Listen here

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Podcast Show Notes

In this article, I share with you the TWO main areas of a home page (landing page) that are vital to your clients’ staying on your page for more than 12 seconds. Stop losing clients and use these strategies to communicate effectively and reinforce your brand. Let’s work on your small business website design!

Is Your Website Costing You, Clients?

Yay, you finally get someone to your fancy website. With all the bells and whistles. Cute buttons, maybe some professional headshots, and even a scrolling Instagram feed as your footer.

But my number one question is… How are you greeting people when they land on your site?

  • Where are you directing them to go?
  • Want action do you want them to take?
  • What do you have them looking at and why?
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Warm and Friendly Introduction

If they are your ideal client you should know exactly why they landed on your site and this introduction should be just as warm and friendly as if you were walking into a specialty store greeted by a clerk.

These are all things that many business owners majorly overlook. I did too in the beginning… I thought I could display products and fun photos and people would flip through my pages and shop my site.

But friends that’s not how online sites work.

You have under 6 seconds to gain their attention

Users spend an average of 5.94 seconds looking at a website’s main image area on the homepage.

So let me ask again… What main image area is your user looking at when they land on your site?

You’ve always heard first impressions matter and this is most definitely the case as your first website impression should be a combination of extreme clarity with a quality design.

What this means is since a web visitor may spend up to six seconds looking at your main image it’s important to make sure that this image area communicates effectively and reinforces your brand.

How to approach your small business website design

I like to think of the home page as you opening your door to your business and your ideal client walks in. You should know exactly why they are there. What their problem is and what solution they are looking for.

If you’ve done a great job using social media, your email content, and correct SEO to drive your niche audience to your site then your ideal client should be the one walking through the door.

Which is exactly what we want.

Main Image Area

Of course, we want to let them know they are welcome to your site – but they should know from your main image area whether you can help solve their problem or not.

And yes, everyone is walking through your door – aka landing on your site, because they have a problem.

So in order to do this correctly, your home page should have a logical area where you want your user’s eyes to land. This main image area will most often be a line of text or media that introduces your brand to the site user.

here’s mine…

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Niche Statement

So if you do a great job of doing this quickly your user will then spend an average of 5.59 seconds looking at your website’s written content. 

And this is where we slide in your niche statement.

Not only do these few lines attract customers but they define your brand to the world and every user landing on your site.

Writing a good niche statement doesn’t have to be hard.

But it does take precise effort to be able to highlight what is special about you and your brand. In just a few sentences it sets up your unique selling proposition and lets your ideal client know you have the solution to their problem.

People love to know what the transformation is that you are going to provide.

They don’t really care HOW you are going to do it but they want to know that YOU can provide one for them.

How to write a niche statement

Inside my Personal Branding Playbook I teach you how to not only find the pain points of your niche audience but how to write a niche statement using them.

Your niche statement is a way for you to politely welcome them to your site, say WHO you are, and speak to your ideal client about how you can help them go from A to B.

My Niche Statement

For example, when you land on my kristinkorn.com landing page on my website you’ll notice an eye-catching main image area that then leads into my niche statement which reads…

Hey, I’m Kristin Korn. I help females who want a strategic online marketing plan go from feeling stuck and stagnant to having a confident, brand-focused business. I believe the key to establishing a lasting business is being able to use your personal experiences to connect with others. Using my Stay in Your Lane Brand Method, I offer women a roadmap to discover the fortune (influence!) that lies within their brand and leverage it to make their business more profitable faster.

WHO/ICA: females who want a strategic online marketing plan

I insert one of my core brand beliefs: I believe the key to establishing a lasting business is being able to use your personal experiences to connect with others.

The transformation: go from feeling stuck and stagnant to having a confident, brand-focused business… (I talk about my method)

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Goal of Niche Statement

As you can see the goal of this niche statement is to clearly state and describe your brand and who you serve.

The key to clearly stating your target niche is to describe your niche so explicitly that they readily recognize themselves. For this reason, it’s important that you clearly and concisely name your niche using their language.

Then, when you specifically name the problem they’re having, they don’t have to wonder if you can help them or not. They’ll know you can because you just told them.

Samantha Hartley of Enlightened Marketing says …

“The beauty of this is that probably 95% of your marketing is done right there. Because, if you tell people you understand their problem and you say it in such a way that they get that you do, then they immediately perceive and assume that you can solve their problem.”

If you need help with defining your niche audience and creating a main image area and niche statement for your website I invite you to refer to my Personal Branding Playbook.

Always refer to your data

Never assume your website is pulling customers through like it’s supposed to. Look at the data. Especially connect your site to Google Analytics. Know how long users are staying on your site and what pages they are viewing.

For instance, when I checked my Google Analytics for my just my home page (kristinkorn.com landing page) right before taping for the last 90 days I’ve had over 800 users visit my home page and the average length of time spent on my home page was 2 minutes and 6 seconds.

This is way past the 12 seconds and means my main image and niche statement is doing its job. Plus when I look at all the page views for all the pages on my site the total is over 15,400 for those same 90 days with a total of almost 10,000 total users.

People are hopping around on different pages on my site.

So even though people coming to my site aren’t always landing on my home page that’s not a bad thing. Because that means they are coming in from direct outlets for my brand quiz, brand map download, or a specific product page.

And that’s not even including the over 8,000 page views I received on my blog pages during the same 90 day time period.

Small business website design: In The end

So if you feel like you are losing too many possible clients when they land on your website do two things to best grab a user’s attention in under 12 seconds.

  1. grab their attention in under 6 seconds with a main image area that communicates effectively and reinforces your brand
  2. use your niche statement to attract the customer and define your brand for another 6 seconds

And remember if you need help I’m here!

Whether you choose to work with me 1:1 or use my method and learn on your own – you can visit kristinkorn.com and even use the instant chat option to help direct you or simply use the main image area and niche statement on my website to help direct you!

email marketing for small business
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This