A website that leads with features loses the reader
Values first, benefits second, features third: the order that matches how people decide.
Every article
What I’ve learned writing and building sites for companies that make things. Some pieces come from my study of 3,828 manufacturer websites, and those are marked; the rest come from the work.
Get the headline right, then design around it
Why I start with copy, before any mood board, before anyone mentions the logo.
Decide what to say before anyone designs a page
Because nobody asks for it, few people offer it, and the words get decided badly by default.
Stop describing your product the way you describe it internally
Make the customer the subject of the sentence, not your company.
You hired an expert, so let them be one
Sign off on the strategy first. Then judge each page by outcomes, not by the shade of blue.
Research574 sites didn’t make the study base
Four ways a captured site left the study base, one rule of mine that was wrong, and why eleven real manufacturers nearly got dropped because of how their web address was built.
Research23% of shops publish a tolerance, 2% of those put it on the contact page
Twenty of 3,828 manufacturer sites put a tolerance on the contact page. That is 2% of the 889 that publish one anywhere.
Research9% of shops say guarantee, 7% of those say what happens if they break it
Most guarantees stop at the word itself. Six that name a real remedy are quoted in full.
Straight answers. You’ll hear what the fix would cost, and if it isn’t worth the money, I’ll say so.
Or write to me: [email protected]
More from me
The Commodity Test
Checks whether your site sounds like everyone else’s. It takes 30 seconds and asks for no email.
The manufacturer study
The headline findings, in the Field Manual, with links back into this list.
Tools
A suite of small, sharp tools for manufacturers and trades companies, most free to try.
Sharp Questions
A discovery-call tool with a live fit score, $90 one time.