Your homepage is the first thing most people see when they arrive on your site. It’s got to do all the heavy lifting of convincing them to stick around and learn more about you and what you offer – and it has to accomplish this in about 5 seconds or less. That’s why it’s so important for you to make it easy for your visitors to find what they’re looking for fast.
But what exactly are they looking for?
Information.
Specifically, they’re looking for answers to the following questions…
1. What is the BIGGEST benefit I’m going to get out of this experience?
This is it, the big enchilada right here. Hit them straight up front with a headline that describes the most powerful and attractive benefit they will experience by sticking around on your website, learning more about what you offer, and incorporating your products or services into your life.
2. What kind of impact will this benefit have on my life?
Encourage them to visualize what their lives will look and feel like once they are using your products or services.
How have their lives changed for the better? How do they FEEL – what are the dominant emotions they experience when they have added this benefit to their lives? This is a great question to not only answer in your copy, but also to represent in any images or other graphics you include on your homepage.
3. How will this benefit be delivered?
Here’s where you talk about the actual products or services you offer. Give people enough information so they get a clear understanding of what your products and services are and what they include.
4. Who will deliver this benefit?
Once people understand what your products or services are, they’re going to want to learn a bit more about YOU. Provide a short summary that lets them know who you are and why you do what you do.
5. What makes you different from everyone else out there?
Ah, the all-important USP, or “unique sales proposition.” This is the unique aspect of your business that sets you apart from everyone else and makes you so attractive to your ideal customers or clients. What is it YOU offer that they can’t find anywhere else? Let people know!
6. What do other people think about you?
Three honest words from a happy customer or client are worth 1000 words of marketing copy. That’s why it’s so important to include testimonials from happy customers and clients right on your homepage – so visitors can see what real people think about your products and services.
7. What do I need to do in order to receive this benefit?
Finally, you need to be very clear and explicit about what visitors need to do to add your products and services to their lives and experience the benefits for themselves. Be sure to include a clear and prominent call to action that stands out from the rest of the copy and tells people what they need to do – by using a button with larger font that says LEARN MORE or ORDER NOW or RESERVE YOUR SPOT button, for example.
All right, so those are the seven questions your homepage should answer in order to give your visitors all the information they need to decide to stick around on your site and learn more about your products and/or services.
If you answer them in this order – and arrange the information on the page in a way that it as compelling and readable as possible – your site is bound to see a serious boost in engagement and sales.
Interested in learning more?
Check out my free ebook that shows you how to lay out your homepage elements in a way that looks fabulous and encourages maximum engagement. It’s called “How to Make Sure Your Homepage Explodes with Awesomeness!” And it, um, may or may not involve horse heads.
(Spoiler: it does.)
You can download it for free here – no email address required:
HOW TO MAKE SURE YOUR HOMEPAGE EXPLODES WITH AWESOMENESS
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