When working on a new custom website, we encourage clients to gather inspiration sites to cherry pick ideas from and we often see 1 site in particular on that list – Apple’s website.
Apple’s site has great imagery and has a lot of white space and a clean design, which appeals to a lot of people. The one thing that is not strong on Apple’s site is a clear Value Proposition and a focus on building trust and credibility.
Given the fact that almost everyone on the planet is familiar with Apple, those elements are not necessary for them. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t have that level of brand equity, so it is critical that they have a clear value proposition and can build trust & credibility on their website.
Clear Value Proposition = Conversions
A web-based value proposition communicates:
- Who you are
- What you do
- How you differentiate yourself
- Who you are appealing to and how you can help them
- And what is the call to action and the next step that someone should take on the site
The value proposition is typically comprised of high level messaging (headlines, sub headlines, bullets and calls to action) and supporting imagery. If the Value Proposition is well written and if the site is relevant, your site will get more conversions.
A Baseline of Trust & Credibility
Many of your website visitors just need a baseline level of trust and credibility in order to build enough comfort in your company in order to take the next step.
Trust can be relatively easily established by showcasing:
- affiliations
- awards and brand recognition
- testimonials
- logos of notable clients
- number of years in business
These indicators of trust and credibility should be on the home page in a relatively prominent place.
The design of the website is important, but a web or user experience strategist should also be involved in the project to identify your web-based value proposition and structure the website so that you are building trust, are relevant to visitors’ needs and guiding them to next steps with calls to action.
Otherwise, you may end up with a nice web design like Apple’s that doesn’t convert.
