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Highlight Customer’s Lifestyle on Homepage

So important, and I know I've mentioned this a lot, but you really have to highlight your customers lifestyle, and you have to really think about who they are, and I know for my t shirt business, for example, I got really specific, and my ideal customer was a woman who did yoga and who loved to go to spas and pamper herself, and she was sort of, you know, spiritually inclined, and she just loved things that expressed her style, so my home page reflected all of that. I know it's, super, super specific, but again, the more specific you can get, the more likely you are to really attract those customers who speak that language, and that is exactly what it is that you want, so let's talk about how do you engage people? Because I know we're not in the store where we could walk up to someone and say, hi, how can I help you today? Or are you finding everything you need? So one great way to do that is to use the word you and your throughout your home page, and if you see some of those web site ...

examples that I gave you, they speak directly to your customer, to their customers by using those words and asking questions, and, again, your website is not about you, even though I know it's counterintuitive because you think it's my business it's my website but it really is about your customers and their experience so the more you use the word you and your throughout the more likely they are to connect with you right away and another way to really engage them is to show them who you are obviously because they want to buy from you they're there because they want to know more but even most importantly how do your products fit into their lifestyle and this is really really important to note because if you don't know their lifestyle it's going to be really hard for you to engage with them but if you can speak their language directly and the only way to do that is by really knowing them and knowing who they are what are they dio or do they hang out? What would they read all of those things that reflect their lifestyle the more you know about that the more you can use your website to engage them and show them how your products are going to fit into their lifestyle so let's talk a little bit more about reflecting their lifestyle so what do I mean by that? So the first thing is that you have you want to have a clear brand and message I know my client with the affinity clothing her message is so clear right? There are no doubts about who her products for and her branding her website designed her photos. Everything really reflect that. But if let's say you're not sure, maybe you have a product that is jewelry, or something that could appeal to a wide variety of audiences. If it's still think about who is my my ideal audience and half a sentence or two like the water bottle example that I gave you about how your products can actually benefit them. So if it's not obvious from your pictures or your images, you can just flat out say it. You know this is if you are this type of person, this is what you're going to get out of using our products, and again, there is no such thing as being too obvious. You want to be really obvious here and really tell them exactly how your products could benefit them, and the other thing you want to highlight too is how your products are different on better. I know there's so much competition nowadays, right? There's hundreds of people that are starting businesses everyday, designing products that might be similar to yours. Sometimes you can look at the same exact necklace. I know this is a huge thing with jewelry, but one company will portray their necklace for this type of person. Another company will do it for a different type of person. But it's the same exact product, so you have to get really clear on who it is that your audience is and why your product would benefit them and how your products are different from other competing products. Now, let's talk a little bit more about the home page. I know this first section is all about the home page and is just so important that's why I wanted to have a whole section on just the home page because your home page we talked about photos, but these are so, so important I was doing research for this, looking for really great home pages, and you would be surprised how many home pages with awesome products had no images on the home page or if they had an image, it was just an image of a pillow or a ring on a white background. Now if someone sees that they don't know if it's for them or not, they don't know, you know how that ring is gonna look that they just don't know and you want to take all of that guesswork out of it and make it super easy for them and reflect their lifestyle with your images and your photos. Your home page should also have some links to your best selling products, and again, as I was doing research, I've seen some web pages that had thirty different products again that's what way too much maybe just highlight for two six product the smaller you can keep it the less overwhelming it is going to be for your web site visitors so don't highlight your whole collection just maybe pick four to six of your bestselling items and highlight them on the home page again reflecting your customers lifestyle so they know right away here is another thing that I don't see enough people doing and that's video and I know for some of us video is really scary it's like video no not me I'm not the video person I hate being in front of the camera all of those thoughts go through a lot of our heads right? But I have to tell you and I'll share some statistics with you later about why video so powerful but if you can have a video on your home page that really speaks the reich lee to your audience and your ideal customer that that is instant it's I'll share the statistics with you later but it's crazy the amount of people that convert into customers when they can see you on video and again it doesn't have to be you it can just be let's say your jewelry designer could just be like your hands making your jewelry or something like that if you're not comfortable with having yourself in front of the video but it is so important at getting people to convert into paying customers yes what about having the video under about page you can for to be in the home page or could it be either or I think it should be both if you can, but yes, so I would recommend having it on here about paige having get on your home page or either one, but you should have it somewhere if you can and I know sometimes video is an investment I know elizabeth, you do a lot of video, but I but it just helps so much to connect with your audience and your customers and it's it's huge! Yeah, yeah! Tracy, I have a video on my home page and I saw really expensive custom jewelry and I swear that's like the number one converter for building trust for people who've never met me or just buying randomly. Yes, yeah, and I don't know if I have that because I was debating if I should put it on page or you're about page in here is a great example by I watched your video immediately you're you know exactly what to expect when someone works with you and it really again justifies that high a price point for custom work and it's a really great way to engage on a video speaks so much more than any images or any text could ever speak, so if you haven't thought about video yet please think about it I know a lot of crafters are not even there yet so you would have a huge competitive advantage if you do decide to incorporate video I loved how everyone's hands were started to raise this because you started talking about video and passion about video a couple questions would you also do potential testimonials of clients and video and what's your go to length of a video that you don't like to go pass? What how long are people going to watch? Yeah great question so usually people only watch about thirty seconds to a minute that doesn't mean your video should be thirty seconds to a minute I usually recommend having get somewhere between one two two three minutes for those people that want to watch longer and in terms of having customer testimonials absolutely however I know sometimes let's say if you're selling of really high and product you want the testimonials you also look high end and will produce so if you are going to have customer testimonials make sure that they are off a better quality that normally might have with just your you know your camera on your computer or something like that so yeah, but that's another great way to build credibility all right? So I'm going to show you a couple more examples of really great home pages but I cannot drive this point home enough times because although it's your home page and it's your website and it's your products and it's your about paige it really all of it should be about your customers what did they want and how do your products and what do you have for them fit into their lifestyle? So it really is if you could just keep them in mind and again that's why I think it's so important to really have a great picture of that ideal customer who she is or who he is even though other people are going to buy from you it's just everything is so much clearer when you're doing your marketing when you're designing your website when you're posting on social media we're going to talk about facebook tomorrow but it's it's huge just keeping your customer in mind and doing everything on your web site to actually address them and serve them so now let's talk a little bit or I want to give you a couple more examples of really great home pages I think and I found so many as I was researching for this that I couldn't possibly put them all in here but this is a great website this is, I think a uk based based website and again if you look here this is so captivating it's welcoming them it saying hello it's like just as let's say if you were to walk into a store you know exactly what they d'oh about what I love even more about this is that they are guiding their audience exactly to what it is they want them to do next so they want you to see if they deliver to your neck of the woods you can put in your zip code and see what your delivery they is again how much more obvious can you make it to your customer about what it is that you want them to do? And the great thing about this strategy is that if someone invest the time to put in their zip code it means they're already interested so you can you've already engaged to them they're more likely to keep going and keep continuing their journey throughout your website and again the longer they spend on your web site the more they engage the more likely they are to buy yes elizabeth, I'm I'm noticing that a lot of the websites that you focused on they seem to be just the one page instead of scrolling down all you recommend not having something where you have to scroll down its gold down it's called yeah great questions so this is just all that I could fit into my power point presentation but the next light is the next part so once I scroll down this is what else comes up next so so yes you could totally absolutely have stuff that scrolls down but just for my demo purposes there was only so much I could fit into the screen but yeah, this is when you scroll down this is what you come up to next and again it is making them offers right it's you khun get fruit and veggie boxes you could get me boxes juicing salad recipes all of that now for some of you might think, well, this is too much stuff but again, because they have all of these different options, right? They have fruits and veggies and meet on all of these they kind of want to speak directly to that customer, and for them it could be three different types of customers, so yours doesn't have to be asked complicated it could really just be one of these maybe the recipe boxes or something that you you have on sale. But again, you are guiding your audience through what it is that you want them to do next. And lastly, this is the bottom of that page after have scrolled again and it really again the lifestyle right? They have this image of you know we're fresh, we work with farmers, we give you the best produce and why not highlight more even more of their lifestyle? So they walk it through working with farmers and reading their story, and again, if you invest the time into reading what makes them different, you've already seen sort of said yes to them even though we have necessarily president by now button or signed up you've kind of in your mind you've said yes, I want more I'm interested in this so this is just a really, really great web site and then obviously they have on opt in box right there and you know, if you sign up and we're going to talk about different incentives that you could get by, you know that if you sign up you get veggie recipes and use from them so it could have been a coupon offer it could have been a discount, but again it doesn't have to be it could just be something that's really relevant and useful to their own visitors yesterday. Can you cite any examples of videos that air used like this for a values based company? So if you have an idea and it's let's say it's about ico friendly or sustainability and that's a big part of your business, can you see that being effective in a video? Absolutely and I think that's where video is even more effective and I'm going to have an example later about a company called this bar saves lives and I think it's on the about page because they have a video on there about page with their whole journey and why's it or why they do what they do where you buy a bar it's like a little granola bar, and they donate one. Or they donate food to kids in need. So they're totally values based, mission driven. They have their whole story. How, you know, they go to all of these different places and what inspires them. And I think that's absolutely a great way to use video, especially if you have that. Because, again, you can bring your audience and with you, it's, sort of like they're there with you, giving out the bars or, you know, searching for the next grade ingredients. So, yeah, definitely.