Someone finds your website and sees a lot to look at and read. Articles and blog posts about the law, about their legal situation, about the services you offer, and about you.
But that’s not what they’re looking for. If they’re like you and and me and everyone else on the net, they’re looking for a reason to leave.
Something that tells them, “This isn’t for me.”
It’s survival instinct. There’s too much to read online and too little time to read it. So while you may provide a lot of great information and reasons to hire you, if you don’t give them a reason to stay and read it, most people won’t.
Your website needs a hook. Something that catches the reader’s attention and compels them to keep reading.
Usually, that will be a headline that promises something they want or makes them curious about something that interests them.
It might be a sub-heading, a bullet point, or a callout box. It might be a chart, a checklist, or a few words of bold text.
But you need something to stop them in their tracks and give you a few seconds of their time.
Once you have that, once they decide they won’t leave (yet), you need to give them more reasons to stay and learn about what you do and how you can help them.
But they’re still not ready to read everything, top to bottom. People scan and scroll, so give them something that allows them to do that.
If you do, they might read more. If you don’t, they won’t get to read all of your amazing insights, hear about your glorious victories, or convince themselves to take the next step.
So you (and your team) have your work cut out for you.
You may get it right, or you may get close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. That’s why, statistically, the vast majority of first-time visitors leave and never return.
So you need one more hook.
You need to offer them the opportunity to receive something they want—a report or ebook, checklist or form—something that ties in directly with whatever brought them to your website in the first place.
Something that makes them say “I want that” and be willing to give you their email address to get it.
If they do, you can stay in touch with them and continue to persuade them to take that next step.
