Ever gone to a business website and wonder exactly what it is they do? It happens far too often. As a business owner you may be spending time, resources and money on advertising and promoting your business and website. If people come to your website (and they often do to get more information), but can’t tell what you do, that’s a huge problem. It means you’re wasting all the advertising and promotions that you’re doing. People aren’t going to buy from you if they don’t understand what you do (and what’s in it for them).
Describing What You Do
Remember your elevator pitch? How do you describe what you do to someone who has no idea? Take a look at your website and see if it’s clear what you do. Better yet, get someone who doesn’t know what you do to look at the website and tell you what they think you do. That’s usually a big eye-opener.
Be Consistent
Once you’ve worked out what you do (from the customer’s viewpoint), make sure you’re consistent with that description across your entire website, as well as any other marketing and promotions you’re doing. People remember via repetition so having the same message in multiple places is useful for having people remember what you do.
More than the About page
What you do should be clear on every page of your site, even if it’s just a descriptive tagline. Remember, people don’t always enter your site from your home page — they may enter on any page. And they may or may not get to the point of bothering with your About page. Make it as easy as possible for people to understand what you do.
What’s Next?
If people do understand what you do, do they know what to do next? Should they call you, email you or fill out a form? That information may be on your site, but make it clear what the next step is. Be very specific and obvious. For example, “Have questions? Call 555-555-555” or “Want a quote? Click here.” A specific call to action with a specific action they should take.
Thoughts?
(photo by Nina Matthews Photography)