If you think about it, your audience can enter your website and land on any page of your website. Your home page is therefore simply a landing page for those people who happen to find it. You should treat it just like any other landing page. You don’t want to leave people in the dark trying to figure out what to do. You wouldn’t do that if you created a landing page for a specific product, service, or lead magnet, right? So, don’t that on your home page. Treat it like any other landing page.
What Is Your Main Offer?
One thing you need to know when creating your home page is what your main offer is. What is the goal of your existence? Why do you do business? When someone comes to your home page, they need to see within seconds what it is that you do and for whom, and there should be a clear call to action.
Answer these questions on your home page:
- What company is this?
- What problems do they solve for me?
- What stands out about this company?
- What can I do on this page?
Answering these questions can go a long way to helping you make an effective, converting homepage that generates more leads. If people come to the site and have no idea what value you provide, they are just going to leave.
Focus Design and Copy on Your Ideal Customer
Developing a customer persona can help you create a home page that is designed just for them. That includes the design and the copy. You can’t make a home page (or a website for that matter) that speaks directly to your audience if you focus on what makes you happy over what makes them happy.
Creating a customer persona can go a long way in helping you. Even if technically you’re part of your own audience, due to your position you can’t use your own judgment without knowing the thoughts of the entire audience.
To create the persona, think about these questions:
- What is their main problem or pain point?
- What is their demographic?
- Who is your ideal customer?
Once you answer these questions, you’ll be able to design the site right for them rather than for you. It’s your website but it’s made for them. If you don’t make it for them, you won’t have much luck moving them to your email list.
Create Audience-Friendly Navigation
What you include in your home page’s navigation is important. It should only be your most essential information that you want them to see and act upon. To maximize your lead capturing, you’ll need to keep your navigation choices low.
- Limit top level options
- Avoid dropdowns as much as possible
- If you do use dropdowns use visual cues
- Keep header height small
- Ensure your page is responsive
The best home pages only have options such as Contact, About, and the blog. If you have a store, you might also include a Shop page on the main navigation links.
Include a Call to Action
Your CTA is what makes the most of your home page. A lot of people don’t include a CTA on the home page and leave their visitors confused about what to do. You should not just have one CTA on your home page, but you should have several. You want multiple points of entry to collect the maximum amount of leads.
Awareness
This type of CTA can be an in-content link or a freebie download above the fold, in a form that offers gated content which enables your visitors to learn more about a topic. It can link to a landing page, or it can be an immediate download with an email address when it’s inside other content.
Consideration
You can set up a quiz and then offer your visitors content that helps solve a problem based on the quiz. Another way to help them make choices is to put your testimonials right on the home page and link to case studies as your lead generator.
Decision
If you have a free trial of a product or service, your home page is a great place to offer this. Make sure to tell them exactly what to do. You don’t want them wondering how you can help them. You want to be very clear throughout the home page.
Finally, ensure that your website offers responsive design. Today there is really no reason your website should not be responsive. If it’s not, you won’t get as many customers because most people will just leave if they can’t identify what you can do for them within seconds.
