Author Archives: lindawalkowich

Is your website home page reaching its highest potential?

If you leverage your content correctly, your home page can serve as a springboard for your audience to take thoughtful action, explore your website, and embark on a journey into what you have to say and offer.

Here’s a quick high-conversion home page guide to inspire your content planning and help skyrocket your digital marketing metrics. 

First, set some goals.

Before you can lay out your high-conversion home page plan, it’s important to ask yourself a few key questions:

• What are the top one to three goals of my website?
• Which actions are of highest value in driving these goals?
• What do I want my audience to know about my brand right away?
• What inspires my audience to take action?
• How can I use my website to grow my audience?

Once you get clear on your goals and which actions you want your audience to take on your website, you’ll find a lot more clarity in the home page process.

Next, start planning your home page content. 

Keeping your goals in mind, follow these best practices to create an engaging, informative, action-oriented home page. 

Place your highest value call-to-action (CTA) front and center. 

The first section at the top of your home page gets the highest visibility, which is why you want to use this space for your most valuable CTA. Examples of high-value CTAs include: 

• Shop products online
• Book a free consultation
• Schedule a service
• Start a conversation
• Sign up for a free incentive

Position your CTA in a way that clearly emphasizes the benefit and creates urgency. Shine the spotlight on your audience, the problem you can help solve, and the outcome they can achieve by taking action right away. 

Keep it short and simple, while also embracing your voice and branding – so they can get an immediate taste of your style. 

Link to the next logical steps within your site. 

In many cases, visiting your home page is the first step in your audience’s journey through the website. Ideally, the road shouldn’t end there. Invite them to take a deeper dive into your content  by including links (usually in the form of hyperlinked text or buttons) to other high value pages on your website. 

For example, if your website sells products, consider including links to your product category shopping pages. If your website offers services, link to a more elaborative page about your top-selling service and its benefits. 

Ultimately, you’re trying to reduce your bounce rate, or the percentage of website visitors that exit your site from a page.

Tell your story. 

We’re living in a digital age where many people really do their research before making a purchase or taking a next step. They’re making more informed decisions and aligning themselves with people and organizations that share their values and experiences.

So sharing your story is a compelling way to create relatability with your audience. Keep it brief, and include the following key points:

• What was the gap or problem you aim to resolve as a result of your experiences?
• How can you relate to your audience’s struggles or challenges?
• What was the turning point and big solution in your story arc?

If you have an “About Me/Us” or “My/Our Story” on your website, include the link for your visitors who want to learn more. 

Solve a problem.

Problem-solving is a huge component of successful content marketing. Address the problem your audience faces and let them know about the solution you have to fix it. This accomplishes a few things:

• Creates a sense of community among those who struggle with this problem
• Lets your audience know they’re in the right place
• Helps them visualize the transformation they can achieve by taking action with you

That’s why one of the best pictures you can paint with your content is a start-to-finish journey beginning with the active problem in their lives and the solution you can offer. The idea is to create a flow in their mind that says:

Here is my problem. 

Here is information that talks about the problem and offers a compelling solution.

Now I know how to take action to resolve my problem. 

Include an interactive component.

Get creative with how your audience can engage with your website. Consider adding an interactive component, like a:

• Free quiz
• Product finder
• Calculator
• Survey or poll

Interactive content is memorable, and it attracts immediate attention. 

When you create an opportunity for your audience to have fun, get personalized content, or discover something new about themselves, you’re creating a positive experience and building quality engagement. 

Create an opportunity to subscribe to your content. 

Give clear CTAs for how your audience can continue learning and exploring. Offer a CTA that helps get their eyes on fresh content, including:

• Sign up for a newsletter
• Follow social media pages
• Subscribe to your blog

This allows you to convert the visibility of a single home page visit into limitless potential to continue getting your message in front of your audience. 

Build authority. 

You’ve probably heard of “know, like, trust” in marketing. Authority building focuses on the “trust” component of this equation. 

Why are you an expert at this topic?
Why are your offerings the best choice in this niche or industry?
How have you made a positive influence?

Take some space on your home page to professionally highlight your expertise, sharing authority building information like: 

• Achievements, accomplishments, accreditations, and awards
• Statistics about how you’ve made a positive impact
• Numbers highlighting the scale of your influence and impact

If applicable, include links to supporting pages that elaborate on these key pieces of information. 

Feature testimonials.

The testimonials, reviews, and case studies of your clients and customers help build trust, while also giving your audience a glimpse into their future if they take action with you. 

According to Nielsen, 92 percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, which is organic content generated by a source other than the business itself, above all other forms of advertising.

Share a few testimonials that align with the top benefits and ideal outcome of whatever it is you’re offering, whether it be a product or service. Just make sure you obtain the proper permissions before you publicly share the voices of your clients. 

Bonus tip: Pay attention to your main navigation and footer.

Your home page conversion strategy should encompass every visible and clickable component of the page, including your main menu and footer links. Make sure these two areas map back to your goals and support the ideal website journey you’re looking to create for your audience. 

Now you have the tools to craft a home page that drives your goals and hits all the key marketing points. Happy content planning!

Creating revenue-generating content is both an art and a science. If you want to write compelling content that sells, make sure you’re avoiding any easy-to-miss mistakes and putting your best message forward with copy that follows best practices. 

Here are the 3 surprisingly common content mistakes and the solutions to fix them:

#1. You’re content isn’t solution-oriented.

It’s so easy to talk about your business and why it’s wonderful.

But it’s important to stop and ask, “How do I write about my business’ benefits in a way that my audience needs to hear?”

The fix: Deliver solution-oriented content.

Here’s a million-dollar rule to content writing that will make the biggest difference in your strategy:
Write content that sells the solution to your audience’s problems or desires.

All of your content should be written in a way that helps your audience easily picture their lives after your product or service has fixed a problem.

Let’s look at an example. Imagine for a moment you own a health-focused smoothie shop.

Instead of, “We use premium-sourced, natural ingredients.”
Try saying, “Fuel your body with the best ingredients nature has to offer.”

Instead of, “We offer a protein boost mix-in for our smoothies.”
Try saying, “Supercharge your morning with an added boost of protein.”

Instead of saying, “Our smoothies support better health.”
Try saying, “Sip your way to a healthier you with our smoothies.”

Remember, actionable, solution-oriented content is all about creating your audience’s better reality as a customer of your brand.

#2. Your content isn’t skimmable.

Let me fill you in on an important content marketing reality:

People don’t like to read.

You may have a few audience members who will gladly read big paragraphs and long-from copy, but for the most part, you really only have a few words or a few short sentences to capture the attention you’re looking for.

If you’re sharing content that’s super long and detailed, there’s a good chance it won’t attract the readership you’re looking for (even if it’s beautifully written). 

The fix: Make your content skimmable.

Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and brief, impactful statements to leave the impression you’re looking for. 

When your content is easy on the eyes, you may be surprised by how much more of the message your audience will absorb – resulting in more knowledge about your brand and ideally, more engagement.

Remember, content isn’t all about written text. Pictures and videos play a heavy role in your content strategy too and they’re your biggest assets for skimmable content.

While your audience might not like reading, they will likely love pretty pictures and eye-catching videos. (Like the saying says, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”) So consider conveying your message through multiple forms of media to create skimmable, but powerful content.

#3. You’re content isn’t driving the sale.

You’ve probably heard that overly sales-y content is a definite no-go.

But there’s a way to sell your brand’s products or services without sounding giving your audience sleazy salesperson vibes.

All the content you produce should serve a purpose, which is usually – in one way or another – to sell what your brand has to offer.

The fix: Create content that keeps its eyes on the prize, and naturally funnels your audience into taking the action you’re looking for. 

Don’t shy away from the sale, but rather, consider it an art that your content serves to illustrate. Here are a few ways to seamlessly drive your sales:

• Get creative with your calls-to-actions (CTA) statements and avoid generic sales-y terms like “buy now.”
• Incorporate many CTA opportunities in your content design, like buttons to shop or contact you, or links to your products and services.
• Write solution-oriented content that highlights your key selling points with minimal fluff and distraction.
• Consider sharing user-generated content like testimonials and reviews, so your existing fans can help you sell your products using their own words.

Fix these mistakes, and your content will be unstoppable.

Tell me in the comments: what solution does your brand offer to your audience?