Don't talk about yourself

*I’ll start with a disclaimer: I’m as human as the next person, and I can be guilty of this as much as the next person…until I remind myself of the basic principles of website marketing.

Recently, the number of websites I’ve visited that have turned me off seems to have risen dramatically. It’s not been about their design as such, but that the site has no interest in me as a visitor and/or potential client. On these sites, within their headlines and text is just paragraph after paragraph about the business owner, and occasionally, their products.

I’m really surprised by this, as it’s drilled into every business owner in marketing workshops, articles, videos and more…that your site should not be about you.

By all means, if you want to educate the traffic to your website on why you started in business and your passion for the work you do, at least file this under the ‘About Us’ page, so that it’s there if required.

Do not make it the centrepiece of your Home Page.

There’s so much competition for people’s attention on the internet nowadays—if you’ve successfully managed to get someone to your site, through PPC adverts, through posts on your social media, through online/offline advertising of any sort, why would you risk them clicking away and forgetting about you at the last hurdle? If they’ve been interested enough to come that far, why blow it?

Your marketing should not be about you 95% of the time.

When visitors arrive on your site, you need to make them believe that they’ve found the gold at the end of the rainbow. The answer to all their relative problems, the item they didn’t know they needed but which they cannot do without. The service that will make their life better, their business more successful, their wellbeing more level.

Show the benefits of what you sell/offer, how it will improve, enrich and enhance clients’ lives. Ask questions, invite visitors to share information about themselves; ascertain their needs, find their pressure points and/or buying objections. Just don’t waste that chance to hook them in further by droning on about the years you’ve been in business and the first job you had. Newsflash: your buyers don’t care about you, they only care about what you can do for them.

As I’ve said, it’s only recently that I’ve noticed this switch on various websites. When the internet came into its own this premise was emphasised over and over, and it seemed a golden rule that you never broke. Whether the more recent influence of social media and its invitation to show more of your/your brand’s ‘personality’ has caused the shift, I don’t know.

Imagine if you went to a party and you got stuck in the corner with someone who only talked about themselves, how would you feel? Would it make you want to stay in their company? That’s the same premise you should apply to your website.

Try not to use the words ‘we’ or ‘I’ unless it’s absolutely justified in explaining the product/service/benefit, it’s describing the ‘how’ or ‘when’ aspects of delivery, or it’s on your ‘About’ page.

When writing the content for your website, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What do they need to know when landing on your website that will ultimately help them pull out their debit card?

You don’t really want them to get to know you better—not at the expense of knowing your product/service inside out, anyway. You want to get to know more about them—how else will you be able to sell to them again and again? Yes, you want them to understand your USP and what makes you different from your competitors, but there are a multitude of ways to do this.

Resist the temptation to tell your story. Tell your customer’s story instead.