3 elements for successful brochure website homepages

Very often your websites homepage is the first impression any of your customers will have of you.

Like a warm smile and a strong handshake, your homepage sets the stage for how your customers think of you, and what action they will take next – will it be the one you want?

Other than a compelling design, and good writing, most successful homepages for brochure websites have at least these three elements:

1. Home page visual focal point: A picture that “says it all”.

For Casa Duna (a cottage in Southampton Ontario), an animated slideshow for the focal point quickly takes a visitor through a series of beautiful pictures highlighting the cottage and the area.

For Toronto video production company Video Excellence, we used a series of images and text as an intro to the range of services offered.

2. A BRIEF bit of homepage text that describes what you are offering.

For us (a Toronto website design company), we start with a greeting and a question highlighting how our job is to fulfill your goals: “Hello. Where would you like to go?”.

You will notice we went for subtle and didn’t include a big picture – instead focusing on a core message, our bold arrow, topped off with our ladybug for humanity.

For Toronto beach spa and salon Hair Dynamix, we used this brief bit of homepage text to establish the location and their primary benefit – being a family owned business with a personal touch.

3. Keep it simple.

You may have a lot to say, but let your home page be the beginning of the conversation.

Use your text and picture focals to convey the primary elements you want your visitors to “takeaway”. Maybe add a little extra direction, such as the right-hand internal “ad” we setup for Collingwood & Port Carling interior design firm Peaks and Rafters.

Don’t start the relationship by trying to tell your potential customer everything about you. Give your visitor a good first impression. They can get the details as they explore your website (or better yet – call you!)

Side note: Did you notice the descriptive links to our clients (and ourselves) in this blog? We did this to help Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines know what these sites are about.