When you first meet a potential customer in person, you ease into it. You hang out, schmooze a little, maybe share a cup of coffee, before getting down to business.

But on your company’s website, there’s no time for that. Everyone’s in a rush. Your prospect has a million distractions, interruptions and other things to do. Her finger is poised just above the BACK button, twitching with impatience. She’s ready to bail if she doesn’t immediately see what she’s looking for. Or if she thinks you’re wasting her time.

As we talked about last time, website visitors have three immediate questions when they land on any site for the first time:

• Am I in the right place?
• Do they have what I want?
• Do I feel comfortable here?

You only have a few seconds to reassure them. So your headline and lead paragraph must get right to the point. Don’t be too subtle or “creative.” On the other hand, you can’t seem pushy, desperate or obnoxious.

Here’s how to do it.

• Make sure your heading and first paragraph make it obvious — instantly – who the page is for, i.e., your ideal customer.
• Acknowledge their pain, problem or desire. You know, the reason they went Googling in the first place.
• Assure them you have a great solution, preferably a quick one. We’re all impatient, remember?

This may sound like a lot, but it doesn’t have to take a lot of words. Here’s an example:

“Golfers: Are you sick of hooking or slicing the ball?
Wouldn’t it be nice to hit the fairways for a change?”

In just 21 words, we’ve told visitors that we know who they are (golfers) and what they’re problem is (hooking or slicing their tee shots). It’s also hints that we have a solution (Wouldn’t it be nice to hit the fairways for a change?) which we reinforce in the next few sentences.

Believe me, I know just how you feel. But after years of frustration and expensive lessons, I finally found something that works. What an improvement!

Now my ball hardly ever lands in the rough. I’m making more birdies and fewer bogeys, so I enjoy the game a lot more. In fact, I’ve shaved nearly 10 strokes off my handicap.

Want to do the same?”

Notice the copy hasn’t even mentioned the product yet. We don’t know what it is. (At least I don’t, and I wrote the copy.) The focus is on the outcome, i.e., what they stand to gain if they stick around and buy. And we did all that in less than 100 words.

At the risk of repeating myself, remember what’s going through the visitor’s mind: They just landed on your site. They’ll only stay if you give them a compelling reason (a/k/a benefits). They’re not interested in hearing about you, your company or your widgets – not yet. They just want to know IF you can help them, and HOW, and if they can trust you. So just tell them.

And make it quick.

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To paraphrase Somerset Maugham:

“There are three rules for writing the novel a website. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

The biggest challenge for any business website is finding a way to immediately engage the visitor’s interest.

Ask yourself, what do they want? What are they really looking for? How can you make it clear that you have what they want? (Or that they want what you have?)

Knowing what a prospective customer is thinking when they first arrive at your website makes it a lot easier to hook ’em with your copy. Luckily, it’s not too hard to figure out. In fact, I’ll show you exactly what’s going through the typical visitor’s mind. Let me borrow my crystal ball from this turbaned fellow and we’ll walk through the process together.

Peering into the brainpan: What website visitors are thinking

How do most first-time visitors find your site? If you guessed Google, Yahoo, or one or the other search engines, you’re right. Chances are, they typed in one or two keywords to describe what they were looking for, then clicked the SEARCH button.

Almost instantly a search results page popped up, containing a long list of links to websites. Most of them, they’ve never heard of.

Which one will they click?

This, too, is pretty predictable. Statistics show that 80 to 90% of them will click one of the first four listings – which is why it’s pretty important to optimize your website for search engines.

OK, they’ve clicked a link and, miracle of miracles, they land on your website! How cool!

Then what? Well, put yourself in their place. What goes through your mind when you land on a website you’ve never seen before? There are three things you immediately want to know:

1. Am I in the right place? Is this where I meant to go? Or did I click the wrong thing?
2. Does this site have what I’m looking for? This is a biggie. If you don’t show them instantly, they’ll hit that BACK button and be gone faster than you can say, “Huh? Where’d everybody go?”
3. How do I feel here? Am I comfortable? Or is it creepy or sleazy? Can I trust these people — or are they just trying to rush me into buying something? Do they even know what they’re talking about?

Oh, by the way. You only have a few seconds to get all that across.

Why the big rush?

The dazzling speed of computers and the Internet has conditioned us all to be very, very impatient. Admit it. If you don’t find what you’re looking for instantly, you look elsewhere. Right? If a link doesn’t open fast enough, you click somewhere else.

We all do it. And so does your website visitor. If she doesn’t see the answers she’s looking for instantly – I mean within the first 3-5 seconds – you have very little chance of keeping her around.

How in the world can you possibly communicate all that in just a few seconds? I’ll show you how, in the next installment of today’s exciting adventure.

Next: How to write copy that gets to the point — without getting obnoxious.

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photo credit: KrätzschePhotography

I think you’ll like it. It’s called:

How to read your customers’ minds

Tune in tomorrow. Same time, same station.

A few people have already contacted me to ask an obvious question in response to my earlier post (and newsletter) about how to write your own business website.

As one person put it,

“What are you — off your meds, Tom? Aren’t you going to put yourself out of business?”

Naw. Actually, I’m just showing off, demonstrating how smart and clever I am. That way you’ll be impressed and throw more money at me. Right?

No, seriously. I’ve got two good reasons for doing this. First, I’m a communicator. This is what I do. I love learning, and I love sharing what I’ve learned. That’s also why I’ve started teaching again. (FYI, I used to be a computer trainer. Now I’m teaching a couple of writing courses at USM in Portland, Maine.)

But here’s the biggest reason. In 2010, I’m shifting the main focus of my business. More teaching and consulting, and less client work. I’ll be doing more writing (including here) but less copywriting. I’m already working on several e-books and e-courses, maybe some audio and video projects too. (Join my mailing list for advance notice and early-bird discounts.)

OK, there’s one other reason, too.

Writers, including copywriters, don’t get nearly enough credit for the skill and effort it takes to do what they do. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, “What is written without effort is read without pleasure.” In other words, if something is easy to write, it’s usually tough to read. And prospective customers won’t bother. They’ll just go elsewhere.

Many people hold graphic designers in high regard, because most of us can’t do what they do. It’s a mystery. But writing? No mystery there. Hell, we’ve all been writing since second grade. What’s so hard about that?

Familiarity breeds contempt, and all that.

People who are clueless about the difficulty of copywriting often figure the words on their site don’t matter all that much. So why spend a lot? Words are cheap, right?

“Writing is easy. All you do is stare at the keyboard until little drops of blood form on your forehead.” (Gene Fowler)

Writing well is the hardest work I’ve ever done. You will soon see how many factors you need to juggle when writing — especially website copy. Then you might have a little more sympathy for the ink-stained wordsmiths, sweating blood all over their keyboards.

Whether you decide to write it yourself or outsource it, what you’ll learn in this course will make you a far more discerning client. You will not only have a greater appreciation for how difficult writing a website is, you’ll also know great copy when you see it.

Or write it.