The level of intimacy you can establish with a prospect is directly proportional to where they are in the buying cycle.
This is something to keep in mind when planning information architecture and keyword research. Virgin prospects that are just starting out researching a product or service will be looking at broad level terms with that will likely be featured on the higher level pages of your site. It would be inappropriate at this point to get into all the juicy product or service details before the prospect is comfortable heading in that direction. For those of you that saw The Pickup Artist on VH1, this is akin to entering into the intimacy stage before establishing comfort. If you go too quickly and jump straight into seduction, you will likely get a slap in the face, and a prospect will be lost.
Hopefully your initial higher level content is attractive and can entice a click through or two. Now you get into the steamy details. On these pages you’re targeting long tail terms and it’s ok to get into juicy product details and customization options since you’ve already been through the comfort phase and it’s not out of line to start the seduction process. A little on chit-chat about what others felt about the product and how it’s going to make the customer feel after purchase is fine here.
If all is well at this point, the final step is sealing the deal. The prospect has been attracted and seduced by your content, now it’s time to close the deal. They have given you permission to go all the way, no reason to keep trying to seduce. It is imperative that you don’t give the prospect any reason to have last minute resistance. Make sure the check out process is quick and painless without unnecessary forms or any other BS.
If all of this is done well, you can sit back and add another notch in the bedpost sale to the cash register.