Know Your Competition and Know What Sets You Apart

Before you can become better than your competition, you need to know who your competition is. Once you know who your competition is, develop your site so that it gains visitor’s trust by having an up-to-date website and by using trust images and icons. As you create your website, include content that shows that you are better than your competition because you are the expert in your industry.

Search the Internet to see what your competition is offering to their visitors. Are your prices comparable? Are your prices a little higher, but you offer free shipping? Do you have a larger selection? More experience?

Let everyone know that you are better than your competition by sending out monthly newsletters. Include testimonials and customer reviews on your site and in your newsletter. If you need help becoming better than your online competition, trust the industry experts at HIT Web Design.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

How Can a Monthly Newsletter Impact Your Business?

You need to let your customers know that you are better than your competition. One easy and effective way to let them know is through your monthly newsletter.

Newsletters can be used to

• Introduce customers to your employees.
• Show off your years of experience.
• Introduce new products or services.
  
• Highlight one or more of your products.
• Advertise upcoming sales and specials.
  

HIT Web Design offers the Stay-N-Touch marketing program. This uncomplicated database allows you to collect valuable customer information. With Stay-N-Touch, visitors to your website can choose to opt in to your e-newsletter.

If you need help creating a professional looking newsletter that contains knock-your-socks-off content, HIT Web Design’s experienced writers and designers can create a newsletter for you at an affordable price.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Price vs. Quality

Let your clients know what your strengths are: If you offer products at a great price, then emphasize that fact. If your products are top of the line, let your visitors know it.

Take some time to search the Internet for companies that offer similar products. For example, let’s say that you have an online shoe store. You specialize in sandals, flip flops, and other summer shoes—all offered at a great price. You don’t sell name brand shoes. Instead, you offer lesser-quality products at a great price. You aren’t competing with nike.com, teva.com, or other brand name sites. You probably aren’t competing with small businesses that sell name brand summer footwear. Your competition is the company that is selling products of similar quality for a similar price.

In addition to your online competition, you’ll want to consider your real world competition. If you are offering a product or service to a specific geographic location, learn what types of products and services your competition offers as well as the costs of those products and services.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Becoming an Industry Expert

Adding a saying or slogan can also help you build visitors’ trust. Your saying may include “Certified in …” or “Over. . . customers served,” for example. You want to make sure that your saying is honest and accurate.

Certifications are a good way to help site visitors gain your trust, but they also help show that you are an expert in your industry. Many industries offer certifications. If they don’t, then try to get published in an industry magazine or newsletter. Include a link to the magazine or newsletter on your website.

Another way to show that you are an expert in your industry is by continual blogging. If you want to become an expert in your industry, see what the industry experts are blogging about. Begin to research what the experts are researching, and then blog about your own take. Once you become an industry expert, you’ll get visitors that you normally wouldn’t get. You’ll get sales opportunities that didn’t previously exist. You’ll be better, in some ways, than your competition.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Gain Visitors’ Trust by Using Trust Images and Icons

One way to gain visitor trust is by using trust images and icons. There are several independent companies and non-profit organizations that will help measure your company’s success, your excellent customer service, the security of your website, etc. For example, BBB (Better Business Bureau), Hacker Safe, PayPal Verified, and GeoTrust are all companies that can help bring trust and credibility to your business. Of course, there are several other companies that do the same thing. Make sure that you use the reputable ones. One of the best ways to lose your customers’ trust is by making up your own trust icons—don’t do it!

Take a look at our website, www.hitwebdesign.com. On our landing page, we have the Inc. 500 logo. We have been featured as one of Inc. 500’s fasting growing companies for the last three years. Click on the “Read More” link and you are taken to a page that has almost a dozen more trust images, including Entrepreneur magazine and Google Adwords. You want to become qualified to receive trust icons that are offered in your industry. This not only helps with trust, it also shows that you are an expert in your industry.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Building Your Companies Reputation Through Blogs and Forums

There are several ways to add good content to your site without taking up a lot of space on your landing page. Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide says “This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.”

Blog posts, forum posts, and emails should be of some benefit to the customer. For example, if you write a blog post (or blog article) on something that educates visitors, they are more likely to read it and pass it on to friends and family.

Don't let the task of writing copy for your website overwhelm you. HIT Web Design has a team of professional writers who are dedicated to helping our clients create the most effective copy for their websites, newsletters, press releases, blogs, or whatever other writing needs they may have.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Effective Website Copy is Easy to Read

No matter how much copy you have, make sure that the copy you are using on your site is easy-to-read. One good practice is to read your copy out loud. Are there places where you stumble as you read? If so, fix them! If customers don’t understand what you are attempting to tell them, they’re not going to stay on your website. Correcting spelling and grammatical mistakes will make your copy easier to read.

Another good practice is to keep your line length around 65 characters wide or shorter. That may mean splitting the pages of your website into two columns. When a column of text is too wide it becomes difficult for readers to find their place on the next line and appears too hard to read.

The content that you use on your site should lead the customer to purchase a product or service. The copy on your landing page should focus on leading your customer to make a purchase. Your other pages may contain additional information—something to educate the customer, but if your primary purpose is to sell something to the customer, focus on the product or service you are offering.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

What is Good Website Content?

Less copy (text) is not necessarily more effective than having a lot of copy. The quality of the copy, not the length of the copy, is what determines its effectiveness. Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide says “Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here [including title tags, description meta tag, URLs, site navigation, anchor text, optimizing images, and links). Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it.”

What is good content? There are other factors that go into creating good content, but there are three that make a big difference. It must
• make sense to the reader.
• help sell your product or service.
• have keywords and key phrases that will bring customers to your site.

If you follow these three key principles, you’ll have the right amount of copy on your website.

We'll go deeper into website copy and how to make it the most effective tomorrow, so stay tuned.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Is Less Copy More Effective?

When you are creating copy(text) for your website, keep in mind that most users want information as quickly as possible. If you keep your copy trimmed down to only necessary information, visitors are more likely to stay on your site. Too much copy will look daunting to the visitor, who, in most cases, won’t stay on your site.

According to a 2006 study by Clicktale, only about 20% of visitors will scroll to the bottom of a webpage. If you need to have a longer page, try placing a picture at the bottom of the page so that only the top portion is showing. This will naturally entice the viewer to scroll down to see the lower half of the picture and will increase the chances of your text read. Try to keep your pages short enough to eliminate the need for scrolling.

There are times when long copy is more appropriate. Products or services that are complicated, technical, or pricey generally require more copy to effectively sell to visitors. If your products/services fall into one of these categories, don’t be afraid to use longer copy.

Join us tomorrow for more tips website copy.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.