Photo by Nicholas Green on Unsplash
Paint the Problem
Are you asking why site visitors don’t respond to your web page? You may be missing an important step in engaging customers.
Business content on the web has one end-goal for a business, sales. To lead your site-visiting prospects to that ultimate sale, they need to see that your business provides a solution they need. The process is the same whether you are selling glamour clothing, IT services, home services, or software as a service.
Do people go to your content and then leave? They don’t scroll down the page? You have page visitors but they don’t engage or share?
Before you promote your product or service help your customer identify their problem. They got to your web page, now let them know they are in the right place.
Identify their problem
Describe the frustration
Illustrate the solution
You Can Be Technically Correct and Still Miss The Mark
Google provides basic search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines with steps to optimize your website. These guidelines help your website be found as a result when someone searches for an answer. Being found on the internet this way is called organic search results.
An alternate way to get people to your web page is through advertising. However someone arrives at your page, it’s crucial to speak to that one individual.
Once someone searching for an answer arrives at your web page, you need to speak to them directly. Think of yourself as entering a conversation. Someone just asked you a question and you have the answer.
First, let them know you understand their situation.
Customer Centric Mindset
The more you think about your customers and why they land on your page, the easier it is to address customer concerns on your page.
The simple approach is to start with the customer concern and they move on to your solution as the way to eliminate the concern.
Jim Sterne, Board Chair Digital Analytics Association, calls it the see-think-do path of the customer.
He sees what you do
She thinks about your information
He takes action on the solution
Reverse your mindset from selling to helping your customer.
Be useful in the moment
Think of the moment your potential customer first arrives on your web page. Start with their problem. You’ll help them understand they have come to the right place and you understand their concern.
This article was prompted by two clients contacting me on the same day to say a new customer had read an article I had written and said “That’s me.” To find out more about how semantic writing can help your business, call me at 503 468 7008.
Zara Altair
