The Header

The header is the very first thing people see when landing on your website and is by far your most important section. Whether viewers decide to do business with you largely hinges on whether your header causes them to engage.

Key pieces to an engaging header section include:

An engaging image that reflects the feeling of success your customers will have after doing business with you
Few words. . .but the right words

Plus, your header should pass the "grunt test".
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Simply put, the grunt test is whether or not a potential customer can "grunt" a quick and easy answer to the following three questions upon landing on your page:

1. What do you do?
2. How does it make your customer's life better?
3. Where (or how) does your customer get your product or service?

Stakes

The stakes section of your website is where you communicate what's at stake. For example, what failures do you help your customers avoid? Alternatively, what success do you help your customers achieve?
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Some may wish to communicate this in a sentence or two. Others might lay it out as a value stack like the example here.

It's also possible to lay out a value stack showing valuable features of your product or service followed by a sentence or two communicating what's at stake.
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The structure is up to you, but remember: the stakes section serves the purpose of amplifying your customer's need to resolve the problem they are facing.

Value Proposition

After having amplified your customer's need to resolve the problem they are experiencing, you can re-introduce the solution your business provides. This is where you state your concise one-liner.

Your one-liner looks something like this:
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"Most people want [the character aspiration from your brand script]. The problem is [the external problem from your brand script]. This makes them feel [the internal problem from your brandscript]. At [the name of your business], we make it easy to [the success you bring as listed in your brandscript].
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The value proposition is longer than your header, but you still don't want to get wordy in this section. Keep it clean and clear. It can also be good to include another call to action (CTA) button at the bottom of this section.

Guide

Now that you've just told your customer about the value you can bring, follow up with the guide section.

Your guide section is where you demonstrate your experience.

It's where you express empathy for your customers and the problem they are facing and then present yourself as their guide to overcoming their problem.
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To do this, you can:
- Share in a paragraph or two what you have done and accomplished
- List testimonials of past customers who experienced success by having done business with you
- Present authority by displaying logos of companies you have worked for or badges of awards you have won
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To get you started, here is an example of a guide section.

Plan

By now, you have amplified the problem, presented the solution, and established your authority. Next up, it's time to show your customers how they can experience the successful transformation your business offers.

It's time to lay out the plan.

Remember to keep the plan simple. An effective plan has three to four easy-to-follow actions to achieve the transformation you promise.

Remember to follow up your plan with a direct CTA.

For reference, here is an example of a plan section. Note how step three paints a clear picture of success for the customer.

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Explanatory Paragraph

At this point in the website, you have laid out your brandscript well. You presented the aspiration, amplified the problem, offered the solution, demonstrated your competency in helping them solve their problem, and gave them an easy-to-follow plan for doing business with you.

Believe it or not, even though by this point you've amplified the problem, offered a solution, demonstrated your competency, and given an easy-to-follow plan for doing business with you, some potential customers will still not be convinced to do business with you.

This is where the explanatory paragraph comes in.

The explanatory paragraph gives you the opportunity to go more in-depth. It's your brandscript in longer, written form. In this section, be sure to:

Flesh out your customer's story a little more. Agitate the problem from different angles. Go deeper into the solution your business offers and the process you use. Share more of your experience to further establish authority.
Add SEO. This is the section where you can embed keywords and optimize your website for search engines.
Answer possible questions. As potential customers continue exploring your website, they will begin to have questions. The explanatory paragraph is where you can start answering these questions. You can either do it in paragraph form, list the questions in an accordion menu, or simply state the questions and then link to your FAQ's page.

Video

This section is optional. However, for many people, video is more engaging than text. So, scroll through your website and consider ways you can include video.

A video could be included in your header, or you might swap it out with your explanatory paragraph. Alternatively, you could include it with your explanatory paragraph in order to increase the SEO value of your website via written text.

If you do include a video, choose a video that either:

Explains your business further
Clarifies how you solve your customer's problem, or
Shows how your business has helped previous customers

Here is an example of a video section combined with text to improve SEO.

Price Choices

This is where you show a simple and clear menu of optional products or services your customers can choose from when they are ready to purchase. Customers like to be able to choose between options, so give them some. Businesses will often list three to five options.

The price choices section should include a direct CTA with each option. These CTAs will then send them directly to the payment page.

Lead Generator

Again, not all potential customers will be convinced to do business with you even by this point in your website. But that doesn't mean they are not interested.
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So, it's a good idea to include a secondary CTA that allows you to get your customer's contact info even if they haven't purchased anything yet. That way you can follow up with them later.
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The most common way to do this is by providing what is called a "lead generator."

‍A lead generator is a free product or service a potential customer can access immediately upon filling out their email. The most powerful lead generators are products or services that help potential customers and can be implemented right away.

Here is an example of a lead generator section.

Junk Box

This brings us to the bottom of your website. We call this the "junk box" because it is where you list all the other odds and ends to your website. You may list things here as links, menus, or icons.

Here are examples of the types of things you could include in your junk box:

About page
Blog page
Contact page
Social media pages
Service locations page

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The Header

Stakes

Value Proposition

Guide