Is Your Marketing Clear… to Your Clients?

Have you ever had either of these experiences?

You are spending thousands of dollars and countless hours building a new website. By the launch day, it is beautiful, even perfect. It says everything about your product or service. It’s got beautiful images and great design. It’s got every page you could want just ready and waiting for your customers. You know that they are going to love it.

As launch day approaches, you get ready for all the calls and orders that are sure to follow. And you launch!

Then nothing happens.

It’s devastating. Having no idea what went wrong, you go back to building your business with sweat equity, cold calls, and grueling hour after hour, just trying to make it happen.

Or maybe you’ve had a website for years, but you haven’t made a single change to it in years, because it just doesn’t seem to matter. It’s not producing many leads. It’s just kind of there, and you’ve learned to live life without it. In the back of your mind, you know that something is wrong, but you can’t put the finger on it.

It doesn’t have to be this way. I am yet to encounter a business in either one of these situations that couldn’t benefit from a more effective website. 

The solution

The solution is probably closer than you think.

In both cases, it is more likely that something is wrong with the website than it is that your potential customers aren’t using it. To find out what’s going on, you need the “Grunt test” developed by StoryBrand. Here’s how it works.

Go to a local coffee shop and kindly ask someone if they wouldn’t mind looking at your website for a minute or two. If they agree, show them the site for 5 seconds and then hide it and ask these three questions:

1. What does my company offer?

2. How will it make your life better?

3. What do you need to do to buy it?

If your poor unsuspecting coffee shop dwellers can’t answer these three questions in 5 seconds, congratulations, you found your problem.

In today’s microwave society, we are accustomed to getting and qualifying our information so quickly. A new browser on your website will only give you about 5 seconds before pulling the plug.

You need to answer these three questions in the header and top banner of your website because the browser probably won’t scroll to go looking for them. Instead, they’ll click back and find a competitor who will answer their questions, and you’ll lose the business.

Here are four quick pointers recommended by StoryBrand.

1. Get rid of as many links in your top menu as you can.
2. Add a Buy Now button in the top right corner of the page and right in the middle of your top banner.
3. Use a background picture of a happy, smiling person using your product or service.
4. Use words that clearly describe your product or service (category) and how it will help your customer.

If you are ready for your website to start performing, give us a call! We’ll do a free review of your homepage for you and show you exactly how to fix it!