Must-haves for a high-converting home page

My personal recipe for a home page that converts.

Mission statement

A mission statement is a “formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual”. In plain English, a mission statement simply helps you to define and summarize what you do, who you do it for, and how you do it.

People visiting your website need to be able to figure out what it is that you do within seconds. If they’re confused, they’ll leave. That’s why displaying your mission statement above the fold (that section of your website that’s visible directly after landing) is very important.

How to write your own mission statement

A mission statement is usually structured as follows:

[My brand] offers [value proposition] that [benefit] for [your target market]

(Now that may sound a bit plain, so keep working on it until it feels right!)

CTA’s

A CTA (Call to Action) is a piece of content intended to induce a viewer to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive (e.g. buy now or click here). In web design, a CTA takes the form of a button.

We, as humans, sadly need to be told what to do or at least be pushed in the right direction. Knowing that, strategically placed CTAs will help your viewers to take the right action.

Solutions

Your offer (product or service). People like to get an idea of what you offer, quick. In my eyes, it’s very much worth talking about your services or products on your home page rather than trusting your visitors to look for it themselves. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s no need for a novel-long explanation of your offers on your home page. A short paragraph for each of your services or products will do.

Social proof

Social proof usually comes in the form of testimonials, reviews etc. and help building trust with your visitors/potential customers.

Lead magnet

A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away for the purpose of gathering contact details.

A well-known strategy to get people to subscribe to your newsletter is to have a lead magnet. Often it’s a freebie (think a free workbook or checklist), or a discount. It can be anything really, but it needs to be interesting enough that visitors will want to subscribe to your list. Once they’re in, that’s your chance to warm them up, and hopefully transform those visitors into buyers!

Bonus: Location

That’s especially important if the service you provide depends on where you’re based (hello photographers!). No one wants to spend ten minutes browsing and drooling over your offer, only to find out you’re based on another continent. It can be just as important for product-based businesses as well, knowing customs fees apply in certain countries, and that more and more people nowadays care about buying local.