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How can I use sales copy on an ecommerce site?

by Mitchymoo
8 replies
Hi guys,

I know that sales copy works very well when your selling a single product, but how would you apply it to an ecommerce site that has more than one product?

I watched a short video of dan kennedy explaining the benefits of "Single Focus Offers" and was wondering how this could be applied?

My first thought would be an offsite sales page that acts as a sort of satellite, leading the customer directly to a certain product on the main website where the customer would then order the product.

Would this work or is there another way you'd do this if you owned an ecommerce site?
#copy #ecommerce #sales #site
  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    Copywriting in ecommerce runs well working with what
    I call "hierarchy of visitor criteria" meaning your menu
    listings become headlines and copy is encountered
    as multiple stages, establishing the ambience of your
    brand, leading the visitor into deeper and deeper stages
    of "identification" (as defined by Eugene Schwartz).

    Seem complicated?

    All business success is built on attention to detail. A
    good catalog site takes a lot of skilled copywriting and
    graphic design to really make it "pop".

    Here's a pretty good example:

    http://www.vickerey.com
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    • Profile picture of the author 5Tool
      One website has just about all the knowledge you need for ecommerce site success: www.marketingexperiments.com

      Then it's all test, test, test!!!
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    • Profile picture of the author John_S
      The basic problem here is 'ecommerce' sites built upon a vending machine model by programmers who have clue zero about the difference between shopping behavior and the transaction at the end.

      Ecommerce ...isn't. Catalog copywriting has a long history. But you'd hardly know it from online "slap it up 'n' sell" ecommerce packages.

      Online catalog sales is more complex than just copy. You are talking about product mix, layout, upselling and cross selling, not to forget visual merchandising. It's not so much graphic design but sophisticated interaction design and persuasive design (captology).

      Simply how you array the products on a page can change the amount of sales. And practically zero ecommerce devs even know what the web version of a planogram is.

      Then it's all test, test, test!!!
      Sorry. No. It's knowing what to test, and how. It's knowing where the big payoff tests are more likely to produce big gains.

      For a small sample, read More Like This: A Design Pattern

      Related:

      Visual Merchandising And Web Site Catalog Copy on my site should explain the range of skills involved. You require an interaction designer with direct response background. Not a graphic artist. Not a graphic artist who has heard the word "design" and is pretty confident they can pronounce it correctly. Not an ebook cover guy who's keen on padding their resume and willing to "give ecommerce a try."

      Why Your Site Doesn't Need to be Pretty explains testing proves looks matter ...just not in the way graphic artists want it too. Not one in fifty graphic artists have even conceptualized applying A/B split run testing to design and graphics -- the ecommerce client doesn't have that luxury.
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      • Profile picture of the author 5Tool
        John- Obviously it's knowing what to test. I wasn't implying that it didn't matter what you test.

        Marketing experiments has A LOT of information on the best elements to test.

        I would kindly suggest you go take a look at it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mitchymoo
      Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye View Post

      Copywriting in ecommerce runs well working with what
      I call "hierarchy of visitor criteria" meaning your menu
      listings become headlines and copy is encountered
      as multiple stages, establishing the ambience of your
      brand, leading the visitor into deeper and deeper stages
      of "identification" (as defined by Eugene Schwartz).
      Just so that I understand what you're trying to say, is this done in such a way that the customer is funneled off into depending on how they've responded to the different options on your website? Or is it something else? I do apologise for sound a bit dumb but I was'nt quite sure of your terminology.

      Thanks

      Jacob
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      • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
        Originally Posted by Mitchymoo View Post

        Just so that I understand what you're trying to say, is this done in such a way that the customer is funneled off into depending on how they've responded to the different options on your website? Or is it something else? I do apologise for sound a bit dumb but I was'nt quite sure of your terminology.

        Thanks

        Jacob

        Not really. It's giving visitors the visual cues and emotional hooks
        they need to get involved with wanting the stuff you sell. People
        buy from vendors they like, vendors who are able to give the
        impression they understand and empathize with their customers.

        Differentiation is part of it, selling copy is part of it, pre-selling
        copy is part of it, and navigation hierarchies that both take visitors
        where they want to go based on their real criteria and
        involve them emotionally in your brand at the same time is
        part of it.

        John_S wrote some good stuff up there. You can test and improve
        an ecommerce site but you need to start with something that
        is way more "together" from a copywriting and visual merchandizing
        standpoint than most quickie ecommerce sites are. The skills to
        put together the copy and the graphics are entirely different from
        the set-up skills of making the back end of a site work. In short,
        building a really effective online store site involves several talented
        people working together to get to the point where you've got a
        polished result and can start testing and optimization to see what
        involves people more.
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  • Profile picture of the author John_S
    I would kindly suggest you go take a look at it.
    Been there. On the mailing list.

    Merely pointing out where the clever one liners go wrong.

    navigation hierarchies that both take visitors where they want to go based on their real criteria
    Interaction designers know this as information scent. Graphic artists know this as "I am not sure where the dropdown in PhotoShop for that is."

    The vending machine model simply throws as much as they can manage at the user, basically "Here is stuff to buy. Buy it"
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    • Profile picture of the author 5Tool
      John- My last comment. "Clever one liners" is a bit condescending. Pointing someone in the direction of a good website with good information
      rather with no benefit to myself is trying to help someone out...try to be less aggressive in your comments and find out where people are coming from first.

      Nuff said.

      Lots of good posters here to help the OP- just providing a good resource...
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