Sounds ironic, I know, but your website isn’t about you. Your website is about your potential customer or client.

This is the number one reason websites fall short in making conversions. I see this with clients all the time when it comes to their website design. As entrepreneurs and business owners, we are passionate about what we do - rightfully so - But the way in which we convey that passion has to be strategic and serve the ideal customer not be a resume of why we think we are so great. 

I recently had the experience of visiting a company’s website only to find myself lost in pages of mission statements, sustainability practices, material sourcing practices, and multiple blogs defining the terms they use to describe their offerings. It wasn’t until after five minutes on their site that I learned they actually sell products!

Because I am a marketer and ever curious about how brands position themselves, I stayed on the website until I got the answers I wanted. The average customer leaves after just a few seconds. While I love sustainability principles, and as a consumer, am more likely to purchase from a company that I know is mindful of where and how they source the materials to make their products, I need to know FIRST what you are selling and how it is going to enhance my life before I can “feel good” about making the purchase knowing you source the materials to make said product sustainably.

My point is this: You are not making money on selling your purpose, you're making money on selling products (or services). 

Yes, you can use your sustainable principles as a way to differentiate yourself from the competition, but they should remain the coach on the sidelines creating the plays and motivating the team, not the all-star champaign on the court racking up the points. Your product should be the all-star.

So what does that mean from a strategic and tactical approach to your website? Here are my 4 tips: 

  1. Web copy that tells a story: Keep it short, make it impactful. Put yourself into your customer’s shoes. What transformation or problem are you solving for them? Tell them that right away. By doing this, you are letting them know they are in the right place, and you are the person or company to help them solve their problem. If you sell coaching services, tell folks how they will feel as a result of working with you; what’s the opposite of their current state of pain? Don’t tell them HOW you’re going to do it just yet. Again, your goal is to let them know they have landed in the right place because you understand their problem and can help them move towards a more desired state. 
  2. Make it easy: Incorporate a balance of images and copy to convey your message into easily digestible pieces. You want to tell people what to do next, don’t assume people know what to do. 
  3. The call-to-action should be clear: A conversion is what happens as a result of someone taking action on your next step. Conversions can take many forms on a website, such as a newsletter signup, a purchase, booking a consult call, completing a contact form, writing a comment on a blog post, etc. Think of this as a dinner invitation; your guests won’t know to attend if you don’t send out the invite. 
  4. Fast load time and be mobile friendly: When people click to visit your website, it needs to load quickly; otherwise, they will move on. One way to ensure your website is loading quickly is to test it and make sure all images have been resized so that they don’t take a lot of bandwidth to populate. The same goes for having a mobile-friendly website. If someone sees your social media and then visits your website, but it doesn’t load on their phone, it’s unlikely they will visit again. This is an opportunity to make a great first impression, so don’t make it a slow one.

I recommend that companies spend time each year and quarter evaluating their customer journey through your website. It can also be valuable to invest in user experience testing to gain perspective on how fresh eyes experience your website. Moving away from having a website being a self-serving “I am” statement to a customer-centric hub is one way to build a stronger rapport with customers and increase conversions.

If you are looking for support and evaluation of your website, please don’t hesitate to book a free consult call: https://www.thewebsiterevise.com/.