a need. You don't have to convince them to buy, you need to answer the questions they ask before they buy. Give them the facts.

9. Be a ruthless editor. You're not writing a novel. You're writing selling copy. Skip all the flowery prose and stick to the basics. Most companies do a very poor job of providing basic product information.

10. Don't let a committee write your copy. Too many "stakeholders" can turn a simple message into a mess. Interview readers so you can convince the tinkerers to accept copy that works for the reader.

Here's some "luxuriating reader" copy, which breaks all the rules:

For a truly professional look, carry your business essentials in a high quality leather briefcase from one of Cases2Go's luggage manufacturers. Not only will you be better prepared by keeping your documents organized and safe, but you will also look like the consummate professional, ready to take on the world. A leather briefcase allows you to carry everything you may need over the course of a long work day. The right briefcase will be functional as well as stylish, and at Cases2Go a large number of stylish, dependable leather briefcases are available for you to choose from.

Nowadays, if you are a businessperson on the move, there are a variety of things that you must carry with you. A laptop computer and all its accessories (batteries, adapters, etc.), files and papers, a cell phone, and a PDA are just a few of the items that you may need during the day.

How insulting! How boring! How vapid! Here's a rewrite:

Carry your laptop, cell phone, PDA, accessories, and papers in this stylish leather briefcase--and have pockets left over for whatever else you need.

This sentence answers the two questions that were answered in the long version (What can I carry? What's this briefcase made of?), without all the obsequious drivel.

You want the rushing reader to buy from you? Assume your reader wants something. Make it easy for them to find you and see that you have it. Plenty of them will buy.

If you haven't been to the launch site for NXP, a spin-off from Philips, take a look - and prepare to be blown away.

The site is beautiful. Breathtaking, even. The Guy in the Green Shirt (below), who will talk to you while you're on the site, does a pretty good job of being professional and yet friendly, in a geeky/retro kind of way. So friendly, in fact, that when you return to the site he will welcome you back.

The Guy in the Green Shirt on the NXP site shows you the nifty MP3 radio you can win if you refer a lot of people to the site. Interesting viral approach.

The NXP site is filled with eye candy and an excellent online launch press kit. NXP has gone all-out for this launch, as evidenced by their media schedule, which is published right on the launch site.

The scale of this launch doesn't surprise me, partly because the VP of sales and marketing for NXP, Maria Marced, was previously with Intel, where she was the VP of marketing and sales - and general manager - of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) division.

However, as beautiful as it is, this site contains a cautionary lesson to any CEO who is about to launch a major campaign.

Before we get to the lesson, we will need a paragraph of background:

Philips recently sold 80% of Philips Semiconductors to a bunch of investors (including the ever-eager KKR), for $4.35 billion. The new company has now changed its name to NXP, which stands for "Next Experience." Not bad. Certainly an improvement over names chosen recently by other semiconductor spinoffs, most of which "sound like a restaurant at a beach resort," according to Michael Kanellos at ZDNet. NXP will sell chips for digital televisions, multimedia cellphones, electronic passports, and digital cash and identification systems. By the end of the second quarter this year, NXP had racked up $3 billion in sales and ranked as the world's #11 chip maker, according to IC Insights. Under the guidance of CEO Frans van Houten, the company grew 19 percent in the last two years, and had a pretax profit of $393 million last year. It grew 12 percent in the first half of 2006, compared to overall semiconductor growth of 9% during the same period.

Sounds good, right? So what's the lesson to be drawn from this launch?

NXP forgot to ask the most important question in marketing and sales:

Who is our buyer, and what will he want to do next?

This campaign is obviously aimed at consumers and the press. Are they the buyers of NXP semiconductors? No.

Let's say you're a buyer of consumer electronic products (a safe assumption). Let's say you're really impressed with the NXP launch site. What can you do? You can tell your friends to visit the site, in the hopes of winning that nifty MP3 radio. Then what? Will you go to your local Best Products store and demand to look only at the high-definition TVs with the NXP chip inside? Not likely. This is a revenue dead end.

Who does buy semiconductors? Manufacturers of digital products, obviously.

So let's pretend we're a design engineer at a manufacturing company. We go to the launch site. We click around. Not once are our needs mentioned, nor are we invited to do anything. Maybe there's something on their website. We click over to the NXP website. Nothing here that speaks to us directly, either. I don't have time for this, my project is behind schedule. I've got to get back to work. We click away.

The NXP home page does have a section aimed specifically at the design engineer. But, it's hidden from him. At the top of the left nav are the words, "I want to." If, by chance, the engineer had clicked on that link, he would have seen choices that addressed his needs: "Find a component that suits my needs; find detailed information about a known component; find alternative components; understand how to use components in an application"; etc. Once he was in this section, he would have found the navigation to be logical and helpful. Too bad he gave up before he found this information. There is also a product section, listed under "I want to" in the left nav. If the design engineer wasn't in such a hurry, he might have clicked on this section. The point is, nothing specifically addresses his needs. The site is all about NXP.

How could such a major launch ignore the buyer?

It's easy. I've seen it happen many times. When there are investors, top managers, and marketers with previous "consumer market splash" experience, everyone gets so excited about "branding" that they barely notice the customer asking, "What about me?" It's like the big shots decide to throw a huge party to honor somebody. But, with all the planning, running around, and general excitement, they forget who the party is for.

NXP could have easily rectified all of this, so that when the guest of honor showed up, he would have been welcomed rather than ignored. The home page for the new brand included five links at the top: Executive Management; The New Brand; Press Kit; Leave Comments; Share this Web Site. And, at the bottom, a link called NXP Company Web Site. They should have added one more link on this page called: For Design Engineers (or, so it matched the other links, they could have simply called it "NXP Products"). A design engineer would have clicked on that link; he would have then found himself on the "I want to" page or the Product Information page. Both of these pages contain helpful product information and are easy to navigate.

Next time you launch a new product, website, or campaign, make sure you ask yourself the most important question: Who is our buyer, and what will he want to do next?

Map out the steps. Make it easy for your buyer to walk down the primrose path to the completed sale.

The most important function of your website is the effective presentation of your products - whether you sell online or through a distribution network. Having just gone through a bunch of sites in the analysis of a buying process, and after doing a lot of research for clients on this subject in the course of website redesigns, I've come to some conclusions.

1) First, answer their questions. Buyers come to your website looking for answers to their questions. The more complex the buying process (the more scrutiny they apply to the purchase), the more questions they have. You must know what their questions are, and your answers must satisfy their concerns in the order that those concerns arise in the customer's mind. If your website fails to do this, your website is a failure. Period.

Most sellers guess which questions are important and assume they know which answers will satisfy. I guarantee that this method will keep you from making sales. If you want to zoom ahead of your competition, you will interview your current customers - people who have already bought from you. They will have shifted from the skeptical buyer playing their cards close to their chest to someone who has a vested interest in your continued success. They will answer all of your questions. They will tell you what they were thinking during their buying process, what really mattered to them, what their issues were, and even how well or poorly you addressed those issues. They won't mind giving you this information. They will even be flattered that you cared enough to ask.

2) Save the fancy stuff for later in their buying process. Those PTNR (pony-tail, nose-ring) designers can easily get you all excited about beautiful flash animations at the entrance to your site. You will be convinced that it will make you look sophisticated and sexy. Meanwhile, your prospective buyers will be seriously irritated that they are being accosted by clowns as they try to enter your store. They have already seen, - and been irritated by - plenty of equally flashy landing screens.

It's not a question of whether you should do something fancy. It's a question of when you should do something fancy. Save your fancy graphics for the "experience" part (see #6) which comes after you've given the buyer immediate access to product information and answered the questions they had in mind when they came to your site.

First you give them basic information, then you can let them choose to be entertained as they drill down. Don't force-feed entertainment on them at the beginning of their session on your site. People love to shop online because they can find exactly what they want in a matter of seconds. They are determined to spend the right amount of money on the best product choice. Don't let your ego stand in their way.

3) Use thumbnails for product pictures. For fairly simple products, each product page should include a couple of thumbnails. The buyer should be able to click on and enlarge each one. For more complex products, you should have a photo gallery, which displays many thumbnails, each about an inch square. Again, they should be able to click on a thumbnail to see a larger image in a new window.

When they click on a different thumbnail, that new image should appear in the same popup window. In other words, don't clutter their desktop with a stack of popups.

So they can easily get back to the page with thumbnails, they should be able to click on a "return to thumbnails" button on the popup window, which will take them back to the thumbnail page.

The larger images should include a caption. No one does this, and they should. The caption should relate to what is being shown in the image and point out important features that the customer would find particularly valuable.

Virtual tours are useful, but not necessarily worth the expense. A series of good photos is just as good. And do yourself a favor: Hire a professional photographer. Yes, you understand all of the buttons on your digital camera, but it is lighting that makes the difference between a photo that answers questions and one that does not. Photos play a significant role in the question-answering process. Plus, if the photo is substandard, your buyer will assume that your product is, also.

4) The more pictures, the better. You can never have enough pictures of your product. Think about your own experience as a buyer of online products. How often have you gone to a site, and clicked on the two or three pictures available, and thought, "Darn, this still doesn't answer my question." Maybe you want to see inside of that computer case. Maybe you want to understand how big something is, but the picture offers no frame of reference. Maybe you want to see what the item is made out of, and would have made the purchase if you could have seen a close-up of the product components. Maybe you wanted to see the end of the item, the bottom of the item, the handles on the item, the closure on the item, and on and on. Your buyers want to know. If you don't provide this information, they'll simply go back to Google and go to the next site in the search results. In a matter of seconds, you will have lost another sale.

5) Include photos, short and long descriptions, specs, and the price on the same page. Your interviews with customers will tell you which questions they want you to answer. But there is also basic information that should be on every product page. I'm shocked, frankly, at the number of companies that fail to include these basics, even though we've all had more than ten years to get this web stuff right.

Your product page should include at least one photo, at the top, with links to other photos via thumbnails (or a link to a gallery, for more complex products). Next, your product page should display a short, bulleted list of essential features and functions, and then a longer description. The description should be factual, personal and verb-heavy rather than adjective-heavy. "You can store up to 50 soda cans in this thermo-electric cooler" will lead to more sales than "This convenient thermo-electric cooler provides optimum carrying capacity."

The price should be prominently displayed on the page. Price is one of the biggest questions - and often one of the first questions. Don't be coy. The price is the price. Answer the question, right up front. If you hide the price, they will assume it's too high, and they will also wonder what else you're hiding from them.

6) Do everything you can to help the customer "experience" your product. After you have created product pages that answer the basic questions with your copy and your images, and you still have the budget and the desire to get fancy, go ahead. This is the right time in the buying process continuum to help your buyer "experience" the product. Your buyer has gotten her basic questions answered, and is still there, interested. The buyer is now more than happy to mentally "try on" the item. This is when the buyer will click on the item to change its color, or watch a video of the sailboat in action, or take a virtual tour of that house for sale.

7) Put the buyer in the driver's seat. You can't make a sale if your buyer can't make a purchase. In other words, your buyer's purchasing process is more important than your selling process. If you don't support their buying process, you won't make the sale.

What do they want to know? How do they want that information presented? What matters to them most? How do they want the site to be organized? Where would they expect to find certain types of information, and how would they like that information to be presented?

Don't guess. Don't depend on website designers to tell you. Trust me, they don't know. Most website designers have only worked on the web, and have very little personal experience in other aspects of business. So their idea of what a customer would want, or what one of your selling partners would need, could easily be wrong.

All of this matters - a lot. The web is not like a static brochure. It's a place where people interact with your information. If your information isn't holding up its end of the interaction, you will lose sales. And if you try to get fancy before you get the basics right, your website will be like a salesperson who only speaks jibberish whenever a customer asks a question.

Here's the first sentence of a website selling an email security solution:

"In today's business world, email has become critical to daily commerce. But, it also contains serious threats, threats which have increased dramatically over the last few years. You can't afford to ignore those threats."

Whoever wrote these words has obviously never spoken to a real IT person, who has been fighting an endless battle against spam for years. Actually, even a technophobic grandmother who does nothing but email on her computer knows that email contains "serious threats" which have "increased dramatically."

This copy tells the prospect nothing useful, insults his intelligence, and is a barrier to the sale. The copy went on like this for several more paragraphs, then finally spent a few paragraphs describing the product being sold and touching lightly on the product's specifications. That was unfortunately the only useful copy on the web page. The copy then shifted into benefit mode, which is also useless.

In all high-tech pieces and pages, the benefits section is where you will normally find some or all of the following phrases:

Increase productivity
Spend more time focusing on business
Accomplish more with fewer IT staff
Increase efficiency
Run your business efficiently
Increase utilization
Optimize your environment
Smaller footprint
More performance
Real cost savings
Highly integrated
Lower costs
Enhance security
Improve reliability and performance
Take better care of your customers
Stay more connected
Look and interact more professionally
Manage your customer relationships more effectively
Easy to configure, deploy and administer
Easy to use

And, of course, there are all the "-able" words:
Manageable
Scalable
Flexible
Capable
Expandable
Affordable
Reliable

There are two problems with this typical approach. First, only a couple of paragraphs were devoted to anything even close to useful copy. Second, since everyone writes the same copy, using the same old tired words and phrases, customers have learned to ignore it. Instead, they skim quickly, trying to find out what the product can do to help them and how it works.

How can you make sure your copy is useful?

Here's how to avoid useless copy and start cranking out useful copy:

1. List the facts. Don't even start writing until you have a bullet list of everything that someone would want to know about the product or service, in the order of importance. Be very specific. Do not say, "Large capacity." Say, "4 gigabytes of RAM."

2. List the things that make this product or service different from similar products or services. It's OK to include things that your company does better, too, but again, be very specific. Don't say, "Excellent customer service." Say, "Customer service reps are available via chat, email, fax, and phone, 24/7."

3. Describe exactly what will happen to the customer after he buys. Don't say, "Easy to install." Say, "Installs in 30 seconds with three clicks."

4. Avoid the "enable" words. Don't say, "This software will enable you to [whatever]." Say, "Create web pages from Excel spreadsheets with four clicks."

5. Start your bullets with a verb. This is a very effective way to discipline yourself (or your copywriter) to write something the reader would want to read. Make the verbs as active and action-oriented as possible, Say, "Filter and organize your email into your own categories."

6. Make a list of the words you should avoid - and avoid them. The lists above are a good place to start. Anything generic is merely background noise. Avoid words like "easy," "convenient," "affordable," and so on. These are words that anyone can apply to anything - and everyone does. If you want to break out of the pack, you have to stop doing what the pack does.

7. Skip the history lesson. So many marketers have been rigorously taught to describe the customer's situation in the beginning of the copy. It's big mistake. As I've said many times, the drowning man knows - better than you - that he's about to die. What he wants is to be rescued. If you write your copy right, he will know immediately that he's going to be OK.
   

Retire those old useless phrases. No one's reading them. They are a complete waste of your writing time and their reading/buying time.

Replace those vague, useless phrases with crisp, action-oriented copy that answers every single question, and your copy will sell more for you.

What is the most important part of every email you send - whether to one person or to your entire email mailing list? The subject line.

What's the second most important part of every email you send? Your signature.

Marketing is often considered a very subjective exercise. But the expectations and behavior of email recipients have created certain absolutes associated with subject lines and signatures. Use them well, and you will add a lot of success to your work day. Use them poorly, and you will generate inefficiency, confusion, frustration, and a lot of wasted time - in your day and in the working days of your recipients.

The Mighty Subject Line

What's inside? Should I open this?

These are the Two Big Questions people ask themselves when they read a subject line. This is after they've asked themselves, "Who is this from?" When it's from someone you know, the subject line isn't as important. It can be superfluous, in fact. You will open an email from your best friend even if there is nothing in the subject line.

So the first question is always, "Who is this from?" If the answer is, "someone I love," the email is opened, no matter what. If the answer is, "someone I know," then we shift to a mental pecking order filter. An email from the boss or a client gets top priority. The email from an employee or vendor gets opened next. An email from a working peer, friend, or acquaintance will also get opened. All other emails depend on the subject line exclusively.

One of the problems with subject lines is their tendency to lose relevance when the message becomes part of an ongoing discussion between people working on a project. Perhaps you sent an email with the subject line "Meeting on Friday?" After the decision is made to meet on Friday, the reply-based emails back and forth increasingly contain information about things that may or may not have anything to do with the meeting.

Now the subject line and the contents no longer match. Do you change the subject line as the content changes? I say yes. Why? Because our email inboxes have become our most important filing cabinet. All day long, work flows into our lives via email. Later, when it's time to look up a specific fact or track down a file someone sent, we find ourselves sorting through our emails. Subject lines can make it easy to find what you are looking for - if they're used properly. Far too few people pay attention to the fact that email inboxes have become our main information repository.

When you're sending emails to your prospects and customers, there's a tendency to make the email look like it's coming from a trusted friend. Big mistake. Scammers and spammers use this method all the time, which is a good reason to avoid this approach. Why associate yourself with leeches and jerks? Plus, the minute the person opens the email and realizes that you just tricked him into opening it, he makes a mental note: Don't trust you in the future.

Trust is actually the issue when we're talking about senders and subject lines. We open emails from our loved ones and friends because we trust that the content will be relevant and worthy of our time and attention. We open content from our bosses and clients because we trust that the content is important to us. We resent it when someone who does not fit in either of these categories tries to fool us into thinking the message is worthy of our time and attention.

What should you put in your subject lines? Well, you can always start with the truth - and a clear representation of what is inside the message. I get a lot of emails from PR people, and it's always helpful if they come right out and say why they're sending it. "Release: Superflop announces speedy new chip" is a good subject line. It tells me exactly what the message contains.

If you send out a regular newsletter, the first few words of the subject line should be the title of the newsletter, so the person can sort emails by the name of the newsletter and find specific content later on. Tout the lead story in the subject line. Don't bother putting the date in the subject line; all email systems always display the date.

The subject line should be compelling. WebProWorld subject lines are compelling: "Strange Experience with MSN," "Suspicious Click Activity on Ads," "This stat function real or a scam?"

One way to move up on the trust scale is to be specific, since spammers love being vague, in the hopes that your curiosity will cause you to open the message. People who get 200-plus emails a day (especially corporate employees, for whom many of those emails must actually be answered), aren't opening emails because they're "curious." An email with the specific, "Auditing Information Security" subject line will get opened before the email with the more generic subject line "Upcoming Ethisphere Council Events."

The subject line should always communicate what is inside. Don't make people open it to figure it out. Sure, there will be people who don't open the message if they know what's inside, but the people who do open the message will be much better prospects for you. And that is better than getting a recipient to open a message, only to shake her head and think, "Screw you, spammer." As this negative thought is going through her mind, and she's closing your message, the image of your logo (which probably appeared at the top of the email) will be fresh in her mind. Now your logo and "screw you" are linked in her mind. You'd be better off to have her reject your subject line than to reject your logo and its associated content.

The Essential Sig

Every single message you send should include your email signature at the bottom. Your signature should include your name, title, company, website, and contact info - especially phone numbers. Your email message is the first place someone will go when they decide it's time to call you. If it's on every single message, they only have to open one email. I have gotten many emails from people who have a "sometimes I do, sometimes I don't" attitude toward including signature lines at the end of their emails. It's frustrating, then, when I go back into those emails looking for their phone number, having to open more than one message to find one with the information.

It's so easy to set up an automatic signature, there's no excuse for not having one. And as long as you're doing it, make it complete, and use it to establish and reinforce your brand (the promise that you keep). For example, every email I send always has this at the very end:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kristin Zhivago
Revenue coach for company leaders
President, Zhivago Marketing Partners, Inc.
381 Seaside Drive Jamestown RI 02835
tel 401-423-2400 fax 401-423-2700
email: kristin@zhivago.com
http://www.zhivago.com (website)
http://www.revenuejournal.com (blog)
http://www.RiversOfRevenueBook.com (book)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's a little lengthy, but it makes it easy for anyone to 1) know what I do, 2) contact me via phone or fax, or 3) click over to our corporate website, blog, or book site.

Few people use subject lines and sigs to their advantage, even though email has become the most common form of communication between people doing business with each other. It's like sending out every letter without an address or a stamp; it won't get very far or do you any good.

Business owners have come to know that the web can be used to answer questions that buyers and customers have. The more questions you answer on your website, the less money you have to invest in people answering those questions, one at a time. This is not a difficult concept to understand.

Unfortunately, grasping it and succeeding at it are miles apart. One thing we see standing in the way is a tendency to believe that "a good search function" on the site will somehow substitute for poor navigational organization. Not true.

Your visitors should be able to navigate to any piece of information on your site. Web-based content must be "findable." There must be a logical way to get to the answer, whatever the question is. The person who has a question wants to be able to come to the site, glance at the choices offered, and see a word or phrase that he knows will lead him to the answer. He has to keep feeling that each choice will bring him closer to his goal. As long as he is feeling this way, he will happily click through a series of menus.

There are people who think that this is the wrong way to approach navigation of content. They think that website visitors should be able to type in a question and get an answer. But how many times have you typed a question into Google and "gotten the answer" - without having to revise your search several times? How many times have you typed a question into a company's search box and "gotten the answer" - at all? How many times have you typed a question into any Help function in any Microsoft product and gotten anything resembling an answer? I thought so. Why does search work so poorly?

Because the people seeking answers tend to form their questions differently than the people who know the answers. The moment you learn the answer to a question, your view of the subject is completely different from the view of the person who is asking the question.

It's like asking for directions. My husband and I used to live in California, where most people are from somewhere else. Most Californians tend to give fairly decent directions, because they came to California from somewhere else, and had to learn how to get around. They still know how to think like someone who is new to an area. Someone who needs directions, in other words.

When we moved to New England ten years ago, and started asking for directions, we were amused (sometimes) at the difference between Californians giving directions and New Englanders giving directions.

When someone from New England gives you directions, they tend to use landmarks instead of street signs, because that's how they drive. "Turn left at Dunkin' Donuts," they'll say. When the directions have almost gotten you there, they always stop giving directions and say, "You can't miss it."

Actually, you can - and probably will - miss it, since you don't know what you're looking for. They can't miss it, because they already know where it is.

The navigation on your website should be so clear that no one ever has to "ask for directions" by using a search box, especially since search box results are seldom satisfying. They should be able to find the answer to every single question by pursuing navigation. And they should never have the feeling that they've just "missed it."

Last week I talked about email absolutes; this week let's look at some website navigation absolutes.

1. Stick to website conventions. People are used to "products," "services," "about," "contact," and so on. Don't try to be clever and break from convention. Navigation is mostly about convention. Put things where people expect to find them. Use the left columns for detailed website navigation categories, and make sure they stay the same as the person goes through your website. Use the top for tabs showing the main categories. Use the right-hand side for special messages or actions that the person can take on that particular page. These are the conventions. They work. Use them.

2. Map out your entire navigation scheme based on what you expect people to do. Map out their pathways, and make sure each pathway is supported. Many people think they're doing this, but their website visitors will tell them they didn't do a good enough job.

3. The more they drill down, the more detail you should give them. If they're interested enough to drill down, they're interested enough to read some content. Take them all the way to the 60-page product manual, if you can. If they find the answer there, they'll buy your product. They won't mind they had to do that much digging, as long as they find their answer.

4. Know the questions they ask and the order they ask them. What's most important to them, first? What do they need to know next? Make sure your copy answers their questions. It's quite common for even the most basic questions to be unanswered in a product description.I often find myself reading customer reviews before I read product descriptions, because I get more useful information out of the product reviews. The descriptions are always filled with vague promises, whereas the product reviews give me very specific information.

5. Give them a chance to buy on every page - but don't be too pushy. At some point, they will have the answers to their questions and will be ready to buy. But don't keep shouting "BUY ME" on every page. They'll see the buy button clearly enough when they're ready.
   

Once your navigation is solid and logical, you can work on building search capability into your site.

A lot of entrepreneurs obsess over their search engine marketing and Adwords campaigns, to make sure that they get a high listing when someone goes searching for their type of product. Nothing wrong with that, but given the endless demands on the typical business owner, there's a tendency to focus on lead generation at the expense of conversion.

It's the easiest thing in the world to think that your website is "good enough," and that it is not a barrier to the sale. You're used to it, it makes sense to you, and you get enough sales to believe that it is doing its job. There's only so much time in a day, and once your website is "done," it's easy to just assume it's working hard enough for you, and focus your attention to lead-generation campaigns.

Meanwhile, the expectations of your customers continue to rise, it's easier than ever to find plenty of alternative choices while doing a search, (especially using something like Google Products), and a lot of companies - including your competitors - have started to figure out how to answer customer questions more effectively. That's the real secret of website success, and not only from a conversion point of view. The more information you have about your products on your website, the more likely it is that your site will be picked up by a search engine.

Every successful sale has one thing in common, regardless of the product or service being sold. The questions asked by the customer are all answered to the customer's satisfaction. If your site answers all the questions the customer has, without digging, the customer will stay - and is much more likely to buy. If your site fails to answer a question, or it's just to difficult to find the answer, the customer will click away in a nanosecond and all that effort you put into your search and online advertising will have gone to waste.

Here are some of the questions that your site must answer in order to keep the customer moving towards the sale.

1) Does your site look professional? Even the most die-hard online shoppers will hesitate to give their credit card information to a site that looks unprofessional. They'll pop in, see "amateur," and pop out. With all the website design and template options available, there really isn't any excuse for a messy-looking website.

2) Is there enough information about the product on your site? Skimpy product descriptions are frustrating and raise doubts about your product. Today's web customers know exactly what they want, and the more specific you are, the more sales you will make.

A recent search for portable battery for a laptop led me to this site, partly because they come up so high in all the search results. But note how this particular page has basically no information about the product. How much does it weigh? What size is it? What kind of connections does it accept?

Here we have unit costing $900, and they only have a one-sentence description that doesn't even begin to answer the customer's questions. This site, on the other hand, had a complete product description, many pictures, and a compatibility check section. Guess who got the order?

3) Does your site include educational material? You have a lot of knowledge about your product, floating around in your head. Your customers could learn a lot from you, if you would just write it down and post it. Even pages describing "how to buy [your type of product]" can be useful for your potential customers, especially if you're selling something complex or something people only buy once or a few times in a lifetime.

4) Once the person has decided to buy, is the next step obvious? Here's a product page that has a lot of useful information, but there's no way to buy. If you don't take orders over the web, say so - and make sure your phone number and hours of operation are located where the shopper would expect to find the "Add to Cart" button. Of course, one has to wonder why a company would have so much information on the web but not offer to sell their products on the web.

5) Make it easy for the person to contact you with a question. A lot of sites make it impossible to contact a real, live human being. This is a big mistake. Make sure your contact information is either on every page or one click away from every page. While it seems obvious that you should make yourself as available to your customers as possible, it's amazing how many sites don't do it. I guess they're hoping the orders will come in without them having to do much work. That dream died years ago.

6) Make sure your sales staff considers web leads important. One of our clients is working hard on improving their conversion rates. Their inbound lead program is pretty healthy, but they're not satisfied with the number of sales they're closing. A thorough examination of the situation has convinced them that their salespeople didn't think web leads were as "hot" as phone leads. But what could be hotter than someone who is in the very act of making a purchase?

That's what people are doing when they shop on the web. They want to make their decision as efficiently as possible, and go back to whatever else they normally do. The company that is ready to answer their questions, no matter how they are asked, is the company most likely to make the sale.

The better your content, the more you will sell.

A pretty simple concept to grasp, especially when we think of the buying process from the buyer's point of view. Most people who are buying something for the first time go straight to Google. They type in the search phrase they think will give them the right result, refine it if needed, and then start drilling down - mostly on the sites that come up "above the fold" on the screen. We all know this.

And yet, as I work with clients to improve content, and as I see content from the buyer's point of view, I am dismayed by how un-seriously managers take their own content.

Content has become your biggest, most important salesperson. Potential customers can interact more - and often exclusively - with your content than with your human salespeople. Before a customer calls the salesperson, they've been to your site and the sites of your competition. They've read customer reviews. They may even have done some research on the discussion groups. They are far, far along in their decision-making process. If your product is one where a salesperson must be involved at the very end, she had better be able to answer those critical, final questions in a second, or the customer will simply find a way to hang up and go to another vendor.

Throughout this article, I refer to content. What I really mean is WORDS. Of course your site also contains images, and perhaps video/audio. They are also "content," and they should receive the same care and attention as your words. But I want to focus on words here, because that's where most companies fall short.

Words are what they will see in search engine results. Words are what they will read when they get to your site. Words are what will lead them to click on a video - or not. Words are what will help them understand and appreciate what they are looking at when they view a product picture. Your words determine if they stay with you all the way through to a purchase, or not.

You can't sell without content anymore. The smartest companies are maniacal about content. They obsess over the words they use. They use those words to convey their character. Here's a great example.

Content comes into play at all stages of the typical Web/Google-driven buying process, in a variety of forms. Most people know how all this works. Very, very few are optimizing their content to support this process.

1) Search ads and listings. Your ad or listing should say one thing: "We have what you're looking for" - obviously not in those exact words. It's a formula, consisting of who "we" are, and "what they are looking for." The "we" part is easy, the second part is more complex.

You obviously have to actually sell what they are looking for - none of that "false promise" stuff that is so common today. So the questions then become: Do you know the words they use to search for your type of product? In addition to using WordTracker and all the other tools available, do you actually ask people what search term they used? Do you ask people who haven't come to your site what search term they would use if they were looking for what you sell? More importantly, have you asked current customers the problem they were trying to solve when they came to your site? The answers to these questions will lead you to ads and listings that pull better.

2) Home page content. Your home page content should be the model of efficiency, and a factual presentation of everything you offer for sale. It should tell the person in search of your solution that they have come to the right place. It should be obvious that the person can arrive at your solution via a number of methods - by search box, by brand, by product number or name, by type of problem, by ingredient, etc. It should also be obvious that you can provide deep educational material on your type of product or service. The more you have, the longer your prospect will stay on your site, digging around. The longer your prospect stays on your site, the more she will come to trust you, and the more she trusts you, the more likely she is to buy from you - now and later.

3) Individual page content. There are millions upon millions of web pages out there, and you'd think by now everyone would know how to provide the expected content on each type of page. Take the "About Us" page. Prospective customers want to know who's running the company. We've seen software vendors, for example, who don't list any executives on their About Us page. This raises a red flag for the buyer, who literally wonders if the executives are somehow ashamed to identify themselves to potential buyers. If you're worried about recruiters stealing your key people, use a group shot.

Whatever you do, don't be chintzy with your content. Divide it up into chunks, so they won't think, "too dense - don't have time to read it now," but give them plenty. Again, the more content you have the more likely it is you will make the sale. When you're writing your product descriptions, think "education." You know a lot about your products - how they hold up over time, what works well with certain materials, the best way to use the product, where the product comes from and why that's important, why it is an improvement over other products, and so on. This is the kind of content that builds trust, and trust leads to sales.

4) Transaction pages. Again, it's not like there aren't good examples out there. It should be ridiculously easy to buy something. The less input required, the better. Make sure they understand exactly where they are in the process and what is going to happen next. Use clear, short-word language. The tone should be that of a very friendly but incredibly efficient sales clerk.

5) Your service pages. Don't hide from the customer. There are so many sites where the customer has to go four levels down before the company provides an email address. Prospective customers pay attention to such things. "Looks like this company is going to run away when I have a problem," they will think, and they'll keep looking elsewhere.

Your content factory.

Imagine if all companies took content as seriously as they take finance or manufacturing or "sales."

• There would be a Chief Content Officer, who would be part of the corporate management inner circle, involved in strategic decisions and responsible for making sure the company's content accurately reflected those decisions. This person would actually have a budget. Yes, the more progressive companies have these folks on staff, but it has not yet become the norm, and it certainly hasn't trickled down to the smaller firms.

• There would be efficient content-creation and content-maintenance systems in place. Content owners should be able to make simple changes without asking permission.

• There would be content specialists, who did nothing but generate and maintain content on the company's website. They would:
  
  • Spend at least a couple of hours a week interviewing prospects, customers, and partners, to make sure that their content was addressing all concerns in the right way.

  • Work closely with the company's Web analytics folks, constantly working to improve the popularity and relevance of each page.

  • Make sure that their company did the most thorough job of describing the product and educating the customer, decidedly better than the competition.

  • Conduct usability studies to identify content that website visitors found confusing or hard to find.

  • Work closely with the sales force to make sure that salespeople had immediate access to those critical, specific questions and answers when they were on the phone with the customer.

  • Find out from salespeople which new questions customers were starting to ask.

  • Check the competition's sites continually and report back to management on any new content competitors were displaying, and work to out-do or counter that content, as appropriate.
    

• There should be an ongoing content quality effort, with someone in charge of that effort. The content should be continually checked, and any issues that arise should be resolved quickly.
  

Smaller companies should have at least one person dedicated to content, even if it is an outside resource. Content now requires the same kind of day-to-day attention as the other aspects of a business, including manufacturing and sales. There's just no way to remain competitive anymore without a serious commitment to content.

Salespeople (or, I should say, order takers) who are used to taking calls all day are still having a hard time adjusting to the email-driven business world we live in now. The same is true of many small business owners.

The phone is no longer the "instrument of choice" for today's busy buyers. Their preferred way of contacting companies when they are interested in a product or service is via email. And yet, too many salespeople and entrepreneurs are still treating email as an intrusion into their busy day. Because they get so much email and spam, and because they don't want to spend all day typing notes to people, they just aren't giving incoming email buyers the attention that they deserve.

If your salespeople are struggling with this issue - or ignoring it - it helps for them to see the email scenario from the buyer's point of view. It will help them understand how just a few minutes spent responding can make the difference between closing a sale or losing a customer for life. Let's look at this from the perspective of a customer we'll call Jane.

Email and your revenue: from the buyer's perspective

Jane, who works out of her home, is in the market for a landscaper. She goes online, types "landscaping companies San Diego" into Google, and starts clicking on the various listings that come up. She's discouraged because it looks like they're all too expensive - and that they would prefer to get large, commercial projects rather than a modest project like hers. But, finally, she has three vendors she thinks might work. She sends each of them the same email, explaining her situation and what she is hoping they will be able to do. Here's what happens:

Landscaper A: The gal in the office, Pattie, responds within 15 minutes. She thanks Jane for the email and makes it clear they are interested in her business. She says that the landscaper, Dan, is out on a job (which makes sense to Jane - it's the middle of a weekday). Pattie asks some questions so she understands better what Jane is looking for. They exchange a few emails, then Pattie says, "OK, I have enough info now for Dan. I will call him now, and he will call you this afternoon. It might be possible for him to swing by, walk through, and give you an estimate."

Jane is encouraged. She got an answer almost immediately, Pattie did a great job of getting the information Dan needed, and she might even be able to get an estimate today. She hasn't heard from the other landscapers, so she goes back to work. That first landscaper has already given her peace of mind.

Later that afternoon, the phone rings. It's Dan. They talk a bit, and agree on a time to meet. When he comes over, he is professional, informative, and friendly. They walk through her property and he works up a quote for her. She likes his ideas, his price isn't outrageous, and she feels he can get the job done. She hires him to do the job.

Landscaper B: Jane goes back into her home office and goes to work again. About an hour later, she gets an email from Landscaper B. This landscaper doesn't ask any questions, but simply sends a boilerplate sales pitch, and invites her to call the office if she has any questions. "Too late," Jane thinks, and sends an email saying she has already found her vendor.

Landscaper C: Jane never hears from this vendor.

Timely, appropriate response = more revenue

Scenarios like the one we just described occur constantly. Someone sets out on a buying mission, and sends notes out to the vendors of choice. The vendor who responds immediately and appropriately gets the sale, often without having to fight for that sale, simply because he responded immediately and appropriately. He has passed the first test, and, if he doesn't blow the rest of the interaction, he will pass the subsequent tests, too. Assuming the customer is already familiar with the key issues - particularly price - the salesperson can proceed right through the sales process with the buyer, all the way to the finished sale.

Once the potential customer has started interacting with a vendor, that vendor has a massive edge over the other slow-responding vendors. The momentum is in favor of the first responder. A rewarding dialog begins, and is already in progress by the time the slow-responders come onto the scene.

Vendors who come into the picture after the first dialog has already started are viewed almost as if they were intruders on a private conversation. A bond has already been established, and the buying process is already proceeding as the buyer hoped it would. The subsequent vendors will not stand a chance.

If you aren't responding to emailed leads within 15 - 30 minutes, you're not succeeding in today's email-centric environment. It doesn't really matter how small or large your business is, or what you sell. If you want to cash in on your email leads, you have to find a way to make absolutely sure that those emails will be responded to appropriately and immediately. Here are some tips.

1) Use templates. Create an appropriate set of templates for immediate response. Make sure that there are sections that can be personalized, and always use that first email to interact with the customer. Don't just provide information; ask questions, too. They should be specific - so the buyer knows that it was typed by a real human being responding to their concerns, not a nerdy response robot.

2) Use a first responder. If the "knowledgeable" people are too busy to create the first email response, have someone do it who can get the conversation started, then turn the lead over to a "knowledgeable" person once the customer has responded.

If you want to make more sales during a recession, this is one of the key places where a relatively small investment will pay off in a big way. It's criminal to ignore incoming email leads when the economy is roaring along; it's suicidal to do it when the economy slows down.

3) Keep track. Know exactly how many emails are coming in each day. Know the sources. Know who was assigned to those emails and what happened afterwards. Publish the results every day, in an email that all the sales agents and managers receive.

4) Set a standard, and help your salespeople to meet it. All first emails should be responded to within 15 - 30 minutes. If this just isn't possible now, because all your salespeople are on the phone, figure out how to make it happen. Use the first responder, or send all new calls into voicemail for the last 15 minutes of every hour, so salespeople have a time that is dedicated to emails. Or, train them to take a call, then do an email.

5) Have a tickler system. First response is critical, but so is follow-up. Each salesperson should have a system that ensures they will follow up with the customer at the appropriate time. Send the first email, wait five hours, then send the second, for example. Your timing will depend on the length of your sales cycle and the complexity of your product.

Email has become the main method for buyers to contact vendors and start the buying process. Too many companies are not giving email the attention - and infrastructure - it deserves. Plus, I can't tell you how many times I have used a "webform" to send an email to a company, and have never received a response.

Hellllllllllooo!!! Customers who send you an email are ready to spend money with you. If you refuse to engage - on their terms - you are walking away from revenue.