The One Important Step Missing In Many Guidelines For Good Websites And Landing Pages

International Content Creation

I just got a newsletter in the mail today from a great internet marketer out of the UK, Chris Cardell. I really enjoy reading anything Chris puts out. Today, there was a quick guideline for creating good websites in his package.

There were basically the same 4 key points you hear non-stop as soon as you get into creating websites:

1. Clearly defined. Your websites goal has to be clearly indicated for immediate recognition. Be careful of any graphics you have - they must directly correspond to what your website is about. Confusion leads readers away.
2. Headlines are critical. If they don’t grab your readers attention they will move on.
3. Easy to read. If your website is too busy, too messy, too hard to read - readers will move on.
4. Compelling offer. If you don’t make your offer interesting to the reader, he will move on.

But Chris left out the most important key element in my eyes, and the one thing almost everyone forgets.

There is something you have to do before any of the key point above:

You have to know where your online visitor has just come from. Better yet, did he get here from a banner ad, an article or a Google search, and which words did he put in the Google search to find you.

This is absolutely vital information if you want your internet visitor to do something: read your page, sign up for a newsletter, learn about your product, or even buy it.

The more smoother the link between all these stages the more success you will have:

• your internet visitor’s mental frame of mind
• the motivation behind his search
• the language on the the text that lead him to your website
• his expectations of what he is hoping to find on your website
• and how your website corresponds to his previous experience and desires

I only understood the full value of this after studying good web copy in great depth. This is something trained copywriters will not leave out - they are trained to think of the reader from every possible angle. If you want your reader to do something you need to know how to convince him.

Imagine a huge department store with doors opening onto every different department. If someone found your store because they were hunting for shoes and they came in through the door they thought lead them to the shoe department only to find a mixed batch of articles nothing to do with shoes. Confusion.

Now imagine they found the door to the shoe section through a poster describing incredibly stylish red boots and they opened the door to find a large display of the boots immediately as they walked in. And there is a big sign saying they could get the matching handbag for half price as well, and there is a pay plan available.

Your online visitors have the same contrast in experience. It is not always easy to know where your online visitor are coming from. And visitors often come into your website through the side door, not the home page. Are you other pages clearly defined, or would they be confusing?

“Landing Pages” are popular because they help website owners to categorize and set up paths for specific visitors. This allows the website owner to say the right thing at the right time to the visitors that come in through different specific doors.

It is possible to make your “Landing Page” part of your current website, if you are asking your reader to sign up for a free newsletter for example. If you are moving in for a sale you may want to use a specific URL domain and keep your reader totally focused on what you have to say. Again if you start waving other distractions in his face when you are trying to make a sale, you will not make that sale as much as you can.

This first step of understanding and identifying your readers frame of mind at the moment he finds your website is also vital for international marketing. Cross cultural communication is often a trial and error process.

If your communication is lined up with your foreign reader’s search expectations and represents a smooth continuation in the communication he is expecting from you, he will be more likely to forgive any slight errors in cross cultural communication.
Now I am sure Chris knows the importance of this key step. His newsletter is an excellent resource for internet marketing.

Chris has a seminar coming up with a few celebrity speakers including the successful American marketer Dan Kennedy.

Here are a few more International Content Creation articles:
- Morphing Into A Foreign Culture
- International Content As An International Business Development Strategy
- Best Small Business Tool For Building Trust In International Clients
- Who Do You Need To Write Your Foreign Content
- Web Content Conference In French
- Third Transition To A Global Market Internet Business
- An International Development Template
- Foreign Language Communication Simplified
- Easy Small Business Strategy Strengthens International Client Relationships
- Best Small Business Tool For Building Trust In International Clients
- The One Important Step Missing In Many Guidelines For Good Websites And Landing Pages

And read even more in the…
Get International Clients International Sales Road Map

International English • What is international English and what can it do your for business? Find out more here.

Culture Customized Content • How can culture-customized content increase your international sales? Find out more here.

Tagged as: international content creation, Internet Marketing, landing pages, persona, prospect analysis