by Marc Alan Holmes

We're about to whip up a plan and a strategy for your deathless Web prose. You don't want to miss that, do you?

Don't underestimate the importance of basics. Leaping headlong into writing Web copy without addressing fundamentals will equal a disaster I can't conjure a metaphor for. If you haven't already done so, read the first installment of this series. These pieces offer the most benefit read together.

• Planning/Targeting/Strategizing - Fail to plan, plan to fail. Avoid this by painting a big old bull's eye on the rump of your hottest prospects.
• Gather the FACTS - Fears, Ambitions, Competencies, Tactics, Specifications: Know thy customer, or thy customer will definitely find someone who does.
• What are you offering your visitors? And no, it isn't the heady, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do business with you. On the Web you'd better be delivering hatfuls more because your competitors surely are.
• Solve a problem, gain a client - What keeps your customers pacing in their jammies at night, wearing a path into their carpet?

Planning, Targeting
&  Strategizing

If you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail. It's a shopworn adage, but it rings especially true with Web copy. It's vital during the planning stage to understand exactly what you're trying to accomplish.

• You've already determined your goals for a Web site: to increase direct sales, build a subscriber base, disseminate information, provide technical support, etc. Now, you must make sure your Web copy helps you achieve those goals.

First, you must decide whom your ideal customers are and what they really want. Then craft the words that'll most effectively seduce these customers. Obvious, right? Survey says: not always. Fully half of the Web sites WordSleuth has consulted on blow right past this fundamental.

Get smart, fire up an org chart, use the outlining feature in your word processor, whatever. But make certain every element of your Web copy offers visitors what they want. Without a detailed plan, it becomes impossible to know whom you're targeting. And without a target, you'll strafe everyone except the folks who'll eagerly pay you for your expertise.

The idea is to offer up what customers want? Yep. Because I guarantee you won't be able to convince anybody that you know what they really need. Something about human psychology prevents us from believing what other folks tell us we need. But, it is relatively easy to figure out what people want. When queried, 90% of your customers will freely deliver volumes on what they really want.

When planning your Web copy, know that your target is smarter and more savvy than typical customers. The average Web denizen is college educated and pulls down more than 60 large a year. They're a pretty sophisticated bunch demographically. They can smell a weasel in a cyclone, with a head cold and a clothespin on their nose. Plan your Web copy accordingly or you'll insult their intelligence.

Targeting and strategizing

Targeting is figuring out which customers will have their problems solved by using your product. This means you must become expert with every single benefit your product offers customers. Once you determine who your targets are, you must hunt them down. Build a profile of the people who'll benefit most from your help, then hit them repeatedly using strong Web copy and your sweetest, most magnetic benefits as bait.

Copy strategy skips hand in hand with planning and targeting, and all three elements must receive equal attention. That means the next step is to develop a strategy for writing this well-planned, targeted copy. I suggest using Gist, Tone, and Execution as your guide.

• Gist is the subject you're writing about, the vital part of your idea. And the gist of what you're writing about better be exactly what you discovered your customers want.
• Tone is how your writing sounds to your customers. And because you've accurately targeted your customers, you already know how to talk to them, right?
• Execution is the way you present your idea to your customers.

Fleshing out your Web copy strategy involves a little sleuthing. You must look at the world through your customers' eyes. Ask yourself these questions:

• What kinds of problems do they face?
• What personal and professional worlds do they live in?
• What are the buzzwords in their lexicon?
• How do they look at themselves?
• How do they look at their customers?

How do their customers look at them?

The next step is a little tougher, but very important. You might have to sneak in the back door for these gems, but you'll be pleasantly surprised with what you'll find:

• Become intimately familiar with their personal and professional wants.
• Eavesdrop on their conversations.
• Talk to their assistants and underlings.
• Ask to speak to their customers. Everyone serves more than one master in business.

Modify this list as you see fit. The point is to develop a method of putting yourself solidly in the shoes of your prospects.. You not only have to think like them, but you must work to anticipate what they really want.

Gather the FACTS
Fears, Ambitions, Competencies, Tactics, Specifications

Another way to expose what makes your customers tick is to use WordSleuth's handy FACTS acronym. Use FACTS to survey your customers and get answers to the following:

• What are your customers' greatest Fears?
  
  Fear is probably the single strongest human motivator. Witness the runaway success of The Blair Witch Project last summer. First, figure out what frightens your customers. Second, show them you've got what it takes to snuff that fear. Third, pocket a well-earned wad of money for your efforts.
   
• What are your customers' Ambitions?
  
  Research, pry, and dig deep. You must gain entry into both their business and private lives. Everyone has ambitions. The more you understand what your customers are really after, the easier it becomes to provide solutions for them.

Quick aside: The Ambition question proved useful recently when I began courting a plum client. This gent had steadfastly maintained the stone face of a Buckingham Palace guard. He wouldn't give up a thing. But I kept pressing. Finally, in a disconnected way, I discovered he spent his free time helping disadvantaged kids. The instant we began discussing the topic, he opened up. By showing a genuine interest in his ambitions about improving child welfare, I opened the door. And it was enough of an opening that I was later able to convince him he'd found his new copywriter. 

• What are your Competencies?

What are you offering your customers? What do you do magnificently? Do any of your competitors do it as well? If not, you've just isolated the strongest way to convert tire-kickers into new customers. And don't ignore secondary benefits. Piling on desired benefits makes you appear more competent in the eyes of your target.
 

• What Tactics will you use to lure customers?

What marketing vehicles will you use to attract Web visitors? An e-mail campaign or banners? Maybe an opt-in e-zine? Or will you use a combination of approaches? Make sure you understand exactly how your tactics work to support each other. This strengthens the odds of achieving the end goal of selling repeatedly to your customers.
 

• What Specifications does your product provide customers?

What details make up the heart and soul of your product? Gather up everything you can find, even if it's 20 years old. Reviving and polishing still useful data may be just the thing to differentiate you from competitors. Don't assume customers know as much about your products and capabilities as you do. Tell them.

The FACTS acronym suggests you seduce your customers by playing on their F ears and Ambitions. Then weave your Competencies and Tactics in and out of your product's Specifications. And please don't fret about the ethics of playing on customers' fears. Every last one of us on this hurtling mudball is motivated by something we fear.

While fear can be effective, it's so easy to go somewhere else on the web that you have to be careful about using fear as a motivator. It might work if it's subtle, but otherwise, you run the risk of causing customers to click themselves right out of your fearful environment and into a more pleasant place.

And now that you've armed yourself with these answers, you've positioned yourself to offer your customers the solutions they desperately want. So, what are you offering? 

What are you offering visitors?

Legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins once said: "The right offer should be so attractive, only a lunatic would say no." That's the goal, offer your customers something they'd be crazy to pass up.

The Web differs from traditional marketing in that visitors expect something useful or valuable just for dropping by your site. They're treating you to LCEs (low-cost eyeballs). And for that privilege they demand you toss them a bone. It could be a free report or a free subscription to a newsletter. Maybe it's a software utility that helps them work smarter. Whatever it is, make sure it is based on what your product or service truly offers customers.

Customers are somewhat more forgiving in traditional marketing. But make a mistake with your Web site's offer and visitors will trip over themselves to get away. For visitors, the beauty of the Web is that they control the message. On the other hand, they almost expect to be hounded by junk mail, TV, and radio. You know, the interruption advertising we've all grown to hate. But they guard their exposure viciously when they're sprinting around the Web. Don't make the mistake of hitting Web customers with traditional marketing messages. It's not only ineffective, but you'll irritate the very people you're trying to woo.

It's widely accepted that to dramatically increase results, you must dramatically improve your offer. You must distill and emphasize the most powerful reasons customers have to do business with you. Try hitting visitors repeatedly with slightly different offers. Use multiple offers together as a double whammy. Don't offer up one thing and expect customers to buy. Give them choices. Explain in detail the bonuses they get when buying from you. Even if everyone in your business does something, tout it as your own invention. Your customers will assume your company pioneered it. And everyone wants to do business with pioneers, right?

Solve a problem, gain a client

What gives your potential customers nightmares? Find that button and push hard. Your clients want those nightmares to end. Show them you've got a solution and you'll land customers for life. Or at least until you stop providing solutions to their problems.

The following example shows the importance of solving clients' problems. In traditional advertising copy, this step is somewhat easier because printed material, salesmen, prior relationships, etc., all work to ease customers' doubts. But when your only contact with your potential customers is static and text-based, you'd better know exactly what their problems are and how you can solve them.

How to use Web copy to solve customer problems

One of my clients runs a very successful first aid/disaster training company. He teaches employees nationwide how to administer CPR and such until paramedics arrive. Early on he insisted the best way to motivate and sell to his target (mid- to high-level corporate execs) was to focus on the benefits of having medically trained staffers.

What he failed to do was verify whether this was the execs' real problem. For months his Web copy pitched the execs on the advantages of having a medically trained workforce. The execs yawned. And my client, not surprisingly, converted few prospects.

So, he enlisted me to find out why. A little detective work uncovered a disappointing fact. The majority of these execs couldn't have cared less about employee safety. Instead, interviews and surveys revealed the big issue with these folks was money. And through a little more research, we discovered if they had trained medical people on site their insurance premiums would go down.

Bingo!

We'd lassoed the major benefit my client's training offered the execs: saving money. Let's train your people in first aid so we can lower your company's insurance premiums. Then, the boss will discover it was you who made this smart decision, and you will get a big raise and that corner office you've lusted after.

My sleuthing also uncovered a secondary benefit. These corporate customers wanted entertainment. They freely acknowledged they had bigger training budgets if a program also entertained the troops. Fortunately, my client is known for being an engaging, humorous speaker.

With the clouds parting, my client reveled in uncovering his prospects' hot buttons. The execs were jumping up to do business with my client because he was providing solutions to their wants and desires... Plus he made the execs look smart by hiring his company. And by using this tact to approach new customers, my client secured even more corporate work. A rare triple win/win/win.

Tune in next time when we'll discuss the mechanics of great Web copy. Important topics such as how to hook customers into wanting to read your Web copy; the importance of killer headlines; finding the most powerful motivators; using features, advantages, and benefits; using tone, content, and clarity to your greatest advantage; and much more.

About the author

In a rare moment of repose, the writer rests on his haunches beside a river. Ready, at a moment's notice to lunge back through the doors, or an open window, of WordSleuth Communications. His only goal, to resuscitate yet another fine company's sputtering prose. Contact Marc about solutions to your writing problems at:  Sherlock@WordSleuth.com

Illustrations: Pat Dypold, Artville.com