People decide they want to purchase a particular product based primarily on emotions. Then they justify their desire with logic. Every savvy copywriter or sales professional knows this.
So how does your website make people feel when they land on it?
Is it clean or cluttered? Is it attractive? Does it look like every other website in your field?
Does it make your prospects feel good? Really good?
When I land on a site that makes me feel happy, I find myself strongly wanting to do business with them, just because …
This is where design comes in. Before a visitor reads a word of your sales copy, the colors and shapes on your web page are bombarding her brain cells.
About six months ago I had my own site redesigned and I paid a heck of a lot more than I had planned. I just told my web designer to make my site better than it was. Silly me. I tried to pull what my clients typically try to pull with me. “I don’t need to give you information, just fix it.”
But my designer was relentless. She knew me personally and kept nagging me with questions. She studied my current website. She even looked at the books in my house and noted I had a lot of classics.
I showed her the websites of other successful people like me. “Maybe you can make me one like that,” I said. She nodded and made me think outside of the typical SEO copywriter box. As a result, my website doesn’t look like the other sites in my field.
She kicked up my colors. Incredibly, she made me put a beekeeper and beehive on my site!*
Okay. You may hate it … you may love it. I’ve had both reactions. But in my opinion, it passes the “happy” test. It certainly makes me happy when I look at it. And … my phone hasn’t stopped ringing since I changed it. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe not.
All I can say is I’m not complaining.
Easy Web Tip 142: Make sure your website design makes people happy when they land on one of your pages. A great designer will dig deep and help you get to that happy place.
*I’ve moved on from that design, but the jist of this tip stands.
