First of all, you need compelling content. Before that, you need to have cleared up and clarified your message.
As we all realise, either from our own subconscious experiences or knowledge of psychological research, we’re more likely to trust, and purchase from a clear, concise, easy flowing, easy to understand website.
Right? And so which page of your site needs to be the clearest, and flow the best? The first page you land on – the homepage.
Apart from sticking to your brand guidelines and using jaw-dropping imagery, here are some of our best tips for creating this compelling homepage, that sells.
Use your header to explain your business’s offer in one short sentence. This is the first thing your visitors will see, and statistically, you only have 5 seconds to grab their attention. If they have too much of a hard time trying to understand your offering, they’ll leave. Make it clear, concise, and easy to understand.
It is also a good idea to add your ‘call to action’ button on the top right side of the page, next to your header. Recent studies reveal that this spot is naturally where a potential customer’s gaze goes to, when browsing a site.
Your navigation bar should also be easy to follow, and it is a good idea to make use of menu-drop downs to avoid it being too cluttered. Less popular and less-likely-to-convert links for ‘Careers’, ‘FAQ’ and ‘Privacy Policies’ (if applicable) can always exist in the footer of your website.
As web visitors tend to lack the energy to understand a website’s offering, they’ll also lack focus on reading paragraphs or descriptions on sites. Subconsciously, the customer is asking, ‘How can this site/business help me?’, ‘Will it cure my problems?’, or ‘Will I save money?’. Answer these questions by clearly highlighting your values, and keeping the reader engaged.
Now that you have captivated your visitor with your header, saved them loads of reading and research time with your clear and concise offering, and made them aware of ‘how’ to use your products/services, it is time to push them a little further towards a sale by gaining trust. Make some room for notable logo’s of businesses you have worked with, and include 3 customer testimonials to reduce your potential clients sense of risk.
The prospects that make it this far down your homepage, are engaged, interested in your offering and are beginning to trust your brand, so you can begin to write longer explanations as to why they should do business with you. Summarise your services at this point on the homepage, and be aware you can always include a ‘read more’ option to avoid writing taking up too much space.
