How to tell if your Website passes the StoryBrand Grunt Test [Video]

Table of Contents

Video Transcript

Does your website pass the grunt test?

If not, you are losing sales, but first, what is the grunt
test or the five second rule?

If you can’t answer these three questions within the first
five or 10 seconds of somebody landing on your website, then you are losing
sales.

What are those questions?

Number one, first of all, what do you do? What does your
brand do or sell or offer? Okay, simple question, right? But you’d be surprised
how many brands forget this.

Number two, how do you help me? Or how do you make my life
better? Okay, is it a consumer visiting your website? How do you do that? Okay?
That’s a nice way to put in a subheader on your website.

Number three, what do you want me to do next? Okay, how do
we transact? Okay, what’s your direct call to action? Maybe that’s the better
question.

So, this is a website we were reviewing earlier today called
Flying Kite and its headline says, “Can you describe your business in one
sentence or less?” question mark. Does that answer the first question,
what does this brand do? Okay, now, be critical on your own site. Take a look
at your own site, and ask these three questions, okay?

If you get the grunt test right, you are more likely, tohave people engage with your brand, okay?

To be pulled in or hooked by your message, they’ll stick around longer, and if people stick around longer, they’re more likely to transact, they’re more likely to make a purchase or book an appointment depending on your business.

So, as I scroll through this website, I found buried in the
copy here, this organization does workshops and coaching. Okay, they help
people develop stories and marketing of sorts. And I really liked this line
here, it says, “For business owners that are non-markets.”

So, I would say something like, you know, if we’re making
this the headline of my website, I would say something like,

“Workshops and coaching to help business owners become better marketers.”

There you go, “Workshops and coaching to help business owners become better marketers.” Now, there are dozens of ways there are probably better ways we can write that headline, But that there passes the grunt test. It says, “What we do, workshops and coaching, or even another element actually, is to who we help, so people can self identify, “Oh, yes I’m a business owner. I must be in the right place.” Okay? “To help me become a better marketer.” Okay? We haven’t even done a headline and the subheader, that’s just a headline. Okay, so, you know, it’s very easy to answer those two questions in a very small number of words. So, that passes the grunt test.

The third thing you’ll notice missing here when we did this website review is, there’s no direct call to action. Now sure, I can say that it says “Get started here,” But the words get started are a little bit vague or a little bit ambiguous. I’m not sure when I land on this site, what I’m clicking or what’s going to happen next, am I booking an appointment? Am I joining a subscription? Am I going shopping on a…. Is this an eCommerce site? So you can see how, you know, if you use words that are vague or ambiguous, you cause the brain or the consumer’s brain to have a little bit of overwhelm and that’s dangerous because when the brain gets overwhelmed, okay, they risk or you risk them going up to this ugly button in the top left-hand corner, the button in your browser when they hit that, they leave your website and they go and visit your competitors’ websites, right? Or they go back worse, they go away and procrastinate. So make sure the call to action is something like buy now or join now or subscribe or a schedule a call, get 30-day free trial or whatever it is but all those, ones I just listed, are very, very clear. There’s no uncertainty about what I’m clicking, I know exactly what’s going to happen next if I click that button. So be very clear, make sure the call to action is bold, we spoke about them in an earlier video, I placed it underneath the headline and I’d also placed it in the top right-hand corner. Repetition of a call to action is important, but that’s separate from the grunt test.

In summary, go back to your website, see if you pass the grunt test. Question one, what does your brand do? What do you offer? Question two, how do you help me or make my life better? And number three, what do you want me to do next? What’s your direct call to action. Make it clear, make it simple, make it unambiguous, get those things right and you’ll start to see more sales, bye for now.

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James Hannan

StoryBrand Certified Guide | Business Made Simple Coach | Social Media Wizard

Results and Co – Part of the Rise Group

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