In 2009 my husband was killed in an accident. In the following hours, weeks, and months I was shocked by the number of things we had left disorganized or ignored. Critical documents you can spend a fraction of the time doing now…

That excerpt came from a website I happened to stumble across, and those few sentences really made me sit up and take notice.

The title was equally arresting: GetYourShitTogether.org.

It’s a website that helps people gather important legal documents such as a will, living will, and power of attorney, before disaster strikes.

I signed up for the mailing list immediately, which something I don’t do lightly these days. (It’s all about inbox control.) So what was it about that website that got me to break the email-abstinence habit?

It’s something I’ve been pondering lately, why some copywriting sticks with you while others just fade away into a cloud of internet marketing white noise.

…It’s the power of storytelling.

In this example, I first felt a wave of compassion for the storyteller. Then I couldn’t help but wonder, “What if that happened to me?”

By doing this, it completely bypassed this jaded consumer’s natural defense against being sold to.

Even if you aren’t selling, telling a poignant story helps your message stand out.

Here’s another example of how using the right words makes all the difference:

I think storytelling is powerful because it taps into the human side of marketing. It frames your message in a way that people can understand and relate to. This video is a perfect example of that.

So how do you craft a story that will get into the minds and hearts of your customers?

Adam Kreitman over at CrazyEgg had some insights into how to pack an emotional punch into a few short sentences through storytelling. He lists some examples of one-sentence stories from onesentence.org, a website where people share true stories from their lives in just one sentence. It’s a goldmine of copywriting inspiration!

Try this copywriting exercise: sit down and picture your ideal customer. Imagine they are sitting right in front of you, and that you can ask them questions: What are you looking for? What would make your life easier? What problems are you trying to overcome? Write down their answers.

Or, if you have access to a customer list, why not take a survey and get the answers directly from them.

Then, take these answers and try to write their story in one sentence.

What do you come up with?

Need help crafting a story that will appeal to your audience? Contact me to discuss copywriting  for your business.

The post Stories Stick! Using Storytelling to Attract Customers appeared first on Sarah Peters Web Design.

(If you’re not following Joanna, you really should! She always manages to teach me something new about how to write engaging copy.)

The subject was “The Rule of One Percent” and in it she shares an insight from a book she read recently called Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.

Here’s the inspiring part:

“The biggest problem I have in delivering my vision is knowing what to do next. Either I try to do too much at once and get frustrated, or I sit immobilized because of the size of the job ahead. The rule of one percent reminds me that all I have to do is improve by one percent. Things can’t help but improve if you keep at it one percent at a time.”

So how do you improve your business by 30% in 30 days?

Simple! Improve it by 1% each day!

Imagine that — instead of worrying about how to make big changes, start by making ONE change today. And another tomorrow. And another the next day.

What ONE tiny improvement can you make today?

Here are Joanna’s (excellent) suggestions:

• Today (Tuesday): Add a testimonial to the first page of your cart/checkout
• Wednesday: On your “Contact Us” page, replace the headline “Contact Us” with a reason to contact you… like, “Our CEO Answers the Phone! Call Us Today”
• Thursday: Add a nice, pleasant “thank you” message to your receipt page
• Friday: Add a persuasive summary headline over the testimonial you added on Tuesday
• Saturday: If you don’t normally test, set up a subject-line test for your next email or a headline test on your “Plans & Pricing” page
• Sunday: Make a chunk of copy on your “Tour” / “How It Works” page (or on a key product page) more scanner-friendly
• Monday: Add a meaningful headline above the logos of customers/clients/users on your home page

And a few more I’d suggest:

• Add compelling text to your call-to-action button. Instead of “Sign Up”, tell me WHY I should sign up, and what I’ll get out of it, such as “Get FREE weekly tips on how to get more customers”
• Add a human face to the front page! People gain confidence in your business when they know they are dealing with real people, so add your own face or someone from your organization. Add an image to the header next to your phone number: “This is Brenda, she really works here!”
• Similarly, add images to your testimonials! It increases the “social proof” by showing your prospects that your happy customers are real people, just like them.
• Add an “on” state to your buttons and links. There should be no doubt whatsoever that your call-to-action button is indeed a button. Make your button “come alive” when someone mouses over it.

What ONE thing can you do to improve your business TODAY?

The post The (Blindingly Obvious) Secret to Improving Your Business by 30% In Just One Month! appeared first on Sarah Peters Web Design.

Imagine you have a sales employee. He shows up everyday, but you’re not really sure what he does. You keep him around because you’ve already invested money in him, but you can’t remember the last time he actually made a sale.

Sounds pretty ridiculous, right?

Yet I’ve talked to many business owners who take that exact attitude toward their company’s website. They have one because they know they should have one, but when I ask them how much traffic it gets or how many visits it converts to sales, they aren’t sure.

You wouldn’t settle for that kind of performance from an employee. Why put up with it from a website?

Now imagine you have a salesperson who can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no holidays, can talk to any prospective customers at once in multiple locations, and pulls in new business as you sleep.

This is what your website COULD be doing, if only it was reaching its full potential.

How To Spot a Lazy Website

Ask yourself these questions:

• How much has your website cost you, between building it and hosting it annually?
• How many conversions (sales, email signups, or any other measurable successes) does your website deliver?
• In short, what is the return on your website investment?

If your website isn’t at the very least paying for itself, it’s time to get your website into shape!

How to Kick Your Website Into Shape

The first thing to do is figure out what you need your website to do.

(You wouldn’t hire an employee without a job description, would you?)

Make a list of website goals, such as:

The more specific you are, the easier it will be to track your website’s success.

Schedule a Performance Review

Just as you would for an employee, schedule regular checks to make sure you are on target with your goals.

Use tools such as Google Analytics to track traffic and conversions. Use the data you compile to learn where you can improve your website’s performance.

In no time, your website will be your star employee!

The post How to Tell if You Have a Lazy Website — And What to Do About It appeared first on Sarah Peters Web Design.

There’s nothing wrong with perfectionism per se. As a part-time visual artist, I admire craftsmanship, the single-minded determination it takes to produce an enduring work of art.

But as a web designer and business owner, I have learned (the hard way) that the pursuit of perfection can actually hurt your business. You can get so tied up deciding on the perfect idea/perfect approach/perfect headline that you miss out on opportunities you could have had if you had only taken action.

There’s a great article on the Harvard Business Review blog by Ron Ashkenas that takes a look at what he calls The Problem with Perfection.

Briefly summarized: spending too much time on research and analysis in search of the perfect solution can lead to paralysis by analysis, which can prevent you from taking timely action and seizing business opportunities.

To break out of this way of thinking, Ashkenas suggests the following approach:

Instead of viewing “action” as something that follows research, think about how action can occur parallel to research. In other words, rather than coming up with perfect recommendations and then flipping the switch months later, start by testing some of your initial ideas on a small scale immediately — while collecting more data. Then you can feed the lessons from these experiments into the research process, while continuing to implement and scale additional ideas.

Here’s the great news: your website is the perfect vehicle to do this!

For many years, creating a web site involved months of research, planning sessions, and many hours designing graphics and coding. (Web marketing expert Ben Hunt compares it to the way monks hand-copied manuscripts before the advent of the printing press.) In the end, if all goes well, you get a website that is fully-realized and pixel-perfect and probably very expensive.

But will it work? Will it drive sales, bring in leads, improve your business?

Instead of spending the bulk of your resources on research prior to building your site, use your site as your research tool! Instead of hand-crafting a custom website, use a tool like WordPress to get a website up and running quickly and cheaply. Take action! Test different offers and see what kind of response you get. Use what works, throw out the rest, refine your message. Your website will be more cost-efficient, more flexible, and will help you respond to market changes rapidly.

When I discussed this idea with my colleague Tony Eddicott, he took it even further:

The web doesn’t have time for perfection, only outcomes. So in this sense ‘perfection’ is the perfect outcome within a given set of precisely defined parameters and that same outcome a year later could be massive imperfection.

And what’s more important to your business, perfection or outcomes?

Don’t waste time and money trying to achieve perfection on the ever-changing web. Instead, take an idea, prototype it, get it online, field-test it, refine it, and start seeing results TODAY.

Need help? Get in touch. I can help you find the best approach to getting your business online quickly and cost-efficiently.

Image from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The post The Case Against Perfection appeared first on Sarah Peters Web Design.

At first glance it’s hard to tell why. The food is excellent, but the place is in a nondescript lot in the middle of a bleak industrial park. And they are NOT cheap. Far from it, in fact. They want $18.95 for a hot pastrami sandwich. $18.95!!!!

So why are all of these people lining up to pay $18.95 for a sandwich in the middle of a recession?

Well for one thing, the portions are ENORMOUS, even by American standards. Everyone knows this, so they order one sandwich between 2 or 3 people and take home the rest. I saw a family of four at the next table split one Reuben, and two grown men at the table opposite share a single bowl of matzoh ball soup (with one gigantic matzoh ball!)

The restaurant does not frown upon sharing; in fact, they encourage it. There’s also a free pickle bar with various types of sour pickled things.

I bet you thought I was exaggerating

Now if you take sharing into account, the prices average out to about $7-8 per person, which is normal for this area.

But a normal-sized sandwich for $7 is nothing unusual, whereas a Harold’s sandwich is talked about for days.

It’s not limited to the sandwiches, either. Immediately across from the entrance there’s a refrigerated case containing the largest desserts and cakes I’ve ever seen. It was funny to watch people’s expressions when they spotted them. Every other person had their phone or camera out to take a picture to send to their friends or post online.

So what lessons can we take away from lunchtime at Harold’s?

1. Be generous with your offerings. Give things away for free. Make people feel they’re getting value for their money. If you have a business online, give away free tips via an email newsletter or downloadable report.


Seriously, cakes bigger than your head!

2. Get people talking right from the start. Offer informative, shareable content and then make it easy for them to share it via social networking tools. Put share buttons right on your blog posts!
3. Position yourself to get the maximum amount of traffic. It may not be the most charming location, but I’m sure they do a ton of lunchtime business from all of the nearby office buildings. Also, this industrial park sits right at the busiest highway junction in New Jersey, where all of the interstate and many of the local highways meet. So it’s not too far out of the way for people to come from all over the state.For online traffic, do keyword research to find out what terms people are using to search for information in your sector. Find the terms with the most traffic for the least amount of competition, and then build content relevant to those terms so that search engines can start sending people to your site.
4. Get the basic things right. Bottom line, the food and service at Harold’s are excellent. Without those two things, no amount of novelty would matter. For your business, focus on providing the best possible service or experience for your customer.
5. And lastly, be memorable!

What offline inspiration have you gotten for your online marketing recently?

Stock image provided by Jorge Gobbi.

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