Is your website delivering optimal results? Welcome to "3"…three insights in about three minutes. I'm Drew Dinkelacker. I know few marketers that are thrilled with the results they're getting from their website, so for some impactful tips, I've turned to Andy Crestodina. He's the CMO at Orbit Media. Andy has not only logged two decades of web development, he also speaks Mandarin, he's a docent and an arborist. He really brings a unique perspective. Andy, after producing more than a thousand website projects, what do you see as the secret to a website that delivers?
Andy Crestodina: There's one simple trick, and that is to keep in mind that there's a true story in the life of every visitor at every web page. What are they doing here? What do they care about? What does this person need? And, fundamentally, the more you think through it, you end up concluding, they want answers to their questions. They have an information need, that's why they're on the site. If it's a sales page, the person might have objections that you need to address, they've got questions you need to answer. So it's basically just, you know, answering people's information needs in a roughly prioritized order, because that's the whole point of why they came.
Drew: You've been in this business for over 20 years. What kind of mistakes are you seeing on websites today?
Andy: Well you're going to avoid the number one mistake, which is making like a real, like, "We love us" page when you make...when you just talk about yourself, and it's, like, "Me, me, me, you know, who has two thumbs and loves myself." The next question, or the next challenge, is that after you answer people's questions, your job is to really support those answers with evidence. Most web pages are filled with unsupported marketing claims. Pull up any page on your site and count the number of unsupported marketing claims you've made, you probably put a bunch of them in there. So the next biggest mistake is to do not add evidence to support those answers. The simple way, put the testimonial right there after the answer. Put the data and statistics right there after the answer. That way, those claims you make are going to be more effective. Answer, evidence, answer, evidence, that's the structure of a great page.
Drew: So let's say I've made my website all about the prospect, it's addressed the objections, it's human, it's authentic, it's visual. What's next?
Andy: Well, the cherry on top, or rather at the bottom, because it's often at the bottom of the page, although it may be in the header on every page, the call to action. It's like every sales training course that's got this in there, right? Ask for the sale. You have to give people a path. Don't make a dead end, make a call to action. Consider a contrasting color if it's a button, but look at the words inside the call to action, or, is there a verb, or were you specific? Did you make it sound easy? You're not really trying to get the sale. Drew, you just want to get them over that little psychological hurdle, where they're confident enough to fill out the form to start the conversation. That's what the website's really doing. The sales pages are emulating sales conversations. So, we'll add that at the end here: answer, evidence, answer, evidence, call to action. That's the structure of a high-performing page.
Drew: Getting them over that psychological threshold to take action, that's it in just a nugget. That's just brilliant, Andy, just brilliant! "3" is a production of MarketingAccelerator.com, and it's just one of the resources we provide for marketing and business leaders. I'm Drew Dinkelacker.