We are in the business of “persuasion”. Make no mistake: absolutely everyone is in the business of moving people. Daniel H. Pink wrote a book called To Sell is Human to clarify that point exactly.
You could have the world’s greatest products to sell or the most charming services to provide. None of that would mean a thing if your visitors don’t stick around and no one ever buys a thing. Persuasion is powerful and you’ll need that peppered on every pixel of your ecommerce store, every word of your copy, and every other asset that’s visible to the world. Here’s how to put persuasion to work for your business:
Persuasion isn’t a one-time thingy
In the normal course of things, you can’t just show up and manage to persuade. It just won’t happen that way. Apart from a thousand things that matter to the person across the table, there are another set of thousand parameters that can affect the result of your little persuasion exercise. All of this is in real life; in actual human-to-human interactions.
With a virtual store, your efforts in persuasion just went up several notches in terms of difficulty. Either way, it’s not a one-time thing. You’ll need to be persuasive all the time. In strict website lingo, you’d need to be charming and persuasive even if all that shows up on http://www.myawesomewebstore.com is a 404 page or a “will soon launch to take you off your feet” page.
Copy is your voice
Whatever you do, avoid using copy that looks like it’s straight off a textbook. Further, don’t be under the impression that the copy provided by the manufacturer of your products (for instance) is the best copy there is. You’ll be surprised to know that manufacturer-provided copy is usually boring and if it’s not putting customers to sleep, it’s often driving them away. If you can’t imagine writing effective copy that sells, hire copywriters who’ll do the job for you. In fact, even “no copy” is better than “crap copy”.
Here’s an example:
If you sell motorcycle gear, for instance, and your original copy for motorcycle armor reads like this:
“[Company Name] body armor is a favorite for motorcyclists around the world. Made with a combination of special grade leather, neoprene, and rubber inserts, it’s as tough as you need it to be. We use special machines imported from Italy to give it the toughness it boasts of. We also have expert research scientists who work together to bring the hardest and toughest material. Our products are made of XXXX with galvanized XXXXX and XXXXX, XXX, and XXX…. blah…blah…blah”
No, really, who cares what materials you’ve used and how many research scientists lost sleep over the products?
Your customers only ask: “what’s in it for me?”
Instead, you could write copy this way:
“Motorcycling isn’t about getting from A to B. It’s about doing it style, attitude, and substance. It’s about reflecting your true self-bordering on sensibility, and from freedom. You could be all you want to be. Ride away into the oblivion. You can take off to satiate your wanderlust but not without being safe. You love you. We love you. Our body armor keeps you safe while making you look cooler than those biking hunks from the 70s. You just got to try it to believe it”
No, it’s not the best piece of copywriting on the planet but which of these pieces of copy do you think you find more refreshing to read?
We figured as much.
Approachability leads to persuasion
If you aren’t on social media yet, get there as soon as you finish reading this. If you are already there, work on it to make it work for your business. The more approachable you are, the easier it is for you to persuade. In fact, mere approachable won’t help. You also have to use your own voice, put in your own opinions, and have as many conversations as possible. You may follow our posts on how to manage your time on social media using our 2-hour slot method or find ways you can use Twitter to work for you, for instance.
Show up, with your face
Launch webinars. Create hangouts on Google Plus. Make sure you have a face to every social media profile you own. If you are a business (with a team and other neat assets), you can at least make your voice and personality make do, instead of a face. You could still be a company with some personality thrown in for good measure. By the way, webinars, events, and hangouts also get you tons of leads that you can gain from.
How persuasive are you online? What makes you so adorable that your competition can’t stand a chance?
Img Credits: ReiHayashi