The 3—30—3 Rule
The 3-Second Rule of Engagement: View the slide story
What is the 3-30-3 Rule? (Of Engagement)
No, it is not Tweedle Dee’s proportions. It’s our way of knowing how your website’s home page is performing. In this age of shrinking attention spans, a few seconds can make all the difference in conversion. The 3-30-3 Rule as we have applied it here is the same simple rule of “You only have one chance to make a good first impression.” Visitors get it in the blink of an eye. Yup, in under 3 seconds.
How does your website perform? If you are not opening anybody’s wallet, then it’s not doing its job.
Here’s how it works:
- Great! You have a visitor to your website. If they stay for 3 seconds, you have their attention.
- If they stop and look around for 30 seconds, they know they are in the right place for their search and are interested in your product or service. Even better.
- If they stay on your site for 3 minutes, an elephant’s life on the web, you have engaged them and are likely to convert them to a customer.
This is exactly what you are looking for.
How to catch people’s attention in less than 3 seconds.
The 2 things that grab people in an instant are:
- The headline
- The visuals
The main headline on a website, brochure, presentation or anything really, has to make a big impact. Encyclopedias have been written about how to do this, but hiring a pro who knows how is a good investment.
The headline has to “get” you, and do one of 3 things:
- Show the value of your product or service (how you solve a problem)
- Describe what you do or offer (straightforward, direct)
- Show what you get (what’s in it for me?)
Visuals can grab the eye, but there’s a pitfall.
If your visuals do not match your company’s brand positioning (who you are, your brand, your concept) it just doesn’t do it. Many people use images of the city they are in because they didn’t do the work to design the company’s unique place in the market. Those pages fall flat in 3 seconds.
A client came to us for a redesign and showed us images of lighthouses they wanted to use for the home page. My answer was, maybe, maybe not, depending on the concept and headline. That actually won me the job. Footnote: we did not use lighthouses.
Take a look at our video. We asked our friends, family and colleagues to make us fall in love with them in 3 seconds to illustrate this point. It wasn’t easy, but was a lot of fun!
Website analytics at work
An analysis of your website can help you gather extremely useful information. Analytics are easy to get, such as installing Google Analytics. Look to see which pages have been viewed, and how long they stay—if they come to your home page and leave (bounce rate), it’s time to seriously reassess your website.
A good web designer will know what to look for, be able to evaluate your home page and website with an experienced eye, and advise you on how to improve it to engage visitors and lead them to view more pages, which can, of course, lead to a sale.
Is your Website working hard for you?
Let’s face it—if your site is more than 3 years old, or looks it, it’s not doing its job. Your website is your “Virtual Voice” out there selling for you, 24/7, and should be bringing you business. Design changes, technology gets more advanced, and the user wants a better experience every day.
Converting your 30-second visitors into a 3-minute “stayers” is your website’s job. If it’s not doing it, fire it! And hire a web design expert like, well, us.
