Almost 2/3rds of website homepage surveyed by Velocity Associates make bland, over-generalized claims of Company prowess.  Claims that say absolutely nothing distinctive about  the Company. "Providing Marketing Solutions," "Simply the Best," "The World’s Finest." The web is chockablock with such vacuous claims. Even so, business owners just can’t help themselves uttering them because--so does everyone else! But in today’s skeptical world, vapid claims may look soothing on paper, but they are simply no longer attractive bait when it comes to reeling-in prospects.

Nearly a quarter of B2B websites surveyed could not pass the all-important "7-second test"—letting the viewer know in 5 to 10 seconds what concretely the company does. After which, 70% of them click on to the next website. They are on the internet to find a solution, not to play 20 Questions.

The answer is simple: Make your website home page immediately—and concretely--relevant to your prospects’ real problems. Why do so few websites do that? Because owners can’t help themselves in glorifying the effort the Company put in to produce its products and services. Think of the blood, sweat and tears they’ve put in; think of their engineering brilliance. Look how big and clean their factory is. Never mind grubby sales, The Website is their Big Billboard—their Shinning Beacon to the world—to Set the Record Straight. At this Great Moment, why sully themselves by getting their hands dirty describing their mundane products or services?

Harsh words? Perhaps. But read on, and learn what prospects seek more than anything else. It’s not sizzling graphics; it’s not sexy flash. Real prospects want to know what you do, how it will solve their problem, and why they should buy from you. Then, and only then, will they want to know what it will cost. They are never interested in sitting through a Cecile B. DeMille production.

So read on to learn how you can increase your website effectiveness by replacing unsupported claims and empty promises with solid evidence--evidence that your company has real answers to your prospects’ real problems. (Notice we’re talking about web content--what your website says—not the hocus-pocus of search engine optimization (SEO).

Let’s back off for a moment. Recognize that the website is not a stand-alone silver bullet. It is part of the normal sales funnel—the series of steps a prospect goes through to become a customer. For most businesses, the primary purpose of its website is to get new prospect to call a salesman. Period. There are many other ancillary purposes: to extol other aspects of the company—its size, strength, years in business, service to the community, etc., etc. But too many websites elevate these ancillary aspects to the detriment of the primary purpose—to hook a customer. A second major purpose is to let interested prospects and current customers delve through a catalogue of products. But we are talking here about hooking the first-time visitor.

How people are driven to a website is another element in the sales chain. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) companies claim that raising a websites search engine ranking will make a big difference in obtaining sales. Velocity doesn’t think so. Very little new B2B business is obtained by increasing search engine ranking. (Also, the rules of  optimization schemes have change radically. Google is no longer so easily fooled by simple trickery.) This is the source of much disappointment when companies revamp their website--and sit by dumbfounded when orders don't come pouring in! So while it’s nice to have high rankings, a source of pride that you website designers have done a good job, high ranking alone usually plays very small role in obtaining new business!

However (there’s always a "however") high Google rankings can make a big difference if there are only a small number of competitors in your field and region. Then surfers won’t have hundreds of responses to wade through; they’ll find you quickly if you’re in the first page or two (20 to 40 responses). But most websites are best there as electronic brochures—a rich source of hard facts and interesting applications.

Think of the website as playing two roles: First, it is a powerful brochure--able to explain and illustrate your concept in great detail. Second, it is there to provide to new prospects the confirmation of a trusted referral. If you get a referral for, say, a new patent attorney, when you visit him, you will be doing so under a far more trusting climate than if you had pulled his name from the Yellow Pages. Likewise, prospects must be sent to your website usually by a trusted (or at least convincing) source. These convincing sources will be trade show demos, interesting sales pitches, trade directories, clever PR and the like. In each case, the prospect will have been primed (titillated) to go to the website. When he arrives, he must be treated to a solid dose of decision-triggering reality—not airy pronouncements of Corporate Greatness.

What an evocative, content-rich website can do—must do--is cause more of the prospects who do arrive to click through to find out more. But not find out everything!

In fact, a full and accurate description will be too much. If a prospect feels he has learned all there is to know about a product on your website, he will make up his mind on that basis -- and not call the company for more information. The company will not have had a chance to fit its solution -- which may not be obvious, to problems the prospect may not realize he has. Thus, the sales message will have failed in its primary goal, which is to get the prospect to call the company. Just as accuracy in telling the wrong story is no benefit to sales, neither is telling too much of the right story.

So once landed at your website, the most important things it must do is to quickly convince the prospect that you may have just what he is looking for, you are a trustworthy company, and you can probably solve his problem. You can tell when the website has done its job successfully, because the prospect will now want you to explain just how you can help him, or he wants to know your price. Of course he can only find that out by calling you or (nowadays) emailing you. If he is serious he will call. Tire kickers will email.

Let’s say you’re now thinking that, O.K., maybe your own website really isn’t pulling its weight. What to do now?

Velocity Associates offers a "Short Form Report" that assesses a website's message and its effectiveness in portraying it. For an example of a Velocity Short-Form positioning report see the excerpt here. This is often just the outside, third-party view most companies need. But they can’t get it from their own employees who are either too comfortable with the message, the proud authors of it, (or are unconsciously guarding some turf) or—most likely—don’t really understand the dynamics of modern website communication.

A Short Form Report is an objective outside assessment that doesn’t claim what is wrong, but shows you—(and shows you what’s right!). About 15% of current websites we’ve investigated do a fine job, and don’t need any repositioning. About 35% of websites can be touched-up to remove or modify vacuous or second-order claims and replace them with first-order facts. The balance are better off being scrapped and recreated from a blank sheet of paper. You learn where your website falls in your Short Form Report, and what’s wrong (and what's right). It’s a great starting point in raising the questions of how to radically improve your website effectiveness.

Most websites only require the first 2-3 pages to be completely revamped because the balance of longer websites are often heavy with facts—product listings, photographs, examples, etc. It is the opening (home) page that always requires the greatest thought, planning and execution. Here is where the new prospect hovers for only a few seconds and then either decides to enter—or move on. The home page MUST get the prospect to click in. Otherwise it is not doing its job, and no matter how informative the rest of the site is, you won’t even get up to bat. However, creating content that is informative, concrete, concise and evocative is a call that many may hear, but few can answer. It looks so easy—like playing the violin—but to play the right notes takes considerable copywriting talent and a lot of marketing communication experience.

The business reality is that website positioning and design is a mix of art and science blended with a lot of sales and marketing experience. Sure, you might do a credible job if you spent the same amount of time the professionals do, but even then it is most unlikely you would create anything other than an impression of a skillfully (but obviously home-made) affair. Not being professional-looking gives the impression--right or wrong--that the company is an amateur undertaking.

There are many, many website design companies anxious for your business. The elements they must bring to the table are:

Velocity Associates has produced or fine-tuned a number of websites. Example are show below. Other site makeovers can be viewed on the VelocityAssociates.net website under the "Clients" button.

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The first image was the homepage of P3ProSwing, a website selling a golf swing analyzer.  It’s not bad, but it is very crowded and takes a shotgun position on the product benefits. There’s something there for everyone. But what’s the main point?

The revised homepage (below) dramatizes in one picture that what you learn with the product indoors translates to better golf outdoors.  While the system is used indoors (you drive a real ball into a net using your own clubs), the P3 sensor gives the same information to the golfer on distance, slice, etc., as he would experience if he were driving outdoors on an actual fairway—plus a lot more. Most importantly, unlike all the others, the 3 system is highly accurate, so its feedback to you is accurate, and you learn correctly how to improve your swing.

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Here is the "before" home page of BASE2 a premier Electronic Data Interchange company. The home page gives the impression of having been added-too over the years, losing any distinctive message and over-arching graphical coherence. The eye is left to scurry about, searching for a central focus point.