You can hear this advice everywhere.
Your homepage should attract traffic.
It should convince visitors that your product could solve their problems.
Tell them why it’s worth to sign up and provide ways to do so.
But doesn’t it just make you wonder, how?
Writing a converting homepage copy is difficult
Most visitors landing on your site will have very little clue about your business. Sure, some of them might have heard about you somewhere. But for most, it’ll be the very first encounter with your product.
And so they’re anxious.
They may have visited your competitors’ sites already and none delivered what they hoped to find. Now they might not want to waste any more time. They’ll want find a solution fast.
Your homepage then should anticipate their objections and quickly answer their most common questions:
- What exactly do they do? Your copy should confirm that you provide solutions they’re looking for.
- Is this for me? It should also tell them if they are the market for your solution.
- What’s different about them? It should highlight what makes you different from other companies providing similar product. It should explain why they should choose you and not your competitor.
- Why should I trust them? Your copy should present a proof that it is safe to buy from you.
- Has anyone used them before? Lastly, it should also soothe the customer’s worried mind by providing a social proof.
Here are the elements that help achieve it.
Headline
Nothing can make or break your page more than a headline.
It’s the very first thing your visitor sees after landing on your page. It’s also what will help them decide if they should stick for longer.
Or leave at a snap.
A good headline should:
- Answer a visitor’s questions straight away, without any fluff.
- It should also reflect a visitor’s expectation.
- It should tell them why they need this solution – outline the key benefit of using your software. Here’s how Selz do it:
Sub-headline or Supporting Text
Depending on what you do, you might not be able to pack all the information a headline should carry into a single line. In such cases use a combination of a headline and subheadline. Userlike split the headline into two:
Or support your headline with an introductory text to make your point even clearer, like Harpoon:
Benefits
I bet you’ve heard this old saying before – “you’re not selling a drill but a hole in the wall”.
Countless sales advice has been based on this simple statement.
But, it’s wrong.
You’re not selling either.
What you sell is:
- A picture on the wall.
- A new shelf in the wardrobe.
- Shiny new mirror in the bathroom.
- An image of being a capable man to a non-DIY savvy guy and so on.
A hole is an obvious benefit but it’s not the final reason why a customer might be purchasing your product. Instead, they employ your product to achieve a specific effect.
- They buy a broom to have a house they’d love to welcome guests to. Or avoid high parking fees in town perhaps.
- Store their bike on a wall rack to protect it (and make it harder to steal).
- They go to a restaurant not for food but great time in a fantastic company. Or to skip having to cook for an entire family reunion.
Uncovering it is the best way to build emotional connection with your reader.
It’s also a secret to writing a compelling list of benefits.
(Desk.com)
Features
Benefits sell, true.
But features help to overcome many sales objections.
Once you’ve reassured a visitor that your product can help solving their problem, you need to reassure them that it’s worth buying.
This is especially evident in certain industries – technical for instance.
Features often become selling points later in the buying cycle.
At some point your prospects are going to wonder about data security for instance. Or whether your product outputs data in their preferred format. Offers mobile access or many other things.
It’s not something they’d base their initial decision to try a demo on. But it’s something that might convince them to sign up for a subscription.
Here’s how Harvest do it:
Call-to-Action
Call-to-action critical for conversions.
And the easiest to get wrong.
Countless advice has been shared about writing effective calls-to-action but one really stands out for me. It’s from Joana Wiebe of CopyHackers who suggests writing calls to action in first person.
As she says, your C2A copy should complete a simple sentence:
“I want to ________”
For instance:
- I want to build more backlinks
- I want to see my site’s audit
- I want to try [product] for free, like one featured on OnePageCRM’s home page:
Social Proof
Social proof influences your visitors’ decisions.
In 1998 David Wooten discovered that when evaluating a product, customers were more likely to base their decision on the opinions of others.
And thus it’s imperative that you display at least some form of social proof on your home page.
There are many ways to do that. From copywriting point of view, here are the most effective ones:
- Showing the number of sales of a particular product, how many happy customers you have or how many total sales you’ve generated all speaks of the popularity of your product.
- Displaying testimonials or reviews
- Sharing customers’ stories.
Basecamp boasts impressive numbers on their homepage.
Bonus Tip: Nudge Your Audience A Little Too
This is an old public speaking trick – nudge your audience with something only they will understand. It could be a one liner, a reference or an image.
Whatever you use, make sure it’s something they will relate to.
Just look at companies featured on Workado’s main product screenshot. I’m not sure about you but it did make me giggle.
And remember them.
