Attract and Convert Prospects From Your Homepage - It's Simple!

Making your website work for you can seem like a daunting and difficult task. However, it is a necessary evil if you want to make your work life easier. Not sure where to start or what content to add to your homepage? I'm here to help...keep reading.

Addressing What Content Should Be on Your Homepage

The saying goes that you only have 10 seconds (probably less) to make an impression on your website viewers. So we need to make every second count when it comes to addressing the content on your site, especially your homepage. It is the gateway to the rest of your site that will hopefully help convert these eyeballs to prospects to clients without you even having to get involved.

At the top of your homepage, you need to clearly address your value proposition. What do you do? What do you provide? Why should someone buy your products or services over a competitor's? This is where you showcase your differentiator(s) and it needs to be above the fold. [Side Note: "Above the fold" means the top third of your page that people see when your website loads before you have to scroll down to see more content.] Your tagline, copy, unique selling proposition, whatever you want to call it should be accompanied by a strong image that helps reflect your business and what you do. If you do two distinct things (or more) or play in two spaces/industries, I would suggest a slider or something that allows you to clearly communicate to both audiences ASAP. For example, you might do personal and corporate branding or workshops, then you would have one slide dedicated to personal and one dedicated to corporate both clearly defining what you offer to each of them.

Calls to Action (CTAs)

Depending on what your goals are for your business you may have one or many calls to action on your homepage (and throughout your site). These are actions you want your customer/client or prospect to take while on your site, i.e. "Subscribe to my email list", "Buy this product", "Read this article", "Get in touch". They are often referred to as "engagements" as well. Your calls to action are going to be different than someone else's, so make sure you are only using CTAs that make sense for your goals and your target audience.

Your CTAs should be located throughout your homepage, and possibly repeated if you have a lot of content on that page. Because once a viewer scrolls down to the bottom of the page, it is unlikely that they will think to scroll back up just to click on your "Try it Now" button, so you have to do the work for them on the screen.

Make it easy for prospects/clients to find what they need when they need it if you'd like them to convert.

What's In It For Me

Additionally on your homepage it's important for your target audience to understand what they will get out of working with you, buying your article of clothing, or taking your intro to photography course. People are innately selfish and there is a reason they are on your page, so you need to quickly and clearly explain what's in it for them. This can be a feeling they get when they purchase that item or service, it can be a measure of success they will gain, it can be a certification they will have, or even a "me too" lifestyle message, i.e. "You too can be like me and have the very best cheese grater in all the land". No matter which format you choose, you need to make sure it measures up to what your target audience wants and why they are on your site in the first place.

Services and/or Audiences

In this instance you can choose your own adventure when deciding to include either your services or your audiences on your homepage. Here's how to decide - If you have one target audience that you provide multiple services to, then I would outline what your main services are or your major sellers on your homepage. If you provide the same service to multiple audiences and tweak your service only slightly depending on who the audience is, then I would outline who your audiences are and then go back to "what's in it for them" or what you offer as a service for each audience.

Finally, you will need a footer that helps navigate the site if your top navigation menu disappears when you scroll. This can also be a great place to put contact information (if you want people to contact you), any additional calls to action that aren't that important to you, your privacy policy and any other links that you may want people to be able to find, but weren't important enough for the main navigation at the top.

Creating a website is necessary if you want to drive business, reinforce credibility, and get found online (or at all really). Hopefully these tips on where to start and how to build out your homepage in a meaningful way that will help convert prospects into customers is helpful when you start or reimagine your website.

If you need help, contact me and I'd be happy to review your website or wireframes to guide you in making the best website for converting your prospects, customers, and clients easily.