Home pages with buried value propositions

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Easy. Save time. All-in-one. Affordable, efficient. Blah, blah blah.

These are the words that I see repeated across the headline of home page after home page.

These are all just so weak. They are nice sentiments, but they don't tell us a single thing about the product, and they don't tell us a single real thing about the benefit they provide.

But then, a lot of these companies have a video explainer of their product alongside the (weak) headline. And that video explainer is great. It tells me exactly what the software does, who that software is for, and why those people love it.

It is excruciating. These companies have a great pitch - yet they hide it.

An example

One example that really stuck with me was on the home page for a company that makes software for car dealers. Does all sorts of stuff, like tracking inventory, CRM, finance and insurance calculation - heaps of things that are useful for a car dealer.

Now take a look at their headline:

Pretty bland! Doesn't really tell us much. All I know from this is who it's for (dealers), it's cloud-based (cool), and it does, er, everything.

But, they have a case study video. And in that video, their customer says "In one click, you can submit your deals to however many lenders you want."

Now that has the bones of a headline! Would need some trimming, but something like "Submit 10 deals in one click" is a lot more compelling and specific than "all in one."

And you see this all over the place. Companies do a great deal of dialling in their value propositions - everywhere except their home page, where it matters the most.

Too many cooks?

Here's one of my theories about why this happens.

Home pages are probably some of the most scrutinised pieces of marketing material in your company. Everyone has an opinion on it - the CEO, the CFO, the sales team, the product people, the customer service people. Everyone.

So when you go to write one you can end up seeking input from a whole bunch of different people. And that input pretty much invariably turns into "approval."

Then you end up trying to write something that everyone's happy with. Can't really be done. So you compromise and end up with something that nobody's happy with as such, but at least nobody's whining about it. That's where this bland, doesn't-really-tell-us-anything messaging comes from.

A video, on the other hand, isn't as immediately accessible to everyone in the company as a home page. So you can "get away" with actually having a proper value proposition.

Another theory - overthinking it

My other theory about this is that people just overthink their home pages. A video, case study or whatever else is relatively low-investment, and also has pretty narrow goals.

A home page has pretty wide goals (explain the value of your product, immediately, to everyone who comes in from every conceivable source!) and is also pretty high-investment. What's more, it's visible.

It's not that hard to find yourself buckling under this pressure, and writing nothing rather than writing something.

What can you do?

The best way to avoid this is to make your home page copywriting decisions based on really clear customer research. Send out a survey. Talk to some customers. Get some real information about why people use your product.

Then, when the inevitable "just a thought . . . " emails start coming through, you have a clear base to challenge them from. Otherwise, it's your opinion vs someone else's opinion, and it just becomes a battle of wills and office politics. Excruciating to deal with, and also pretty much a guaranteed bad outcome.

The other thing you can do - and I promise you this is not a pitch - is to get an external person in to do it. I've been hired to do a surprising number of home page reviews just to break internal logjams.

And back yourself! If you're writing a home page, you're probably an expert in one way or the other. You know what you're doing. Make a clear decision, develop some reasoning for it, and stick with it! You can do it.

Have a great week

Sam

PS: I put together a checklist to help you review your own home page . Good way to make sure you don't stray into "too bland" territory. Get the checklist here. (You're already on my list, so no email required. Link goes straight to a Google Doc you can copy).

PPS: Or, of course, just have me review your page (now I am pitching). $799, 7 day turnaround.

PPPS: OR, have me write the whole thing from scratch, in 8 hours. This isn't going to be a full blown customer-research-and-lots-of-iteration-job, but you can get it turned around fast. $1,999, 7 day turnaround.

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