Prebuilt Power Hour – Episode 5: The Key to an Effective Landing Page

If you want an effective landing page (or home page), there are 4 things you MUST address. Most businesses get only 1 or 2 correct. These are they keys to making a page convert at a high rate, getting more leads, selling more products, and having an effective website. 

Without further ado…

The Who and The Three What’s

 

TRANSCRIPT

Transcription Details

 

File type:              Audio

Time:                   00:27:18 minutes
File Name:           The Who and the Three What’s.mp3

Transcription Results

[00:00:00]

Hello, everybody. My name is Vincent. I am the founder of Prebuilt Sites and the BBS Agency. Thank you very much for coming to the next Prebuilt Sites Power Hour. For those who are new to our presentation for Prebuilt Sites, we do this once a month. Typically, we’re sharing some useful information or notes and little bits of tips and tricks that you can use to make your website more effective. We take questions from our community. Anybody who’s a member of Prebuilt Sites is invited to attend the Power Hour, ask questions about their website. We’ll walk you through anything you want us to help you with on your website. Then we always have a question and answer section at the end, so you can ask any questions whatsoever. Let me quickly share my screen and show you what we’re going to be going through today. Today we are going to be looking at the elements of an effective landing page. Let me get my presentation to load real quick. That was the wrong button. One second. Here we go. So, today we’re looking at what I call The Who & the 3 What’s. A Landing page is any page that you are driving traffic to on your website. So, most people, their main landing page is the homepage of their website, but it might also be something like a sales page on your website that you might be driving paid traffic to or an email campaign, for example. Let me get out of this presentation.

[00:01:55]

On Prebuilt sites, this is our current landing page. This is what most people, when they’re looking and they find us on the Internet, they’re going to come in and see our page. This is many people’s first or second impression of us. You may have read about us in a blog post, you may have seen us on social media, you may have seen an ad about us, but this is the first website you’re going to see about us. And sometimes you have to undergo a major redesign. For example, this is the new version of Prebuilt Site that is being launched within about the next month. A little bit brighter color, but again, this this is our landing page and we want our landing page to convert at a high level. And by convert, I mean get people to do what you want them to do. That’s the whole purpose of your homepage is you want to get people to buy your product, fill out a lead generation form to contact you. If you’re on a sales page, you want people to purchase what you’re selling. For example, this is one of our clients, UPSWING POKER, on the BBS side of things. This is a landing page for this course that they want people to sign up and take. And you’ve probably seen pages like this where they’re selling a product and as you scroll down, it answers questions about the product, introduces you to the people behind the product, includes testimonials, might talk about a free bonus or two, and then it gets to the pricing. And in this case, their main conversion is they want people to convert. But there’s a method behind the madness of an effective landing, like a sales page landing page or home page landing page. And there are four common elements and questions that if everybody can answer on their landing pages, you’re going to have an effective landing page and going to convert at a high level. Website visitors must immediately know the answers to four questions. The WHO? The WHAT? A second WHAT? And finally, a third WHAT?

[00:04:10]

And they must answer these questions, which is what we call above the fold. Above the fold is the first thing on a web page people see. And it doesn’t matter if it is a desktop-based website where you’re seeing the wider version of the website or a small, narrow version of the website that you’re going to see on a smartphone and it’s only about that big. It’s called above the fold. It is the first thing a visitor sees. And that is what we’re trying to accomplish. We can answer the Who and the three What’s right away when somebody lands on a website, a high percentage of people are going to do what you want to do. So, let’s talk about those. The first is the WHO. And I equate putting these together to putting together a great band. So, we’re going to use these representations, they represent the Beatles. So, the WHO is the Who Are You? It’s the first thing people look at when they load up a site. And most companies get at least this step right. You have the company logo. The company logo should be up in the center of your website or off to the left, upper left-hand corner of your website. Most websites, it’s in the upper left hand corner. Don’t put your logo in any other place because that’s where people expect it. This also includes your company name, which is why, if you notice, most companies do not just have a logo that’s a symbol, there is always a name next to it. Even something like Nike will typically have the swoosh under the word Nike. Look at all the logos for companies in your local town, almost all of them have the company name with some kind of a symbol or swoosh or shape.

[00:06:04]

And then the final piece of the Who You Are, that’s your domain name. If somebody clicked on an ad, that ad, particularly if it’s on Google, is going to show the domain name of your company. So, you want people when they click on that ad, where they click on that blog post and they come to your website to immediately know who you are and that they’re in the right place. It’s not a bait and switch. Because we’ve all clicked on ads or emails at some point, we think we’re going to one site and we get redirected to another site. When that happens, it immediately makes people nervous and have some anxiety because they’re like, What just happened? Am I in the right place? You want people to feel safe and secure on your website, so answer the who. Don’t overthink it. It just needs to be easy so people can find it. So, that’s question number one. You’ve answered it. Who are you? The second part, WHAT number one and WHAT number two, make up what is called your unique value proposition. And your unique value proposition answers two questions, what do you do, and what’s in it for me as a customer? If you sell t-shirts, your unique value proposition might be we sell the most comfortable, best-fitting t-shirts, so you can look stylish and feel good. That’s a unique value proposition. If you are a cleaning agency, maybe your unique value proposition is we clean your house like it was brand new so you can rest easy and relax. Something like that do people know they are in the right place. They found you, they’ve answered the who, and then they’re finding out what do you do and what are you going to do for me.

[00:08:00]

Because ultimately people want people to do things for them or buy clothes that make them feel good or buy items in their life that are going to solve a problem, make their life easier, make them feel good about themselves. And you need to spell that out for people. The answering of these questions is something a lot of companies get wrong. So, WHAT number one, what do you do? Website visitors need to know if they’re in the right place. What problem do you solve and how do you solve it? If somebody is looking for, say, a cleaning service, you should have that front and center on your home page. This is what we do. If you are car mechanic, something about that should be on the home page. A lot of companies mess this up. They either don’t have anything on the home page … they might have their company name on the home page, but nothing about what they do. Maybe they have a picture that kind of represents what they do. Or worse, instead of putting a unique value proposition, they just put their company slogan. So, we’ll use Nike as example. Everybody knows their slogan, it’s “Just Do It.” You don’t know anything about Nike, you have never seen that they sold shoes ever. And you went to their website and you see, hey, it’s Nike, they got this cool little swoosh. And the only words you see are “Just Do It.” Do what? What do you do? It doesn’t make any sense to you. Now we know they’re talking about just do it, just work out, just get more exercise, just buy our shoes. Years ago, Chevy had the slogan “Solid Like A Rock.” Well, if you went to their website and all it said was solid like a rock, that doesn’t tell you anything. You might be able to assume they sell trucks because it would have had trucks on it, but maybe there could have been a car mechanic, they could have been an auto dealer, not a manufacturer. You need to spell these things out for people because they don’t know who you are.

[00:10:04]

So, answer the first WHAT. What do you do? They should clearly see on your home page or your landing page why they should do business with you. The WHAT number two is right immediately after you tell people what you do. Look, I now understand what you do, but what am I going to get out of it? So, visitors want to know what’s in it for them. Who’s your solution for? Maybe you cater to multimillion-dollar luxury … Maybe your cleaning service, but you only cater to luxury homes. Maybe your unique value proposition is we provide the best cleaning services for mega-mansions or for homes in the Beverly Hills area. You just said, hey, we provide cleaning service, they know what you do, and it’s in the Beverly Hills area of Hollywood, California. If you’re outside of Hollywood, California, you land on that site and go, Oh, I need a cleaning service, but I’m in San Diego, this doesn’t do me any good. And as the cleaning service example, they don’t want to drive from LA down to San Diego to clean somebody’s house unless they have people down there. So, you get to narrow down your people who are converting on your website by telling them who it’s for. If you are a car mechanic and you specialize in foreign imports, you put that on your home page. “I service foreign vehicles so you can …” something along those lines. So, I’m a car mechanic and I own who specializes in Volvos and Volkswagens and Audi’s. So, you know, if you have a Volvo or an Audi, you land on that page looking for a car mechanic that they should be able to solve your problem.

[00:11:57]

And something else that helps is answering has it worked for others? And this is something I showed a little bit on the UPSWING POKER landing page. A little bit further down they worked in some testimonials. That’s called social proof. That piece doesn’t necessarily have to be above the fold, but if you have social proof testimonials from people saying how much they liked it, if you have a physical product, like maybe you clean a house and you have like a before and after picture of a disaster that you guys made amazing. If you rebuild cars and you can have before and after pictures showing what your service does. Incorporate that in your home page. So, WHAT number two, what’s in it for me? Visitors should clearly see on your home page or your landing page why they should do business with you and what benefit are they going to get with it? An example. So, we’re going to use the current Prebuilt Sites site. What do we do? We build ready-for-launch websites. What’s in it for you as a website visitor? So, you understand, hey, we build ready-for-launch websites. You get a great website without emptying your pockets. You get professional designs. It’s easy to use secure and scalable and industry-specific designs. We want to be your partner in success and we have an array of services built into one package for you. So, we say immediately, Here’s what we do, and here’s what you’re going to get for it. And final, the third one, and this is one an amazing number of websites don’t have is you telling people what you want them to do. The third WHAT, what do you want me as a website visitor to do on your website? After people know who you are, what you do, and what’s in it for them, they want to know what to do next, so you tell them.

[00:14:03]

And this is from your strong calls to action and your buttons on your website. You want to have buttons that are going to tell people what’s going to happen, and you want that one call to action to stand out. It should be a bold color that kind of contrasts the rest of your website. It doesn’t need to be gaudy. It doesn’t need to be bright red or bright yellow or something like that, but it should be a contrasting color that your eyes are drawn to. And it should have a descriptive bit of text, a descriptive label on that button. It’s so often I see if a site has a call to action, so often the button just says submit. It’s like a form and it says submit. Well, that doesn’t really tell people what’s going to happen afterward. Are they going to get a download? Are you going to call them back? Are they sending their information to you? Give them better information. So, some strong calls to action, learn more, lead more. You see these a lot. They should typically go to a page about your services, a page more information about your company. So, depending on what your unique value proposition beforehand, let’s say you’re a freelancer, you are your business, you probably want to direct people from read more or learn more to maybe you’re about page. If you offer a variety of services and that’s what you want to highlight, you want to link people to your services page. Maybe you want people to contact you. Tell them that. Maybe it’s for requesting help on a site support. Do you want people to schedule an appointment or book an appointment really big like if you are maybe a salon or your mechanic or your lawyer and people can only get in to see you by appointment?

[00:16:00]

If it’s by appointment, don’t just have a contact us. You want to let people know they can talk to you by appointment only. So, those buttons should say schedule an appointment or book an appointment because you are setting that expectation. People want to know what’s going to happen if I do that. And with these types of calls to action, you’re telling what’s going to happen. The newsletter sign up, tell people. Get updates. Get started. Get a product name. A lot of times product pages just say Add To CART, which is a pretty good call to action, but you can say also get product. Maybe it’s a download of the free e-book you’re trying to give away. Get the e-book name is a good idea because people like to get stuff. Join A Class. Register For A Webinar. Buy Now, It’s of the more powerful ones. Check out download e-book. Tell people what’s going to happen when they do that, when they click on that call to action. For example, BBS, we have to CTAs and we want people to do one of these two things. Ideally, we want people to click Get Started, which is where they can go pick from one of our multiple Prebuilt website designs, and they can check out and we’ll start building their website. But we have a secondary call to action, which is Book A Demo. If you’re not ready to buy yet, we’ll do a live demo with you. But this is the secondary call to action. A lot of conversion experts will say you only want one call to action, which is true. But instead of having somebody not get started, maybe they want to know more, we decided to have two calls to action, which is Book A Demo. But you’ll notice stylistically the primary one, because we gave it a solid contrasting color, it jumps off the page, and that’s what people are going to gravitate to the most.

[00:18:07]

We have the secondary one next to it. The color and the design is downplayed because it’s secondary. We want people to focus on the Get Started over the Book A Demo. A tip for this … Now I wear glasses. For many, many, many years, I could only see about six inches clearly in front of my nose until I got Lasik. Now, I’m pushing 50 and I got readers, the ones I wear when I’m on the computer. But early on, this was taught to me by somebody else, and I call it the blurry-eyed test. You look at your website … and I could do this without squinting my eyes because everything was blurry, but if you don’t have bad vision like me, slide back, look at your web page and squint your eyes so everything’s kind of a blur, and judge by where your eyes gravitate. And if you do that with this one on your current screen, you will see your eyes naturally gravitate to the Get Started button because it’s the only splash color. And that’s intentional. We want people’s eyes to just naturally drift to it. And that was a good call to action. This says what’s going to happen next. You’re going to get started. Let me go back to my presentation. So, back to our original questions. For a high-converting website, website visitors must immediately know the WHO and the three WHATS. They must know who you are. What you do. What’s in it for me as a website visitor? And what do you want the website visitor to do? Don’t take my word for it, let’s look at some examples. So, we’ve got the full band now, full band which is playing everything. Everything is converting really well. We have everything in place.

[00:20:08]

For example, this is a digital marketing company called Rankfire. You tell them the company’s name is Rankfire. “What do you do?” We help you get more traffic leads and customers. “Oh, that sounds really awesome. What’s in it for me?” Without wasting time and money. “That’s a great, unique value proposition. I know what you do. You’re going to get me traffic leads and customers, and I’m not going to waste time and money. What should I do next?” I’m going to schedule a consultation. And it looks good on mobile too. UPSWING POKER, and I’ve used this as an example before, they’ve been a client of ours for a long time. We’ve done a lot of testing on this page. It converts incredibly well. People are coming to this site. It’s not a gambling site. It’s a gambling education site. They teach you how to play poker like the pros. And a lot of their students have gone on to become professional poker players and some of them have been on the World Series of Poker on ESPN and on TV, and they have high twitch followers that watch them play online poker. So, why do you come to UPSWING POKER? Well, maybe you want to be the best poker player at the table. Well, what am I going to get from it? Well, these strategies and pokers are brought to me by the world’s best poker players, and they will take my poker skills to the next level. That sounds fantastic. What do I want to do? I want to join the Upswing Poker Lab, which is the primary course that they sell. And again, this is what it looks like on mobile. KEEP, this is an email automation marketing system. This is what their landing page looks like. Now, they do several things here that I might recommend switching a little bit from a conversion standpoint, but let’s look at what they have. I’m on KEEP, I know I’m on the right place, this is what I’m looking for. What do they do? They help me grow sales and save time with automation.

[00:22:13]

So, I’m going to grow my sales and I’m going to save time. It’s a unique value proposition. And then they have a supplemental headline that says their CRM and sales and marketing platform was built to help me (you) dramatically grow my sales and save time by eliminating business chaos. And if you can automate a chunk of my business so I don’t have to worry about it, it’s going to save me time and make me more money, and more sales, that’s great. What do you want me to do? Well, I can try it for free or I can see a demo. Those are both pretty good calls to action now. Here’s where I think they did things a little bit confusing. “Try Free” because of its contrast appears to be the primary call to action with it being black. And the “See Demo” the same tactic that we used on Prebuilt Sites is kind of secondary and downgraded. However, stylistically “Try Free” is the exact same design as the “See Demo” button in the corner. So, which do they want me to do? Should I see the demo or should I try free? Now, right here, this is the header and navigation. It’s on every page of the website. Considering you see “See Demo” everywhere, I think that’s the primary call to action. My recommendation, if I would, was the webmaster of this site, I would keep the header the same. But the only green you see right now is the color here and the color here. I would take that green color and I would put it behind the button, make the “Try Free” button green. It would Be the only splash of color on this whole section of the website. Your eyes would definitely come here and that green button would look more important than the “See Demo” button in the upper corner. Again, this is what it looks like on mobile.

[00:24:11]

This is one of our Prebuilt Sites. This is one that’s available. It works great. We have a lot of health coaches who are using this Prebuilt Site. And taking into consideration the concepts of The Who & The 3 What’s, we’ve tried to build those concepts into every one of our sites. For example, your logo, if you buy this theme, this design, your logo will be up here in the upper left-hand corner. It’ll be clickable so no matter where they are on the site, it will always come back to the home page. We have a unique value or unique selling proposition section styled front and center with a supplemental heading or subheading to go underneath and a call to action button. I mentioned before that a lot of companies miss out on the call to action. As you browse the web, take a look at how many companies don’t have a button right here on their home page or don’t have a second call to action up in their primary header and their navigation. A lot of companies do, particularly small businesses, and they struggle to convert website visitors because they’re missing that one piece. Often just adding a good call to action button that tells people what you want to do next on a landing page or a home page of a website will make your website work significantly better. Come back to The Who & The 3 What’s. Whenever you are working on your own website and you’re creating a new landing page, be it your home page, maybe a services page, it might be a product page, it might be a landing page to drive paid traffic to, do everything in your power, whether you’re doing it yourself or you’re working with a designer or a freelancer, or you’re working with us, to make sure you answer The Who & The 3 What’s.

[00:26:05]

Because when you have all the parts of the band together who are playing together and doing what they should do together, you’re going to have a very high converting website, very high converting landing pages, you’re going to sell more, you’re going to get more leads. And at the end of the day, that’s what every business owner wants. And when you get all those together, you’re going to grow your business and you’re going to make more money. So, you can contact us at prebuiltsites.co, Prebuilt Sites is primarily for people who are just starting out. If you are a new business owner, a new freelancer, or if you are an established business and you’ve never had a website before or just need a really small, basic website, Prebuilt Sites is for you. On the BBS Agency side of things, and we’ve been around for over ten years, we primarily work with businesses who’ve been around for a while, have an existing website, and they need help with it, primarily if it’s a WordPress website or if you want your existing WordPress website to get redesigned or do more, that’s what the BBS Agency is for.