Is your website a shop window or a conversation?

Picture the scene. She's the head of marketing. I'm a fledgling brand storyteller keen to share my new found wisdom with the world. We introduce ourselves and start chatting. Things are friendly enough. The conversation seems to be going well. So well, in fact, I'm brimming with ideas and suggestions on how she could be improving her organisation's 'outward facing' website.

Pretty soon (but not soon enough) I sense something's wrong. I ask her if I should stop. A quiet 'yes' through pursed lips tells me all I need to know.

I stop.

But the damage is already done... and I wish that hole I've just dug myself is real.

For a long while I dread people asking me what I think of their website (I know, I know she didn't technically ask me). Then one day the perfect response comes tumbling from my lips quite by accident.

Now I turn the questioning back on them and ask: 'When you look at your website do you see a shop window or a conversation?'

‘Is your website a shop window or a conversation?’

Thankfully, it's pretty easy to differentiate the two. 

Knowing the answer will show you how important your story is for helping you to connect and I mean REALLY connect with your customers on a far more deeper level than every before — and more than your competitors. 

It’s actually quite easy to tell which one yours is.

Is your website is a shop window?

Shop windows are fairly easy to spot. Their first give-away is they tend to feature the word ‘we’ heavily, especially on the homepage. Everything here looks and works just like a shop window with all the messaging coming from the inside out.

A shop window tells the ‘audience’ everything it needs to know about an organisation. From its products and services to key people, the clients it works with, its achievements, founding story and anything else it deems worthy to impart.

Yes, it all SOUNDS very impressive.

To the organisation.

But it leaves the reader none the wiser as to who you really are and what you can do for them. In truth this is the website of a narcissist brand who make themselves the hero of their own story.

Most websites out there right now are shop windows.

Yes, most companies remain completely oblivious to the fact that their website is failing to connect with that one person looking at their website.

Yes, remember them? 

If your website is a shop window things need to change. 

Yes, it’s time to evolve

You see, things get interesting when a website exists to start a conversation.

In contrast to the shop window, the conversational website features the word ‘you’ heavily. 

If your website is a conversation, congratulations. You’re successfully connecting with that one person sitting in front of the screen and conversing with them in their world.

Not yours.

You see, your website should be the start of a conversation with someone that happens without you even having to be in the room.

People are screaming out for conversation, connection and authenticity more than ever right now. Your customers are no different.

Your story is the bridge between the two of you, the narrative that connects you. It’s not about you. It never was.

Stand Up For Your Story

If you’re looking to make an instant emotional connection with your customers book your free story health check now and find out:

⭑ How well you're telling your story?
⭑ How well you're connecting with existing and potential customers?
⭑ How to improve things?

Book yours now: using this link