Is Your Website a Soft Place to Fall?
I’m frequently asked to review and critique new clients’ existing websites to see if I can analyze why they aren’t converting browsers into buyers or Looky Lou’s into loyalists to their expectations.
And time after time…
…the chief oopsie I find is that the copy or content on the site isn’t a soft place to fall
What do I mean by “a soft place to fall”?
What I mean is this: it isn’t welcoming, friendly and relational.
Now, if you’re a stodgy, hands-off big bank, credit union or corporation that really doesn’t give a rip about creating fond bonds, if you’re pretty much a monopoly and the only place to get what you offer, fine. Be that way, so customers aren’t sold a bill of goods about how relational you are, only to discover you’re a cold fish with your eyes more on their money than on them. Being relational on your website in that case wouldn’t be truthful: it would be perpetrating a fraud. If you’re a cold fish, go ahead and have a cold fish website. With institutional and corporate storefronts, being removed from your customers is expected, pretty much par for the course. (Sad to say.)
(Can you tell I hate visiting stick-up-the-butt, corporate websites? Don’t you? So, ‘nuf said on that score!)
“Welcoming, friendly and relational ” doesn’t necessarily mean to come across like the ending of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES:
“Come, set (sic) a spell. Take your shoes off. Y’all come back now, y’hear?” (But this is the general principle!)
The first thing I look for when I visit a website is how relational it is.
I hate visiting websites that are all about the provider–how long they’ve been in business, how many awards they’ve won, and how many high-profile clients they have. All of that can go on an ABOUT page. The rest of the pages shouldn’t be about the provider, but about the visitor to the site: your prospects and regulars.
One of the first places I visit on a new website is the testimonials page.
Why?
Because, IF the testimonials are genuine (and yours had better be, or you’re in violation of Federal Trade Commission regulations and they can fine you heavily if you’ve made them up and they aren’t traceable to actual users/clients; that is, they shouldn’t be written by friends, relatives, employees or yourself, all of whom have vested interests in your success), they let me know what their customers/clients/patients really think of the product, service or information they’re providing.
If the testimonials pan out, then I feel more confident that I can believe what the business says about itself. I can feel more confident that the copywriter (if they hired one) has also done his/her job properly (YELLOW ALERT: not all copywriters are reputable or know the regulations that define their boundaries) and isn’t in violation of his/her responsibility to avoid making a sow’s ear look like a silk purse.
Next, or soon after, I read the words on the home page. If they identify and address the pain, problem or predicament that I need solved (the one I came to their website seeking relief for) and they talk to me as if they’re visiting with me personally, beverage mug in hand, I know they’ve put themselves in my shoes and aren’t just out to swindle vast hordes of nameless, faceless fellow sufferers for the money it will bring them.
These two pages prove to me that it isn’t ALL about them (MAKING THE SALE), it’s about ME and other similarly afflicted customers! Their “Why” is (to quote George Eliot), “What do we live for is it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”
I LOATHE visiting a website (or store, or carnival, or bazaar, or swap meet, or networking meeting, or garden party) where the sellers in the room get in my face to try to coerce me to engage RIGHT NOW. You can lead me to water, but you can’t make me drink. If you try, I’ll just turn and walk away unless I’m in a parched desert and you’re my only option. I want to be able to “set a spell” and DECIDE that I’ve come to the right place.
“WIIFM?”
So when I visit a website, I’m like most people who visit websites. What we’re looking for is, “What’s in it for me?”
This doesn’t mean you can’t talk about what you offer, but do it in a way that reveals the VALUE and BENEFITS of your offering to the Ideal Client who is willingly and virtually sitting (at least for the moment, while they gauge your trustworthiness, your ability to communicate, and your concern for them) across the monitor screen from you.
Instead of “We’ve been in business for fifty years” (yawn) try, “We were here for your grandparents, and we’ll be here for you!” That’s a visitor-focused way of saying, “We’re reliable, not fly-by-night,” without coming across like a carnival barker.
Take a look at your website again. Is it a soft place to fall? (There are other aspects of making a website a soft place to fall; I haven’t covered all of them in this post, but these two pages are good places to start, if you’re trying to go it alone and feel the need to redeem your website to help it convert better.)
I’ve redeemed scores of websites to help them convert better. Although I don’t tackle every niche, I feel utterly confident about the ones I do. If you’d like me to take a look at your website or other marketing materials, please reach out. TEXT (I repeat for emphasis!) TEXT me at two five three four seven four six two four zero and send me your website URL or e me at krisATwordwhispererDOTnet with it.