Hi everyone,

I've just created a website for a product that I like to think I have re-discovered for the web.

A very tiny minority of people have been using this copywriting trick online (one of them being Michel), but no one has tried selling it as a product on it's own as I am doing.

I do have websites with just a single page sales letter, but for this project I felt that a multi page format would be more effective. This was mainly due to the slighlty technical nature of the product.

My website is at http://www.dropcapitals.com

I am only just starting my marketing campaign, so I can't report any conversion rates as yet.

I've tried to lay it out so that each page will appeal to certain emotional triggers and reasons for buying. I wanted to make it easy for people to find the 'answers to their objections"

Every page on the site has at least one call to action, and they all lead to the page where my Drop Capital image designs can be purchased.

You will notice that I've kept each page fairly short (although I am believer in long copy sells best). That said, if you add up all the pages on the site there is about 25+ at present. For those that want every bit of info they can get, there is plenty for them to read.

I wanted to make my site equally appealing to impulse buyers. My main target market is initially people that want to improve their sales conversion rate, get more people reading their pages etc. However, I'm kind of hoping that some people will buy 'just because they like the look of them, and want a drop capital effect on their own website'.

As most people on here are advocates of a single sales page (righly so in most cases) I would love to know what you think of my site and how I've approached it from a copywriting angle.

Thank you in advance,

Jason Lewis

Hi Jason,

I'm certainly NOT one of the experts who frequent this forum, but since no one else has responded yet, I thought I'd give you my "rookie" opinions.

I won't go into detail on every aspect of your site, but I do think there are 3 major problem areas.

1. You start off telling people that the headline has the biggest influence on getting visitors to stay and read; that a good headline takes a lot of hard work and testing; and that even a "half-decent" headline might not keep visitors from clicking away. Right off the bat, the reader of your site is going to get the message that his number-one priority is to develop a great headline... but then you go off on a different tack and start trying to sell something else. Personally, I think many of your visitors will find it hard to believe that a drop-cap will "help" a headline or do what the headline (the most important element on the page) might not do ... keep visitors from leaving. ESPECIALLY after you just reminded them about how important the headline is. It's like telling someone trying to cut down a tree that they need a sharp saw, but if their saw is dull, they should try using it at a different angle. It still won't cut.

Perhaps you should leave out the whole headline bit and just start off with the quote from Ogilvy?

2. I find it hard to believe that any newspaper will give up a penny of advertising revenue for drop-cap space. I think it's more likely they use drop-caps as fillers. IMHO, if they had ads for that page that needed the space taken up by a drop-cap, the dropped cap would be dropped. I could certainly be wrong, but this just doesn't ring true to me.

3. Your assertions that drop-caps will help increase income, sell more products, increase commissions and get more repeat visitors are unconvincing. Even if a drop-cap DOES get people to stay and read the copy on a sales letter, that doesn't mean the visitors will be CONVINCED by that copy and buy. The copy does the selling, and no amount of pretty graphics or fantastic-looking drop-caps will get someone to buy if they're not convinced by the copy. I think your target market will realize this, so your claims of increased income will turn them off.

I don't mean to be so negative, Jason, but I think you will get better results if you focus on the "strengths" that you can verify about drop-caps. For instance...

Do drop-caps really improve readership on websites? Your subhead & Ogilvy quote that it increases readership by 13% applies to print media only, right? If it's been tested on WEBSITES, I think it would be very helpful if you could include THOSE test results. Also, perhaps you could list the names of some very successful marketers who use them on their sites?

Maybe you could emphasize the "professional look" a bit more. I agree the drop-caps on your pages look very nice and give them a polished, professional look. And the time-saving aspect of your product is quite important, too.

Like I said at the beginning, I'm not an expert. But I hope this feedback is helpful to you, Jason. Perhaps others here will jump in and give you some better tips.

Hi Bonnie,

I appreciate your comments. I really like the fact that people speak their mind on this forum. No treading on egg shells, just honest opinions.

I understand what you're saying about my lead in where I'm talking about headline writing then switch to talking about the drop capital. I was thinking along the lines that a drop capital is so easy to implement, compared to other copywriting methods, like headline writing.

As the headline IS the most important thing, I'm probably not doing myself any favors by comparing headlines to drop caps. I will try and present that part in a different way.

I agree/disagree with your view on why newspapers/magazines use the drop capital.

I'm sure if they had to choose, they would choose revenue in the hand over a drop capital. However, on any given page the drop capitals on their own are not going free up enough space for much of an ad. I was trying build up a collective picture of exactly how often the drop capital is used.

I've been researching a number of different publications and their use of the drop capital seems to be constant. If they use it, they use it. I haven't seem them use it in all articles one week, then just a few the next.

Speaking offline here, Ogilvy has proven that the drop capital increases readership. Increased readership inturn means more ad revenue. I must admit though that I have been searching for data on this, but it's not the sort of thing that newspapers disclose too easily.

In your third point you said that you didn't think a drop capital would increase sales on it's own. Again, I agree with you. I have mentioned this in my help/FAQ page, that basically if your sales letter sucks, the drop capital is not going to do much.

However, no one is going to buy from you unless they read the text on your page. If you are converting some sales already, increased readership has to got to boost your conversion. By how much is the big question.

I know that without a doubt, my sales letter needs specific testimonials. I have had two prominet marketers agree to do a split test on their own sites. They have only recently agreed to do this so as yet I haven't had the results.

I asked Michel on another thread over a week ago, if he had any specific test results using a drop capital. Although he uses them on his sales pages, he hasn't replied to me yet. I'm guessing he either hasn't done a split test yet, or doesn't want to make the results public.

I think that I will give more attention to the 'more professional look' benefit. From the feedback I've had from my subscribers, they seem more interested in how much better their site looks, rather than the possibility of increased readership. Until I have the split test results back, maybe that is the angle I should be pursuing.

Thanks again for your comments Bonnie, they have been a great help.

Jason

Hi Jason,

I just want to add that I felt that you didn't make a link between the use of drop caps in newspapers and the use of drop caps online. Most copywriters would be aware that what works offline does not automatically work online and so the argument might be considered spurious.

Further to this, it wasn't clear to me who your target market was. You could perhaps slice it and dice it as professional copywriters, people who write their own copy, technophobes and technophiles. I would suggest that each would respond to a different hook. Someone like myself (who knows how to use a graphics package) might respond more to saving time and lack of hassle than to the fear of doing it myself (assuming that you had convinced me that drop caps make a difference).

Interestingly, online newspapers and news sites don't seem to use drop caps and this certainly raises a query with me as to how valuable drop caps are given the additional fiddling around to add a graphic in with my text. As you say, the more convincing proof will be from a split test - so good luck with that.

Hope this helps,
Jane

Hi Jane,

You are right when you say that it's not clear who my target market are. As something completely new for the web, it's very difficult to guage which market to aim at.

As I discovered drop capitals in a copywriting book, I decided that the copywriting angle would be the one to go after. However, the more I look into it, the more reasons I find for targeting people wanting a cosmetic improvement as well.

I think that the main reason online versions of newspapers and magazines don't use a drop cap, is because it's not so easy to create. You can't just go 'format', 'drop cap' as you can in word.

If you look at this purely from a cosmetic point of view...you often see presentations, reports, leaflets, booklets etc using the drop capital offline. If we say that they are using it to make them look better/more professional etc., why is it that they don't use the drop capital effect to make their articles/web pages look better/more professional online?

I think it's obvious that I've gone out on a limb in creating this product. Find a demand first, then fill it etc. Hey, someone has to be the pioneer!

I knew that I would have to educate the marketplace to some degree. I still feel though that people would like to emulate the drop capital effect they see so often offline, they just don't know how to create it.

The comments that have been brought up, have certainly given me a number of objections to overcome, and I thank you for that. Knowing what potential customers might be thinking is half the battle.

Jason

Hi Jason,

One of the tricks many professional copywriters swear by is to create a complete profile of your "target" person - virtually down to their shoesize! (By profile I mean demographics, psychographics, technographics etc). Visualise this person - give them a name. How old are they, where do they live, what are their interests, marital status, job, income etc. Then, when you come to write your copy, write as though you are writing specifically to this person.

Of course, the target market may well be broader than this one individual (or others like them), and so you can address the benefits applicable to other segments in your copy as well.

Sometimes you can do it the other way around i.e. you already have the product, but who will it appeal to? Again, there may be several groups or segments of a particular market. Do you try to appeal to them all at the same time, or is it better to focus in on one? I don't know the answer to this - I think it depends on the product and whether how you explain how the product fits one need would then contradict how it fits another need.

As a technophile, part-time copywriter, what appealed to me about your product was that I wouldn't have to mess around for hours in Photoshop, and more importantly, that I wouldn't have to mess with the size of the graphic to get it to line up with the text. My point of view might be that it's not worth my while to spend 2 hours doing it in Photoshop, when I'd earn a lot more than $27 doing something for my clients with that time.

However, this presupposes that I bought into the drop caps theories (i.e. it is a cosmetic improvement OR it increases readership), or that I just plain liked the idea and was enchanted by it. I don't totally buy into that at this point (although I'm sure I could be persuaded at some point) and as a "techie" type, I've always been more persuaded by sans-serif fonts and lack of clutter. On a technical point, I took some advice on font sizing on web pages and was convinced by the argument that using px sizes rather than font or point sizes would produce a more stable design (x-browser and screen resolution issues). So my mind flagged up a question about whether it would actually line up with how I do my text anyway.

As ever, the answer usually lies in some market research. Maybe you could ask the copywriters here if they:
(a) use drop caps
(b) believe that drop caps increase readership
(c) believe that drop caps improve the appearance of their sales pages
(d) struggle to create their own drop caps
(e) would be willing to pay for a product that did it for them

Other things to consider are the size of your market - how many professional copywriters are there in the world and how can you reach them? Would you be better off aiming only at people who know enough about copywriting to do their own copy, but who know very little about webdesign. What about webdesigners who want to impress their copywriting clients?

Hope this helps,
Jane

Hi Jane,

Another very thorough reply as usual!

I can report that Michel has agreed to do a test on using drop capitals, and I will be more than willing to share the results on here, good or bad.

I did try to come up with a profile of my ideal customer. Although pro copywriters may be interested in my product (if I had specific test results) they weren't really my main target market.

I was really aiming at two different segments of people. Both of them really fell into the small/work from home type of website owner. Basically people with limited resources, that don't have a team of techie people already on hand to design their own drop capital images for them.

Persoanlly I've always liked the look of the drop capital. The fact that Microsoft have included it as a format option in Word, suggested to me that other people like to use it as well, to enhance their documents cosmetically.

After reading Ogilvy's comments about the drop capital increasing readership, I also felt that my drop capital images would appeal to webmasters that are interested in improving their sales conversion rates.

My theory being that virtually no one buys without reading the text on the web page. Some people will visit, check out the headline, then leave straight away, others just scan sub heads etc. So, if you can increase the number of people reading, this should increase the conversion rate.

I firmly believe that adding a drop capital is surely going to grab the visitors attention more than the same paragraph without one in it. As we read from left to right, a proportion of people will read the paragraph where previously they may have skipped it.

The big question is whether this percentage of people is significant enough.

If the test results I get back from people aren't very significant, then I guess I will be concentrating on the cosmetic enhancement angle. If that was the case I would probably drop the price a little bit.

I have had it suggested to me that offline publications use the drop capital as filler. However, my research seems to go against this theory. As you are in the UK Jane, do you every get the daily Express? Amongst others they use the drop cap extensively.

On the back page in the sports section they usually put a text box in the middle of the picture. Even though it sometimes only contains 20 words, they always use a big drop capital every day. This text box leads into the rest of the article inside the paper. I'm convinced they use the drop cap to increase readership of that text box, which will also lead to increased readership of the article 'inside' the paper. All the main articles inside seem to have a drop capital every day.

I've sent them an e-mail asking them about it...wonder if they will bother to reply.

Jason

Hi Jason,

Good luck with the testing. I'll look forward to the results.

No - I don't read the Express or any newspapers usually. I daresay your theory is correct (although it would be good if they would confirm it for you), but the problem remains in porting that theory to the online world. Any philosopher or scientist would probably agree with you that forming the hypothesis that what works in newspapers may also work on line is a reasonsable thing to do. However, it doesn't make it so and you still have to prove it!

The MS Word documents are probably being printed off (most organisations don't believe in the paperless office), so I'm not sure what that proves, other than it looks nice when printed. Anyway, the fact is, is that someone WILL want to add drop caps to their website and so the questions are:
who?
why?
where? - i.e. where will you find them or reach them

This is kind of an interesting scenario in that it highlights the difficulties of creating a product or service in the absence of any reseach to demonstrate that there is a need or desire for it. Or that even if there is a need, that potential candidates can easily be identified and contacted.

I could say the same about my own business - I didn't do a lot of market research to ascertain needs or desires. But I guess I felt I was on fairly safe ground because I know who my target market is, I know from observing them that they struggle with marketing and are largely incapable of creating a good website, so the only questions that remain are is what I'm offering a good fit with their perceived need and have they identified that they even have a need yet. It's then up to me to present my message in a way that they will relate to and craft my services into packages that they are willing to pay for. The testing continues as I unravel the mystery .....

HTH,
Jane