🎉 If your home page headline is >8 words, you're doing it wrong

Welcome to Conversion Party #43, featuring:

• Heatmap update: Getcha popcorn ready.

• CRO Deep Dive: Above four, more isn’t always more.

• CRO Hack #452: Continuity’s a powerful drug.

• Obligatory Roundup™️: Because it’s a SaaS newsletter.

and an unmissable dose of irony.

Let’s get into it.

HEATMAP UPDATE
Getcha popcorn ready

You subscribe to this newsletter. Maybe you’re a customer. My point is… You like us at least a little bit. So I wanted to share something with you. Something nobody outside of heatmap slack has laid their eyes on.

That gorgeous British Racing Green plastered with pithy prose? That’s the hero on our new home page. It’s part of a broader brand refresh at the foundation of some major product changes (more on that in August) that’ll send heatmap to the moon. And you got to see it first. That’s real love.

New site’ll be live in about two weeks. Thoughts?

PS. And because I’m absolutely certain you care, Meta has kowtowed to our incessant requests. We’ve got an ad account. Don’t click ‘em unless you’re buying. Please.

CRO DEEP DIVE
Above four, more isn’t always more

When it comes to home pages, headlines should never be less than 4 words, and never more than 8 words.

Baymard, Material Design, Human Interface Guidelines. They’ve all got data-backed studies that point to the same thing: 4-8 word home page headline is the sweet spot.

Does that surprise you?

Most folks don’t understand that sparseness can lead to quicker, higher quality outcomes.

Your #1 goal is to incite a purchase. To make that happen, visitors need to stick around. But, on average, 70% of all traffic bounces from your site. Meaning the prospect spent <3 seconds on the site or took no action (like a scroll) to indicate interest. This is what we at heatmap call an unengaged session.

How do we avoid unengaged sessions?

Convey value as fast as possible.

Example: Carnivore Snax

What’s working?

• The headline is 5 words total.

• You know the main value prop immediately: Meat & Salt only.

• You are interested to know what it actually is (assuming you’re cold traffic)

• Because the line is easy/quick to read there is a natural flow that leads to the H2, which gives more detail on the actual form/function of the product the Hero copy has described.

• The structure of this page:

  • Quick Hero Copy: Your USP’s

  • H2: What it actually is

  • Social Proof: Use well known celebrities endorsement to seal the deal.

  • Next shop → add to cart city.

What could be better?

• I would love to see one of these in someone’s hand, instead of bags that mean nothing to me. Flavors are interesting but I want to imagine these products being eaten and because of their unique form, getting someone in the process of enjoying this new way to think about meat is fantastic.

• Would like if the reviews were hyperlinked to an area I could go examine but not necessary.

Takeaways

• Less is more - your main job is to use your hero copy as a secondary hook for the customer who is checking out your website post whatever drove them their in the first place.

• Make sure you consider the story you’re telling with the Hero + H2 copy, that will drive your customers to take their first action on your page to signal early intent.

• Combine this with a strong image that conveys what your product is in a unique yet human way.

CRO HACK
#452: Continuity’s a powerful drug

MOSTLY RANDOM
Obligatory Roundup™️

• In every permutation, known and unknown.

• The fact that every brand hasn’t updated their packaging with a QR code linked directly to a featured product cart to make re-purchasing a breeze is downright madness.

• “Get the movie (and a demo).” Best SaaS CTA of 2024. The lawyers part is 🤌.

• Fishwife. The most magnificent CPG design I've seen in a minute. I don’t even like sardines and I copped some at WF.

• Chase is about to buy a sprinter van.