9. Are you listening?
Your web pages must be clear and easily understood. Your user should be in no doubt about what you have to sell or say.
It must be obvious to your visitor, as soon as they land on your web site homepage, exactly what is going on. It’s no good saying ‘Can you guess what it is yet…?’
Does The Site Do What It Says On The Tin?
There are no warm-up laps with web site hits and there are few, if any, second chances. Your web site and the homepage in particular must project your core message. It has been known for the developers and those actually paying for a web site almost to come to blows over ‘the look and feel’ issue. Pretty, but impractical – or ugly and pragmatic? It’s a difficult balance to get right.
Trick Baby
There are two opposing schools of thought with regard to welcome messages on homepages. The decision is yours, but I think it’s nice to acknowledge that somebody has made the effort to visit your web site out of the millions on offer. The rule of thumb is to keep your welcome brief, brief but welcoming. It is courteous to say hello, but this is valuable real estate you’re using up. Introduce the user to your company or offering, but don’t make them read an essay – there are other, more suitable parts of the site for that. What you need is a tagline.
Tag, You’re It
The user should instantly know what you’re all about from the layout of the pages and the categories on offer in the form of the nav bar or buttons. Your brand or logo will be doing a great job in the top left corner, inspiring users to buy or read on. Telling them that you are the world’s largest… whatever store or site is not going to inspire them much more – in fact, if it’s their first visit and they’ve never heard of you before, it’s only going to ask more questions of your integrity, history and value. Put simply, let the site design and the message/products do the talking and let others sing the praises of your company either in other media or as part of the testimonial section of your web site.
But you need a simple sentence, or set of words, that defines your company or your ideology. There are some very effective taglines out there, but there are also some dreadful attempts to be clever, witty or humorous that have failed miserably. A bad tagline will do you more damage than none at all.
Baskets, Baskets Everywhere, And Nothing For Me To Buy
If your web site is an e-commerce store, you haven’t got time to mess around on the homepage. Forget about intros and a long soliloquy about why visitors should shop with you. Hit them with products immediately. Whether you decide to introduce the range of products or you just showcase your bestsellers is a separate business decision. Ensure that customers can choose a product from the homepage and start shopping. It is unlikely that visitors will all want to buy that exact product, but that’s not why you’re showcasing – you’re making a statement that this site is an e-commerce store. We Sell Things And We’re Not Afraid To Say It. If you’ve caught someone who’s just looking for information, they’ll move on, but the ones looking to spend money will be hooked. Now your nav bar comes into play, and the user will be able to browse around your site, knowing that they can buy anything on offer.
How did it go?
Q. Marketing are over the moon with our existing tagline and they can’t see any reason to change it. How can I convince them otherwise?
A. They might think that it’s great, but do your users? If you have a way for visitors to leave feedback, or you mail your users, ask them to comment. It might turn out that your tagline is so witty and clever that only you understand it.
Q. We’ve been trying to come up with a tagline for months. It’s no good. Our offering can’t be summed up in a single sentence. Surely this exercise does not apply to companies like ours?
A. Ask your users to come up with ideas. If you’re already enjoying visitors to your site and you have a vehicle for them to contact you, whether this is an online community, mail outs or even a simple feedback email address, run a competition. Web users are incredible at giving their opinion on anything, whether you ask them or not – harness this potential creative power and reward the winner with a few freebies (Ferrari, are you listening?). Make sure they sign away the copyright, though!
Here is an idea for you…
If you’re currently operating without a tagline, it’s time to hit the thesaurus (and the flipchart and sticky notes, but leave the cat) and come up with the groundbreaking sentence that sums up your offering, ideology, mission, promise and style. If you’re lucky you might have it cracked in a fortnight.
If you’re already one step ahead and are using a tagline, is it still relevant today? Has your brand altered or your mission changed over the last few years? Reassess and imagine you have to create a brand new tagline. What would it be?
Defining idea…
‘A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.’
Wilson Mizner
Defining idea…
‘If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.’
Isaac Newton