Knowing your audience is imperative to achieve high conversion rates with your web content.

As you attempt to define your reader, pay heed to his knowledge of the subject. If he’s informed, get right to the key facts and figures. Otherwise, you’ll bore him and turn him off with generic information.

If he’s not well versed with the subject, ensure you provide some basic, high-level information, and offer plenty of references to helpful background material. Sidebars can also be an effective tool in this case.

If you need to cater to a mixed crowd, which is common on the Web, provide high-level material, but include clearly labeled links to all the particulars. This is a web content strategy called link layering, and it’s an incredibly effective way to provide online visitors information that’s relevant to their specific needs.

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Keywords are the foundation to successful web content.

Use the right ones, and your business can thrive. Use the wrong ones, and your website will reap you few rewards, if any. The trick is to ensure your web content writer or writers use the same language as your target audience.

Business executives and managers are often surprised when they find out internal lingo isn’t used by prospects and customers. “Talk shop” with consumers and you risk alienating them.

For instance, airline executives religiously use the term “reduced fares.” But that term is used in search engines less than 10 times a day — and that’s on a global scale.

Meanwhile, “cheap flights” is plugged into search engines by Internet users more than 10,000 times a day.

If you were running an airline, which search term would you want to target?

Showing consumers respect turns browsers into buyers. Yet, when consumers reach out, their inquiries often seem to fall on deaf ears. In the digital age, a prompt response is anticipated — always. And when it’s not delivered, it can easily kill the sale.

Many businesses don’t recognize patience is scarce on the fast-paced Web. Even the slightest delay in response prompts consumers to go back to Google and friends to click the next search result.

While planning web copy for an HR firm, they sent requests for quotes to three web designers. Within 48 hours they made their choice between two; they refused to wait for the third to respond.

Meanwhile, some businesses just don’t care. Two years ago, Webcopyplus was referring several businesses to an industry partner, and a couple clients made comments about their response times. E-mails weren’t returned for up to four days.

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Purposefully written web content that effectively tells your prospects why they should buy from you can really help your business on the sales front. In fact, if done right, it can completely disqualify your competitors.

As noted in the article Brand strategy: distinct or extinct, you should leverage your business’ unique points and strengths, which may entail your:

• Selection
• Experience
• Knowledge
• Credentials
• Expediency
• Style
• Technology
• Geography
• Alliances
• Tools
• Customer service

But when you do, make sure you nail the point on the head. Don’t be subtle. Use clear, short and relevant web content to drive the message home.

And don’t be afraid to repeat your most potent points. It will drill the facts and ideas into your prospect’s brain, and make it memorable.

It’s a sound way to exclude your competitors from the final decision-making process.

Just one comment captures just how fast the Web’s killing TV.

A friend and his crew taping a 2010 Olympics-related event in Vancouver were approached by a group of kids, ages six to 10 years old, who asked excitedly: “Cool, are we going to be on YouTube?”

YouTube. Forget about TV from the decades past. And when the group was told no, but that they’d be featured on TV, that news was met with a big, disappointing “Awwww.”

The new generation is onto something.

Sooner than later, those TVs in the family rooms will be giant screen monitors powered by the Web. The tipping point is here.

Author and super marketer Seth Godin made a good point on his blog, where he touches on the fact that the closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge clients.

In one example, he cites pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport. That’s true in most cases, including Frankfurt and London Heathrow, where the price for a hot dog and a beer will give you the impression you’re fine dining.

However, some airports choose not to charge premium. The Vancouver International Airport is a prime example.  Tenants are required to offer “street pricing,” which means franchises like Flying Wedge Pizza can’t inflate their prices. A big mama’s bacon special will cost you $4.99 on the east side of town, and it’ll cost you $4.99 as you’re running for the departure gate.

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Consumers rule the Web. Consider bloggers; they freely praise or pan products and services, and companies can’t stop it.

While errors and incidents were easily swept under the rug during past decades, the Internet has made it easy for consumers to share horror stories with the masses.

When complaints about ongoing no-shows and screw ups fell upon deaf ears, I felt compelled to share my story about Rogers Customer Service. Now, when someone types Rogers customer service into Google and friends, there’s a good chance they’ll read about the poor service.

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At a recent entrepreneurial event in Vancouver, business coach Mark Wardell spoke about the importance of a business’ market position.

He suggested: Ask yourself, do your customers clearly understand why your business is unique and why they need you?

“The answer to this question determines if they will continue to do business with you,” he said. “Conversely, if you are seen as part of a homogeneous category of business, your selling prices will be dictated by your competitors.”

And, he stressed, this is not a good thing — especially in our current economic times.

Wardell also makes interesting points in a market positioning video on his business consulting website.

Google published its earnings last month, reporting its search result sites generated revenues of $3.40 billion in the first quarter of 2008.

Meanwhile, an iProspect study showed that 60.5 per cent of Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL users selected a natural (unpaid) search result over paid search result as the most relevant on a sample query. Additionally, 60.8% of Yahoo and 72.3% of Google search engine users chose a natural search result as the most relevant.

The conclusion: appearing on natural rankings is most valuable to businesses. Natural search results are more trusted by online users and attract more clicks.

Despite the pressure to become a profit center, most organizations’ customer service and contact centers continue to miss the mark on becoming a strategic business partner and are not considered part of the corporate revenue strategy, noted Forrester Research’s Natalie L. Petouhoff.

However, the research firm added new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations and data are making decisions about positioning customer service for success more relevant than ever before.

“This presents an opportunity for customer service professionals to accomplish goals they may have previously lacked the data to justify,” suggested Petouhoff, adding the transformation of customer service from a “cost center” model to a “profit center” paradigm entails a commitment to change from all levels within an organization — from C-level executives to call center agents.

Customer service leaders can serve their companies well by helping executives decide if customer service is a financial priority, advancing their own leadership and business case development skills, and demonstrating to agents why and how customer service is key to a company’s brand and bottom line.