Build Relationships With Prospects, One Web Page at a Time

Using your website to market services, rather than tangible products, isn’t easy. Prospects can’t see, touch or try them before they buy. It can be confusing figuring out the right supplier, because services are often difficult to evaluate or compare. The buyer has to make their decision according to intangible attributes, rather than physical characteristics, such as competence, credibility, approach, personality and chemistry.

All this evaluation homework can require a significant investment on the part of the buyer – in time and money. This means services are typically considered high involvement products (a low involvement product might be something like a tube of toothpaste, which doesn’t require much of an investment on the part of a buyer. They’re low-risk in that there are few if any consequences, even if the buyer makes the wrong choice).

Getting someone to purchase a high involvement product means building a relationship with the prospect first, because they have to get to know you to trust you. Your website can help facilitate this process by providing a place where the prospect can learn more about you without needing to make any kind of commitment. However, that won’t be possible if the visitor leaves immediately or only stays for a short time.

Second Impressions are Everything

Once a prospect has become aware of you, say through a search on Google, an ad, a press release, networking event or other marketing activity, their next stop is more than likely your website. That makes it an essential tool for making that all-important second impression.

Once they’re at your site, you want to do everything you can to keep them there and to get them to take some kind of action, like getting them to go deeper into your site. What you’re trying to do is create opportunities to engage the visitor, moving them through a series of stages from passive viewer (reading, surfing) to active participant (signing up, commenting, calling, etc).

Get the Visitor to Stick Around

Getting a visitor to stay on your site longer helps you begin the process of creating that virtual relationship with the visitor. Relationships are built over time through a series of actions on your part and theirs. It should be a fair exchange.

You’ll need to consider what a visitor is thinking when they hit your home page and respond to those concerns: Is this the right site for me? Will it lead me to solving my problem? Can I get my questions answered? Is the site credible? Can I trust what I find there?

It’s been shown that most site visitors leave after only viewing three pages, and in many cases, only one. To prevent that from happening, make sure your home page does the following for the visitor:

• Make it very clear what you do – if they’re not getting it from your logo, header and in the first paragraph, they’re gone.






• Use imagery to reinforce the message. Keep the important stuff above the fold (in other words, they shouldn’t have to scroll down to find it. They won’t). To borrow a term from the movie industry, use an “establishing shot” or an image to set the tone for the entire website.






• Be professional in design and text. Packaging goes a long way to demonstrate competence and credibility. Match the style to your audience.






• Visitors should be able to identify with the site. In other words, does this business understand my needs? Can they solve my problem?






• Emphasize your strengths and what makes you different, considering the visitor probably just came from a competitor’s site.






• Provide some level of pizzazz with imagery, fonts, copywriting and possibly color to make it memorable and to stand out. Take a creative risk, but be sure it supports your message.

By setting up your home page correctly, the visit will last longer, you'll get time to demonstrate your expertise, and you'll begin to develop that all-important relationship with your potential customer.

Here are a Few More Tips for Your Home Page:

• Make it clear where to start in the journey of discovery about you (this has a lot to do with page layout and content -- prioritize the order in which you want to deliver information).






• Let visitors do and find what they want in as few clicks as possible. In order to do this, you’ll need a good understanding of your customer’s buyer behavior.






• Give visitors freedom from choice: don’t give visitors too many choices of what to do next. This is too much work and will lead to indecision. Visitors may be gone before they make that level of time commitment.






• Set expectations: be sure to tell people what they can expect next if they press that button or hit that link. If it’s to view a demo, let them know the format. If it’s video, let them know the download time. If they know what to expect, they won’t be annoyed by a long wait, and they’ll probably stay for the show.

In the follow up to this article, the author talks about motivating your site visitors to take action -- because the more involved they get, the better it is for building relationships and growing your business.