It’s like how your typical Hollywood action flick ends: the hero faces off with the villain, and in their last fight, the hero is guaranteed to succeed. He doesn’t know it, though.
That’s why we suffer, too. In the fiction, the character isn’t convinced of his victory, and he’s dealt a few blows to reaffirm this hypothesis. The die is cast, and all of his efforts have been in vain.
That is, until something changes on the inside. He is overcome with confidence and something incredible happens, almost out of thin air. We look at his face and we know that this is the end (for the villain, at least). We breathe easy.
There’s more. There’s the moral of the story. He always had that special ability deep within him, he just didn’t know it. It needed to get out and be heard, but it was part of his being all along.
Better still: apparently that particular strength can be found inside each of us in the audience, regular, everyday men and women.
Great ending. Isn’t life wonderful?
Fade to black. Run credits.
In the end, the same is true of your website.
Whaaaattt?
No, wait, let me clarify. Your website isn’t an action hero seeking revenge. That would be ridiculous.
But it is true that your website has a superpower, a power that hasn’t come out and expressed itself yet, a power that can transform your business.
Ah-hah! Surprised?
Unleash the power of your website
Did you know that over 80% of consumers are online, looking for products and services, comparing prices and reading reviews of the things they want to buy?
You can ignore this idea, or you could turn your website into a powerful sales tool.
Why? Well, what’s the point in having a website that’s full of tedious institutional information if it could act as your personal assistant, capturing potential clients?
Because that’s where your clients are—they’re online, walking around a virtual shopping mall. What are you going to do to get their attention?
I’m not going to get into technical details. I just want to make this new focus clear.
Start analyzing your site
Do you have a well-defined goal?
Are you offering something specific (a product or a service)?
Are you getting users to take a certain action—filling out a form, asking for a free trial, downloading a document?
Does your site feature marketing copy?
Consider these examples—which one meets the criteria of the items listed above?
Example 1
Example 2
We’re not interested in knowing which is better. To the contrary, the idea is to analyze objectives: that is, what each model is proposing.
-The first presents a standard message. It offers a warm welcome and highlights the company’s value (20 years of experience). It does not invite users to continue exploring the site, nor does it question the user.
Is this a bad thing? Definitely not. But if the goal is to use the website as a sales tool, then we need to look at another case.
-The second example names a specific benefit (using a tool means saving money). Plus, they offer a 100% free trial and urge their user to download it (why waste time?).
Start remodeling
Don’t take your current website and flush it down the toilet. Start with little steps, as if you were moving. Take your time.
Choose a goal (for example, promoting a new service) and work on the homepage text, the first thing that your users are going to see.
Shake the tree and let everything that isn’t firmly attached (the typical corporate jargon) fall.
Write out some advantages and offer your users something concrete. Invite them to download a file, to continue browsing your site, or to contact your business.
Of course, if you’re interested in starting from scratch, it is absolutely your right to say good riddance to your current page and turn a new leaf. It’s your decision.
After making your choices, set your websites sales ability free and start harvesting the fruits.
That power was always there, waiting to be awakened.
Why not start today?