What's In It For Me?

"What's in it for me?" is the underlying question when people are deciding whether to respond to your advertisements, read your content, follow your calls to action, take part at your site, or link to it. Web hosting provider explains. Answer that question for them, and you're more likely to get what you want.

Get people to respond to your advertisements- web hosting provider tips

People are bombarded with advertisements. You can increase the chances of yours getting responses with these steps:

• Know your target audience, and tailor your ads for them.
• Advertise at sites where your target audience is likely to be. If you're bidding on keywords, choose long tail keywords to reach a more specific audience.
• Get their attention with a headline that focuses on the benefits of your product or service.
• Make your ads specific, clear, and concise.
• If space allows, include your unique selling point, which will answer the question of how people benefit from choosing you over the competition.
• Provide contact information and a call to action.

Get people to read your content

You've got people at your site now. You want to keep them there until they've followed your call to action and made a purchase or whatever you want them to do.

From headings to sentences, draw them in. Focus on what's in it for your readers. If you're selling something, keep your target audience in mind as you focus on the benefits, special offers, and what makes your products or services different. If you're providing information that you want people to read, tailor your information to their needs and wants.

In addition to writing for your audience, write to them. When you use the words you and your, your content becomes more focused on what's in it for them, and readers connect more with it.

Explain the why behind your statements. Why will your readers benefit from the product or service? Why are you the person or company to obtain it from?

Get people to follow your calls to action

You'll have more people following your calls to action if they see what they want. Provide different ways to navigate your site and search for content. For example, offer options to search for products by price, size, color, use, and various features. Make your site visitors feel that you've tailored your site to their needs and preferences.

Include information about benefits and features with your products and services, on the same page or just a click away. Buyers' guides, user reviews, and ratings fall in this category.

Draw attention to special or exclusive offers, such as discounts or membership programs. Link to related products or include a "You may also be interested in these products" list.

Make changes to your content and calls to action and track which ones are more successful.

Get people to take part at your site

You have a a forum, a wiki, or a blog, or you have a site where readers leave reviews or other comments. Why should other people take part? Give them reasons:

• Provide valuable content. If they benefit from it, they may want to get the good feeling that comes from giving back.
• Help them identify themselves. Usernames, customizable profile pages, and ways to view each person's contributions all give people a sense of identity at the site.
• Keep the site clean. Allow different points of view, even critical ones, but remove spam, rudeness, and other problem content. Your audience will have more confidence in you and will be able to take part more easily.
• Offer a way for some members to stand out, such as post count indications, user titles, or even a different-colored username. A little bit of prestige can go a long way.

Get people to link to your site

What's in it for other people if they link to your website? Common reasons for linking to other sites:

• Your site has content that's valuable to visitors at the other site.
• The person linking to your site found your content valuable or interesting and wants to share it with other people at a forum or social media site. They may want to impress their peers with what they found.
• You're providing content for the other site, and a link to your site is in that content.
• You're paying for the inbound link.
• You're providing a reciprocal link.

Quality content is key for the first three reasons. If you've established yourself as an authority on the topic and have quality content, the links will keep coming when people discover your content. For the other reasons, you may need to contact other webmasters. When you do, focus on what's in it for them.

Related blog articles

Online advertising and targeting

• Identify Your Target Audience
• How Behavioral Targeting Can Work for You
• How to Write Successful Pay-Per-Click Ads

Search engine optimization

• SEO and Copywriting: How to Attract Both Search Engines and People
• The Short and Long Tail of Keyword Use
• Get Inbound Links from Authority Sites

Website content

• Make Every Page a Sales Page
• Writing for the Web Versus Writing for Print
• How Do Your Landing Pages Work?
• How to Become a Known Niche Authority

Persuasion and motivation

• The New Art of Persuasion: What Worked Before Won’t Work Now
• Motivate Website Visitors to Buy
• How to Generate and Use Social Media Buzz

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