When someone visits your website for the first time through search, a referral link or from your own invitation, it’s almost as if you are meeting them for coffee.
You begin a conversation. You “tell” them about yourself or your company. They get to know you and your business and products.
How can you make that easy for them?
A few key elements on your site help this process:
About Page
The first paragraph of your About Page is critical. You have many options to connect effectively with your visitor. Some options include:
- Ask an insightful question that hits their own situation.
- List 4-6 one or two word phrases that give a summary of who you are. For companies, choose keywords that highlight your differentiation.
- Immediately start telling a story. We’re wired to finish a story to the end.
- For enterprise companies, stay professional, but seek to be human.
- Catch their attention with a funny phrase, question or story. Everyone appreciates a good sense of humor.
Since your About Page is likely the page most visited, be strategic with it. Offer a couple key links to help direct your visitors to the posts or other pages you think they’d find most valuable.
Valuable Articles and Testimonials
Imagine a stopwatch ticking when someone visits your site. You usually just have seconds of a visitor’s time. But you can “earn minutes” if you can hook them with valuable content.
The articles on your blog should be engaging and offer a million reasons why you are the expert in your domain. You should never come across as “selling” someone in your articles, but through stories and testimonials people can read between the lines and understand that you really know what you’re talking about.
Your articles should have variety. Share your own insights from customers you work with, books you read, people you meet. Offer new research and valuable tips that indicate how you are on the cutting edge of your industry. Write with conviction, credibility, and care. Again, be human.
Images and Video
While a picture is worth a thousand words, video is worth even more. It offers a chance to really hear your voice and understand your brand. You can educate and inspire the viewer, depending on your goal. You can integrate social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube that make it easy to upload high fidelity images and video, as well as genuine, authentic, day-to-day stories that highlight your persona or brand.
Contact Page
While your products and services should be clear on your site, sometimes a person has a unique question or just wants to begin a conversation and not seal the deal yet. Your Contact Page or Chat function should offer a convenient way to engage. If you publish regular content or have special offers that would be appealing, make it easy for someone to sign up to stay in the loop.
Are You Credible?
A website today is just another way for someone to see that you are really in business and to find out if your services or products match their needs. They are curious to read your story and love being able to independently explore your history and portfolio to understand their own opportunities to engage. Make it as easy and exciting as possible for them to do so.
Sonya Dalrymple 