Note: This blog post is part of a series that explains our best practices but also tracks our progress as we design our new brand in real time. This blog post focuses on the initial step, creating a basic landing page with priority on language that converts and the hero section (first section, above the fold) of your website.
Here is a screenshot of what our homepage looked like after we sat down and did the framework we do for every one of our clients:
When we take on a new website project, the first questions we want our client to answer for us is what their business does, what problem they solve, and how their audience can purchase from them.
Seems simple, but every website should quickly answer these three questions.
What a Business Does
Instead of taking up valuable real estate and putting your business name in the first section of your homepage, you want to prioritize your headlines to focus on the market you are trying to attract. Since this blog post is part of a series that shares how we are building our agency website, we will use ourselves as the example. Many clients start with who they are, and we need to help them get to what they DO.
Who we are: we’re a Maryland-based web design and marketing agency.
What we do: help small businesses market themselves online.
How we do it: by sharing their brand story through website design and development.
Let’s dive deeper into how we should fine tune it:
The “who” part of this analysis is pretty straight forward, and we don’t really need to edit that. Most businesses are going to know who they are.
Right now, we have a broad audience specified in our “what we do” statement. Although we will help all small businesses and do provide e-commerce solutions, it’s not our bread and butter. We also need to prioritize how we market them too, because we don’t focus on ALL marketing as in our main service offer.
So, we want to prioritize describing the client we’re REALLY good at helping: service-based small businesses market themselves online through website design and development.
The current description of “how we do it” is also still pretty vague. We are assuming our audience knows what brand story is. So we need to prioritize making this simpler so that we aren’t losing anyone at the gate.
Let’s rework our what and how statements one more time:
What we do: help small service-based businesses market themselves online through web design and development.
How we do it: by clarifying their messaging to connect more effectively with their customers.
What Problem a Business Solves
This one sometimes takes even longer to get to, and this part is going to change over time. As a business, you will likely solve one problem at first, then begin to solve more than one problem. The homepage should prioritize the MAIN problem you solve.
For instance, a web design agency solves a LOT of problems if you really think about it:
- Lack of Online Presence
- Poor Website User Experience (UX)
- Ineffective SEO and Low Search Engine Rankings
- Inconsistent Branding and Messaging
- Lack of Digital Marketing Strategy
- Low Conversion Rates
- Difficulty Managing and Updating Websites
- Lack of Technical Expertise
But we want to prioritize the main one that people typically come searching for a web design agency to fix, the one that is most pressing and the most common problem that our target client faces: lack of online presence.
We want to turn this around into a question for the end user so that they immediately feel that we understand their problem, and we have the answer for it. So instead of making it a statement: “you lack an effective online presence,” we want to ask the question, “are you struggling to make your business stand out online?” and then support that question with a statement:
As a business owner, you know you need a strong online presence, but you don’t know how to achieve it. We can help.
How to Buy It
This is the call to action that you want your end user to take!
For us, the initial call to action (CTA) on our homepage needs to be clear, direct, and tailored to encourage them to take the first step towards engaging with us. The goal is to provide a low-commitment, easy way for our potential client to start a conversation or learn more. Here are some effective initial CTAs we considered:
- Schedule a Free Consultation
- Get a Free Website Audit
- Request a Quote
- Download Our Guide to ___
- See Our Portfolio
- Start a Project With Us
- Talk to an Expert
We decided on the last one, “Talk to an Expert,” to start with because we don’t have enough data yet on our homepage to support anything else (because we’re building this in real time!) because at the time of us posting this blog post, we won’t even have our offers listed on the homepage yet. It’s simple, direct, and to the point but offers value (expert advice).
Put it all together
Here is the same screenshot so you can now take a look at it in a different light and understand the marketing process behind it:
Stay tuned for the next post where we will work on the next section that focuses on our “hero,” of our website, our potential client.
