Article - Compelling Customers To Take Action

Compelling Customers To Take Action

Article by Robert Farris

Efforts to sell your mortgage products begin with a headline. It may be in a title of a web page or a top listing in a search engine. Its purpose is to grab the customer's attention and to compel them to take action. The purpose of compelling written content is to cause the customer to take an action; such as filling out an application or contacting your company.

Apart from increased marketing efforts, there are really only two other ways to increase sales:

Meta Tags and Titles

The testing of ads before launching a sales campaign is well documented. But a listing in a search engine is also an ad and is often overlooked. The title tag is the headline that causes the reader to read the description tag. And the latter must bring a click to your site, or else the "ad" fails.

Since many search engines use these tags to create the listing; improving these meta tags can bring improved results. In short, create an attention gabbing headline that compels the reader to read the listing. Then create a description that compels the reader to click to your site.

Home Page Testing

You need to have your web hosting company show you how to view your site statistics. Then look only at unique visitors and page views. This will give you baseline to analyze your web site changes.

Also focus initially on above-the-fold, this is the area where the customer first reads your compelling headline. Put your best information first, just a newspaper puts its best articles on the first page.

The task is to make a content change, then see what effect it had on your page views. If page views increase, then assume the change is positive and keep the new content.

If there is a decrease in page views, it is then negative and reverse the change. If there is little or no change, nothing has been shown so hold the change or reverse it.

Keep accurate records about your content changes and what works (and what doesn't). These past records are invaluable in providing hints for later changes.

No Interference

Make no other changes in your web site during a testing period. Doing so can distort the results and bring bad decisions. Let the site run with the noted changes until you have a good analysis of your web site traffic

What To Change?

Site colors? Images? The page layout? While written content is the most important element on the site, all that supports it should be tested. Try what works the best for you, but in the end it is your content that makes or breaks your site.

How Much To Change?

How much to change on your web site is really a judgment call. The headline on the home page is very important, so changing only this one item may be as far as you want to go. There is a lot of guessing to be done and hunches to be analyzed.

The Bottom Line is Sales

In the end, it does not matter what you think about your web site. It is really only your opinion. When you statistically analyze your own site, opinions are replaced with facts. And the behavior of your visitors is the only real factor and the bottom line is more mortgage loans.