3 Steps to a Better Performing Website

How do you know if your website is performing as well as it should?

The average person is bombarded with over 3,000 messages a day. If your brand isn’t communicating a focused and compelling message, you can conclude that your website is NOT performing as well as it should.

People buy a product or service because they read words that make them want to buy. But what if there’s so much clutter in your marketing message that it isn’t easy for your prospective client to know:

• What do you do?

• How will it help me?

• How can I get it?

A clear and focused website is a website that gets results. Getting clear and focused on the copy and user experience of your site is hard work. It takes discipline. But the payoff is worthwhile. There are so many ways to make your website more effective. So where do you start?

Here are 3 first steps to a more effective website that gets results.

STEP 1: Ensure Your Hero Section is Clear and Aspirational

Your brand must make a great first impression. The hero section of your website is the prime real estate to do just that.

The hero section of your website is anything seen in the first frame when it is pulled up on desktop, phone, or tablet. Your customer should see an image and text that clearly communicate what you’re offering them.

How clear does this section need to be? It should tell someone what you offer in 5 seconds. In fact, if you showed the hero section of your site to anyone at the nearest coffee shop they should be able to tell me the general idea of what you do after a quick glance.

Hint: You can do this today with your site! Show it to a complete stranger, and if they cannot plainly state what you do, you’re definitely not converting all the potential business on your website that you could be.

STEP 2. Make Frequent and Consistent Calls to Action

To eliminate client confusion and get them to engage with your brand, you must assess your calls to action. 

There are two frequent mistakes brands make when it comes to calls to action:

1 – The call to action is not clear.

2 – There are too many competing calls to action.

Imagine walking into your local emergency room in the middle of the night. You approach the desk and you expect them to give you a very clear first step to see the doctor. You’d get fairly frustrated if the front desk staff gave you 3-4 different directives all at the same time. You come into the waiting room expecting that they have a process to help you as quickly and effectively as possible.

The same is true of our client relationships.

We need to identify the clear first step, and be direct and consistent about what that step is.

Take one of our clients for example. When we designed this family coaching company’s website, we included information about various services, but included one clear call to action to begin doing business: Schedule A Call.

If you visit the site, there is one consistent call to action throughout. There is literally no ambiguity. 

The result? People who want to hire the company know exactly what to do. As a result, they had a full client load within 2 weeks of the site launching.

STEP 3. Establish A Clear Story About The Problem Your Brand Solves

When prospective clients come to your site they are asking 3 key questions:

1 – What do you do?

2 – How will it help me?

3 – How can I get it?

You must answer these questions as simply and directly as possible.

But here’s the catch: you can’t answer “What do you do?” by just talking about your product or service. This is where clients tune out. You must answer “What do you do?” by talking about the problem your client faces.

There’s an old adage: “Sell the problem you solve, not the product you make.” Your brand needs to be associated with solving a particular problem. Prospective clients tune out when you jump right into how great your service is without establishing the problem.

Pick one specific problem to associate your product or company with and “brand” this into your client’s mind. New York Times best-selling author Donald Miller puts it like this: “The essence of branding is to create simple, relevant messages we can repeat over and over so that we ‘brand’ ourselves into the public consciousness.”

Another way of thinking about it is that you want to “join the conversation that is already taking place in your client’s mind,” as copywriter Robert Collier puts it. You remind the client of how bad a problem is and then position your product as the clear solution.

Prospects only care about your company as it relates to helping them overcome their problem. When you stop talking about helping them overcome their problem, they lose interest. Too much detail and the human brain tunes out.

You have to get simple. You have to be disciplined.

Keep your website copy answering those three questions over and over. Stake your claim in the marketplace around a particular problem.

Your website should help you grow your business, but a cluttered and confusing website could be standing in the way of bringing more prospective customers to your business.

Take Action!

It’s time to put these steps to work. When you get this resource delivered right to your inbox, you’ll also get additional practical tips that you and your team can use to take action today, and watch your business soar.