How To Build More Business With Your Website

It’s all about ushering visitors to your Call To Action.

You have about 10 seconds to get your reader’s attention, impress them, and keep their attention before they lose interest and wander off to another website. That’s a contact lost, a sale not made, and a growth opportunity missed.

If you want to keep a reader on your page long enough to get to your Call To Action and to feel good about responding to your call, you need to address five questions to them quickly.

Who are you?

Your website’s home page is where you make your first impression on a new visitor. This is the time to introduce yourself. But make it short. Your website should have a separate “About” page where you can get into your whole life story. You don’t have time to go into all that on the home page.

Your best approach would be to have a very brief “About” section — 50 words or less — that summarizes who you are and what you do. You can include a link to your more fully fleshed out “About” page or have a menu button along the top of the page that directs readers there at their leisure.

Why you?

More than merely stating what you do, you need your next section to efficiently inform your reader what you do and why you’re the best choice for them.

Complete information about your qualifications may be better suited for your “About “ page, but your home page needs to transmit the idea that you’re exceptionally skilled at the service you’re offering or that the product you’re selling is the only perfect choice.

It helps if you develop an idea of a “dream customer” while writing these sections. What type of customer do you ideally want?

Now appeal to them directly.

In about a hundred words, give your ideal customer an idea about the breadth of your experience and why your service or product would be the perfect answer to the questions that brought them to your page in the first place.

Why them?

Don’t waste time talking about people your service or product isn’t for. Instead, focus on the specific potential client or customer that you’re aiming at. You’re going to end up weeding out customers who won’t be the right fit, but the attention you’re giving the ideal customers you envision will feel they are being addressed directly and will be more likely to stay.

If you’re not sure if you’re being too niche or not and don’t want to accidentally drive off a potential client that might be a good fit, write less about your specifics. Instead, briefly talk about what they may want or need.

How can they benefit from what you have to offer?

Always lean in with the benefits of working with you. Remember. This is your dream client you’re talking directly to here. After introducing yourself, your service or product, and why they should be interested, you need to zero in on how a relationship with you is right for them.

How does your product or service solve a problem or meet their need? What benefits can they expect from taking on what you’re offering?

Sound urgent enough to be interesting, but avoid sounding too much like a salesperson. It’s a fine line to walk, yes. You’re going to want to try a couple of approaches and run them by friends and colleagues.

Ideally, you want your dream customer to see you as their “go-to person” or to view your product as something indispensable.

What’s the Call To Action?

You’ve got the client hooked somewhat, but don’t expect them to land themselves. To push this fishing metaphor further, you have to reel them in yourself.

Don’t assume you’re reader is going to know what to do next. To get your potential client to the next step, guide them directly with your Call To Action.

Calls To Action could include such things as:

• Fill out a contact form
• Download a lead magnet (catalog, whitepaper, ebook, infographic, etc.)
• Arrange a meeting online or phone call
• Make a purchase
• Sign up for a mailing list

Getting the reader to respond to your Call To Action is crucial. And on their side, it can be frustrating to read through a web page (even a short one) and not know what to do next or how to contact you.

They may be interested in your product or service, but you need to make it easy for them to stay engaged.

Conduct a self-audit

Look over your current website if you have one and read through the home page to see if you cover each of these five questions. Ask yourself what may be missing or what may be unnecessary.

If you’re working on your first website, consider this a checklist to consult as you build. Show it to friends and colleagues before going live and see how they respond.

Then release your new home page to the world.

Best of luck!

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