Part 1 of 6

Nowadays, small business websites are easy; with tools out there, you can easily get a full and custom website fast from a few free platforms. Even more advanced websites are getting easier and easier to create for beginners. However, building a website to show customers and building a website to get customers are two very different things.

1. Clear Messaging, Not Clever Taglines:

Most businesses' websites will begin with something clever: “We bring comfort to your home,” “We help you grow,” or “unlock your potential.”

These taglines used to be great in the old marketing, working similarly as the ‘Hook,’ however, just as we mentioned it is getting easier and easier to build a website and the web is getting flooded with more and more content; it becomes harder and harder to get the consumer to look past that first intro. And why would they? If they click on a website and the first 3 words don’t tell them if it's what they want, they can just click backward and jump to the next listing. From my examples above, you would have no idea what those companies do, and so they would all receive back clicks.

Old: “We bring comfort to your home.”

New: “24/7 HVAC Repair & Installation in Winchester, VA—Same day service!”

Old: “We help you grow”

New: “Small Business strategy coaching to help you hit your first million!”

Old: “Unlock your potential.”

New: “Online ACT Prep Course that raises scores—100% guarantee!”

When people tell you “Marketing is changing,” they are right, but only because the consumer is changing. While Paid ad platforms and Google might tweak the algorithm now and then, it is all based on the consumer changing how they search and click. So, while in the past, readers may have read the full home page on your small business website to see if a service worked for them, nowadays, you are lucky if they get passed your tagline.

Why does this matter?

You may be thinking, ‘Oh well, those are not the customers I want anyway.’

Wrong.

Not only will you not get the customers who back click after the first couple of words, but your website will also be rated for a higher bounce rate. The bounce rate is a score search engines use to see if it's right for the consumers. Basically, if you have 9 out of 10 people leaving your website immediately, then search engines are going to stop showing your page to people because they think no one finds it useful. So, this is not just to keep readers on your page, this is to make sure you show up when your ideal audience searches for your service as well.

This is part 1 of 6 of ‘What Every Small Business Website Needs.” We will slowly be exploring New Marketing based on the NEW consumer. If you want to keep up to date on the next blogs, follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter below!

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