How to increase conversions and make your brand stand out from your competitors.
A visitor lands on your website. Now you got a few seconds to get their attention and keep them there.
The first thing visitors want to know is:
- What you do.
- Whether if it’s for them and you’re a good fit for them.
Let’s do a quick check in:
Close your eyes, imagine your ideal client with their problems and desires, put yourself in their shoes. Then go to your homepage or landing page and take 5 seconds:
- What’s the first thing they see when they land on your website?
- What’s the first impression they get of you/your offers? What emotion or vibe do you get?
- Is your message clear? what problem does it solve? what’s the outcome promised?
- Do you feel it speaks to you specifically (remember you’re now in the shoes of your ideal client)?
If you are not getting the conversions you want, chances are you’re not clear or relevant enough in the first 5 seconds of a visitor landing on your website or landing page.
the most important part of your website
Your “above the fold” (ATF) section is the most important part of your website, the part of your site that’s immediately visible before scrolling.
Your above the fold starts a narrative. It provides visitors with the specificity, magic, and clarity to take the next action in your funnel.
A great ATF: do’s and don’ts
- be specific, show the major benefit of your program or offer
- articulate clearly without using vague language
- add a hook to reel visitors in
- address your value proposition to the right audience
- no corporate speak
- no vague phrasing
- don’t talk in self-congratulatory terms, but talk in terms of benefits to the visitor
- clarifies the specific outcome of using the product
1. The Specific, major benefit of your offer
No corporate speak.
no vague phrasing.
no fancy language. be clear and succinct.
Clarify the benefits and specific outcome of your offer/product.
Take Action:
To identify how users get value consider the following exercise for finding your product’s value propositions:
- What bad alternative do people resort to when they lack your product?
- How is your product better than that bad alternative?
- Now turn the last step into an action statement—that’s your value prop.
Action items
- List the ways life is worse when your product doesn’t exist.
- Identify a specific articulation of your better solution. Do not use vague phrasing.
2. Add a hook - show your magic
Step two is layering a hook into your header.
Find what's magical and exciting about your offer, and write it in your ATF copy.
Don't consider your landing page completed until you've found your offer’s magic and pitched it in your header. It's how you get people to lean in and keep scrolling.
Take Action:
Adding a hook to your header can take two forms:
- A bold specific claim: Readers want to know how that’s possible. So they keep reading. In short, a bold claim is:
- Highly specific
- Triggers a dopamine hit of “wow, I didn’t know that was possible.”
- A response to likely skepticism: identify a major buying objection your visitor might have to buying your offer —and to proactively address it. Don’t let visitors retain their unaddressed concerns that cause them to bounce before scrolling.
- I.e. But I’ve tried everything already, nothing has worked.
- This will take too long. I don’t have the time.
Don’t try to address every objection—you can do that with the rest of your page.
Action items
- List out your customers’ key objections when considering your product.
- Address those objections in your header through a bold claim and/or an objection-handling sentence.
3. Speak directly to your Ideal client
Make sure you're addressing your value proposition to the right audience - YOUR ideal client. Your target audience isn't everyone in the world— don't try to appeal to everyone in your header copy.
- Talk to your niche. Make your ideal client know you understand them and have the right solution for them.
If your product targets multiple major personas, you can prompt visitors to choose which persona they fit into at the top of your page. Then route them to the appropriate section of your site. - list who you’re selling to,
- prioritize the list based on your business objectives and ROI,
- then directly address those personas in your ATF.
Action items
- List out your top 2-3 customer personas.
- Rewrite your header(s) to speak to them—in their language.
- Choose the header that best addresses your key audience, or create multiple landing pages for each persona.
Header writing recap
- Find what makes you magical then shape that into a specific, non-vague benefit.
- Add a hook. Either a bold claim or a major objection handled.
- Tailor your messaging to your major persona(s).
4. The next step: Subheader
Now we expand on what makes our product special.
The subheader is commonly used for expanding on two things:
- How does our product work exactly?
- Which of our features make our header’s bold claim believable?
As a rule of thumb, your subheader should only be one or two sentences.
Don’t make this an essay. Keep reading breezy so visitors sustain their momentum.
Action items
- Rewrite your subheader to explain how the claim in your header is achieved.
- Add the top 2-3 features of your product.
- Keep it brief. Lengthy paragraphs kill momentum.
5. Designing your above the fold
Images:
Images are an important part to instantly appeal to your ideal customer and show them this is relevant to them.
Images should
- be visually appealing—modern, clear, and have a positive message.
- demonstrate the value of your product. i.e. show the product in action, show your ideal client in their desired state.
Negative space
Keep plenty of empty space between the elements on your ATF. It’ll help your copy and visuals pop.
Navigation bar
The fewer links you have in your navigation bar, the better. Try to minimize analysis paralysis.
Put the greatest visual emphasis on the key action you want visitors to take.
Rule of Thumb: Use 2-4 links plus a CTA on home pages.
CTA buttons: your call to action
Your CTAs are the action you want your visitor to take next to fulfil the claim you made in your header.
Think of them as the continuation of the magic teased in the header copy. It feels natural to click these CTAs because they help the visitor continue the narrative you kicked off.
Sometimes the best CTA is to keep scrolling.
Some products are difficult to pitch. They may benefit from visitors reading more of the landing page before they click to sign up.
If this describes your product, consider having your CTA button simply lead further down the page. Then have a CTA focused on converting further down the page.
Let's recap:
Your above the fold starts a narrative. It provides visitors with the specificity, magic, and clarity to take the next action in your funnel.
More importantly, it’s your first impression.
- Create a header by identifying how users “get value” from your product.
- Add a hook that has bold claims or handles objections.
- Talk directly to your key personas.
- Support your header’s claim with a subheader explaining how your product works.
- Design your ATF to support your message: value-added images, minimal and focused navbars, and magic-relevant CTA buttons.
This is a shortened version of Julian Shapiro’s Playbook “Above the Fold” at Demand Curve. If you want to read the full article with lots of examples of good and bad ATFs, click here.
