Website Copywriter Tips: Homepage Copy The Transition Zone

Have you read Paco Underhills fascinating book, Why We Buy, about the psychology of retail store shopping? One of his major tenets about brick and mortar shopping holds the key to effective homepage copy something he calls the transition zone. If your homepage copy creates a sales zone not a transition zone, you could be losing sales.

The Transition Zone Explained

Think about the last time you visited a brick and mortar store Maybe its raining or snowing outside. Maybe you just left the dry cleaner before arriving at the electronics store. As you first enter the store you constantly make adjustments to changes in lighting, temperature, sounds, and visual stimulation. You need to get your bearings. Underhill calls this part of the store the transition zone, a place for adjusting from outside to inside, not selling. Selling attempts in this early stage are lost.

When does your homepage copy start selling? Unless your answer is never, it is too soon.

The Trade Show Lesson

I remember that the worst trade show booth to have was just inside the front door of the trade center. Instead of making sales I was giving...