When starting a new business or revamping an existing one, often the first signs we see of change are in the website. As a business owner you probably hand that work over to an external designer who is an “Expert”. Be sure that you know what will work yourself and don’t leave it all up to the designer – They may be able to create the most beautiful site but do they understand the drivers of your business?
Even if you’re not looking at rethinking strategy, starting afresh or rebranding, here are five things to consider on your website homepage that will really make a difference to the content uptake:
- Feature Customer Logos
Does the top fold of your home page include logos of your most recognised customers? Recognisable company logos bring instant credibility. Why hide them away on a landing page somewhere within your website? Bring them front and centre, so it’s one of the first things your visitors see.
- Use What Your Salespeople Say
What bullets do you use to close a sale? Do they appear on your homepage? A good exercise is to discuss with your front-line people what features and benefits they highlight that prospects are most intrigued by. Make sure these are clear on your home page.
- Address Sales Objections
Talk to your sales team and identify the biggest objections they find when closing a sale. Understand how your sales reps are successfully overcoming those objections and address them on your home page. This gives the answers before any of your website visitors start thinking the same thing.
- Clear Call-to-Action Buttons
Whether its Live Chat, Phone or Email Form, ensure your call-to-action buttons are large and visible. Use colours that contrast with the rest of your site–bright orange, blue or green–and ensure they appear on the top fold of your home page, as well as every other page. Your site isn’t designed to be an overblown brochure, but a lead conversion machine. And that begins with a clear call-to-action.
- Test. Test. Test.
Of course there are Best Practices to convert clicks to sales in web design but what matters is whether your site is delivering For Your Business. Many of these supposed best practices may jar with your prospects, may not encourage them to like your offering or may actually turn them away. The best, easiest and cheapest thing you can do to find out what works for you is to test, and test often. Ongoing A/B and multivariant testing of content, layout, placement, and design is the best way for you to optimise your website to meet your lead conversion goals.

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