How to View Your Website Like Your Prospect Does

Remember when you were little and you would draw a picture for your Mom to hang up on the refrigerator?

Usually it turned out to be nothing more than a couple of scribbles, but your Mom would pretend she knew exactly what it was and tell you she loved it.

Unfortunately, your website visitors are nothing like your Mom.

If your website design and content equates to nothing but a bunch of scribbles, they're going to move on to the next search result without hesitation. 

The solution?

Start thinking like your prospects. After all, your website isn't for you, it's for them. 

If they wouldn't settle for scribbles, then stop scribbling.

If you're struggling to see your website through prospect-colored lenses, try asking yourself the following four questions. 

1. How are you helping?

Just because you know the unique value of your company, doesn't guarantee that your prospects are just as well-versed. 

If they're having trouble figuring out exactly what it is that you do upon landing on your site, you're putting your company at risk of losing opportunities.

To protect your website from the back button, you have to lead with a clear, defined value proposition. A promise of value and a concise account of why someone should do business with you.

Aside from being highly visible on your main page, your value proposition should aim to resolve the following inquires:

• What your product or service is

• How your product or service functions as a solution to your prospect's pain points

• Why someone should choose your company over one of your competitors

• What unique benefits your have to offer

If you successfully hook them with your value proposition, it's likely that they're next step will be to start searching for a bit more detail. 

2. Who are you?

Before visitors even think about doing business with you, they want to know who you are. 

While many businesses think their basic contact information is enough 411 to persuade people to hand over their wallets, it's not. Visitors want your story, not just a link to your company Facebook page.

So what does your website have in place to provide them with this type of background? How does it tell your story?

Rooted in human connections, storytelling seeks to engage people. It captures their attention and holds it (which is quite a feat in this day and age.) Whether your company is 2 people or 2,000 people, storytelling provides you with a platform to project a unique account of why your company came to be.

Unfortunately, your story alone is often times not enough to win the trust of a skeptical prospect. In fact, in most cases, your story will amount to nothing if it's not adequately supported by the collective user experience. 

Prospects are looking for authenticity and consistency.

Something as simple as the inclusion of a cliché stock photo has the ability to convey the type of disingenuous message that instantly deteriorates a company's credibility. Point being, all of your visual content should work to bring your story to life, not water it down. 

The same can be said for your site speed. How can you expect a prospect to believe that your company is extraordinary and innovative when your site pages load at a snail's pace? 

A compelling story means nothing if you don't put forth the user experience to support that notion. 

3. What do I do?

One of the most damaging oversights a company can make to their website is a lack of direction or intent.

This means that all of your website's messaging should work to carry prospects to the action in which you want them to take. 

Every piece of content you put forth must be purposeful. The inclusion of fluff and verbose industry jargon will ultimately distract the visitor and lead them to lose sight of the end goal you were working them to.

Without clearly presented calls-to-action, prospects will click around looking for a next step only to turn up nothing, and as a result, leave the site. 

"Subscribe", "Download the Ebook", and "Get Started" all serve as signals for perusing prospects who simply need guidance in order to carry out the necessary next steps. 

Already have calls-to-action on your page?

What about smart CTAs?

In an effort to present your website visitors with the right content at the right time, smart CTAs pull information from your contact database to determine what content a visitor, lead, or customer will see.

This HubSpot COS feature helps company ensure that they are putting forth the content necessary for visitors to covert into leads, and so on. 

4. Why you?

Think back to the last purchase you made. 

Where did your research begin?

Whether it was a car, or a new shampoo, we've become conditioned as consumers to seek out the facts before we follow through with a decision.

Point being, prospects want to see case studies. Lots of them.

The goal is to make it easy for visitors to envision themselves using your product or service through the employment of true accounts supplied by satisfied customers.

Your case studies should be easy to find, easy to read, and easy to extract value from. If a prospect can see how your product or service served as a solution to a problem that they face for someone else, they'll be more inclined to believe that you can do the same for them.

Aside from case studies, testimonials can serve as additional evidence to reinforce any particular point you are attempting to make. 

For example, testimonials are super effective when incorporated into landing pages. With a form right there waiting to be filled out, a strong testimonial will often serve as the social proof that a hesitant prospect needs to take the plunge. 

Want to share this with your friends? Try one of these: 

How to View Your Website Like Your Prospect Does https://bit.ly/1oRgk0J via @Carly_Stec & @impactbnd  (Tweet this)

Ever wonder how your prospects view your website? Here's the insight you need: https://bit.ly/1oRgk0J via @Carly_Stec & @impactbnd (Tweet this)

Uncovered: 4 questions your prospects ask when visiting your website - https://bit.ly/1oRgk0J via @Carly_Stec & @impactbnd (Tweet this)