Origins #95 — Time to increase website conversion

Starting off with the homepage.

In this series we are documenting the journey of building DULO, starting from Day 1. Every week we publish a new chapter that takes you behind the scenes of our process. With every article we want to provide value to you, the reader. We share the success and failures, the opportunities and the challenges that we face while executing our vision.

If you are new, check out our previous post.

Something that hasn’t been working for us is converting people ON THE website.

Most of our conversions are either through word of mouth, content or what we call “hand to hand combat”, which includes showing people the product personally or talking about it ourselves and thus exposing it through us.

Organic traffic followed by a conversion on the website, without a strong referral, hasn’t been a strong suit of ours and we think the reason is that we still haven’t nailed down a proper messaging strategy that clearly communicates the product benefits to the right people and does that through a fast, easy to consume and frictionless presentation, starting from the homepage.

So, as a first step, we are revamping the homepage to clarify the copy for it + do a redesign of the sections that we want/need to include on the homepage to hopefully increase our conversion rate.

We are basing this on the StoryBrand framework, and in this post I want to share some resources that have helped us understand better what we need to do and most importantly I will include my raw notes (as I’ve taken them during listening and watching) on that content, so you don’t have to consume/listen/watch the resources yourself (the links will be there if you want to).

The resources are 1 podcast episode and 2 videos, 1 hour in total to consume.

Building a StoryBrand podcast #65:

[NOTES]

1. The only messages that will penetrate are messages that have to do with our survival and they are so clear and simple that I don’t have to burn calories to understand them.
2. Is your message confusing -> YES, aspirational BS etc.
3. Communicate simply
4. “If you tell your story, you will lose money.”
5. You have to define something that the hero wants (quickly and simply)
6. You don’t want to burn calories
7. There has to be a problem -> define and tell how you solve it
8. People buy solutions to internal problems
9. Customers aren’t looking for another hero, they are looking for a GUIDE. You are NOT the hero, the customer is.
10. Be Q from the James Bond movies. All about THEM. (Gandalf, Yoda, etc. = guides)
11. Create a plan for the customer (3–4 steps). “Alright, here is the plan”
12. Call to action at this point. “People who ask receive”
13. Buy Now button in the navigation. Challenge customers to take action.
14. Give customers something to accept or reject.
15. Communicate the negative consequences to customers if they DON’T buy our product. (people avoid something bad happening)
16. Show people how your product can positively affect their lives. (goes along well with the previous point)
17. Show smiling happy people using your product.

Two videos that are particularly helpful to summarize the framework:

First video

[NOTES]

1. What do we offer? How will it make my life better? What do I need to do to buy it? (in the banner) [POSITIVE]
2. Clarity sells products
3. A strong call to action (“Buy Now”, instead of “Learn More”). Add it to top right as well and then repeat it in the middle of the header.
4. (below the header) -> element of failure -> “What’s it going to cost me NOT to buy your product?” (hassle/time, smelly, sweaty, uncomfortable) [NEGATIVE]
5. [SUCCESS] -> What will happen when they DO buy our product? Value and benefits.
6. A plan. 3 steps in order to engage your product. (e.g. 1. Get in touch for sizes/send us your height/weight. Can be an input form directly to provide that data 2. Buy product 3. Get your product/enjoy)

Second video

[NOTES]

1. BE THE LEADER OF THE PACK/Get on a revolutionary new bike [VISION OF THE FUTURE]
2. Repeat the CTA top right and the banner (no clutter in the top nav)
3. Negative aspect -> “Life is too short to sit in traffic”. Traffic is no fun. Don’t be held back. You were designed for more. and again the CTA <- It ain’t like that now (it’s bad right now) [FAILURE/COST section]
4. Position yourself as the guide -> express empathy (we have the same problem) -> show authority, illustrate competency to solve the problem. “We don’t just care about bikes. We care about you.”
5. More than X number of hours/minutes saved (all clients x times spend ironing). Shipped to X number of countries. $ of dry cleaning saved.
6. Get the products in -> collection row
7. Ask for the sale -> How it works -> The plan section (point 6 from #2) <- It’s not difficult to work with us
   *VIDEO EXAMPLE: 1. Get Fitted 2. Choose a bike 3. Lead the pack (could be similar to DULO)
8. Lead generator. Something in exchange for the email address. (bootstrapping guide?)
   * VIDEO EXAMPLE: “10 ways an e-bike will make and save you money.”, “Download our FREE PDF and start down the road to saving money”
9. Junk Drawer (everything you thought was important) -> Contact us etc. Things that don’t need to compete with the Buy Now button.

Will keep you posted when the new homepage is live ;)

Originally published at weardulo.com.