Fact… your website is your top marketing tool – the #1 place prospective clients will go to do their due diligence on your firm.
So, do me a favor right now. Click over to your firm’s website and browse around for a few minutes. Go ahead… I’ll wait!
What did you see?
If your site is like most, you’ve waxed poetic about all of the services you offer, how great your employees are, your ‘special’ internal processes and even your mission statement.
OK, I’ll say it, “Nobody cares!” Not that much, anyway.
Sure, your site visitors need to know what you do – at some level – but that’s not really why they came to the site. They are visiting your site looking for the answer to two primary questions:
- “How can this firm help me solve my problems?”
- “Why should I hire this firm?”
The far-too-common issue in our industry (and most others, for that matter) is that we don’t look at our business through the eyes of our target market.
Instead – because it’s easier and more expedient – we tend to look at our businesses through our own eyes. What we think is important… what we’re good at… what we want to sell.
Remember this: Potential buyers don’t care about what you can do… they care about what you can do for them!
So, how do you put an end to this myopic vision and “re-focus” your website? Follow these steps…
Step 1: recognize who you’re writing for and develop a “buyer persona.” It doesn’t have to be a huge project, but be very clear about the following:
- What industry(ies) does your ‘ideal buyer’ work in?
- What kind/size/location of company(ies) does he/she work for?
- What department does he/she work in? What’s his/her title and responsibilities?
- What are his/her biggest problems, issues and challenges?
- What does he/she need to be more successful?
Then use your website to ‘talk’ directly to that person and help them address their problems. For example…
If your ideal buyer is a ‘brand manager,’ don’t just talk about what you do (your methodologies or processes) – instead, talk about the kinds of problems your research can help them solve… problems that a brand manager has – e.g. taking new products to market or testing ad effectiveness. Because that’s what they really care about.
Step 2: Share information that genuinely helps your ideal buyer – eBooks, blog posts, white papers – without trying too hard to sell them. Sharing useful content is a non-threatening way to build awareness, establish relationships and show website visitors that you don’t just talk the talk… but that you also walk the walk.
Step 3: Show your visitors that you’ve got the experience to be their preferred provider – that this “isn’t your first rodeo!” Make sure your website houses “proof sources” like industries served, client lists, testimonials, project survey results, industry accolades and case studies.
Step 4: Make sure you address the difficult issue that all potential buyers want to understand when they come to your website: “How is this firm different than all the others?” And if your answer is something like, “… because we do good work and we have really great people,” then you’ll lose – because that’s how everyone responds.
Bottom line: When you’re writing website copy, write it for your target audience… put yourself in their shoes, write and read your copy through their eyes, feel their pain, help them be successful. Do that and your website really begins to resonate with your target audience… leading to more inquires, more sales leads generated and more business!
Good luck!