Ah, the mysterious home page. It’s like a digital manifestation of the dreaded first interview.

Nerves are high. First impressions are vital. And you’re being asked to show up as your best self … or else.

Gulp.

Or else what? Well, lacklustre conversions for one.

A short detour for education purposes …

By ‘conversions’, I mean rather than having a visitor that clicks through to your other pages and explores your offerings, they head straight for the ‘back to Google’ button or the ‘get me outta here’ button.

That’s a conversion fail.

A conversion is simply a successful action that someone has taken.

I wouldn’t recommend expecting your home page to convert strangers into buyers.

That’s a tall order considering they’ve just met you. And if you’re a service-based biz asking for the sale on your home page … unless you’re a sweet-talking conversion mastermind, you run the risk of coming across like that needy guy that drops down on one knee after the first date.

Instead, think of your home page as a lead generator. Its job is to turn stone-cold strangers into interested leads willing to explore what you’re offering.

Tangent over … returning to regular programming.

Okay, so your interviewers – whoops, I mean, visitors – have questions. Important, make-or-break questions that will determine your collective future.

What are they? And how you can you successfully answer them?

First and foremost, they want to know … are they in the right place? Or have they taken a wrong turn and landed somewhere they shouldn’t have?

It happens sometimes. We’ve all done it.

So your primary job is to reassure your target audience that, yep, they’re definitely in the right place. Heck, they’re in the PERFECT place!

You can do this by answering the four micro questions layered underneath the ‘Am I in the right place question’.

They are:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• How can you help?
• Why you?

A good website answers these questions with a solid and persuasive value proposition.

With a focus on short, sweet and strategic, a value proposition hones in on the emotional needs of your audience to serve up copy that appeals and connects with them.

For example, my value proposition at the moment is:

I write words that woo and copy that converts. 

In addition to being a pro-level hot chocolate drinker, I specialise in extracting your one-of-a-kind brilliance and weaving it into sweetly strategic wordy arrows laced with persuasive power and shot ever so lovingly straight into your target market’s heart.

Balancing consumer psychology and neuromarketing strategy with creative copywriting and storytelling techniques, I help businesses tell their story and explain their offerings with irresistible originality.

These are the first words that somebody that visits my site sees. They, very deliberately, tell my visitors who I am, what I do, how I can help and why me.

Your value proposition can be longer or shorter than this (I’d probably recommend shorter, to be honest), but so long as it answers those four questions, you’re getting two thumbs-up from me.

And, likely, two thumbs-up from your target market.

Phwoar, you’re gooooood.

Got more questions?

Like …

• What other copy should you include on your home page?
• How long should your home page copy be?
• How can you write a compelling call-to-action?
• How can you optimise your home page conversions?

Good news: This week I’m diving into #allthethings home pagey and serving up daily tips on my Instagram!

If you haven’t joined me there yet, I’d love for you to pop on over. I’ll bring the virtual Cheetos, ‘kay?