How to Create a Direct-Response Web Site
Author: Steve Gibbs

When it comes to making sales with your Web site, the written word is much more effective than graphics and technology. The reason why most sites fail to generate sales is because they are missing a direct-response sales message.

Today, we'll uncover some time-tested strategies that can easily explode your sales using a direct marketing sales message. Direct marketing is a hundred-year-old industry, and from it we can grab the best of selling, and apply it online.

Direct marketing employs the power of sales letters to generate amazing results, and most successful sales messages use the advertising formula, "AIDA" which stands for, Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. It's with this strategy that your site's sales message should:

q       Grab your visitors attention.

q       Get his interest in what your site has to offer.

q       Get him to fall in love with your product.

q       And finally, get him to purchase.

I've listed the five primary basics, every direct-response sales message should contain for maximum results.

• Headlines The goal of your Web site should be to attract and keep the reader's attention at your site, and the best way to do this is to employ benefit-packed headlines. A headline's job is to grab your readers attention with a benefit or promise. It will give your reader a reason to cruise deeper into your Web site.
• The First Paragraph In your opening paragraph you want to summarize your offer and include the main benefit(s) your product has to offer. Instead of talking about yourself or your company, get straight to the point, and tell the reader what's in it for them.
• Your Sales Pitch Right after your first paragraph, go straight into the benefits of trying and buying your product. Benefits should be the meat of your offer, since they're what motivates people to buy. Don't list a ton of features about your product; instead inject every single benefit you can into your sales message.
• A Guarantee Guarantee's have been known to explode sales by as much as 900 percent. On the Internet people are leery of buying online and it's your job to ease their fears by offering a money back guarantee. By installing a guarantee, it shows you are a reputable company that actually cares about their customers.
• Your Call to Action Finally, at the end of your sales message, you need to tell your reader how to take advantage of your offer. So you have to take them by the hand, and show them how to order.

Having a direct response marketing approach in your Web site can almost guarantee online business success. Direct response sales copy can easily bring in more sales then you can imagine. A direct-response sales process should be implemented within your site, and now you know the basics on how to get started.