There are 4 SaaS homepage design principles you must know if you want high conversions.
Every time I’m on a call with an early stage Founder and we’re talking through their GTM strategy. At SOME point I’ll say “So I’m on your website…” and 9 times out of 10 I’ll hear, “Oh… We’re re-doing the website.”
I get it.
In the early stage, there’s so much we’re still trying to figure out. We’re in a constant state of changing the website to see what sticks. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you stopped the trial and error and got to a proper website? What would that entail?
On this post, I’m going to walk you through the 4 principles you need to know to build a high converting homepage for your SaaS business using the framework illustrated below. When you follow these principles, it’ll demystify the structure of your SaaS homepage and help you drive more conversions. Even more importantly, it’ll help you tether yourself to a core framework that you can stick to and iterate on.
Principle #1: Evoke Emotion
The point of this section is evoking emotion, getting them to stay, and getting them to trust you. This is the big thing people will look at such as your image,
Ultimately what you’re trying to communicate is “what is the problem you’re solving? what is the transformation you’re bringing?”
You need to communicate all that and more in a quick way because People will make a split decision to stay on your website or click the back button based on what you say in the emotion section. Think of it as your email headline. If the subject of an email is wrong, it doesn’t matter how good it is inside, people will not click to open it. The same can be said of your emotion page.
Ultimately there are some core things that come into this. You need to know you’re:
- Value proposition
- Strategic Narrative
- Define how you differentiate
You are evoking emotion and desire here with a hero word and quick screenshot. The way you come to those things are not by changing these elements every week but really though developing the three things mentioned above.
One quick thing that can comes from this is they may feel compelled but they still won’t trust you. Which is why an important part of the emotion section is some set of logos of customers that are actually using your product. the bigger and more recognizable the logos the more powerful this will be.
One you have that you need to decide on the call to action (CTA).
SaaS website best practice #1: understand how a homepage is structures.
Principle #2: What Will Your CTA Be?
The call to action is saying, “If you believe what I’m saying. If this is the result and transformation you want then here is what you need to do”. Now, this is an important piece.
What you need to decide is if you’re going to have a talk to sales button or free trial button?
Sometimes people cheat and try to do both but pick one that is most appropriate for your market. Who are you talking to and what is their purchase behavior? These are questions you need to answer in your SaaS Sales Model before you put just any button at the top of your homepage.
SaaS website best practice #2: best repeat the CTA throughout your homepage (entire website really).
Principle #3: Present Logic for the Undecided
Only a certain amount of people will be sold on emotion and CTA. The others will not be convinced which is where the logical part comes in to play. There are some critical things you need to include in your logical section:
- Features
- Benefits
- Use cases (list out the 4-5)
- Actual testimonials (i.e. case study video)
A lot of times you will put in a bunch of fluff but that’s not how people convert. They are trying to understand the importance of your product and if it really will help with. When you show all the things above they will then take the call to action.
SaaS website best practice #3: a homepage is different from a landing page. On a homepage you can incorporate your ‘meet the team’ or funding you have raised whereas the landing page you wouldn’t even though you follow the same framework.
At this point, there will still will be people who are not convinced so you want to add one more thing. An element of fear.
Principle #4: Show Fear of What They are Missing
You want to tell when what they are missing out by not taking action right now. This is when you link to your manifesto that teaches them about the macro trend, how you think about it, and the big transformation you’re bringing. It essentially teaches people why and how you exist.
Round out your homepage by linking to your manifesto. It could be something like, “hey, you don’t have to commit but here is a free ebook so you won’t lose out”.
When you do it this way you make sure your homepage addresses all the objections. That is how you have a high converting SaaS homepage design.
Are you starting to see the power in this? The power in this is when you do the root work all the pieces to your homepage fall in line because you laid the foundation. The homepage almost becomes a non-important activity because you already did the work.
If you want to dig into these principles more, watch my latest Unstoppable episode from my Youtube channel on scaling SaaS businesses where I walk you through each of these and illustrate each of the points 👇
When you incorporate these 4 key principles, you’ll be able to increase the conversion rate of your SaaS homepage. And even more importantly, you’ll take the guess work out of iterating on it because you’ll know exactly what component of the page you’re testing, tweaking and iterating to increase conversions.
Now, if you’re still trying to figure out all the pieces – your value proposition, ICP, then I invite you to check out my SaaS GTM Coaching Program. Inside this program, I work with 65+ SaaS Founders to craft their messaging, positioning, strategic narrative and execute with a scalable GTM Machine.
