Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 If your website isn’t bringing in the steady stream of business you’re used to, you might think, “Well, obviously the problem is that the design is outdated.” Not so fast. If this sounds familiar, the pain you’re feeling with your website might run deeper than an old-fashioned aesthetic. That’s because the role of a website has changed over the last few years, but many businesses haven’t realized it. Rather than thinking of your site as simply an online version of your physical brochures and catalogs, you need to recognize it as what it is: The hardest-working member of your marketing and sales team. Address Your Audience’s Pain Points Your website must address your audience persona’s pain points. If that sounds like meaningless marketing jargon, let’s break it down into more everyday language so it’s easier to understand. When buyers visit your website, they are looking for a solution to their problems, but not necessarily your solution. First, you need to show buyers you can solve their problem, and then show them why they should choose you over your competitors. The challenge, however, is that traditional website content is written and positioned in a way that talks about a company’s services and solutions first, instead of confirming and understanding the pain points or problems prospective buyers are trying to solve. For instance, maybe you sell insurance to other businesses. You might be inclined to make the headline of your website a validating statement, such as, “The Best Insurance for Small Businesses in X Region.” Instead, you should position that first message your visitors see to address the pain point of your visitors with something like, “Retain your employees and encourage a happier and healthier workforce.” Understand Your Buyers’ Journey Let’s say you have a spa close to a beach. Your target consumers are people searching for spas in your area. These people will probably find your business, along with several others, in Google reviews, before they ever come to your site. They’ll use these reviews to rule out businesses that don’t offer the services they want. So when these consumers reach your site, they want to know why they should choose your spa instead of one of the others offering the same services. The role of your website is to show them why your spa is the best. Do you have a better ambiance? Do you use aromatherapy oils in your treatments to enhance them? Remember, the key is to show how you’re different from your competitors. Speak to Each Buyer Persona If you run a business that services different clientele, you know that not all of your customers will want the same thing from you. Using the spa example again, some visitors are locals coming in for a regular massage, while others are tourists who want to treat themselves during their vacation. Each group has very different needs, so a good approach is to segment your home page different sections, to allow your different consumers – audience personas – to self-select before you serve up the content they need. For example, Towne Park has two primary personas, with very different needs: health care and hospitality: To help guide the user experience of each persona, they very clearly delineate where each of those personas should go to on the homepage of their website. Your Website Is Not a Brochure The wrong way to approach this situation is to treat your website as a simple brochure listing your services. This kind of approach may have worked in the past, but today’s consumers need more information, in a way that is easy to understand, access and ingest, at their fingertips. First they need to understand that you can solve their problems. Then they need to easily find why they should choose your business over your competitors. That means the old school “online billboard” approach, where you just list your services, with some pretty visuals, won’t cut it anymore. They may understand what you do, but your website won’t make a compelling argument for them to choose you over others in your space. The First Step Is Admitting You Have a Problem Many business owners think they only need a website to demonstrate that they are a legitimate business, as they get all their customers through word of mouth. Unfortunately, you will probably end up losing out on more opportunities than what you will be able to still bring in with that yesteryear strategy. If you want to remain competitive, you need a website that can speak directly to your audience and explain why they should choose your brand. But you can only do that, if you have a deep understanding of who you’re trying to reach. But that’s a story for another day. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on Quintain Blog and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Author: Connor Brooke Connor is a Scottish financial expert, specialising in wealth management and equity investing. Based in Glasgow, Connor writes full-time for a wide selection of financial websites, whilst also providing startup consulting to small businesses. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, and a Master’s degree in Investment Fund Management, Connor has … View full profile ›More by this author:ACH Crypto Price Prediction 2022 – Is it a Buy?Lucky Block Partners with Dillian Whyte ahead of Heavyweight Showdown with Tyson FuryNFT Pixel Art – The Best NFT Collections for 2022