The art of turning website visitors into paying customers depends almost entirely on good sales copy. What is that?

Simply put good sales copy is the content of your copy and presentation of your copy put together in such a way that it increases your visitor to sale conversion rate on a consistent basis.

It's an ongoing process in which you will always try to beat your "control". Beating the control is marketing lingo for engaging in a never ending process of constant improvement to your sales copy in order to beat your last highest visitor to sale conversion rate. The more you practice this the more money you will make!

This article will give you 5 quick tips to get you started in playing your own game of "beat the control" which in turn will put you on the road to higher sales conversion and more money in your pocket.

Tip #1 - Know your numbers

I am always surprised when I speak with clients who wish to increase their sales from their websites and when I ask them how many visitors they are getting per month, how many sales per visitor, average unit of sale, etc they don't know. You must be able to measure results and that begins with knowing where you are at currently. Below are the most important factors you need to be tracking...

• How many unique visitors do you get per month. This is not the same as "hits". Most hosting companies provide a stats package that you can log into and see how many unique visitors you get each month. If they don't I suggest switching to a hosting company that does.
• How many sales do you get per 100 visitors. This gives you your conversion rate in percent. The average according to shop.org is around 1.8-2% or roughly 2 sales for each 100 visitors. I have found that this number can be dramatically improved by making even the smallest changes to your website copy and or layout.
• What is your average sale price. Take all your online sales each month add them up then divide by the number of sales.

Tip #2 - Move the big guns up to the front.

Statistics show that you have about 10 seconds to entice a website visitor to go deeper into your site before they click the back button and forget you ever existed. Remember that your online prospects are looking for information to solve their problem and if they don't see anything on your homepage immediately upon arriving that leads them to believe that you understand their problem you lose.

You must greet your visitors with a large headline that says something to the effect of "we know what your problem is and we can fix it better than anyone else - here's why...". Then in your copy give them as many reasons as possible as to why your company is the better choice out of all your competitors. Give them testimonials, and other kinds of proof that you or your product gets results.

Tip #3 - Use simple language.

Speaking to your online prospects in a conversational tone increases conversion rates. Avoid the tendency to try to sound professional using corporate sounding gibber jabber. Remember these are real people and they respond to real language being spoken by a real person. Be authentic and forget about what your competitors are doing. Find your own voice and I guarantee that more of your prospects will respond to that than to the same old tired impersonal ivory tower cliches.

Tip #4 - Put the emphasis on what you can do for them

Alot of businesses make the mistake in thinking that potential customers actually care how long they have been in business or how much they say they value customer service and so on. Avoid platitudes like the plague - consumers are immune to them now. Your copy needs to be written in terms of not how special you think your company is but in how good you are at solving problem x for the visitor and then back it up with all the proof you can find. Try using the word "You" more often than the word "We".

Tip #5 - Lead your visitors to the call to action.

So if you have done a great job at enticing the prospect to keep clicking deeper into your site from the homepage with a compelling headline and copy that speaks to the prospects problem and the rest of your website copy does a good job of convincing the visitor that you are the obvious choice to do business with your job is still not done. You need to ask for the sale or lead the prospect to the call to action. At the end of any page of copy or maybe even within the main body of your content you need to tell them to buy your product or contact you today! If it's not a high priced item or service this is all that is required but if you are selling something over $100 you might need to break your sales process into small steps by offering the visitor a free report or free trial or sample of your product or service just to get them into your sales cycle. Make it easy for them to build a relationship with you and give them a good incentive to do so.

The copy on your website sells your product or service. The website itself and the graphics are their to support the copy. The copy needs to be easy to read (break it up with headers, short paragraphs and bulleted lists) use conversational language, give the visitor substantial reasons to do business with you as soon as possible on the homepage.

Try different headlines and free offers. Keep track of your conversions and see what's working and what doesn't. There is always a better formula that will make you more money and by beginning the process of searching for that formula you will be gaining a significant advantage over your competition.

Charles Preston is President of Click Response a website design company that specializes in Business Website Design.