Website Writing: Product and Service Pages

Everyone on the internet is selling something. Whether that something is a best-selling novel, your business advice, a worthy cause, or simply your opinion, it's still selling. But, unlike a traditional sale, prospects on the web have the ability to quickly and easily rate your business against your competition. They also have the power to instantly reject what you're selling by clicking away to another site.

Many businesses make the mistake of creating a list of their products or services, posting it on their website, and thinking that's enough. Then they're disappointed when the phone doesn't ring. The hyper-competitive online sales environment requires more than that.

To sell from a website, you must address the varied needs of your visitors. Stephen Covey, in The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, refers to peoples' needs in terms of Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit. We can use this concept in a similar way to address our website prospects.

Body - Provide the Necessities

People want to know exactly what you're selling. Surprisingly, many websites do not provide even the most basic information about their products or services. Don't assume that your visitors know anything about your business. Instead, think like a reporter and brainstorm questions about your products or services like:

• Who is this best suited for? Kids, teens, 30-somethings, retired people? Wealthy or middle-class? NASCAR fans or opera fans?
• What does it do, look, feel, or act like? What makes it better than others?
• When is the best time of the day, month, year, business cycle, or life stage to use this?
• Where do you use this? In the rain? At a retreat? With a client? On a plane?
• How should it be used? Are there any requirements? prerequisites? companion pieces?

Once you've got your brainstormed list, you're ready to write the most meaningful ideas into a product or service description. Be sure to divide up the information with subheadings to structure it in easy-to-read chunks.

Mind - Stimulate the Intellect

Once you've got the Body together, start adding some interest. There are a number of tried and true methods for focusing attention on your sales pitch. These include:

• Ask a question. Provocative thoughts like "Do you have these 3 symptoms?" or "Are your employees driving you crazy?" entice people to read on and find out.
• Share their pain. Discussing "International expansion woes" or "The sale that never closed" helps people feel that you understand their problems.
• Take an unusual stand. Challenging conventional wisdom through statements like "Help your customers go to your competition" will make visitors sit up and pay attention.
• Use the news. Headlines related to your product or service can be turned into attention-getters. "Prices of new homes hit record high" can be used to support anything from home inspection services to security systems. If your business area isn't in the news, you can make your own with statements like: "Prevent political battles with our new, effective approach."
• Cite statistics and authorities. If "4 out of 5 doctors recommend" your product or service, say it. Similarly, if 90% of your customers come back year after year, don't hide it, flaunt it. 

Heart - Create an Emotional Attachment

There is substantial research to support the idea that no matter how much people believe they make logical decisions, they don't. People make emotional decisions and then rationalize them with supporting facts. To make the decision to buy from you feel right:

• Be real. Use words that sound like they come from an enthusiastic person. People are most comfortable buying from people, not from corporations that sound like robots programmed in marketing-speak.
• Be successful. Include quotes from, stories about, or pictures of your delighted customers. (But avoid using clichés like "Our mission is to delight our customers"--see the previous bullet.)
• Be cheerful. Tell people directly how happy/relieved/pain-free/satisfied/secure they will be. "Call us, you'll be glad you did." "You'll appreciate the care we take to make sure your class is both information-packed and fun."
• Be reassuring. Offer comfort. Do you have an iron-clad guarantee? Certifications or endorsements by respected third-parties? An ethical code? "You can trust us to put your best interest first."

Spirit - Connect to a Higher Purpose

Don't forget to speak to the big-picture benefit of using your product or service. Let's say you are selling soap. If you are selling luxury soap, your higher purpose might be to impress guests visiting your home. If you are selling deodorant soap, your higher purpose might be to get close to that special someone. If you are selling anti-bacterial soap, your higher purpose might be to protect your children from disease.

Don't forget to tie in the benefit, even if it seems obvious to you. Bringing that bigger goal to the forefront of your visitor's mind could just put them over the edge into the decision to buy.

Putting It All Together

By addressing the Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit of our website visitors, we make a vastly stronger case for our products and services. Developing web pages with all four of these supporting arguments will draw prospects farther along the path to becoming customers.