If a copywriter is creating a traditional direct mail piece that includes an envelope, letter, brochure and response card, he or she will likely write the package over the course of a few days.

The copywriter and a designer will sit down to write and design a package that, although it comprises four separate pieces, is bound by a single purpose: to solicit a response.

The team will work together to make sure that each element works both separately and together. Every word, every graphic, every choice of color is selected with a view to enticing attention and action. No distractions. No meandering. No fluff.

The process takes talent, knowledge and experience. But it's not too hard to create a package that will at least do a reasonable job.

When you have a single end in mind - a customer response - you can focus on making that happen.

Now consider the equivalent activity taking place online.

What is the purpose of your site?

A direct mail package usually represents just one, narrow slice in a company's marketing plan. However, that same company's website may have been built with a much broader purpose in mind.

The site may be designed to sell products, collect the email addresses of prospects, impress investors, promote offline sales, position the company among its competitors and so on.

The trouble is, the more things that a site attempts to achieve, the less successful it will be in achieving anything.

Consider the homepage. A small, cramped rectangle of screen space. As first-time visitors arrive, they have a question in mind...

"What is this place and does it hold any value for me?"

If you know your visitors, you can write some introductory text on the page that goes a long way to answering that question.

But only if you have decided on which audience to address.

Are you talking to prospects with a view to closing a sale before they leave the site? Are you talking to your investors? Or, if your market is immature, or if your product is very complicated and expensive, perhaps your purpose is to educate and collect email addresses with a view to closing the sale at some later time.

The key to making your site work well is to first figure out what 'end' you have in mind.

Lets say that your purpose is to close sales on the site.

With that in mind, here's a two-step plan to improve the performance of your site.

1. Get brutal with your homepage

Most homepages carry too many options, too many choices, too many elements competing for attention. Divided attention will always reduce your conversion rates.

You need to slash and burn. The investor information doesn't belong on the homepage if your homepage is designed to sell. Nor does that list of recent press releases. Nor the roster of business partners. Nor the list of white papers.

Keep one purpose in mind and make sure that the visitor's eye is drawn to a message that supports that purpose.

Don't remove everything else from the site. But you should consider taking a lot of it off the homepage. Distractions divide attention. Use your homepage to say just one thing - and say it powerfully. If other elements on the homepage support that message, keep them. If not, remove them. Leave text links to everything else, by all means - but don't give them any other space at this stage.

2. Keep your message focused from beginning to end

Most sites more than a year or two old have been written by a variety of people at different times. Pages may also have been juggled around.

This means that the flow of your sales message will be nothing like as focused as it was in that offline direct mail package described earlier. In that case the entire flow of the sales message was written over the course of a few days and it was supported by a design that kept the reader focused on a single sales path.

Not so on your web site. The sales flow between your home page and the 'Confirm Purchase' button may have become quite tortuous and fragmented.

You need to change that. Make changes to create a smooth, short and direct sales path between your homepage and the confirmation page.

Make sure that the copy drives the reader from one page to the next. Rewrite everything if necessary. Keep the end in mind, the copy focused and distractions to a minimum. And make sure that the sales text is written by a copywriter and not by an editorial writer. You need to hold the reader's attention, build momentum and increase his or her interest. You need a writer who can write in a way that sells. You need a writer who likes to sell.

In conclusion

The Web is littered with sites that are very limp in their efforts to make the sale.

Take a fresh look at your site. Consider its real purpose. And if its purpose is to make sales, you may well need to make some substantial changes to the messages you're delivering, and the way in which they are presented.