How to avoid people bouncing when they land on your site?

Statista calculated the 20 most popular websites worldwide as of June 2021, users spent approximately 22 minutes and 44 seconds per visit, and only 54 seconds on the 20th most popular.

Let's assume you are not in those top twenty, which means we need your customers to stay for at least 45 seconds, which in the world of the internet, is longer than you think. Aside from my hobbies, and the main 20 I am looking for the answer to a question, following that backlink to a site, reading what I need, and closing my phone. Sound familiar?

So how do you increase the time people spend on your site?

Today - the buyer's journey.?

Think about your buyer's journey. I want you to close your eyes and imagine you are one of your customers, how do they land on your page? What is the first thing they encounter? Does your site drive the experience, or are they assumed to freely wander through your page in hopes they will land on something to buy?

I have included an example of a site without a buyer's journey below. We will get to the resolution, but can you see how the page does not really drive you to do anything specific? - This is going to be an issue for someone who wandered onto your site.?

The next big issue is the text, I can see they added a lot of colorful language about how great your company is, but I am considering making a change in my life (all buyers are) and right now your page does not make me think that my current situation is all that bad. Why change??

I also find this page to read like a textbook, even though you would not normally consider 5 sentences to be ‘too long’ the way it is presented feels ‘text heavy’ which is a bit of a personal preference, I can admit that.?

Below is the updated landing page, which is your customer's first experience with your site.

We start with a problem statement, which reminds riders of a problem that we all face, suddenly running out of road. Trust me on this, it sucks more than you would imagine. Right below that is our solution statement, I left the button in case you have someone ready to buy, and you need to make it available for them to go right into the purchase process.?

Now, go back to closing your eyes and put yourself in the customer's seat - what's your next question? - I have agreed that I hate running into a dead end, I understand it's a preplanned ride, ok I am curious, what's next? We answer in a simple breakout that ends with showing the inclusion of “other riders” and drives us to the next page.?

Onto page two, the original is shown below.?

The original main page was a bit of a product push, which makes sense that page two we go immediately into customer reviews. Similar to when your friend tells you that they can jump really high and you roll your eyes, but instead of giving up, they double down and make you go outside and watch them jump!

There is also a heading “don’t believe us” - which as another personal preference, I do not prefer, nothing on your page suggested that I should not believe you, so no need to say that.?

We resolved that in the simplest of ways, remember on the updated home page the last line on the page was “connect with riders like you.” This gives you a place to display the reviews and also helps the buyer's journey include images that they can relate to - people who look like them.

I did not get the chance to do a full redesign of this site, but this is the power that you can make with clear and straightforward messaging that includes your buyer's journey.?

Too often sites are made in a rush to hold a place while the companies grow and then updates are tossed to a designer, but we must consider the site as part of your sales team, your marketing team, and even your renewals team.?

If you want another example, my own website is linked in my bio :)

Cheers

-Zach