If you’ve been a faithful follower of the Challenger Brand Marketing Blogs, you are familiar with the 7 Second Rule. This is the amount of time a website has to immediately communicate to a visitor what the company does, what makes them special and where the value lies for a customer.
A tall order when you consider the majority of business websites either say too much – this is my one chance to spit out everything that makes my company great, my products, my service, my no-fault guarantee, my history, my globally sourced free-trade organic ingredients, my highly competitive pricing, my staff, my goodness. Or, websites say nothing at all – here’s my company name and a picture of a family sitting on a park bench drinking lemonade; pretty.
You have seven seconds to tell your brand’s perfect story, use them wisely.
We have a Challenger Brand approach to the 7 Second Rule, it’s the ABC Test. With special thanks to our colleague Stephen Woessner, this simple formula forces you to write a positioning statement for your website’s homepage that covers all of the bases. The formula is simply, We do “A” for “B” so you can “C.”
The “A” represents the what you do. We build Adirondack chairs.
The “B” identifies the target audience. The “who.” Toward whom are you aiming your message? The visitor wants to be clear they have come to the right place; that this site is for them. For anyone who appreciates the finest in rustic, artisan, premium outdoor furniture.
The “C” calls out the “what’s in it for me.” The value. Why should I care? So what? So you can impress your friends and enjoy the best in old-world teak craftsmanship.
String the A-B-C together and you have your website’s homepage positioning statement:
Acme Lawn Furniture builds the world’s finest Adirondack chairs crafted from premium teak for those who appreciate artisan quality at backyard prices.
Of course, as any good Challenger Brand knows, you can’t guess about your ABC. Do the research to confidently understand what your customer perceives to be most valuable and integrate that into your ABC language.
Does your website pass the ABC Test? If you would like some assistance constructing your home page’s positioning statement, please drop us a line at: editor@gumas.com.
Until next time…
