You, Me & We

By Tom Walters, Wizard Partner

"Remember, when people go to a website, they’re looking to satisfy needs. And those needs should be addressed quickly and efficiently within the context of your homepage."

 
“Somebody shoot me.”
 

How many times has that thought run through your head as you stood trapped against a corner, unable to escape a conversational egomaniac too entrenched in a story to notice your attempts to climb into the wall and bury yourself in the insulation?

You’ve been there, right? And as you look around you see other conversations going on that you’d love to be a part of. Friends and co-workers laughing and having a good time as you stand there getting pelted by the spittle of a close-talking stranger.

Yeah, it’s a pretty miserable experience. One that’s difficult to extract yourself from in person. But it’s much easier when somebody’s babbling on about himself on a homepage. One click of the “Back” button and your free to go surfing for a discussion that revolves around somebody more important …like you.

That’s what happens when your business’ homepage is litteredwith chest-thumping garble like achievements and product and service offerings.Potential customers grab their boards and catch a wave to a competitor’s site. Leaving you with a site conversion rate that starts with a decimal point instead of a number. 

Remember, when people go to a website, they’re looking to satisfy needs. And those needs should be addressed quickly and efficiently within the context of your homepage. They don’t care about you. Not yet, anyway. Their initial concern is all about what you can do for them. Therefore, with few exceptions, the only pronoun that should appear in the copy is Y-O-U. Resist all the “me’s” and “we’s” and put the focus on prospective customers. They came to you for a reason. Anticipate what that reason is and build your copy around it.