Maybe you even put a lot of thought into the look and feel. Yet you aren’t generating the business you thought might be possible. It could be that you have invested money in SEO, Social Media and Pay Per Click advertising. You have patiently waited for the online marketing magic to finally kick in. Still almost nothing. Here we will discuss some underlying reasons your web design project didn’t get traction and what to do about it.
The Message
Big Mistake: your content is all about you and very little about the customer. Tom Sant: a well known expert on Sales and Proposals recommends following the N.O.S.E. formula. This acronym stands for Needs, Outcomes, Strategies and Evidence. DON’T zone out Yet!
This is easy to follow and it will help you in every area of your business communications such as what you say on the phone.
The key thing that grabs your visitor and lets them know they are in the right place: is successfully articulating their need. Another term for this is their key “pain point.” This one thing is what motivated them to go online and search for a solution.
The second thing they need to connect with is your concise definition of the outcome they are seeking.
Clearly describing the “need and outcome” gets the attention of the more emotional side of the brain which is craving a solution. This process should occur in a matter of seconds when the visitor arrives at your webpage. The logical side of the brain then decides to look more closely. It is asking for proof.
So we go into the “S” part of N.O.S.E. We must briefly describe our unique strategy in order to engage the reasoning part of the mind. It wants to know “why” it should believe that you can deliver this greatly desired outcome. It WANTS to believe in your promises and it needs at least a simplified description of your approach to solving their need.
If that makes sense to the logical brain it wants some third party evidence. That is someone other than yourself who concurs that you are in fact able to deliver the results you are describing.
The “E” in our N.O.S.E. acryonym stands for evidence. This could consist of trust badges, years of experience, time in business, published supporting research and social proof in the form of customer testimonials, social media likes, comments, units sold etc.
Below we have an example:
Need Headline: Gained Weight Over the Holidays?
Outcome Subtext: Take it off fast without going hungry.
Strategy Body Text: Our digestive fat blocker makes the fat go right through you.
Evidence: 10,000 “happy losers” can’t be wrong. “John E from Tulsa lost 25 pounds in 3 weeks.” “Elva A. from San Antonio lost 14 pounds.”
The Customer Avatar
Together we create one or more fictitious individuals that define your typical customers. These come complete with name, age, education, typical concerns and priorities, what teams do they like, what do they read, what shows do they watch, what do they drive, political leanings, marital status, children, grand children, pets, home owner/renter, house, townhome, condo, apartment, years on the job etc. Then we zero in on their pain points to develop our N.O.S.E. statements.
We identify the logical conclusions they must arrive at to decide that they want to do business with you so we can articulate those exact points on your website.
The Layout
Your web page looks beautiful with a fancy animated slide show but the critical messages are not in the locations on the page where human eyes tend to go first. If you don’t grab them in 5 to 10 seconds 90% of visitors hit the back button on their web browser. This is called the “bounce rate.”
Call to Action
After your visitor takes a quick glance at your web page and has determined that you might have what they are searching for, they want to be told what to do next.
The call to action must be prominently featured where they don’t have to seek or scroll or click to a different page in order to figure it out.
It could be as simple as “Give us a Call at xxx-xxx-xxxx” or a “Learn More” button beneath a simplified contact form.
The Content Plan
The Customer Avatar info lets us create a stream of content for the web that will be relevant, valuable and interesting to your target audience.
This content is then placed on your website blog, on Facebook and Youtube. Having content gives Google something to work with in order to send the ideal visitors to your website.
Mobile Friendliness
If your site looks outdated and isn’t automatically responsive to the screensize of each visitor: you may be losing business at every level. Typical mobile traffic to websites is currently in the 60%-70% zone and Google is also downgrading websites that don’t offer a comfortable mobile viewing experience. So your search engine listing will be pushed down below those websites with mobile friendly designs.
Order a Website Redesign
If your website is missing some of these elements you might need to consider a redesign.
Give Unafraid Media a call for a free evaluation. (980) 444-1632