As a coach who does a lot of work with clients on their market position, content development and marketing, I look at a lot of websites. This is how the typical site looks:
- Tell the world how great you are and give some idea of what you do
- Have section headers: ABOUT US, OUR PRODUCTS, OUR CUSTOMERS etc
Yet what most websites (and marketing content in general) fail to do is to ‘stand in the customer’s shoes’ and identify their key challenges and ‘pains’ that your product/service solves for them. In old marketing speak this is a benefits conversation rather than a features one. So why is it that everyone feels the defacto layout of website much be adhered to, starting with telling prospects how great you are?
If you want to engage potential customers when they visit your website you need to build credibility so that they will want to find out more and consequently stay longer on your site. You can quickly build credibility by demonstrating you understand your customer’s needs and challenges BEFORE you talk about how you solve them. You want your visitors to feel “You really understand my issues, so let me find out more”.
So for example, on my website I don’t talk about being a business coach, I talk about how I can help my clients increase profits, gain a unique market position, get an aligned motivated work force etc. This are the key issues my clients face and the reason why they would typically engage with me.
So where is your company’s website today? Does it start off by talking about you or by talking about your customer?
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