Is your website welcoming new leads to your brand?

When someone visits your website what are they greeted with? How well is your website welcoming potential new leads and prospective clients to your brand? Is it engaging them warmly or leaving them feeling a bit unsure?

I can’t stress enough how rewarding it is to build a good online brand experience for your business. A good brand experience lets your ideal audience know they’re in the right place and feel invited to reach out to you. The experience your clients have extends from the moment they find your business, right through to when you finish working with them, but in this post I want to focus on the initial stages when they first visit your website. What can you do there to welcome your prospects to your brand?

Open your web pages with strong headings that capture your brand voice

Your brand needs a strong voice and personality that shines through in your headings, as well as in subheadings, your tagline, calls-to-action, and any other copy on your site. The words you use and the way you speak should match the expectations of your audience and explain precisely what your services can do for them.

Keep headings concise and easy to understand. Try not to leave room for any confusion. People are quick to make decisions about whether or not a website will fulfil their needs. If they skim over text and don’t immediately feel that they’ve found the answer to the questions they’ve been asking, they won’t hesitate to leave and move onto the next search engine result that appears. So be clear about what you have to offer and what kind of transformation you can create for your audience.

Also read: How to develop a brand voice that sells your services

Support what you say with engaging visuals and a consistent brand identity

Images are powerful tools of communication. Be sure to use them in a way that effectively tells the story of your brand and supports what the words on your website say. People can process visuals much more quickly than they can read copy, so the visuals you choose to use on your website will often be what sets the mood of your brand and tells your audience how to feel.

You also want to make this experience consistent throughout every page of your site (and even beyond e.g. on social media). Use a brand colour palette and the same typographic hierarchy across your website, as well as keeping your logo visible on each page. It all helps to increase your recognisability and strengthen a sense of trust from your audience.

Keep your client at the centre as you weave your brand story

Your audience should feel like they are always the main focal point as you describe what you do and why you do it. They are the ones with a problem that they’re looking to solve, and learning what they can do to fix their pain points and transform their lives is what keeps them engaged and interested in your services.

Even on “about” pages, there should be less about you and your business and more about your clients and what you’ve helped them achieve. The way to win over prospects is by telling them how things will look after the process of working with you. This is easy to forget for service providers because, for us, it’s the process itself (being in the process) that we’re familiar with and that makes up our day-to-day working life. Clients, though, want to know how their lives will be improved as a result of this process.

Also read: Branding tips to get more clients to your small business

Let your audience know what to do as their next step

Every web page should have one, clear call-to-action. It might be to book a discovery call, join your email list, download a price guide, or follow you on social media. It may be simply to progress to another page of your website where they can find more information. Whatever it is, make it unmissable and unmistakeable. Think of your web pages as a series of steps that your visitors take to get closer to becoming a client. Again, it’s just about minimising any chance of confusion and keeping your audience feeling certain and confident about what you can offer them.

Last thoughts

With so many businesses out there, that first impression your brand makes on a prospect is incredibly important and can’t be overlooked. Take the time to review your website design and make sure it’s clear and easy to understand what you do and for who. Grabbing a friend and watching how they navigate your site (see what they pause on, click or miss) is also a great way to pick up on anything you might want to update in order to make the experience as welcoming as possible.

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