The Mystery Technique

Today I’m going to reveal an amazing Technique for writing Web content that will keep your readers glued to your site.

If you surf the Web (and who doesn’t), you’ve seen this Technique before.  It’s been used recently in one Web advertisement that pops up on many sites.  Have you seen it?  It’s an ad for weight loss.  A cartoon of a portly woman in a black bikini magically sheds weight on a simple program that you can learn about simply by clicking.  This brings you to an online presentation giving you information bit by bit, keeping you hanging on till the sales pitch at the end.  By now, you’re hooked.

This Technique isn’t unique to Web writing.  Lots of writers use it to maintain your interest.  Mystery writers are particularly good at it, feeding you just enough information to prevent you from putting your book down until the last chapter. 

This Technique depends a lot on structure and style.  Each item of information you provide for your visitors needs to link seamlessly to the next one.  You can achieve this using what writers call ‘connectors’, which are words that connect one idea to another.  Many of these connectors, like therefore, additionally, and on the other hand, appear in your writing automatically.  They’re easy to use, yet they make a huge impact on your readers, helping them follow along with your content closely without losing track of where you’re leading them.

This Technique is essential for what Web marketers call Conversion Rate Optimization, or CRO.  Basically, CRO means using Web design and writing techniques to convert your visitors into buyers.  Statistics show that unoptimized commercial websites have conversion rates of between just 2.5 to 3.5%.  High-quality optimization, however, improves conversion rates by 200 to 300% on the average, with some increasing as high as 600%.

Do these conversion rates sound attractive to you?  Is this the kind of activity you’d like to see on your site?  Well then, it’s time you reevaluate your Web copy.  Read it through and see.  If you were a visitor, would this copy lead you to take action?  Would it convert you to a buyer?  If not, it’s time to rewrite and build this simple, useful, and powerful Technique into your Web copy.

And now, you’re probably wondering, just what is this magic bullet Technique?

It’s called… anticipation.