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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A Forrester survey revealed what’s really no surprise: almost one-quarter of online shoppers leave websites without registering or purchasing when they are required to register.

The research firm suggests the missed conversions and lost revenues can be minimized by making registration optional, and clearly explaining the benefits customers will get if they do sign up.

“The right incentives can also be helpful — online shoppers are most likely to hand over personal data in exchange for discounts,” suggested Forrester’s Megan Burns.

Additionally, Webcopyplus has found an effective way to achieve registration is to introduce it late in a process, once online visitors have invested time in a task. However, even at a late stage, if too much information is required, it can still lead to both frustration and abandonment.

Consumers consume information all day long, so it’s difficult to catch their attention with copywriting — forget about influencing them to actually do something.

So, as a copywriter, what choices are there?

Many. But the best one, which proves to work time and time again, is delivering information that’s relevant to the target audience.

Information is communication. Communicate about something that has nothing to do with a particular person’s interest, and you won’t connect. Speak to his or her needs or wants and you get a completely different response.

When it comes to the Web, copywriting isn’t just something you store and retrieve. To engage online visitors, web content must at least touch on topics or issues that are important to the targeted individual.

That’s when web content connects, influences and converts. And that’s when your web content actually works on the behalf of your business.

When creating web content, always go for relevant. It’ll consistently get you the best return.

The Web can be a cold place. Web types dissect a myriad of stats: visits, page views, bounce rates. These are important and valuable tools, but one must not forget a customer is not a cold statistic.

People have feelings and emotions, which will sway them toward your business – or away from it.

Every online visitor brings you his wants. If you take the time to know him and understand his needs, you can provide web content that will engage him, alleviate his concerns and doubts, and entice him to do business with you.

Treating people like stats, on or off the Web, is an attitude that inflicts insult and may not be forgiven. Treat each prospect as a VIP. Show them respect.

Poorly structured web content is misleading and wastes millions of hours daily. For today’s 1.2 billion Internet users, that translates to frustration. For business, it means missed opportunities.

Is your website optimized for visitors? If your site contains complicated navigation, confusing classifications, self-centric web copy, outdated information and counter-intuitive designs, probably not.

It’s All About the Customer

What you want to say is not important; it’s all about what the customer wants to do. What is he or she striving to attain or achieve? That defines a task. It might be to find a real estate agent, book a hotel room or purchase software.

If the task is completed on your website, your visitor wins — and so do you.

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You’ve got plenty of traffic, but you’re not able to persuade visitors to take action. It’s a common and aching issue for many online businesses.

Too often, business owners impulsively throw more money into existing marketing campaigns, believing it’s merely a numbers game — i.e. “I just need more traffic and the sales will materialize.” But one has to realize the simple fact that a zero per cent conversion rate means no sales, whether you’re attracting 10 visitors a day or 10,000.

Presuming you’re driving the right people to your site, Web site conversions can be boosted through various means, explained Yuval Karjevski, Senior Software Engineer at New York-based Reditus Solutions, which helps companies analyze their online performance in a bid to achieve optimal results.

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Businesses need to dig deeper to connect with customers in the expanding sea of Web 2.0 user-generated content.

The rapid rise of social networking and blogging is churning out information at record rates, creating a flood of independent ideas, views and expressions.

Web authority Technorati reports there are more than 100 million blogs sailing the Web, with 175,000 new blogs diving in each day. What’s more, bloggers are updating these sites with more than 1.6 million posts per day, which translates to more than 18 updates a second.

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Businesses are starting to recognize it’s not the volume of online traffic, but the quality that counts.

Good traffic comprises relevant visitors who are likely to fulfill a desired action on your website, whether it’s to make a purchase, e-mail or call, subscribe to a newsletter or what have you.

Poor traffic, even in extraordinary amounts, is a waste of bandwidth. No matter how impressive the numbers, the wrong crowd won’t bring you desired results.
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Why do so many businesses lack respect for online customers?

It’s bizarre, especially in this day and age with Internet usage and spending relentlessly on the rise. Perhaps with so many suspect websites hovering in cyberspace, even credible companies tend to lose perspective.

Maybe it’s time to start thinking of visitors as online guests. It’s a simple ‘mind shift’ that might get companies to better recognize how their websites communicate with those they intend to serve.

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Online traffic is useless unless your website content is able to connect with visitors. If it doesn’t, there’s probably little chance they’ll return.

Relevant website content is essential to engage your visitors in a bid to turn them into customers. Here are the basics steps you need to cover to connect with your target market:

Make sure your website content is scan-friendly and intuitively accessible to make it easy for visitors to find what they want. Lean web copy and well-planned site architecture can make or break your website.

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