A poor headline on a company’s homepage can cause visitors to leave the page without taking action. If the main message on your website doesn’t immediately grab visitors’ attention and make them want more, they’re unlikely to click a link, browse your products or services, read a blog post, fill out a form, or buy.
To keep your bounce rate low, make sure your primary landing page has a compelling headline that entices visitors to click through. Forbes Agency Council members know how to write a homepage headline that will entice customers to stay longer. Here are their best tips.
- Express Your Core Values
- Include A Call To Action
- Intuit Your Clients’ Aches
- Use Specific Language
- Highlight the Ideal Customer’s Issue
- Watch the Word Count
- Identify Your Differentiators
- Engage The Audience With A Question
- Advise Your Target Audience Directly
- Pick Your ‘Flavor’
- Promote Gateway Products or Services
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Express Your Core Values
The headline should convey your company’s core values. A memorable statement summarizes your mission in a few words. Examples of print marketing companies helping small businesses grow.
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Include A Call To Action
You must know exactly what your audience seeks and make it clear in your page’s headline with a clear call to action. This will catch their eye. The headline should be short, sweet, and catchy, capturing your audience’s attention and leading them to your desired destination.
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Intuit Your Clients’ Aches
The ability to tap into your clients’ aches is what makes a headline effective for your homepage, services section, or blog post. Keep headlines short and tell visitors what problems you can solve and how. Avoid metaphors, puns, and general “waffle.” Use simple language that resonates with your prospects.
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Use Specific Language
A headline should entice. Using specifics—like appealing data or numbers—can help you achieve this. You can also use rationale elements like suggestions, reasons, facts, and methods.
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Highlight the Ideal Customer’s Issue
The homepage headline should be the company’s solution to the ideal customer’s problem. A/B testing of landing pages allows for data-driven headline selection and segmentation of organic and paid efforts.
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Watch the Word Count
Headlines should be five or six words long, with a maximum of ten. And they should state the product or service’s purpose clearly.
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Identify Your Differentiators
Unless you’re a household name, think about how you’d sell your product or service in one sentence or less. Start with a few options and test the results with paid ads. We can use tools like heatmaps to determine what turns visitors into customers.
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Engage The Audience With A Question
Take a risk. Set an engaging tone. Pose a question that your visitors can easily answer. Inform them once, then repeat throughout the website. Getting visitors to scroll the homepage is easy; getting them to product and service landing pages is difficult.
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Advise Your Target Audience Directly
Too often, brands and businesses try to appeal to the largest possible audience. Muffled messaging with a vague target audience effectively turns away core customer groups. Instead of trying to hit everyone, know your targets. Make your copy compelling and ensure they can relate to it.
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Pick Your ‘Flavor’
Writing a great headline for a company’s homepage is like choosing a flavor of Baskin-Robbins. They are all good depending on the brand’s goals. The issue isn’t the headline, but the flavor. The best headlines are unique, clever, or insightful, leaving the reader wanting more.
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Promote Gateway Products or Services
What is your elevator pitch’s #1 selling point? Make those “gateway” products and/or services the main focus of your page, both visually and verbally. Also, if you’re using video, make sure the file size isn’t too large, as this can slow down page loading.