Robin Good: Excellent and insightful article by Marty Smith on the importance of featuring people faces prominently on your web site rather than creating fancy landing pages with widgets and calls to action that have no humans in it.
"I've noticed many startup websites are so in love with their widget, software or app they make IT the hero on their websites.
The problem is that I have tested every variation of people vs. thing you can imagine and PEOPLE crushed THINGS on engagement and conversion.
One of the consistent themes at Tim Ash's Conversion Conference this week was PEOPLE are important, people help sell. There were at least 3 confirmations of research we conducted when I was an Ecommerce Director showing:
a) People beat things in engagement and conversion.
b) People (or a single person) looking directly at the visitor increase engagement.
c) A person looking at your CTA (call to action) is increases engagement and conversion.
So why do most startup websites eschew people in favor of things?
...I share 4 of my favorite startup websites and half are close to understanding how conversion funnels work.
->>> ...people can buy anything from anyone now so they buy from people they like, people who they can love, respect and want to be around."
Mentioned in the article: KISSmetrics, DailyDigital, Argyle Social and Spring Metrics."
Rightful. Resourceful. 8/10
Original article: http://scenttrail.blogspot.fr/2012/06/startup-websites-people-not-things-sell.html
Via Martin (Marty) Smith