Imagine you were introduced to someone at a business function. The other person might naturally ask “What do you do?” And if your response intrigued them, it might lead to additional questions like “What’s that like?” “How did you happen to get into that business?” “Do you like it?” and other questions about your company, your industry, and how you do business.
Everyone who meets you is potentially interested in what you do and what you are about, especially if you make it interesting and relevant to them.
Imagine further that you see someone with whom you’ve had a business relationship for some time. You exchange pleasantries and then move on to “what’s new?” Each of you wants to find out what has happened since your last encounter. Each is especially interested in news that benefits him or her, therefore socially adept people become skilled at finding, remembering, and communicating news that is beneficial to the other.
Your website, a proxy for you the person
Your website plays the same role, except you aren’t there. The design, the navigation, and the text are a stand-in for you the person. Visitors’ experience with your website is a social experience, just like if they met with you in person.
New visitors have similar expectations when they arrive at your site as if they were meeting you in person for the first time. They want to know who you are, what you are about, how you came to be, what drives you, your purpose. They want to know how you might fit into their world.
Returning visitors may be ready to continue their buyer’s journey, to solve specific problems or get answers to specific questions. Others just want to know what’s happened since their last visit, they want “the news.”
New or returning, visitors are much more likely to engage with your site if what you have to say feels like a real person talking – emotional, story-telling, empathic – and if what you have to say is beneficial to them.
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