subject: The Sail Or Fail Test - First 5 Seconds [print this page] What is the first thing someone thinks when they land on your Sales page? If all they see is hyped-up copy, with an order now button, are they impressed? No, is the short answer, they are not.
First impressions are very important. When a reader lands on your page, they should first see helpful points which are related to the keywords they entered to get there.
How many sales are lost, from the first impressions that people get when visiting? On the World Wide Web, one can find ways to get the answers. Evaluate your own Web sites traffic, and see how long visitors stayed on the sales page. Ask yourself these questions...How long did they stay? What keywords did they use to land there? All of this information should be considered when optimizing your web related sales.
If they did not stay but a few seconds, you can be sure that the impression they got was either they thought they were in the wrong place, OR that their viewpoint was that greed for sales was your number one objective. Not a pretty "impression."
However if you make your homepage beneficial to their wants or needs, YOU will be viewed as helpful...this IS the first thing you would want people to perceive.
The more help you are to visitors, the better the chances are that they will stay on your page. This is very important, for when they feel like you are helping them to make an informed decision, they do not mind buying.
A VERY small number of "surfers" hit the net thinking to themselves " I am going to buy something"! This is the very reason most fortune 500 (if not all) hire professional Web Copy writers to write the homepage, as well as content pages.
These professionals know that the "first impression" makes or breaks the time spent on your site by visitors.
I am not speaking of "flash headers" or "bells and whistles" which are good and well when used effectively; I am speaking of the MESSAGE conveyed to the readers.
Most people "surf" for information. content which is clear and concise, and actually helps them. When you give them what they are looking for, you build trust, and convey to them that they are more than a wallet or a credit card.
This in turn, will cause them to be all the MORE likely to buy from you, enjoy the experience, and even go as far as recommend their friends to you. Is this way not business at it's best? Look at the websites that ARE making snappy online sales. Are their homepages a "buy list" with a shopping cart? Of course not. There is a good reason for this...people do not like to be "sold". However, when your page gives them some help and benefit, they will often go out of their way to look for your products and or services, for you have already "sold" them as a prospect by being a friend.
