Simple, not easy - like most things in life.
Cut the crap, this isn't rocket science so stop over complicating it. Most website projects take way too long to make and end up over crowded and ineffective. What's the point of a website? To sell! Not to tell your life story (unless that's what you're selling...)
Implement the following 4 rules and watch the clients gravitate to you and buy.
1. Give Me Instant Gratification
Does the spinning wheel of death make your blood boil after 5 seconds? Clearly we have no patience when it comes to computers or the web.
Not surprisingly, “76% of consumers say the most important factor in a website's design is 'the website makes it easy for me to find what I want.'" (Hubspot)
This means you need to put on your dummy hat (the one that doesn’t know everything about your company, your industry, your competitors, and why you are the best at everything) and ask yourself if you've really answered these two questions:
- Why should anyone care about your website?
- What do you want them to do if you get them to care?
Use visuals, words, buttons- whatever you need to get the message across. But don’t use too many and make sure whatever is there is helping to answer the only important question: why should I buy from you over all of your competitors?
2. Be the Hottest Chick at the Party
Web surfers are unforgivingly judgmental, and unfortunately, you’re not sitting next to them to plead your case. They form an opinion about you in under a second.
Make this work to your advantage. Without any plastic surgery at all you can be the hottest chick at the party that everyone wants to go home with. Not just because it’s fun, but because research shows first impressions are long lasting and actually influence the overall experience a buyer has with a product in the future. (ScienceDirect)
How do you make a baller site? According to Google, it comes down to two main factors:
- Visual complexity -- how complex the visual design of a website looks
- Prototypicality -- how representative a design looks for a certain category of websites
In other words, keep it simple and don’t reinvent the wheel. Use all that creative energy for the ongoing marketing you’re definitely going to need. Hire someone with a solid reputation of clarifying messages and pairing it with good design (ahem), and move on.
3. Don't be a (Oxy)moron
There’s a tendency to want to fit everything on a homepage, because everything is important, right? WRONG. Everything being important is an oxymoron.
You’ve got to prioritize what you want your customers to do when they get to the site, and then make it painfully clear (well, painful for you. If you achieve this, it makes the viewer's experience quite lovely.) Use photography, typography (larger fonts attract the eye before smaller fonts), color and placement to make your case. Lots of space allows the important element to stand out. In other words, don’t put the most important “Buy Now” button half way down a page full of tons of photos and copy if it’s really the only thing you want people to do.
This principle applies to each and every page. And remember, most people only click 3 times on a website before they click off. Make those 3 clicks count and maybe they’ll stay longer.
4. Cats dogs and babies its Tuesday
The best way to keep a viewer engaged and get them to remember is to make them double-take. You can achieve this with an unexpected image or headline as long as you keep it on brand and continue to back it up as your viewer peruses your site.
The best way to lose attention and send people back to Google immediately?
Way too much text and dull, generic copy that sounds like every other competitor’s website (*hint* how long you’ve been in business and how much you care about your clients = generic.)
Instead, your website should be written for the most egocentric customer you can imagine who is shouting “why should I care?!?!!” over and over in your ear. Because really, that’s what we all are anyway.
SO GET ON IT!
These tips will dramatically improve the experience of your site, and that engagement gives your clients a chance to learn about you, what you do, and entice them to contact you. And you can't get clients that don't call!
WANT SOME HELP PUTTING THESE TIPS INTO ACTION?
Download and print our 'BADASS WEBSITE THAT SELLS' CHECKLIST and put it right next to your computer so you never again fall into the sea of sameness again!
