Homepage
The homepage is incredibly simple. So simple that it only includes two headlines, a button and an image but it’s well targeted to the type of people they want to help:
“Your product can be copied in a heartbeat, your prices undercut, your people poached.”
“Uncover the one thing that can never be stolen.”
The headlines speak directly to business owners’ common fear of being copied. I know this is a common fear from learning about business over the last couple of years myself. Beliyf have hooked business owners in because they know this is one of the biggest fears they have. It’s the ideal start to this great design.
Great copywriting comes from a great understanding of your customers.
Although the second headline is a little vague, it has enough intrigue to find out what exactly can’t be stolen and only one action to take, there can be no confusion as to what to do next.
Your Journey to Beliyf
Following on from the Discover Beliyf page (another simple page after the homepage), you arrive at the start of “Your Journey to Beliyf”.
The design for this page is over 8,000 pixels long! For a while in the design industry we’ve been told to keep as much above the fold as we can, or at least the important stuff. This has changed over the last few years as designers have become better at communicating to clients that people do scroll.
See this study carried out by Huge Inc:
“We learned that participants almost always scrolled, regardless of how they are cued to do so – and that’s liberating. While it’s hard to make universal recommendations, we’d suggest that designers use the cue that works best in its context.”
Explore the screenshot to see how well the page flows from top to bottom, despite its length. Clever use of the “stepping” stones guide you through from one section to the next and each section is clearly defined with its own beautifully arranged collection of leaves.
Use the power of design to entice people down a page.
The stunning tree assortment of leaves at the end of the page is one of those moments where I wished it was something I could design.
Excellent Copywriting on this Page
Visually this design is wonderful but it’s a joy to read to. Here are some highlights:
“We’re here to take you on a journey to discover, frame and use the one thing nobody can ever steal. You.”
“Uncovering your Beliyf awakens a sense of wonder and unstoppable energy across your enterprise.”
“It turns customers into fans, employees into evangelists and the competition into dust.”
“How can every touchpoint be infused with a sense of your soul and your heart? What new opportunities are now revealed that weren’t visible before?”
“From your people, to your products, packaging to premises, we’ll help you animate your entire organisation with Beliyf.”
“So we dig into your deepest truth – your Beliyf, to draw creative inspiration and reimagine your communications in a coherent, consistent and compelling way.”
“Your Beliyf will become the life force of your reawakened, reenergised and uniquely vibrant organisation.”
“Wonder”, “energy”. “animate”. “awakens”. “reenergised”, “vibrant”. “creative”.
Words that ooze positivity and excitement are sprinkled generously throughout their story, expressing Beliyf’s passion and enthusiasm for the work they do. You can tell they care before you even talk to someone and if they’ve taken this much care with their own site, they’ll do the same for you.
The killer line comes at the end of the page:
“People will see themselves in your story and use it to tell their own. You’ll become an extension of who they are, making them not just customers or employees, but believers.”
Using all those positive words is all well and good, but at the end of the day, potential customers want to know the benefits of a product or service. Beliyf describe exactly what the result of their help will do for their clients.
Notice the smart copywriting technique of the periodic use of their name throughout this page, making sure you are aware of who they are, which is especially beneficial as they have a slightly odd name but this is their introduction to you so they certainly want you to remember them.
Focus
It’s very clear they’re very focused on one thing. They don’t do web design, SEO, web development, branding and every other digital service known to man. As they say themselves: “We help organisations articulate who they are and why they matter.”
As an introduction to Beliyf and what they offer, they want to guide you through the experience of who they are. You’ll find as you explore the site that there aren’t four or five things you can do, there’s only one. It’s very focused so they can achieve a goal.
Their goal is for you to find out who they are, like what they offer and contact them. The final step of this introduction process is the contact page.
For the reason of aiming towards a focused goal, it’s a perfectly fine choice to hide menu items behind a menu button, even at desktop sizes. Those who want to find more information can do so by exploring the menu.
The footer isn’t even included on previous pages until you reach this one. That’s how you know they’re deliberately focusing you down a path. General advice would say you must have a footer but there are times where ignoring design conventions can increase the effectiveness of a design.
Long Pages can be Extremely Effective
The length of this page reminds me of a landing page Sean McCabe designed to sell his Learn Lettering course:
“You’ll hear a lot of marketers tell you that you have to have your subscription box “above the fold,” but I’ve yet to hear of one experiencing the kind of numbers I did.”
Sean went on to make over $93,587 in just a few days. Clearly the length of the page didn’t negatively affect the success of his project. In fact, a longer page almost certainly helped because thoroughly why anyone should sign up and it was wildly successful!
You’ll also hear marketers say you’ve got to keep things very short and simple. An 8,000+ pixel long page is completely opposite to that advice.
When done well, long copy (and therefore long pages) can seriously boost performance, as Ramit Sethi found:
“In repeated testing with tens of thousands of data points, my long copy outperforms shorter versions. For example, I recently ran a test of 4 entirely different versions of an email. There were long versions, short versions, and minor variations on each.”
“In fact, the longest version won, beating out the next-best-email by nearly 50%…in revenue.”
The vast majority of “expert marketers” giving out advice simply have not tested long designs or copy.
Arm yourself with this information the next time a client wants to cram everything into the top of the page.
Creativity
It wasn’t a surprise to discover Beliyf was design by Mike Kus, one of the most creative web designers out there.
The visual design stands out in this rather drab world of flat design through the use of wonderful colours and painted leaves, wood and stones. A quick look at Mike’s dribbble account reveals his mix of digital and real world techniques:
“I collected the leaves, wood and pebbles for this project. I painted the leaves and then hand painted the patterns for the leaves. I did the same for the pebbles and the cross section of the tree trunk.”
It works beautifully and because no-one else is doing it, it feels unique and fresh, even though it isn’t the first time anyone has done something like this.
It contributes to a timeless design that will look just as good in five years time.
The creativity on show here is wonderful but it never takes away from the main message but enhances it. Their service is all about making their clients unique and they create trust by displaying their own uniqueness to the world.
I can imagine the design brief was something along the lines of
“Let us Contact You”
How often do you see a company offer to contact you? It’s very uncommon but that’s exactly what Beliyf do when you reach the contact page.
“We’re excited to see you become more of yourself and less of everyone else.”
Such a great way to encapsulate everything they’ve said previously in a single sentence.
Improvements
The call to action buttons are a little weak, visually. They get a little lost as a result. Being the great design it is however, there isn’t much to distract you. Having said that, they would stand out more if they were full colour buttons rather than text surrounded by a border (sometime referred to as ghost buttons).
Discover Your Beliyf
Make others believe in your own design work by learning from the great design Beliyf have released into the world.
Find your unique 10% to take your design work to the next level.
This is great design because it is simply good solid web design at its best. Just simple, straight to the point design.
