LeadPages.net "highest-converting landing page" hits many of the 12 steps in a very concise way.

I was chatting with a close friend of mine the other day about business, websites, and such, as we often do, when he asked me, "What do you think of this website?" As a builder of websites, I often get asked this question.

It seems like a simple question, but it really is a very open-ended question. Do you want to talk about strategy? What about structure? Layout? Aesthetics? Online presence? Effectiveness? We could discuss each of these elements (not an exhaustive list, for sure) in depth. 

There is also the issue of what do I think versus what do customers think. They are, after all, the ones the website is supposed to address. I may not be in your target market.

The quickest take would be: Does your website meet your objectives by allowing the visitor to meet theirs? If the answer is "yes," then it is successful. Regardless of what I or anyone else thinks about it. 

Your business website is a marketing and sales tool. Call it an online, and maybe even dynamic, sales letter. You are trying to use your website to build and sustain relationships. You want leads and customers. So why not use a proven sales letter strategy to develop the presentation of your website? It seemed like a fun experiment, so we tried it out on that site and it proved to be very insightful.

I covered this sales letter template in a previous post related to developing effective sales copy. But this time I wanted to focus specifically on websites.

Overcome Objections, Develop Motivation, In 12 Steps

According to David Frey, author of the 12-Step Foolproof Sales Letter Template, people are motivated to buy with emotion --  the promise of gain or the fear of loss, the latter being the stronger -- and justify their purchase with logic. Digging a bit deeper, there are actually several "universal motivations" that everyone responds to. These motivations are:

1. To be wealthy
   
2. To be good looking
   
3. To be healthy
   
4. To be popular
   
5. To have security
   
6. To achieve inner peace
   
7. To have free time
   
8. To have fun
   

The true benefit of your business' product or service is that it addresses one or more universal motivations for your prospects.But in order forthem to purchase from you, you need to convince them that your solution is the right one. Your prospects will naturally have initial resistance to purchasingfrom you and will raise some or all of these standard objections:

• "You don't understand my problem" 
  
• "How do I know you're qualified?" 
  
• "I don't believe you" 
  
• "I don't need it right now" 
  
• "It won't work for me" 
  
• "What happens if I don't like it?" 
  
• "I can't afford it"

Frey says you need to "overcome your [prospect's] buying resistance while persuading them to take action"by following "a careful, methodical seriesof tactics" to "build on [your prospect's] emotions to a point where they are motivated to take action."

So let's talk about the presentation of your website from a sales perspective. Think about your website and your idealcustomer while we review the12-Step Foolproof Sales Letter Template.

1. Get attention
   
2. Identify the problem
   
3. Provide the solution
   
4. Present your credentials
   
5. Show the benefits
   
6. Give social proof
   
7. Make your offer
   
8. Give a guarantee
   
9. Inject scarcity
   
10. Call to action
    
11. Give a warning
    
12. Close with a reminder

About This Series

Up next: a series of posts that will take a close look at how you can use each step to improve your website, one post per step. I will go in-depth on researching and developing your content for that step. I'm looking forward to the exercise and hope you take away some powerful strategies. Most importantly, I hope you implement some changes that lead to growth.

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