Believe it or not, people do not visit your website to look at the pictures—as dashing as they may be. They come for one main reason: They have a problem and they need an answer.
Not providing those answers is the number one reason websites fail.
But yours doesn’t have to. Not with the formula for creating a high-converting website shared by CMC keynote Andy Crestodina.
Andy opened the Content Optimization sessions of Content Marketing Conference 2021 with his hard-hitting presentation: How Intelligent Content Inspires Browsers to Take Action and Buy (catch the recording).
Conversion refers to an action taken by a website visitor that changes the noun used to identify them. A visitor becomes a lead when they download your free guide. A lead becomes a customer when they purchase a subscription or buy your latest book.
One of the main goals of your website, of course, is to convert. But to even have a glimmer of hope of achieving that, it must provide the answers to questions your target audience is asking. And then a few more elements from there.
Andy spelled it all out in a four-point intelligent content plan.
- Questions
- Answers
- Evidence
- Call to Action
Questions
You can’t provide the much-needed answers unless you first know the questions. The better you know the stories of your visitors, the better able you are to answer the questions they have. So, your first step is to get to know your target audience.
Opt for qualitative research. Find out who they are and what they want to know.
Answers
Then give them what they need to know—in a way that’s easy to find. Don’t hide all your juicy information on an FAQ page that makes visitors sift through tons of content to get what they need. They won’t. They’ll leave.
Evidence
Back up the information you give them with evidence to support it. If you don’t, as Andy notes, all you’re doing is providing an unsupported marketing claim.
Testimonials make for great evidence. But again, they’re often squirreled away on a Testimonials page no one ever reads. Weave them into your content instead.
Call to Action
A clear, compelling, specific call to action is a must. People are not going to take the action you want them to take unless you tell them what that action is.
Present it in a way that makes it worth their while. The benefit of what they get needs to outweigh the cost of what they’ll give, whether the cost is timewise, moneywise or effort-wise.
Andy delivers much more detail on each step, fleshing them out with examples and loads of helpful hints. You’ll love the new CTA element he introduces. And pretty much everything else he has to say. Watch Andy’s keynote.
CMC 2021 runs from April 27 to 29. If you miss any live keynotes, their recordings will be posted shortly after their presentations. You also get a jam-packed agenda with more than 50 sessions from marketing pros covering the six pillars of content marketing. Start learning now.