Your customers come to your website asking “What’s in it for me?” If they don’t see the answer to that question within 15 seconds, statistics tell us that they’ll leave. That’s how long you have to capture someone’s attention on your website – 15 seconds. So, if you haven’t captured their attention within this short time, then you’ve lost a potential sale.
Your homepage content can be divided into 5 sections that tell the story of your product and motivate your audience to a sale:
1. A Clear Header Statement
Clarity sells products and services, so its important to tell your potential customers up front, in the first glance, what your are selling. Don’t get cute, and don’t be vague. You want to immediately tell or show the product or service you are selling, and don’t make them hunt for
information. Keep it simple and succinct.
2. A Clear & Strong Call to Action
The easier you make it for your customers to give you money, the better. Just under your clear header statement, place a strong and clear call to action. Avoid asking questions, or cryptic statements like “find out why”, “Learn More”, etc, if you can. Just keep it simple, like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Now”.
3. Create a Failure Scenario
Illustrate to your customers what problem you are solving, and show them what bad thing will happen if they do not buy your product or engage your services. For example, “Manual time card input wastes hundreds of man hours per year and costs you thousands of dollars”.
4. Create a Success Scenario
Illustrate to your customers how buying your product or hiring your services will make their lives easier and better. For example, “Our automatic time card entry service costs saves you time and money, so you can focus on more important things”. In this step you are delivering a message that appeals to the aspirations of the customer, so that they make an association between your product and their problems getting solved.
5. Spell Out A Plan
Show your customers how to engage with your product or your services. Make it look really easy – you want your customers to feel that you can make their lives easier, not more complicated. A stepped plan is typically the easiest to understand. For instance, “Step 1: Download the Software. Step 2: Install. Step 3: Sit back and relax!” Keep it really simple here! A common mistake people make is to provide too much information so the customer can make an informed decision. But in reality, this hardly ever works, and visitors will leave your site if they don’t know what to do. Make it dummy-proof.
Keep in mind that 65% of people are visual learners so the more you can add visual or graphic elements, the better you will hold their attention. If you keep your content relevant, user-friendly, simple, and appealing, you’ll see results.