Shortened attention spans, saturated markets and competitors that are just a click away. These are just some of the problems that a well-formulated elevator pitch on your website can help you combat.

Do you know websites that simply don't reveal what the company behind them does? A buzzword here and a phrase there, but you can only guess what is actually on offer for whom?

There are many such sites, especially among service providers. Of course, the more complex the service, the more explanation it requires. But don't even complex services essentially fulfill very simple needs?

What is an elevator pitch?

The core of your service is the benefit and added value that your target group derives from it. With the elevator pitch, you focus your communication on precisely these things. 

The presentation of your added value must be so short and crisp that you could convince your counterpart during a ride in an elevator.

The challenge is to formulate the pitch in such a way that you can't help but read it. To help you achieve this, I present my strategy for a successful elevator pitch on websites below.

The Elevator Pitch combines the disciplines of business strategy, copywriting and web design

The elevator pitch is basically a method that allows you to get to the heart of your value proposition in just a few sentences. It helps you to pick up visitors to your website as quickly as possible and filter out the right prospects for your offer. Offline, the rule of thumb is that you have 30 seconds to do this. As we know, things are different online. Here, we only have a few seconds to convince visitors.

My recommendation is to place it above the fold on your homepage and avoid anything that is unnecessarily distracting. So if you are currently using sliders or background videos with autoplay, think again about whether you really need them.

In order for your elevator pitch to be successful, you need to combine different disciplines:

• Business strategy: Ideally, you have a clear strategy, target group and USP for your business.
• Copywriting: Your elevator pitch must be short and to the point, but still contain everything important.
• Design: Your web design should focus on the essentials. Remove anything that distracts and make sure that the pitch is visible above the fold on all devices.

The elements of the elevator pitch are headline, subline and call-to-actions

Your elevator pitch ideally consists of the following elements, which are placed above the fold on your homepage:

• Headline
• Subline
• 1-2 call-to-actions

Headline: What do you do for whom and with what result?

The headline can be your motto and best represents the added value of your work or your products. Use the headline to answer the following question: What do you do for whom and with what result?

A simple formula for the headline

I help [target group] through [your performance] [result or added value of your work].

An example with this formula could be

Of course, this formula is not set in stone. But it will help you to quickly put an initial result on paper. I always recommend starting with this and then developing your own formulations if necessary.

Always focus on the added value of your service. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer and think about what they would gain from working with you. Think clearly in terms of benefits and not features!

By focusing on the benefits of your service, you automatically arouse the interest of your target group. The right people are attracted and the wrong ones are blocked! Ideally, you will receive fewer inquiries - but those with more potential.

Subline: Pitch your USP and the added value of your result to your target group

Now that you've got potential customers fired up with your headline, the next step is to convince them with further information and benefits. You do this with the subline. You use it to emphasize the message of your headline by giving readers details on the following topics:

• Your method
• Your unique selling point
• Your target group
• Your core service
• Your specialization

You don't have to include all of the points mentioned in the subline, because it shouldn't be too long. For example, if the target group has already been mentioned in the headline, you can dispense with it in the subline.

An example of the subline

I do not use a formula for the structure of the subline, as this is often very individual. However, it is good to use the points mentioned above as a guide. Because with the subline you want to:

• arouse further interest in the reader,
• confirm to him that he is at the right address with you and
• want to lead to your call-to-actions.

Call-to-actions: Draw users deeper into your website

Unfortunately, there is no recipe for the right call-to-action in your elevator pitch. However, I can give you a few approaches that you can use to develop your own ideas. As a rule of thumb, you can say the following: When developing your call-to-actions, always think about the user intention first.

Google has divided user intentions into four categories:

1. Visit in person: As a rule, local businesses are sought.
2. Website: The user searches for a page that is already known to him.
3. Do: The user wants to buy something, for example.
4. Know: The user is looking for information.

If you know the reasons why potential customers come to your website, you can derive call-to-actions for yourself. If you have more than one intention, focus either on the most urgent calls to action or those that best match your goals. For example, to satisfy two intentions, you can work with primary and secondary call-to-actions.

At the end of the day, however, these are all just guesses. That's why it's best to measure the success of your pitch with Google Analytics or heatmaps. If it turns out that very few people respond to it, you can make improvements and measure the changes too.

Practical tips for your elevator pitch

Take time to write

Even if it's only 2-4 sentences, formulating your pitch can take several hours. For example, I always tend to fit too much into one sentence at once. However, this quickly makes the sentence too long and too complex.

This leads to potential customers not reading the sentence in full or not understanding it properly. So reduce it to the bare essentials. This will also make it much easier to incorporate the whole thing into the design of your page.

Don't fall with the door into the house

Let's assume you run an online marketing agency. In that case, you want to attract as many new customers as possible via your website. Is it then the best tactic to open the door straight away and place the request "Request a quote now" directly in the header of your homepage? That would be like getting down on one knee and pulling out the ring on your first date...

Take a look at Google Analytics to see which pages are visited most frequently after the homepage. Can anything be deduced from this finding?

For example, if visitors go from the homepage to your services page particularly frequently, test a call-to-action that links to it. You can then advertise a free initial consultation on your services page.

Measure your successes

Flying blind rarely goes well. So test the success of your elevator pitch. Does anything change in the bounce rate? How many people click on the CTA? Think about whether and how you can measure the frequency of new customer inquiries.

With Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, event tracking and goals are quickly set up to measure the performance of your pitch.

Further sources

Want to learn more about the perfect elevator pitch for your website? Then listen to my podcast episode on the topic and get even more inspiration.

What is your opinion on the elevator pitch? What questions do you have for Felix? Feel free to use the comment function. Would you like to be informed about new articles on online marketing for agencies and freelancers? Then follow us on Twitter, Facebook or via our newsletter.