Copywriting For the Web – Use the Buying Cycle to Make More Sales

Want to write sales-generating Web copy? Web copywriting is very different from copywriting for print media. It’s more immediate, and more narrowly targeted as well. Here’s a big tip: the sales cycle should be your guide.

What do we mean by the “buying cycle”?

Think about your own actions when you buy something, a new digital camera for example.

Firstly you think about what you can do with the digital camera. Then you decide you need more information. This is the first part of the buying cycle: finding information. The web is wonderful for this, but many copywriters leave this stage of the buying cycle to someone else.

At the next stage, once enough information has been gathered, you think about brands and product features.

(When you’re writing for prospects at this stage, you’ll take price and quality, as well as user experiences, into account.)

Usually, a copywriter is brought in at the final stage of the buying cycle, when the buyer’s ready to buy. He simply writes the sales material.

But if you think about it, you’ll soon realize that your copywriting skills can be more effective if they were used at every stage of the buying cycle.

Here’s how I recommend my clients use the buying cycle.

1. Create an Information-Packed Blog for Info Seekers

This works amazingly well. Blogging can be free advertising. You’re educating potential buyers, and priming them to buy for you — there’s no guarantee that they will buy from you of course, but when you consider that the web works on keywords and information, you’re generating sales organically, and these sales will continue for years.

2. Write As Many Sales Pages As You Need for Each Advertising Campaign

You just need one sales page, right? Wrong.

The web is a collection of tightly focused niche markets, rather than a single market. No matter what the product, if you try to write one single sales page to target each possible niche, you either go mad or give up in disgust.

Firstly work out which niches you’re targeting, and then write a sales page for each one; if you’re using pay per click advertising, you should also create ads for every page.

3. Ensure That Your Ads Match Your Landing Pages

Web surfers are impatient. They want what they want when they want it. This means that you need to create ads which are strictly relevant to one sales page. Relevancy is all-important. Nothing frustrates a buyer more (and loses more sales), than clicking through to irrelevant landing pages.

If you think about the buying cycle, and use it strategically, your Web copywriting will be simple, effective, and successful.