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4. StoryBrand Your Website with These Ten Essential Sections
StoryBrand Your Website with These Ten Essential Sections
A clear and easy-to-understand website has become an absolute necessity in the modern business world. However, not just any website will do.
To make your website work as hard as you do, it must be clear. It needs to speak directly to your customers' problems. And, it must show them what success looks like and exactly how to achieve that.
The StoryBrand framework organizes your website in a way that illustrates all of these important points. So, to make the most of your online presence, be sure to include the following sections on your homepage.
Because when you do, customers will feel more confident engaging with your business, products and services.
1. The Header
The header is the first thing your customer sees when entering your site. This makes it the most important section of your webpage – and plays a huge role in whether a customer chooses to do business with you.
A good header educates users quickly and effectively. To do so, it will usually include:
- An engaging image that reflects the feeling of success your customer feels after doing business with you
- A short bit of text that draws them into the rest of your site
But how do you know your header is doing its job? Well, there is a simple test you can employ to learn just that.
Does Your Header Pass the “Grunt” Test?
The purpose of the header is to let customers know what you do and how to do business with you.
This messaging should be so clear that potential customers are able to answer the following questions within three to five seconds of seeing your homepage.
To test your header, show a few people your site for about five seconds. Then, close or turn off the screen and ask If they can “grunt” the answers to the following questions. If so, your site is doing its job. If not, it needs some work.
- What do you do?
- How does it make your customer’s life better?
- How does your customer do business with you?
Include A Call-to-Action
Once a prospective customer understands the value of working with you, they need a way to engage. You do this with a clear call-to-action (CTA).
Your website’s call-to-action (CTA) is the button a customer clicks to start communicating with you. Your CTA will be unique to your business, but should be crystal clear and easy to commit to.
Examples include:
- Get Your Free Quote
- Request an Estimate
- Buy Now
- Etc.
Whatever your CTA, it’s important to place this button in a few key locations across your site. The most important of which is in the top right-hand corner of the screen, as this location is obvious and will direct the user’s attention.
It’s also good practice to include CTAs throughout your body copy following some of the sections listed below, as well as after the text included in your header.
2. The Stakes
For your website copy to be truly effective, it’s helpful to know a bit about human psychology. In particular our aversion to pain.
What this means for your massaging is that to be most persuasive, you’ve got to include a dash of the cold-hard truth: what your customers have to lose by not doing business with you.
Will failing to engage with your products and services cost them more money in the long-term? Will they continue to struggle with their problems indefinitely? Whatever pestering issues will arise, it’s important to let them know.
Now, when it comes to outlining these “stakes” on your website, you have a few options.
For example, you may wish to communicate these problems in just a sentence or two. Or, you can list the potential negatives and then frame your products and services as the solution to those problems.
However you choose to communicate the stakes on your homepage, remember this:
Don’t overdo the negative. Your marketing message should be overwhelmingly positive. Because, if the story you’re telling becomes too painful, customers will want to avoid that, as well.
In other words, the stakes section is more like a brief reminder – something that draws attention to the problems your company solves.
3. Value Proposition
After outlining the stakes, you want to bring your customer’s attention back to how you make their lives better.
A great way to do this is with a succinct one-liner that clearly states the value you provide. The following template makes that very easy. (If you’ve completed your Marketing Message, that is.)
“Most people want [character aspiration]. The problem is [external problem] which makes them feel [internal problem]. At [business name], we make it easy to [success].
Remember to keep your one-liner clean and clear—and don’t get too wordy. It should be just enough to let your customers know you understand their problems and how to solve them.
4. The Guide
It’s at this point in your site’s copy that you introduce your business.
Your goal is to position your company as the customer’s “guide” – and to do this, you really only need to demonstrate two things:
Empathy and authority.
Empathy is about relating to the problems your customers face. It’s showing that you understand what they’re going through. You feel their pain, and can articulate that understanding clearly.
Once you’ve empathized with your clients, you then just need to establish your authority. Or, quickly prove that you’ve successfully solved those very problems in the past.
Here are a few ways to show your authority:
- Share in a paragraph or two what you have done or accomplished
- List testimonials of past customers who’ve experienced success with your company
- Display logos of companies you’ve worked for
- Show badges or awards you’ve won
- Link to press or articles on your company
Keep the authority section of your site short and sweet. You just need enough proof to tick the box of “expert” in your customer’s mind.
5. The Plan
By including the sections above, you’ve successfully outlined your customers’ problems and how you solve those problems. You’ve also established yourself as an empathetic and expert guide along their journey.
However, there’s still one very important thing to do:
Show your customers exactly how to do business with you.
Do this by outlining a simple three- or four-step plan outlining the practical steps of engaging with your business – beginning with your call-to-action and ending with the successful transformation you promised.
Here’s what that might look like:
6. Explanatory Paragraph
Each of the five sections so far will give many of your customers what they need to feel comfortable doing business with you. That said, there will always be those that need a little more information.
This is where the explanatory paragraph comes in.
The explanatory paragraph is your opportunity to provide more details about your business and how you solve customers’ problems. Consider including:
- The customer’s problem looked at from a different angle
- SEO keywords related to your niche
- Answer to frequently asked questions
- A bit about your business’s story
If brevity is your guiding star throughout most of your website copy – and it ought to be – this is your chance to flush out your ideas and help push those that need a little more convincing over the edge.
7. Video (Optional)
These days, users are used to getting information through video, as well as text. Therefore, once you’ve completed the written sections of your site, scroll through and see if you can find a place to include a video.
This may be a part of your header. Another logical place is with – or replacing – your explanatory paragraph. Wherever you include your video, make sure it either…
- Further explains your business
- Clarifies how you solve your customer’s problems, or
- Shows how your business has helped previous customers
8. Price Choices / Products
If your company provides multiple tiers of service for a similar product or defined categories of different products, it’s good practice to include a section showing these options.
Each product or category should include its own CTA – linking to either an individual product or checkout page.
9. Lead Generator
When customers come in contact with your business, they can be categorized in one of three ways:
- Those who will never do business with you
- Those who are ready to do business with you, and
- Those who aren’t ready to do business with you yet
It’s this third group that represents the most potential for your business – and where many business owners miss out. So, you need a way to gather these leads so you can maintain contact in the future.
A proven way to do this is by including another CTA – one that exchanges a free resource for the customer’s email address. In other words, a “lead generator.”
Typical lead generators include:
- PDFs
- eBooks
- Videos
- Webinars
- Checklists
- Etc.
The main thing to keep in mind is that the content of your lead generator should help customers solve their problem now. So think about what your clients would truly value and aim to provide just that.
10. Junk Drawer
In the world of marketing there’s one adage that holds true:
If you confuse, you lose.
That’s why it’s so important to limit the amount of information available on the homepage of your site to the above sections. Because if there are too many ways to engage with your site, users tend to get overwhelmed and click the “back” button.
That said, there will be additional material you’ll want to include. So the question is: where do you put it?
In the junk drawer.
That’s where.
The junk drawer is the footer of your website. It’s the place to include links to pretty much anything not listed in this article: your about, blog, contact, social media, service locations pages and more.
And don’t worry about customers not being able to find this information. If they’re interested, they will go looking – and they will find it.
Build Your StoryBrand Website
Your website is the number one online marketing asset for your company. All digital advertisements will direct customers back to your site, and nearly all consumers these days view a modern website as a measure of your company’s validity.
Following this checklist gives you a site that’s proven to attract leads and turn them into paying customers. However, you might still want to call in the professionals if you aren’t feeling totally confident in your ability to put this into practice.
If that’s the case, reach out for a free chat with one of Integro’s marketing experts.
You’ll learn everything you need to get an effective website that attracts more leads — and paying customers — than you know what to do with.
Your Step-by-Step Marketing Blueprint:
Presale: Reaching Cold Prospects
1. Your Marketing Budget Guidelines
The Sale: Converting Customers
7. Your Sales Conversion Strategy
Post Sale: Creating Raving Fans
