Your home page is the most important part of your website.

Period.

People give your website maybe thirty seconds before they decide if it’s a fit or not.

Recently, I was compiling a list of super amazing blogs. And I must have looked at about a hundred. And some of them, I didn’t include because I couldn’t figure out what on Earth the blog was about. I went to it. Browsed. Scratched my head. Browsed some more. And left. Done.

The confused mind says, ‘no’.

If your home page confuses people it will kill the effectiveness of your website. Your home page is the ad for your website. It’s the invitation to your party. It’s the well kept path to your house. It either brings people closer – or repels them away.

So your home page needs to be crystal clear about three things:

1. Who it’s for.
2. What the problem is that you solve.
3. What the result is that you’re offering.

But clarity isn’t the only thing to think about. There’s also the tone of it. And it’s easy to get it laser focused and . . . too hyped up.

Here’s a mantra to think about: cool idea, warm tone, hot offer. The core idea of what your work is about should be cool. People should hear it and say, ‘What a great idea!‘. The tone should feel warm, human, welcoming and safe. And the offers you make should be hot. People should say, ‘Damn! That is a hot offer! How could anyone say no to that?‘

So, you want your homepage to be clear but also compelling and warm.

I’d like to show you one of my favourite examples of this.

Carrie Klassen is not only a colleague of mine but someone I really deeply adore.

Her marketing work is amazing, quirky, beautiful. I’d say it’s authentic – but that is starting to feel like such a buzzword.

I wrote these words for her website a while back:

“I have a confession. I’m a marketer (for hippies) and sometimes I sort of slam designers in my workshops. They’re lovely people, but many of them don’t really get marketing. And here I am endorsing a designer and writer. Why? Carrie is brilliant. She draws you in with warmth, honesty and quirk. She tells good stories. Her marketing isn’t pushy – it’s welcoming. I recommend her constantly to my clients when they wonder where to go for great design and writing. Carrie is to marketing what warm sweaters, mulled cider and toboggans are to winter days.”

I invite you to check out the little four minute or so video I did guiding your through Carrie’s website below. And I encourage you to drop her a line and say, ‘hello’ to her if you’re struggling with your home page. She’s brilliant and kind.

 

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