Selling vs Information on a web site

[FinanceMan]

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I’m very interested in the views of those who have had success with selling services through their web site. I have just launched a new business and am getting plenty of visits to the web site http://www.rebatefinance.com.au, but not a great conversion rate with sales. The product offering is extremely competitive, and I am having no problems with offline sales, but online sales are very slow. The service is well suited to the online environment, so my thinking is that I have not concentrated on sales techniques enough when writing the content for the site. Any experiences from other forum members with sales related web sites would be most appreciated.

Regards
Alistair Perry

[Adam Randall]

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Firstly, I really like the shopping bag with your logo on it:)
How did you do that, was it some type of box shot software or a good graphics person.

You may have to lower your expectation with regard to online sales. People will be very hesitent to just sign up without a prior relationship for a product that you are providing (Just my opinion)

I dont know anything about what you are offering so make the ideal candidate to explain what might be going wrong.

The first thing I see is it does not pass the 10 second test, after 10 seconds I still have no idea what it is you are offering.

I dont know if you are targeting ordinary people, people in the finance industry etc etc, its not clear.

Am I getting a rebate for sending business to you or is it giving you my business that gets the rebate.

In my mind, you have to make your message far simpler than what it currently is.

While most of the web site design is faultless and looks really good, for some reason, I find the blocks of text hard to read, its not the size, maybe the space between the words (line space combine with word space) is making it hard. I cannot put my finger on it though.

Also, if it was me, I would probably get rid of the “Adobe acrobat reader” link and associated text.
Most people now know that you need this and you are taking up valuable front page realestate.
I think it may be a hangover from when adobe reader was fairly new.

Overall though, I think the main problem is I dont know what you are offering and I dont know who you are targeting within 10 seconds of landing on your page.

[FinanceMan]

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Hi Adam,

Thanks for the feedback, it’s much appreciated. The graphics were done by a young guy who runs a business called Greenscribble, he’s inexpensive and very good. I get him to do letterhead, business cards, everything that requires a bit of design expertise, which I am totally lacking.

The target market is mostly DIY investors, who get no benefit from a financial advisor. But anyone who does not have a financial advisor is a target. All financial products have an inbuilt management fee, for most retail products this includes scope to pay a financial advisor, as financial advisors are the main distribution point for most fund managers. eg if you invest money in a managed investment product or superannuation fund with a manager such as Colonial First State or BT through a financial advisor, the advisor generally has the option to add additional fees, both upfront and ongoing, but there is also generally a default commission amount paid, if you invest directly with the manager, if this is an option, there are no additional fees but they do not usually discount the default commission amount, they just keep it.

What we offer is no additional charges, if we receive an upfront commission we rebate it in full, in most cases as a cash payment, we also rebate 50% of trailing commissions received, paid in cash three times per year.

You can see that it is fairly complex to explain, and I think i will have to do a lot of work on the content and structure of the site to communicate what the business offers effectively. This must be a common problem for service providers advertising on the Internet. Thanks again for your feedback.

Regards
Alistair Perry

[LeelaCosgrove]

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Allistair – the mistake here is a common one that most business people make. When trying to save money, we look at the things we think we can do and try and do them ourselves.

This is a false economy.

If you want to sell your product, you’ll need several things – a compelling headline, a great subheadline, a call to action, a guarantee … these are the basic copywriting skills that anyone who has studied this craft knows about … if you haven’t even studied it, you should totally forget about trying to do it yourself.

Contact Dan Lizurek at Fast Profits …. Website Copywriter – Words That Work – Marketing Copywriter

He is a GENIUS. I’ve seem him achieve 3 and 4 times ROI for clients. He knows what he is doing and he’ll be able to help you define your target market and come up with something that truly rocks.

Best of luck!

[MissieK]

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I had a very quick look at your website & there’s too much text to read on the home page. I have kids wanting food – so I’ll be very quick.

I found the orange text hard to read, also there wasn’t an obvious hook to get me to move past the home page.

I hope this quick feedback helps

Melissa

[FinanceMan]

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Thanks Leela,

I’ve sent him an email.

Regards
Alistair Perry

[LukeH]

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Hi Alistair,

just a couple of additional thoughts to those already posted.

1. Have you got something like Google Analytics installed? If you don’t, I think you’ll find it worthwhile installing it to see where your traffic is coming from. You can also see the keywords that are driving traffic to your site if you are being picked up in the search engines.

With a keyword like “rebate” you could be getting a lot of visitors who really aren’t looking for what you are offering. You need to know that.

You’ll also see how long people are on your site. If you are losing them within 10 seconds, then implementing some of the suggestions already given would be wise. Make some changes and then compare your stats after a few weeks.

2. I’d suggest getting your Newsletter subscription box above the fold. I have to scroll down the page to see it. It would probably sit quite nicely in your left hand menu column. I would consider that more important than your address.

3. Get your Newsletter subscription box on every page. You want people to subscribe. As someone else said, your product is not necessary an impulse purchase. A regular email newsletter can help you build that relationship over time and win a sale down the track.

4. Offer an incentive for people to join your Email Newsletter. A free report, a bonus, you know your business best and what you can offer. People will want a good reason to join.

Good luck – I think you have the makings of something good.

Luke

[Susan Oakes]

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Leela made a good point about using a copywriter and I would add that as this is a service you could consider putting a photo on the About Us page to reassure visitors that it is a legitimate business.

One question I have is do you expect people after coming to your website to just download the form and use it or do you want them to contact you?

You might also want to look at Microsoft AdLab centre which will tell you if the keywords you are using and people are visiting on is for information or commercial purposes.

[FinanceMan]

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Thankyou to everyone who has replied so far, its much appreciated. I haven’t heard back from Dan yet, but look forward to hearing his thoughts on the copy. I have also spoken to the web designer about some added features, which I will be working on the next couple of weeks.

Regards
Alistair Perry

[Heidi Price]

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Hi Alistair,

Just a few thoughts from the development (ie code) point of view:

1) Even though you are getting a lot of hits, there are no meta keywords, so you may not be reaching the right audience

2) The home page really is too “text heavy” – it feels too much to wade through

3) You have full contact details on every page, plus a “Contact Us” nav link – are both necessary?

4) Most of the pages are quite long. Can they be shortened ie the “Links” page could have the list tabled.

But honestly, all the text on the home page feels a tad daunting. Have you thought about using headings with a call to action, a lead-in sentance, and then a “more..” link like you haver in the Articles section?

I love the graphic work you have had done.

Heidi

[FinanceMan]

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Thanks for your comments Heidi. I have decided to do a complete rejig of the site, I think there is a need for there to be a lot of content, but i’m going to confine these to a series of downloadable booklets, this will allow me to make the actual site a lot more to the point and sales oriented. It will take me a while to do this, as this is not my only buisness, but I will post the new site on here for critique as soon as it is done.

[Kath2]

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Hi Alistair

The first thing that I noticed was “Personality”

You may want to clarify about why you are doing this business. With financial products – sometimes its not about the products – but what is behide the product — for example, the service, personalised service. What makes you special in relation to the competition. Yes the competition you mentioned — big companies — use this too your advantage…. What makes you different from them. In today’s economy — you need to stand out. What makes your story different from the competition? Is it personalised service, small family company, efficient processing.

Clarify this — and learn about effective copywriting as per the other comments posted. Selling is about story telling? Your saying people receive a rebate — have you got some testimontials that say — what people did with that rebate. How were their lives changed by how you helped them? Where they able to use the rebate to pay off their house, send their children to school etc.

Hope this helps. This is my first time on this site and I look forward to hearing from some of you.

[No mans land]

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• People scan on the internet
• Reading is 10% slower on the internet
• People read from left to right
• measure offline sales based on prior online research

Initially I was trying to read with my eyes in the right side of my head.

Any of the web developers on here will help you improve readability with simple things that will improve the site. Its what they do best.

[No mans land]

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I find the blocks of text hard to read, its not the size, maybe the space between the words (line space combine with word space) is making it hard. I cannot put my finger on it though.

Its a paper font on digital media

[FinanceMan]

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Hi All,

Its been a while since my initial post on this subject. As mentioned previously i have decided to act on the great advice that you all have been so forthcoming with. Before the site has drastic changes made to it I putting the content into a series of pdf documents which will be available through an opt in email system (I think this is the correct term). Once I am happy with the publications the site will be made far more sales focused.

I have completed the first document and have uploaded it to a blind page on my site, any comments will be much appreciated. The link is:

http://rebatefinance.com.au/sites/all/files/insurance.pdf

I will only be leaving this up for a short time as it will be moved to the opt in system next week.

Regards
Alistair

[Author]

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