By Kevin Potts
Websites have become the go-to medium
for casual information gathering. Google, Wikipedia, Technorati, and other
massive information harvesters offer the world near infinite information at
near-instant speeds. When people hear about a company, they type in the URL.
Because of this, providing as much information about the business and its
offerings is a critical ingredient in successful websites and marketing in
general—when content is available, people will consume it.
Most
users who go through the trouble of finding a particular company are likely
going to click on the Products link in the main menu. They should be rewarded
with a landing page that focuses on actual product offerings, and doesn’t
display large, Flash-based introductory animations, wander down tangents
talking about company history, or do anything else that detracts from the
carefully crafted sales message. In other words, do not deviate from the
selling path.
Few sections benefit more from building
content than the products or services. Not only does it inform the audience,
which is very likely the customer base, but it presents an ideal marketing platform
and selling opportunity. If people are already on your site, why not push them
into action?
The Products and Services pages should
be built with a selling path in mind. A selling path is an easily followed,
short series of actions that leads people to initiate the sales process.
Ideally, this should be three tangible steps:
- Landing page: People will find the products or services landing
page, be enamored with all the wondrous things the company manufactures,
sells, or consults about, and click on an item for deeper exploration.
- Individual description: Prospects will find themselves on
a singular page that describes in no uncertain detail all of the salient
selling points of the product or service. This page guides them toward the
final stage of the selling path: the sales process.
- Acquisition: After readers consume everything about the product or
service that catches their eye, they will effortlessly find themselves on
a page that (politely) asks them to finish what they started, either by
making a purchase or becoming a qualified lead by making contact with the
company.
Streamlining this process is not as
easy as it sounds. In fact, it requires careful design and copywriting.
