Without a clear understanding of what needs to be accomplished with the homepage we’re bound to miss the mark.

Let’s look at how one might use particular text and images to tell The Story.

1. Recognize Our Visitor’s Challenges

We recognize that you have an issue/ a challenge /a pain. We know you, we understand you, we understand this situation.

Identify our target audience’s main concerns and acknowledge them. 

• For example: Our target audience wants to move out of a dense urban area and into a more rural area with a high quality of life. Our main hero image could be a serene landscape, a lake perhaps, with a smattering of homes dotted on the shore. Overlaying this beautiful, calming image is a bold statement such as, “Leave The Noise Behind.” Include a few more words below in smaller text to support that claim, “Life is just better in Greenville, NC*.” Finish it off with a clear call to action button/link: “Make your move.” This links to the ways to initiate a conversation with us (email, phone, text).

2. Provide Resolutions To Their Challenges.

We have what you need to overcome your challenge. Our skills, our knowledge, our product, and our experience will guide you to resolution.

• Continuing with the example above we need to round out our certain understanding of their concerns, and offer solutions.
  Choose only local images (not stock) and couple them with simple claims and offers build on their trust that we understand their hurdles.
  A few ideas:
  – Why We All Love Greenville (links to a page full of reasons and calls to action).
  – Get A Personal Tour From Greenville’s Relocation Expert (call to action).
  – Let’s Go See Homes You’ll Love Before They Hit The Market (call to action).
  – Is Greenville a Perfect Match for Your Family? (call to action).

The reason the above are so effective is because we are not just offering what everyone else is offering. We’re telling The Story that we are the guide to help them resolve their concerns. We are not just stating that we have been doing this a long time, and here are the tools everyone else offers (property search, featured listings, home values, etc). We are considering their specific needs and acknowledging them and offering resolution.

Pro Tip for Step 2. (If you can stick with it) Blogging with The Story in mind allows us to show a dedication to our target audience’s education all the while resolving their concerns. I can see the headlines now: How To Best Get To Know Greenville, NC In One Weekend. What Made Us Fall In Love With Greenville, NC. What Locals Do For Fun In Greenville, NC. What Locals Do When Their Family Comes To Visit Greenville, NC. The Top 10 Questions We Hear From People Moving To Greenville, NC. Feel free to steal any of these as primers for your blog.

3. Showcase The Trust of Others

We want to illustrate that others have taken this path before and we successfully guided them to overcome their challenge. This is done with testimonials (and images/video of past clients when possible) that directly express that we have helped them with the same challenges and concerns of our visitor.

Avoid lengthy client quotes – trim them if necessary. Keep it direct and to the point. A few perfect ones are better than long, fluffy ones that never get read.

4. The Introduction

Now that they trust that we understand them, and are capable of helping them, we introduce ourselves, our approachability, our willingness to help and connect immediately, our level of relevant experience, and the like.

If we introduce ourselves too strongly, too soon in The Story, then it can come off that we want the visitor to become part of our story, rather than us helping guide them through theirs.

Note: The above isn’t as much a rule as it is a suggestion. If your face, look, and name are a big part of your brand – then I can see the draw towards introducing yourself earlier on in The Story.

5. Call To Action

All throughout The Story above we should sprinkle in specific calls to action, but it is imperative that we close the homepage Story with specific requests for action. Just as a sales appointment should end with an action item (close a deal, schedule a next appointment, initiate paperwork, etc.) the homepage story needs to end with a strong call to action.

Reiterate and encourage that they communicate with us that they are ready to share in the solving of their challenge.

• Come for the weekend. Let me show you why we moved to Greenville, NC.
  (call to action links to contact)

*I’ve never been to Greenville, NC. I’ve heard it’s a very nice place to live, and therefore made for a fine example in this exercise.

If you would like to take a deeper dive on understanding how to tell the Homepage Story is just let us know. At no charge to you, we’d be happy to discuss this important topic. We’re available by email, text, phone, chat, or feel free to schedule an appointment at any time.

The post What Is The Story We Are Telling On The Homepage, And How Do We Tell It? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

If the story being told on the homepage is that there is a challenge to be solved by using your services, then who should we make as the Hero?

There is only one Hero in the homepage story we are telling.

Who is it?
Is it you, and all your strengths?
Or is it the visitor and their need to overcome their challenge?

The more compelling story is when the audience can truly relate to being the Hero.
The audience relates with Luke, not Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (A New Hope).
The audience relates with Charlie, not Willy Wonka, with Neo, not Morpheus, with Frodo, not Gandalf, with Dorothy, not Glinda.

The visitor is the Hero.

The visitor wants you to be part of their story of success. The motivation is not to become part of your story, but to have you help them in their journey of overcoming their challenge.

The How: The audience needs to find parallels to their challenges in your story. Use images that reflect your target audience. Present their questions and challenges head on. Illustrate that you understand their plight, and what a successful resolution looks and feels like. What’s happened to others that you have helped, is happening to them. Assume the role of guide, mentor, or sage in your hero’s journey.

The Why: They want to solve their challenges with trustworthy guidance and for that they will exchange their time (and money).

If you would like to take a deeper dive on understanding who the hero of the homepage is just let us know. At no charge to you, we’d be happy to discuss this important topic. We’re available by email, text, phone, chat, or feel free to schedule an appointment at any time.

The post Who is the Hero of the Homepage Story? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

The Decisions: We focus on getting the following affirmatives:

• Visitor decides that they need what you have.
• Visitor decides that you’re the best option to solve their problem
• Visitor decides to exchange their time and money for your offer/service

This doesn’t all have to be done in the millisecond that they first come to the page, but they need to stay on the page long enough to decide that they need what you offer. To get them to stay, they have to feel understood.

The What: Your audience must immediately recognize that you understand them.

• You understand the challenge they have come looking to solve.
• You understand how they feel now
• You understand what it feels like to resolve the challenge

Your audience wants to feel that you understand their challenges and that you can support their journey to solve them. They want empathy.

The How: Show your audience that you understand and empathize with them:

• Use language that they recognize and connect with.
• Consider a brand/character archetype that matches the personality of your target audience.
• Use imagery that mirrors their emotional state (before and after overcoming their challenge)
• Present the questions they ask, and the challenges they suffer and offer solutions to them.
• Showcase testimonials of others you’ve helped with similar challenges.

Your audience wants to solve their challenges with trustworthy guidance.
They want to be the hero by making the correct decision in solving their challenges.
They feel this when it was their idea to take your guidance.

The Nuance: It should be that they decided to work with you, and not that you convinced them.

If you would like to take a deeper dive on understanding the goal of a website’s homepage just let us know. At no charge to you, we’d be happy to discuss this important topic. We’re available by email, text, phone, chat, or feel free to schedule an appointment at any time.

The post What Is The Goal Of Your Website Homepage? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

How it works: These are ways we look to leverage the Hero Image

• Tell A Story To Connect Emotionally With Your Target Audience
• Highlight Your Brand
• Answer Your Target Audience’s Questions
• Showcase Your Value Proposition/Call-To-Action
• Make a Claim/Announcement

How we bring it all together:

Select a Compelling Image. Choose an image that your target audience recognizes as being part of their life, or the life they want. This familiarity assures them that the site is for them. Avoid obvious stock photos. Be authentic. Don’t use images you don’t have a license to use.

Make a Compelling Claim. Your hero image coupled with this claim is your first impression. This statement is the reason they will stay longer. Workshop this statement until it is pithy, and powerful. 

Offer a Compelling Call To Action. Be upfront about what you want your audience to do. This site is your opportunity to compel them to connect. Put it put there.

Hero image pro-tips:

• Choose an image where there is energy focused on the Claim/CTA
  • Someone pointing, looking, moving towards your CTA.
• Choose an image with depth that draws you in to a vanishing point
  • Horizontal lines, angles, structures, paths… draw your attention.
• Use dark and light shading to create contrast for your Claim/CTA
  • Vignette, fogging, semi-transparent shade… make for easy-to-read text.
• Choose an image with some empty space to place Claims/CTA.
  • Alternatively, this can be added with solid color overlays
• Apply the above to your interior page subheader image selections. Avoid using a default subheader when each page has its own story to tell.

Should I use a Slideshow for my Hero Image?

• Do more images tell the story better?
• Will our audience pay attention long enough to warrant it?

Should I use a Video for my Hero Image?

• Does video tell the story better?
• Will our audience pay attention long enough to warrant it?
• Can we get the right video clips to tell the story we want to tell? Cost?

If you would like to take a deeper dive into how to choose an effective hero image just let us know. At no charge to you, we’d be happy to discuss this important topic. We’re available by email, text, phone, chat, or feel free to schedule an appointment at any time.

The post How To Choose An Effective Homepage Hero Image appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.