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Everyone wants to grow their business, but not everyone has the time or patience to learn all the ins and outs of marketing, sales enablement, and making the most out of a CRM such as HubSpot. Join the Web Canopy Studio team, a HubSpot Diamond Partner Agency, as they chat about various topics all designed to help you grow your B2B business.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
For most businesses, the most visited page on your website is your company's homepage. However, it's typically one of the most neglected when it comes to creating a high converting website. So today we're gonna break down, how do you make your homepage convert better in five easy steps? My name is John Aikin, and I'm the CEO of Web Canopy Studio. And this is The Website Conversion Show.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The image that you see on your screen here is the website conversion framework. And for those of you that are listening, you should find a link in the show notes to the website conversion framework, and it breaks down on each element of the graphic. But to give you a quick refresher, these are the six key components to a high converting website. And so what we're doing is kind of breaking down each one individually, and today we're really living in that positioning and messaging area of, of the framework. And when we are exploring, how can we, our website position better and, and ha tell a better story and, and really zero in on the message that we're sharing. There are so many different elements that we could talk about, but one of the biggest misunderstood components to a website, one of the biggest areas for improvement that we see across the board, when we're looking at websites of clients that are coming in prospects, or we're just having conversations with people is the, the discussion around the homepage.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And so, you know, most of the time people are approaching their homepage from the, the wrong perspective, they're thinking about the wrong things. And so what I'm gonna do is break down how you can quickly and easily fix your homepage without even being a developer in order to make your website hurt better. So there's really five easy steps. We're gonna break down each one of those today. And so the first thing that we're gonna talk about is a clear headline. When you're on your website, when, when somebody's visiting your website, we have about two seconds to, to get their attention and to keep them engaged to the point where they're gonna wanna stay, or they're just gonna wanna bounce, and they're gonna press that back button or the exit button. And so when we're thinking about the clear headline, we have to get on the level of our prospect immediately.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
And by doing that, we're able to tell them, you know, we acknowledge who you are. We acknowledge that you guys have these specific problems. And here's what we do in order to fix that. Most of the time companies are gonna think about creating something that's like a catchy tagline or something that people can remember and, and use later on down the road. But if you remove the company completely from the context of this discussion and you remove the brand name, and you just think about the clear headline that's, that's being displayed, doesn't if it doesn't resonate with exactly who you are and what you do, you're not gonna be memorable. And the, the second thing is you're not gonna be relevant to them in the discussion around, is this something that I need to learn more about? So in order to make sure that right out of the gate, that we are on the level of the, of the, the clients that we want to engage with, we have to make sure that we answer the question of what do you do right away.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Another big issue that we see with this same, same area is the idea of using words that, that San sound cool, and that, you know, companies will go through these really long processes of deciding what our, what our slogan should be. And they'll come up with things like data driven solutions for a, a complex world or something like that. And I guarantee you, if you use the words, data driven and anything that describes your company, you're completely, you're missing the mark. Because if you take that word data driven, you can apply it to almost any industry today. And so it is, it is really expensive real estate on your website that you're using up. And you're really missing the mark. So try and be a little bit more focused on who it is you're talking to and how you solve their problems, which leads us right into the second component, which is talking about their biggest problem.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
So as we move down through the page, we've acknowledged our, our prospect or our, our, our customer. And now we want to tell them, we see you, we understand you because we know that these are your three biggest problems that you face. So if we tell them what we do at the very beginning, so they know they're in the right place and they, they think, yes, this is where I need to be. The second thing I wanna do is literally just tell them what they're experiencing. I wanna highlight the issues that they're facing and I want to do so in a way that's very simple. It's not convoluted. It's not really wordy. We're not creating this big blog post. We're just telling them, look, these are the things you're experiencing, that we know how to fix. And so we're highlighting the biggest problems that they're facing.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
It doesn't have to be a really big, massive section of your website. And a lot of the time people can get away with just having three columns and three boxes to discuss this. But this is a really great way to help people understand they are in the right place and that they need to understand more about what it is you do and how you solve their problems. The third element that we want to do is build social proof. Now, what this does is it allows you to have more credibility for the people who come to your website. Previously, if you look back in like, or the early two thousands up up until, you know, of people even do it today, still, this is where people spent all of their time talking about their website. This is what all their content was. It was about social proof.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
They would say we've been in business for 50 years and we service the whitewater valley. And, and, you know, our customers love coming back to us time and time again, but that kind of marketing doesn't TA tell me that I need to do business with you. That kind of marketing doesn't tell me you're solving my problems. So we can't build the entire content of the website or of the homepage around that kind of content. Right? So we also can't completely disregard it because it is really important. And that is very, very important to some buyers to make sure that they know that they're dealing with a legitimate company. And if that lends credibility to your brand, then we have to make sure we highlight it, but we can do it in very tasteful ways. And so instead of making the whole page about it, instead of like really blatantly blasting, that kind of stuff out, we wanna make sure that we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So social proof in very smart ways. So in order to build our credibility up, what can we do? Well, a very common one is to feature the, the logos of the brands that are recognizable, that have trusted you. So you'd be trusted by all of these different brands. And that does a, that goes a very long way, because it, it, it lifts up the credibility of your brand. Another thing that you could do is include client testimonials. Those are really nice to just have some quick words of, of success. What other people have experienced with you. I always like to lean in on the case study route and anything that's visual regarding whether we're, we're taking screenshots of results that we've generated or that you're helping client clients achieve these kind of goals. Anything that's visual is really good to put there, but if you can put some kind of video, that's even better.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So if you could get a client to give a video testimonial, and we're embedding that in different areas throughout the website, but prominently on the homepage as well, you're lifting up the credibility of, of who you are and how you can help them. The fourth thing we're gonna do is talk about their, their questions, or we're gonna answer their questions in different ways. And there's a lot of different components to this. One of the most prominent ways that I've seen this done really, really successfully is just listing out the most common questions towards the bottom of the page. And it could be anything from how much does it cost to work with you, you to, how, how does this process go to walk me through what happens after I make an agreement with you? And so listing out what their questions are, because in the back of their mind, they are going to have these kind of, of, of thoughts.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And, and if you can get in front of them as they're moving through the website, as they're moving through that page, you're kind of sub consciously checking off all these items that, that they have to make sure are, are answered in the right way. So one of the best ways to do this is to literally just go through previous sales conversations. You've had think about your last several clients that you've landed and write out the questions that they've had and see which questions stand out the most. Some of them need very extensive F content around them. Some of them deserve their entire blog posts and, and social media campaigns around the questions that they're having, because that's really good. If, if one person has that question, odds are other people do too. So you now have a lot of different ways to produce different kinds of content that's relevant.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
However, if they are major roadblocks to moving for forward with you, if there are major questions that are just, I have to know this information, rather than burying it in other places on the website, list out some of those primary questions and answer them directly on the homepage, you're breaking down their fears. You're, you're, you're, you're getting in front of the things that are preventing them from moving forward and, and hesitating. The fifth thing that we wanna do here is look at a call to action. And so calls to action in general, are, are the buttons are, are the, the activities you want that person to do on that specific page. And so it, it kind of goes without saying that this is an essential component to a successful homepage, but I'd be joking. If I said, this has never come up as an issue before, because oddly enough, putting just your phone number up there is not enough for people to, to engage with you putting just your email up.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
There is not enough for people to engage with you. You have to have a very clear call to action of what it is you want people to do. If you're a software and you want people to sign up for a demo, then you need to say, literally say, sign up for a demo, get a demo, or get a free trial, or maybe you're a, an it company you're saying, get a consultation or schedule your strategy session. And you wanna make that call to action extremely clear and extremely prevalent at different sections of that homepage. If it's, if it's something that is not an essential component to a conversion, it wouldn't exist at all, but this is very, very important. And it has to be clear throughout not only the homepage, but all the other pages on the website as well. So including in your navigation at the top, including it in the footer that that's really where you're gonna get the repetition and the mindset that people need to do this thing.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
They're gonna see it over and over again, as they move through your website. One other thing that you could do with that is give them a really clear path to success within that to action. So tell them the three steps that have to happen in order to get started with you. Number one, you're gonna book a call. You're gonna book a demo. Number two, we're gonna go through and assess all these different issues that you have. Number three, we're gonna lay out your game plan. That's the three step call to action there. So stuff like that is how you you, you, you're going back to step four, you're answering your questions. You're, you're kind of breaking down barriers and the hesitations that they're having, but you're also giving them a very clear outcome of what that success looks like. And you're marching them through and literally holding their hand and guiding them through what they need to do in order to get to that call to action.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So if we're looking at this, just as a quick recap of how to make your homepage convert, better, number one, clear headline, we're gonna make sure that we say what we wanna say. We're, we're getting on their level right away. We're answering the question of what, what do we do right away? Number two, we're acknowledging their biggest problems. So we can say, we understand exactly who you are. You have this, this, and this problem. Number three, we're, we're building social proof. So we're helping to build our credibility by not just telling them what we want to tell them by showing them what other people who are like them, or who are, who they aspire to be have worked with us before. Number four, we are answering their most critical questions that, that are holding them back from getting to take that next step with you.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
And number five, we're being very, very clear about the CTA or the call to action that we want them to take. And so when you really consider all of these different steps in order to move forward with you, you're, you're making your homepage a very high converting page. This is gonna this. If you're not doing these things and you put these into place, this is gonna really transform the overall success of what that page is gonna do for you. And again, it is probably the highest visited page on your website. So all that being said, if you want to dive in a little bit deeper, you're welcome to go to our website, webcanopystudio.com/assessment. We have the website conversion assessment that you can take. It goes through all the six elements of the six areas of the website conversion framework. And it, it asks you five questions in each section.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And so what you're gonna do is you're going to start answering the question, give your own actual assessment, be be honest with yourself, make sure that you're answering them to the best of your ability. And based off of your, your answers, it's gonna present you with your own report. That's customized to your company because of the different areas of, of how you're answering these questions. So you're gonna get a detailed report about your assessment. You're gonna get a checklist of things that you should be working on for each individual area. And you're gonna get some guides and resources on how to make that easier. I think that's it. Guys. Let me know if you have any questions and we'll see you next time.