Create a Good Information Flow
It doesn't matter how good your product is, if you can't explain it you can't sell it. The best way to sell your solution is simplicity.
The Web excels at information and not really anything else. I hear you cry that it is about connecting people. Ok so what do people do when they are connected? You are plugged into this article so what is happening? Information is passing from me to you. Maybe the information passing backwards and forwards amongst the connected at Facebook is not quite the equal of Socrates but what Mary had for dinner is still information nonetheless. The trick is to arrange information in ways that it becomes meaningful to people. Facebook has obviously done that.
Once you have a product that you want to sell then you need to pass the information about the product to people so that they will be able to decide to buy it from you. Initially this is the role of marketing but then as it gets to the pointy end it becomes sales. I don't intend to get into turf wars over which is which because all anyone in business cares about is selling stuff. The presentation and sale of the product is largely passing information. We know that the Web is the best solution we have for passing information so it stands to reason that we can make massive use of Web Sites, Blogs, Forums and other avenues to present our information to interested people.
The information flow on a good site can be drawn as a pair of pyramids. Pyramid 1 is the amount of information and Pyramid 2 is the breadth of the information. You will see that as the amount of information increases the breadth or width of the information decreases.
The amount of information on a given page increases as the user travels into the site,
while at the same time the information becomes more focused on a specific fact or idea.
| The greatest benefit the Web has is that it is Hyper-Vertical. A department store like Big W is horizontal because it attempts to have everything everyone would want in one place. Vertical is the opposite: have one thing for a specific type of people. Hyper Vertical is of course just pointier. Because the Web is universal something that could never work in a specific location can work on the Web so long as the right people get to find the information and understand it.
If you were a purple paper clip collector you wouldn't do too well opening a shop selling collectible purple paper clips in your suburb. There simply aren't enough purple paper clip collectors within striking distance of your shop. Of course with the web being universal then there just might be enough in the whole world. Some will be asleep as you work and vica versa but that doesn't matter as it would in a shop with trading hours because your shop is always open. What is even more interesting is that the connectivity of the internet combined with it's hyper-vertical nature means that you can, if you present your information well, create more purple paper clip collectors to sell to. Cool. |
What that means is:
Home page should contain only small simple and relatively broad snippets of information that act as leaders to more detailed information and solutions. Users must see these leaders as offering hope of a solution to their specific, selfish needs so very careful wording is necessary. Home pages are in many ways the hardest part of a web site to build because even though you want to put everything you know on this page, real estate is scarce so you can't. The key thing to remember is that all you have to offer users is reasonable hope that you offer a good solution. Be prepared to build your home page last or to keep revising till the information is all killer and no filler. This is a real skill so keep at it.
Product Overview page like this one should contain a little more information about each product but each piece of information is a bit more specific. This page may be bypassed by users but it should still exist especially for users trying to decide which product or version in your range suits their needs best.
Specific Product Pages like this one should contain a lot of information that is solely about that product. This page should contain everything a person could need to decide that this is the best choice for them. At the bottom there should definitely be a call to action because if you have answered the main 3 questions then you should be looking at an easy sale. If you haven't quite convinced the user to take the next step then they will be looking for more information. You can either insist they call you (which I think is unwise and contrary to the spirit of the Web and customer wants) or you can offer vast amounts of information and supporting material on the next layer. If you use a Shopping Cart please be sure that you don't get lazy on the information. Ask yourself if two vague lines would make you want to purchase the thing. If not then add more information to the database. I like to sell on content pages then link into the cart. I think this should reduce cart abandonment numbers.
Articles and Technical Info section/s. These should be fully packed with lots of lovely information that explains each aspect of your product, how it functions, why it functions (better than the other bloke's one), who loves using it and any other piece of supporting information anyone may ever want to read about both your product and your industry. These pages can be real gold for your site if handled well as they not only make your site larger and we all know Google likes that, you get to increase your spread of keywords to catch possible customers and this info can become a key to increasing your inbound links as people link to your fascinating and helpful content - purely good SEO. This level of information can be presented as How To Articles, Technical Spec Sheets, Portfolios, Testimonials, Blogs, Forums or any other format that adds value. The only things to really avoid are the mis-use of PDF files and irrelevant content like your cat's fluffy toy collection.
If you want me to work with your business then please visit BRM Web Consulting
