Writing Persuasive Links

Persuasive links are the “connectors” from one micro event to another in a sales process.  The number of micro events in a sales process will vary; however, what’s more important is the ability to persuade visitors to follow micro events with the hopes of leading to a single macro event i.e. a sale.    If visitors resort to using the navigation or, “Plan B”, it means your sales process is unclear, your sales process does not match the visitors buying process, and/or your links in the body of the website are not persuasive enough.   

Why is the quality of persuasive links so low?  Most websites rely on the navigation as the tool for visitors to find what they are looking for; however, it is rarely the primary or first port of call.  Think how you behave on a website, once your eyes finish scanning the top banner to make sure you are at the right place, it immediately drops to the middle of the page.  If copy and/or persuasive links are not clearly communicated, you begin looking elsewhere.

Creating Persuasive Links:

Simply put, if you want someone to do something, you’ll get better results if you tell them exactly what to do.  Sounds easy! 

To create persuasive links, you need to present a win-win proposal with a clear focus on the visitor’s win, not your own.  The easiest way to do this is to clearly state how to take the action and combine it with another statement of why visitors should want to do it. 

The Future Now team have simplified this further with a simple formula: imperative verb + implied benefit.  State a verb which makes requests, gives directions, instructions, orders, or commands (i.e. Click here!), then state what’s in it for the visitor.

For example:

Option 1:  Steve found an investment secret that changed his life. Read more…

Option 2:  Steve found an investment secret that changed his life. Click here for the investment strategy of a lifetime.

Option 3:  Steve found an investment secret that changed his life. See how you may be able to double your income in one year.

Notice that the call to action in Option 1 lacked the benefit to the reader, and though Option 2 stated the benefit for the reader, the imperative verb did not match the benefit like it does in Option 3.

Statistics have proven the formula used in Option 3 will regularly outperform the others, however, you don’t need to rely on my opinions, conduct Multivariate Testing and find out for yourself. 

The name of the game is creating a win-win situation; therefore if you are not creating perceived value, visitors will not click through.