Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

A premise is a logical statement used to support a conclusion.

So?

Suppose we look at a Web site as an argument. Think of it as "you" telling the world that you exist, you`re interesting, and you should be noticed---at least that`s what you`re arguing. Hopefully, you`re also suggesting (arguing) that you should get money from the world, and that you`re going to exchange something for that money that`s really, really cool. :-)

That`s your side the argument. The world basically says, "So?"

What`s the most basic thing you have in your argument? What`s the foundational premise that supports everything else on the site---that leads people to the conclusion that, yes, you do indeed have something interesting and cool?

This is a different way of asking what it is that you *offer* rather than what you`re doing. Lots of people put up a Web site. That`s what they`re doing. But they assume the site makes a complete and compelling "argument" in favor of getting someone *else* to do something.

For example, what`s the basic premise for Amazon.com? What`s the basic premise for Wikipedia, or for Startup Nation? Aren`t those examples instantly clear as to their bottom-line statement?

If you`re clear on that basic premise, then the next step is to go through each and every page on the site and examine how it supports that basic premise. How does it "stick to the point?" After that, the final step is to examine all the written content on the site, to see if it also supports that basic premise.

I think a hard thing for a lot of people is to have a page that needs to *not* support the premise.

For example, if you have a landing page that is geared towards newsletter signups, you don`t have to communicate the entire value of your program on that page. You only need the specifics of the value of the newsletter to get people to sign up. Anything else is just distracting.

Okay, let`s suppose your basic premise is, "We build great Web pages and Web sites."

The newsletter is part of that argument: "Our newsletter keeps you informed as to what the world considers to be a great Web site these days."

Or it could be, "Get our newsletter to figure out how to solve problems when making a great Web site."

In other words, why have a newsletter at all if it doesn`t support the basic premise of the entire site?

The basic premise and the value on a landing page are two different things.

I can have a premise of my company which is something like "we build great web sites".

But the landing page`s premise is "Sign up for this because you will get free online marketing advice that will help you with your business."
It has nothing to do with me, or my expertise, or anything else. I`m selling the value of the newsletter to the person considering signing up. So the premise of the landing page is "convey the value to get as many people to sign up as possible".

Once they sign up or bypass by clicking no thanks, I can use some writing to state the premise of the site, which is "we build great web sites".

Am I making more sense? This is a complicated topic for short answers.

Oh, and the premise for the newsletter isn`t "we build great websites". It`s usually something like "put lots of people on your list so you can market all your stuff to them along with the tips". You know, if I had a list or anything.

I`m saying that if you have a landing page that has nothing to do with your site premise, I`d argue that the landing page is pointless.

I`m fully aware that plenty of people would argue that it`s definitely got a point, having pages that don`t associate with their basic business premise. I`m not getting into that. It`s like offering a flying school, then having a page that tells viewers to sign up for a fly-fishing trip in Wyoming.

What I`m saying is that if you want to have a consistent, organized, marketable Web site, you have to first have a basic premise for why you`re in business at all. See?

I`m also aware that lots of people believe that having a newsletter is supposedly a marketing tool. But to have a page on your site that explains nothing whatsoever about the site, then asks someone to randomly sign up for a newsletter also makes no point.

Conveying "the value" of the newsletter can`t happen unless it speaks to the "value" being offered by the overall site itself.

And I`m saying you can have more than one premise.

The premise of your squeeze page or landing page can (and often, should) be different than the premise of your main site. Premise of landing is "get on our list (because X, Y, Z)" while premise of site is "we do this".

See this is why it`s a complicated conversation!

I don`t have a landing page, so it`s a bit different.
But we did just redo some text on the front ... it`s a placeholder right now, I have to fix it in a few minutes .. that really has not much to do with our services. We`re selling English! Haha.

So there is more than just the overall premise. There`s a focus of each page, a switch for the landing page, everything has its place and you have to cut off the extra fluff and make sure things go in the right places.

I agree that each page has its own function within the overall argument. What I`m saying is that the site itself begins with a fundamental premise.

In other words, I`m suggesting that people might analyze their entire Web site as an integrated argument. Like any compelling argument, it should have a foundation.

It doesn`t mean that an argument doesn`t or can`t use many "supporting" premises. In fact, many premises can be the antithesis of the founding premise, used as a sort of Devil`s Advocate focus.

But if 1 site has two or more unrelated premises at work, the overall result is a "dis-integration" of the message. It sends confusing signals to the potential customer, thereby making it harder to convince them to do something.