Pull up your favorite agency website. Without knowing that firm by name, I'm willing to bet that what you'll see is pretty predictable: a beautiful home page dominated by a hero image or video, minimal text, and a portfolio that showcases their best work in carefully curated detail. The typography is impeccable. The color palette is sophisticated. The photography is stunning.

And it's not generating new business.

Most agencies I have consulted are run by intelligent, thoughtful, passionate, and hard-working people who would never prioritize aesthetics over strategy in their work for their clients. Yet they often do just that when working on their own websites. When I point this out—gently—I usually hear the same excuses: We're too busy to treat our own marketing the way we would a client's. Or, We want to show the world what we're really capable of (the implication being because either our clients won't let us or we wouldn't dare).

Both things are understandable. But neither is permissible! The first excuse is easy to deflect in a way I have never met with argument. No agency should be so busy that they cannot market themselves properly. If you can do it for a client, you must do it for yourself. You know this already! You just don't have anyone holding you accountable to it.

The second excuse is representative of something far more difficult to solve because it emerges from the subconscious of the creative mind. Making something to represent ourselves out in the world triggers a deep need to prove not only our expertise but our worth. Of course every designer cares deeply about craft, but this is more than that. Knowing how quick and sharp our own judgment can be of anything anyone else puts out into the world only sharpens the imagined blade of the same anyone else who might ever type in our website's address. And so we belabor the visual impressions, burnish every surface, throw every interaction trick we've got at it. But we have to remember that we're making something for a future client, not a peer, and not ourselves.

A prospect visiting your site for the first time doesn't care about your design aesthetic nearly as much as you think they do. They care about whether you can solve their problem.

This is hard to do. The excuses demonstrate why: It takes time we believe we don't have and it takes insight and self-awareness to get past our incredibly powerful drive to use our website design as a vehicle to meet our own needs rather than those of our prospects—as a mirror, rather than a tool. That is why I created Prospect Experience Design. It's a simple system that will provide the support you need to accelerate and focus your decisions.

The Three Pillars of PX

Prospect Experience Design is built on three foundational principles:

Awareness → specific, targeted messaging

Your prospects aren't starting from zero. They have a problem they're trying to solve, a goal they're trying to reach, or a question they're trying to answer. Your job is to make it immediately clear that you understand their situation and have the expertise to help. This isn't about clever taglines or brand positioning statements. It's about clarity. Within three seconds of landing on your home page, a prospect should be able to answer: "What is this? Is it relevant to me?"

Understanding → efficient information design

Once you have their attention, you need to build understanding—quickly. Most people will not read your carefully crafted copy. They'll scan it. They'll look for signals in your page's structure, your visual hierarchy, your headlines. If your design doesn't communicate efficiently, you'll lose them before they ever get to your best thinking. This means treating structure as content. It means using visual language to guide attention, not just to look good. It means accepting that 80% of your visitors will never read more than your headlines, and designing accordingly.

Action → focused, limited, measurable choices

Finally, every page needs to guide prospects toward a clear next step. Not five next steps. Not a menu of options. One primary action that moves them forward on the path you've designed. This is where most agency websites fall apart. They offer too many choices, too many ways to explore, too many paths that lead nowhere. Good prospect experience means controlling the journey. It means designing a path from your home page to your offering overview to your service pages to your case studies—a path that builds qualification at every step so that by the time someone contacts you, they're already 80% sold.

These three pillars work together to create a website that makes the best use of a prospect's limited attention in order to elevate only right-fit opportunities for you to pursue.

PX Does What UX Doesn't: It Defines Users and Prioritizes Outcomes

Here's the fundamental difference: UX doesn't necessarily define users or prioritize outcomes. It designs for flexibility, for exploration, for letting people find their own path.

PX does the opposite. It defines exactly who the user is (a prospect evaluating your expertise), and it prioritizes a specific outcome (moving them toward qualification and contact). It's prescriptive by design.

This doesn't mean PX ignores good UX principles. You still need clear information architecture. You still need accessible, readable typography. You still need intuitive navigation. But you're applying all of those disciplines in service of a specific goal: generating qualified leads.

That's the shift. That's what makes PX different. And that's why it works.

Let me tell you a story.

In her book Visual Intelligence, Amy Herman shares the story of Derreck Kayongo, a Ugandan refugee who arrived in the United States in the 1990s. One evening, Kayongo stepped into the shower in his hotel room and immediately noticed something strange. The bar of soap he had opened and used the night before had been replaced with a new bar, sealed in a small cardboard box.

Confused, he brought the new bar down to the front desk. "I think there's been a mistake," he said. "I already have soap. Will I be charged for this?"

The concierge assured him the soap was complimentary. "We replace the soap every day for every guest. No charge."

Kayongo was stunned. "What do you do with the old bars?"

"Housekeeping throws them away."

Kayongo thought about this. If even half the hotels in America replaced soap daily, that was hundreds of millions of bars of soap being dumped into landfills every year. He couldn't get it out of his head.

He began collecting used soap from hotels. He arranged to have it processed and recycled. This was the beginning of the charity he created, now known as Clean the World. Thanks to Kayongo's work, over 100 tons of soap have been recycled and redistributed to 32 countries as part of a hygiene program he designed.

Why am I telling you this story?

Because Kayongo saw something that millions of other people had seen—a bar of hotel soap—and perceived it completely differently. Where most of us see abundance or entitlement or just ignore it entirely, Kayongo saw waste. He saw need. He saw opportunity.

Understanding reality is pattern-matching. Everything we see is, in less than a second, interrogated by every sense we have, named, categorized, cross-referenced, and filed away. But that understanding is entirely subjective. We perceive things through the lens of our experience, our expectations, our needs.

This is how your prospects see your website. They're not reading it the way you wrote it. They're scanning it, matching it against patterns they've already formed, and making snap judgments about whether it's relevant to them.

If you want to design effective prospect experiences, you need to understand how that pattern-matching actually works.

Heuristic Processing: The 1-3 Second Reality

Here's what happens when someone lands on your website for the first time.

Within one to three seconds—before they've read a single sentence, before they've clicked anything, sometimes before your page has even finished loading—they've already asked and answered three critical questions:

1. What is this?
2. Is it relevant to me?
3. What should I do next?

This process is called heuristic processing. It's a rapid, judgmental scan that allows us to extract meaning from visual cues and ignore detail. We do this because we have to. We're bombarded with more information than we can possibly process in full, so our brains have learned to take shortcuts.

Those shortcuts are based on visual language, not text. When someone scans your page, they're processing:

• How the content is arranged (what's big, what's small, what's clustered together)
• What stands out visually (color, contrast, white space)
• Bits and pieces of text (headlines, pull quotes, button labels—not full paragraphs)

They're not reading. They're looking. And from that looking, they're constructing a rapid understanding of what your page is, whether it matters to them, and what you want them to do.

This means that visitors to your web page will scan it and draw conclusions initially from visual language alone—including fragments of text—but not from reading and processing complete phrases or sentences.

Let me put some numbers to this. Research shows that users form a first impression of a website in as little as 50 milliseconds. Eye-tracking studies show they spend about 2.6 seconds scanning before focusing on a specific element. The average B2B web page session is just over a minute. And session duration, scroll rate, and conversion rate are all declining.

Meanwhile, the average adult reads at about 250-300 words per minute.

Do the math. If someone spends 60 seconds on your page, they could read about 250 words—assuming they were reading the entire time, which they're not. They're scrolling, scanning, processing visual information, deciding whether to stay or leave.

This is your reality. You're not designing for readers. You're designing for scanners who might become readers if—and only if—you can convince them in those first few seconds that what you have is worth their focused attention.

Why Just One Thing?

This is why primary actions matter so much.

If your page offers multiple paths forward—read a case study, browse services, check out the blog, meet the team, download a guide—you're forcing prospects to make a decision. And every decision requires cognitive effort. The more options you present, the harder that decision becomes, and the more likely they are to choose none of them.

But if your page makes it crystal clear what the most important next step is—if the visual hierarchy, the button placement, the surrounding white space all point to a single action—you've removed that friction. You've made it easy.

This doesn't mean you can't have secondary actions. Of course you can. But they need to be clearly secondary. The priority of actions must be communicated through visual language, not just through your intentions.

The Three Questions, Revisited

Let's go back to those three questions prospects are answering in their first few seconds on your site:

1. What is this?

Your page's structure answers this before your copy does. If I see a large hero image, a short headline, and a grid of project thumbnails below, I know instantly: this is a portfolio. If I see a clear positioning statement, a list of services, and testimonials, I know: this is a service provider explaining what they do.

Structure communicates before content.

2. Is it relevant to me?

This is where your positioning language matters, but not in the way you think. You're not trying to be clever or memorable. You're trying to be immediately recognizable. You're trying to trigger a pattern match in the prospect's mind: "Yes, this is for people like me with problems like mine."

Relevance is perceived through recognition, not persuasion.

3. What should I do next?

This is entirely about visual priority. Where does my eye go after I've scanned the headline? What's the largest, most prominent interactive element on the page? What does the white space around it tell me about its importance?

If I can't answer this question in three seconds, I'll answer it myself—by leaving.

So far, I've told you what's broken and why. I've explained how prospects actually behave when they land on your site, and why most agency websites fail to account for that behavior.

Now let's talk about what makes Prospect Experience Design different—and why it works.

Expertise-Driven Personas

In UX, personas are typically built around demographics, motivations, and preferences. You might create a persona for "Sarah, the 35-year-old marketing director who values creativity and wants a partner who understands her industry." You'd document her goals, her pain points, her preferred communication style.

This is useful for many types of design work. But for expertise-driven businesses—agencies, consultancies, professional services—it's too broad.

What you need to know isn't Sarah's age or her preferences. What you need to know is:

• Does she have decision-making authority? Is she the one who can say yes, or is she gathering information for someone else?
• What information does she need to make a purchase decision? What proof does she require? What questions must be answered before she'll consider reaching out?
• What language does she use to describe her problem? Not the language you use to describe your solution, but the words she'd type into a search bar or say in a meeting when explaining what she needs.

PX personas focus on decision-making authority and information needs. This shift—from motivations to requirements—changes everything about how you structure your content.

Instead of trying to "connect" with Sarah or "speak to her values," you're simply ensuring that every page she visits provides the specific information she needs to move forward in her evaluation. You're removing friction. You're building confidence. You're qualifying her at every step so that when she does contact you, she's already convinced you're the right fit.

Design By Intent, Not By Data

Here's the most important shift PX requires: you stop trying to predict what prospects will do, and you start designing what you want them to do.

Most agencies approach their website redesign by looking at analytics. "People are clicking here, so let's make that more prominent. People are leaving from this page, so let's add more content to keep them engaged."

This is backward. You're letting past behavior—behavior that happened on a poorly designed site—dictate future design decisions. You're optimizing for the wrong thing.

PX starts with a different question: What do we want qualified prospects to do?

Maybe the answer is: "Land on the home page, read our positioning, proceed to our offering overview, select a relevant service, see proof that we can deliver, and contact us."

Great. Now design for that. Structure your pages so that path is the easiest, most obvious one to follow. Make every other path require more effort.

You're not predicting behavior. You're creating it.

Good marketing doesn't predict behavior; it creates it.

This is why I don't rely heavily on heat maps, A/B testing, or user recordings. Those tools can be useful for optimization once you have a solid foundation. But if your foundation is broken—if your site doesn't have clear positioning, prioritized actions, or a controlled path—then all that data is just documenting failure.

Fix the foundation first. Design by intent. Then, if you want to optimize, you'll actually have something worth optimizing.

What You've Learned

If you take nothing else from this section, take this:

Prospect Experience Design is about clarity, priority, and control. It's about accepting how people actually behave when they visit your site—scanning, not reading; deciding in seconds, not minutes—and designing accordingly.

It's about defining exactly who your prospects are, what information they need, and what actions you want them to take. And then structuring your content to make that path as clear and frictionless as possible.

In the next section, we'll get specific. I'll walk you through every page type that shapes prospect experience—from your home page to your case studies to your content hub—and show you exactly what each one needs to do its job.

But before we do that, I need you to let go of one idea: that your website exists to showcase your work.

It doesn't. Your website exists to generate qualified opportunities. Everything else is secondary.

Once you accept that, the rest becomes much easier.

Your positioning pages are not isolated. They work together as a system—a controlled path that moves prospects from awareness to understanding to qualification.

Here's how that path should work:

A prospect lands on your home page. In three seconds, they understand what you do and whether it's relevant to them. The primary action is clear: proceed to learn more about your offering.

They click through to your offering overview. Here, they get a brief introduction to your business structure—why you do what you do and how you get it done. They see proof that others have trusted you. And they see a list of your services. The primary action: select a service that matches their need.

They land on a service page. Now they're reading about a specific area of expertise. They learn what makes this service unique, what outcomes they can expect, and they see proof—a testimonial from someone like them who needed this exact thing. The primary action: see how this has worked for others like them.

They click through to a case study. This is where they get the proof they need—proof of results (quantitative outcomes), proof of fit (this worked for an organization like theirs), and proof of quality (you did this work well). The primary action: understand which service made this outcome possible, or get in touch.

At any point in this journey, they might also visit your results page—a scannable overview of micro-results that gives them the same value as reading five case studies, but in 60 seconds instead of 20 minutes. Or they might land on a landing page from a targeted campaign, designed to align with a specific keyword or pain point and move them directly toward contact.

This is a controlled path. At each step, prospects build understanding. At each step, they qualify themselves. By the time they reach out to you, they already know:

• What you do
• Whether it's relevant to them
• What outcomes you deliver
• That you've worked with organizations like theirs

Your conversation with them isn't about qualification anymore. It's about closing.

This is what good prospect experience creates. Not just traffic. Not just engagement. Qualified opportunities.

The Three Layers of Understanding

As a prospect moves through your positioning pages, they're building understanding in three specific areas:

1. What you do

This happens on your home page and offering overview. It's not about your process or your philosophy or your team. It's about the services you provide and the problems you solve. Be specific. Be clear. If someone can't explain what you do after reading these two pages, you've failed.

2. How your expertise can benefit them

This happens on your service pages. Here's where you explain outcomes, not outputs. You're not listing deliverables—you're describing results. What changes for your clients when they work with you? What becomes possible that wasn't before? This is where prospects start to see themselves in your work.

3. The results they can expect

This happens on your case studies and results pages. Proof matters more than promises. Show measurable outcomes. Show recognizable clients. Show the quality of your work in context. This is where confidence gets built—or lost.

The more a prospect understands before they contact you, the more your direct conversations with them can focus on closing instead of educating.

Why the Path Must Be Controlled

I use the word "controlled" intentionally. Some clients push back on this. "Shouldn't we let prospects explore? Shouldn't we give them options?"

Here's the thing: they already have options. They have infinite options. They can click away to a competitor. They can close the tab. They can get distracted by an email notification.

What they don't have is clarity about what to do next on your site.

When you offer too many paths—read a case study, browse all services, check out the blog, meet the team, download a guide—you're not being helpful. You're being overwhelming. Every choice requires cognitive effort. The more options you present, the more likely they are to choose none of them.

But when you design a clear, logical path—when each page has one obvious next step that builds on what they just learned—you're removing friction. You're making it easy. You're guiding them toward the information they need without making them work for it.

This doesn't mean you eliminate all other navigation. Of course people can still access your main menu, your footer links, your search function. But it does mean you make one path dramatically easier than all the others.

That's control. And it works.

Your home page has one job: make it immediately clear what you do and direct qualified prospects to learn more.

That's it. Not impress them. Not showcase your best work. Not tell your founding story. Make it clear what you do, and send them to your offering overview.

Most agency home pages fail at this because they're trying to do too much. They want to be everything to everyone—a portfolio, a brand statement, a team introduction, a thought leadership platform, and a conversion tool all at once.

The result is a page that does none of those things well.

Here's what your home page actually needs:

1. Positioning

This is the first thing someone should see. Not a hero image. Not a video. Not a carousel. A clear, specific statement about what you do and who you do it for.

Good positioning sounds like this:

• "Independent, multi-disciplinary design for technology companies"
• "Brand strategy and identity for life science innovators"
• "Digital product design for mission-driven organizations"

Bad positioning sounds like this:

• "We create experiences that matter"
• "Transforming ideas into reality"
• "Your partner in innovation"

The difference? Specificity. Good positioning tells prospects exactly what you do. Bad positioning could apply to any agency anywhere.

Your positioning statement should answer the question "What is this?" in less than three seconds. If it doesn't, rewrite it.

2. Proof

After your positioning, prospects need social proof. They need to know that others like them have trusted you and been satisfied.

This is where testimonials live. Not buried on a separate page. Not hidden at the bottom. Right there, visible in the first scroll.

A good testimonial includes:

• Attribution to a real person at a recognizable organization (or at least a real title at a real company)
• Specific outcomes, not generic praise
• Relevance to your positioning

"Working with this agency transformed our digital presence" is weak.

"This agency helped us reduce time-to-market by 40% and increase conversion rates by 73%" is strong.

You want prospects scanning your home page to think: "People like me, with problems like mine, have worked with them and gotten results."

3. Point of View

Your home page should also signal that you have a perspective—that you're not just executors, but thinkers. This is where recent insights from your blog or articles can appear.

Not a full content hub. Just 2-3 recent articles, visible enough to communicate: "We have opinions. We publish them. We think deeply about this work."

This does two things. First, it builds credibility. Second, it gives prospects who aren't ready to proceed to your offering overview something valuable to engage with instead of leaving.

The Primary Action

Here's what matters most: after someone reads your positioning and scans your proof, what should they do?

The answer: proceed to your offering overview.

This should be the most visually prominent interactive element on your home page. Not "View Work." Not "Contact Us." Not "Learn More" (which is vague). Something specific like:

• "Learn What We Do"
• "See Our Services"
• "Explore Our Expertise"

The button copy should make it clear that clicking will take them deeper into understanding your offering, not into a portfolio or a contact form.

Everything else on the page—your navigation, your footer, your article previews—should be visually secondary to this one action.

Examples

Home pages that demonstrate good prospect experience design in practice.

alley.com forumone.com smashbrand.com thelinusgroup.com dukeduck.com lexicon.com

Your offering overview page picks up where your home page leaves off. A prospect has read your positioning, understood what you do at a high level, and clicked to learn more. Now they need structure.

This page has a simple job: briefly explain the intent and structure of your business, provide social proof, and present a clear list of services for them to explore.

That's it. This is not the place for deep dives into your process, lengthy explanations of your philosophy, or detailed case studies. This is a bridge—from general awareness on your home page to specific understanding on your service pages.

What Your Offering Overview Needs

1. A Short Introduction (~150 words)

This is where you answer: Why do you do what you do, and how do you get it done?

Not your founding story. Not your mission statement. A brief explanation of your business structure that helps prospects understand your approach.

Good introduction:

"We partner with technology companies to design digital products from strategy to launch. Our team of 20+ designers, researchers, and strategists works in integrated squads, embedding with your team to move quickly from concept to market."

Bad introduction:

"Founded in 2010, our agency emerged from a passion for creating meaningful experiences. We believe in the power of design to transform businesses and delight users. Our collaborative, human-centered approach has helped dozens of clients achieve their goals."

See the difference? The first tells you how they work. The second tells you nothing useful.

2. Proof

A testimonial here reinforces that this isn't just what you say you do—it's what others have experienced. Choose one that speaks to the breadth of your offering or the quality of your collaboration.

This testimonial should be different from the ones on your home page. Variety in attribution (different clients, different industries) builds broader credibility.

3. Structure

This is the primary action: a clean, scannable list of your services.

Not cards with lengthy descriptions. Not icons with vague labels. A simple list—or grid if you have many services—with clear titles and brief descriptions (one sentence each, maximum).

Each service should link to its detail page. That's the path forward.

4. A Way to Engage

Forms on positioning pages should enable qualified prospects to easily get in touch with you. At the bottom of your offering overview, include a way for prospects to engage without committing to contact. This is usually an email signup form.

Why here? Because some prospects aren't ready to pick a service yet. They're still in exploration mode. But they're interested enough to want updates. Capture that interest.

Keep the form simple: email address, maybe name. No long qualification forms. This isn't a contact form—it's a low-commitment way to stay connected.

Examples

Offering overview pages that demonstrate good prospect experience design in practice.

notation.design/services helloposition.com/what-we-do smashbrand.com/what-we-do molequlbrands.com/services sideways-nyc.com/what-we-do

Now we're getting specific. A prospect has selected a service from your offering overview. They're on a service detail page. They want to know: What makes this service unique? What outcomes can I expect? How do I know it will work for me?

Your service page needs to answer these questions efficiently—in about 150 words of body copy, supported by proof and clear next steps.

What Your Service Pages Need

1. A Short Introduction (~150 words)

Focus on three things:

• What problems this service solves (not what it includes)
• What makes your approach unique (not your general philosophy)
• What outcomes clients can expect (not process steps)

Good service page introduction:

"Our brand strategy work helps healthcare companies position themselves for growth in competitive markets. We conduct stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, and market research to uncover what makes you different—then translate that into clear positioning, messaging frameworks, and brand guidelines that align your team and attract the right customers. Clients typically see sharper internal alignment within weeks and measurable improvement in lead quality within three months."

Bad service page introduction:

"Brand strategy is the foundation of everything we do. We believe great brands start with great strategy. Our collaborative process brings together stakeholders from across your organization to discover your unique value and express it authentically. We'll guide you through a journey of discovery that results in a brand platform built to last."

The first tells you what you get and why it matters. The second tells you nothing concrete.

2. Proof

A testimonial specifically related to this service. Not general praise—specific outcomes.

"This agency's brand strategy work helped us reduce our sales cycle by 30% because prospects finally understood what made us different."

That's the kind of proof that matters. It's specific, measurable, and relevant to someone considering this exact service.

3. Structure

Here's where many agencies get it wrong. They include a detailed list of deliverables or process steps:

"Our brand strategy process includes:

• Stakeholder interviews (3-5 participants)
• Competitive analysis (5-7 competitors)
• Market research and positioning workshop
• Messaging framework development
• Brand guidelines documentation"

This is not what prospects need on a service page. They need to know what results to expect, not what's in the box.

Instead, structure this section around outcomes:

"Results you can expect:

• Clear differentiation from competitors
• Messaging that resonates with decision-makers
• Alignment across your team on positioning
• A foundation for all marketing decisions"

Then, create a controlled path to proof: "See how this worked for a client like you" → link to relevant case studies.

4. A Way to Engage

Every service page should end with a clear path to proof: case studies or results that demonstrate this service in action. Not a contact form — not yet. Prospects who've just learned about a service aren't ready to reach out. They want to see evidence that it works.

So give them that path: "See how we helped [type of client] achieve [type of outcome]" → link to 2-3 relevant case studies.

For prospects who followed the controlled path (home → offering overview → service page), this is their natural next step. For prospects who landed directly on a service page from search or a campaign, this gives them the proof they need before they'll consider contacting you.

Forms on positioning pages should enable qualified prospects to easily get in touch with you.

Examples

Service pages that demonstrate good prospect experience design in practice.

o3world.com/solutions squintopera.com/what-we-do tighten.com/services/discovery highlandsolutions.com/services

Here's a truth most agencies don't want to hear: prospects are not going to read multiple case studies.

They might read one. If it's short, relevant, and easy to scan, they might read one. But they're not going to sit down and carefully review five detailed case studies to understand the breadth of your expertise.

This is a problem, because prospects need three forms of proof before they'll contact you:

• Proof of results (quantitative outcomes)
• Proof of fit (you've worked with organizations like theirs)
• Proof of quality (you do good work)

If that proof is locked up in long-form case studies, most prospects will never see it. So you need two types of proof pages: case studies for the 20% who will read, and a results overview for the 80% who will only scan.

Case Studies: For the Readers

A good case study is short, outcome-focused, and connects back to your services. Keep it under 500 words — any longer and you've lost most readers.

1. Proof

Prospects need three forms of proof before they'll contact you: proof of results (quantitative or qualitative), proof of fit (you've worked with organizations like theirs), and proof of quality (you do good work). Representing how you measure success is critical, as is providing testimonials and samples of what you produce.

• Results: "Reduced sales cycle by 30%, increased close rate by 45%"
• Fit: "A Series B healthcare SaaS company with 50 employees"
• Quality: Show the work—but contextualize it as evidence of the outcomes, not art for its own sake

2. Structure

Use headlines that summarize, not label. Don't write "Problem" as a headline—write "Sales cycles were too long and unpredictable." Don't write "Solution"—write "We aligned their positioning to buyer needs." Remember: 80% of people will only read your headlines. Make sure the headlines tell the story on their own.

Always connect results back to the service(s) which made them possible. For first-time visitors to your site, these will represent the primary action they should take after reading this content. At the end of every case study, make it clear which service made this outcome possible and give prospects a path back into your offering structure: "Results like these come from our Brand Strategy service. Learn more."

3. A Way to Engage

Forms on positioning pages should enable qualified prospects to easily get in touch with you.

Examples

Case study pages that demonstrate good prospect experience design in practice.

lexiconbranding.com/case-studies thelinusgroup.com/case-study journey.world/projects glidehealth.co/results

Results Page: For the Scanners

Here's the page that most agencies don't have but desperately need: a results overview that exposes micro-results in an easy-to-scan format. Think of it as a highlight reel. A prospect should be able to scan your results page for 30-60 seconds and get the same essential information they'd get from reading multiple full case studies.

1. Proof of Results

Elevate the most profound and compelling quantitative results to this page and link to case studies when available. Individual measurable outcomes — "Reduced time-to-market by 60%," "Increased conversion by 73%" — displayed as scannable elements that each stand on their own.

2. Proof of Fit

Testimonials provide this proof by making it easy to scan that a person like your prospect at an organization like theirs has vouched for your expertise. Standalone quotes like "This agency helped us enter three new markets in under a year" work powerfully here. Client logos — recognizable names — reinforce this further.

3. Proof of Quality

A collection of curated imagery will give prospects the outcome-focused exposure to your output they need without requiring them to look at several different case studies. Caption images with outcomes, not descriptions — show the work as evidence of results, not art for its own sake.

4. A Way to Engage

Forms on positioning pages should enable qualified prospects to easily get in touch with you. This is where the contact form belongs. A prospect who has made it to your results page — especially if they came through the controlled path (home → offering overview → service → case study → results) — has seen everything they need to make a decision.

They know what you do. They know you've worked with organizations like theirs. They know what outcomes you deliver. Now they're ready to talk. Make it easy. Put the contact form right there on the results page, not hidden behind another click to a separate contact page.

Examples

Results pages that demonstrate good prospect experience design in practice.

thelinusgroup.com/results climbingtrees.com/results helloposition.com/results parisleaf.com/success-stories smashbrand.com/work highlandsolutions.com/results

Landing pages are different from every other positioning page because they exist outside the controlled path. They're designed for campaigns—targeted ads, email campaigns, content offers—where you're bringing prospects directly to a specific message aligned with a specific keyword or pain point.

A good landing page has one goal: convert traffic from that specific campaign into contacts or leads.

What Makes Landing Pages Different

They're keyword-aligned. If you're running a campaign targeting "healthcare app development," your landing page copy should use that exact phrase. You're not trying to be creative here—you're trying to match what the prospect just clicked on.

They're focused on a single outcome. Not "learn about all our services." Not "explore our work." One thing: "Get a free UX audit" or "Download our healthcare compliance guide" or "Schedule a strategy call."

They minimize navigation. Many effective landing pages remove or minimize the main navigation menu. Why? Because every link is a potential exit. You want prospects to have two choices: fill out the form, or leave. That's it.

They provide proof efficiently. You don't have space for lengthy case studies. So you use:

• Short testimonials (2-3)
• Client logos (recognizable names)
• Specific metrics ("We've helped 50+ healthcare companies launch compliant products")

The Structure of a Good Landing Page

Headline (keyword-rich, benefit-focused)

"Get Your Healthcare App to Market Faster—Without Compliance Headaches"

Subhead (expand on the promise)

"Our proven process helps medical device companies navigate FDA regulations while maintaining development velocity."

Brief explanation (~150 words)

What you're offering, why it matters, what they'll get.

Proof (visual and scannable)

Testimonials, logos, metrics—whatever builds credibility fastest.

Form (as short as possible)

Email and name at minimum. Maybe company and role if you need to qualify. But every field you add reduces conversion. Only ask for what you absolutely need.

One clear CTA

"Download the Guide" or "Schedule Your Audit" or "Get the Checklist"—whatever matches the campaign promise.

When You Don't Need a Landing Page

Not every campaign needs a custom landing page. If you're running broad awareness campaigns or promoting thought leadership content, sending traffic to your home page or content hub might be exactly right.

Landing pages make sense when:

• You're targeting a specific keyword with paid search
• You're running a campaign with a specific offer (guide, audit, consultation)
• You're testing different messages to different audiences
• You're driving traffic from a specific source (conference, partnership, sponsorship)

If none of those apply, don't overcomplicate it. Your positioning pages—home, offering overview, services—can do the work.

But when you do need a landing page, commit to it. Make it focused. Make it keyword-aligned. Make it single-purpose. And measure everything.

Your positioning pages exist to qualify prospects and move them toward contact. But not everyone who visits your site is ready for that. Some are still researching. Some are gathering information to share with others. Some are months away from having budget or authority to make a decision.

This is where content marketing comes in.

Content marketing pages serve a different purpose than positioning pages. Instead of pushing toward qualification, they attract attention, build credibility, and deepen engagement over time. They nurture prospects through a longer journey—from awareness to consideration to readiness.

Think of it as two parallel systems:

Positioning pages create a controlled path for the motivated—people who already know they have a need and are evaluating solutions.

Content marketing pages create opportunities for the interested—people who are exploring, learning, and building the understanding they'll eventually need to become motivated.

Both systems are essential. Both systems need to be designed intentionally. But they work differently.

The Three Functions of Content Marketing

1. Attract

Good content attracts the right people by addressing the questions they're already asking, the problems they're already trying to solve, and the topics they're already curious about.

This is why keyword research matters for content. Not because you're trying to game search engines, but because you're trying to understand what language your prospects use when they're looking for help.

If they're searching for "how to reduce SaaS churn," and you've written an article about exactly that, you've attracted someone who has the kind of problem you solve. They may not be ready to hire you today. But now they know you exist. They know you understand their challenge. And they know you have a perspective on how to solve it.

2. Inform

Once you've attracted someone, your content needs to actually help them. This isn't the place for vague thought leadership or thinly veiled sales pitches. This is where you demonstrate expertise by teaching, explaining, and providing genuine value.

The best agency content is specific and actionable. It shows your thinking. It reveals your process. It gives people something they can use—even if they never hire you.

Why give away your expertise? Because demonstrating that you know what you're doing builds far more credibility than claiming you know what you're doing. Prospects who learn from your content become prospects who trust you. And trust is what converts.

3. Engage

Finally, content creates opportunities for prospects to engage with you before they're ready to contact you. This is where email signups, gated content offers, and content series come in.

Someone reads an article, finds it valuable, and thinks: "I'd like to see more of this." So they subscribe. Now you're in their inbox. Now you have permission to continue the conversation. Now you can nurture them over time until they're ready to buy.

This is the long game. Not every piece of content converts immediately. But over months, as prospects read multiple articles, see consistent expertise, and gradually build confidence in your capabilities, content marketing creates qualified opportunities that wouldn't exist otherwise.

How Content Marketing and Positioning Work Together

Here's a common journey:

A prospect searches for "how to conduct user research with limited budget." They find your article. They read it, find it helpful, and subscribe to your newsletter.

Over the next few months, they receive 6-8 emails from you, each with links to relevant articles. They read maybe half of them. Gradually, they're building a mental model: this agency knows research. They've thought deeply about it. They have a clear point of view.

Then, six months later, their company gets budget for a major product redesign. They need research help. Who do they think of? You. Because you've been in their inbox, demonstrating expertise, for months.

They go to your website—but this time, they don't land on an article. They land on your home page. They read your positioning. They click through to your services. They see proof. They contact you.

Content attracted them. Positioning converted them.

This is how the two systems work together. Content builds awareness and credibility over time. Positioning captures and converts that awareness when prospects are ready.

Both matter. Both need to be designed well.

Your content hub is the home page for your content marketing. It's where prospects go when they want to see what you've published, browse by topic, or search for something specific.

Most agencies call this their "blog" or "insights" or "resources" page. Whatever you call it, its job is the same: make it easy for prospects to find content that's relevant to them.

What Your Content Hub Needs

1. Tools (Filters and Search)

The best content hubs let prospects filter by topic, content type, or both.

Topics should align with your core areas of expertise. If you're a healthcare design agency, your topics might be: Compliance & Regulations, Patient Experience, Clinical Workflows, Mobile Health.

Content types might include: Articles, Case Studies, Guides, Videos, Podcasts.

These filters do two things. First, they help prospects quickly narrow to content that's relevant to them. Second, they immediately communicate the breadth of your expertise. Just seeing the list of topics tells prospects: "These people think about healthcare design from multiple angles."

Search is also valuable, but it's secondary to filtering. Most people will use filters first. Search is for when they're looking for something specific they remember reading before.

2. Structure (Scannable, Organized, Clear)

Your content hub should display articles in a single-column list, ordered by recency (newest first). Not a grid of cards with images. Not a masonry layout. A simple, scannable list.

Why? Because scanning a list is faster than scanning a grid. And every article should include:

• Headline (clear, specific, benefit-focused)
• Date (so prospects know if it's recent)
• Topic tag (so they can see at a glance what it's about)
• Brief excerpt (1-2 sentences maximum)

That's it. Don't include author photos, read time estimates, social share counts, or other metadata that clutters the scan. Just give prospects the information they need to decide: "Is this relevant to me? Should I click?"

3. Engagement Points

Your content hub should make it easy for prospects to subscribe to your email list without having to read an article first.

Put a signup form at the top of the page—before the content list. Make it simple: "Get our latest insights delivered to your inbox." Email field, subscribe button, done.

Why at the top? Because some prospects will land on your content hub, scan the list of topics and recent articles, and think: "This is exactly the kind of content I want to follow." Let them subscribe right then, without making them scroll or navigate to a separate page.

You can also include a secondary engagement point for gated content—a downloadable guide, a checklist, a webinar. But keep it secondary. The primary engagement point should be the low-commitment email signup.

Examples

Content hubs that demonstrate good prospect experience design in practice.

designbycosmic.com/insights accessiblu.com/insights weareparliament.com/insights wildhive.com/insights glidehealth.co/blog

Your article pages are where the actual content lives—the essays, guides, analyses, and how-tos that demonstrate your expertise.

These pages have a specific job: communicate value to scanners and readers simultaneously.

Remember the 80/20 rule? 80% of people who land on an article will scan it, not read it. But that doesn't mean you should write for scanners alone. You need to serve both audiences—the 80% who look and the 20% who read.

What Your Article Pages Need

1. Scannable Typography

The structure of your article—how it's visually organized—communicates before your words do.

This means:

• Headlines that work on their own. Don't write "The Problem" as a headline. Write "Most agencies treat their website as a portfolio, not a marketing tool."
• Short paragraphs. 3-4 sentences maximum. White space between paragraphs makes scanning easier.
• Intentional use of bold and lists. But sparingly. If everything is bold, nothing is. Use bold to highlight key phrases that should jump out to a scanner. Use lists when you're presenting multiple points that deserve equal weight.
• Subheadings every 200-300 words. Break up long sections. Give scanners landmarks.

The goal is that someone scanning your article in 30 seconds can understand:

• What it's about
• What your main argument is
• Whether they want to read more

2. Related Content

At the end of every article—or in the sidebar if you have one—show 3-5 related articles.

Why? Because someone who reads one article and finds it valuable will often want more. But if you make them navigate back to your content hub, search for a topic, and browse through everything, you've added friction.

Make it easy. Show them related content right there. Let them keep reading without thinking.

This also signals depth. When someone sees related articles on the same topic, they think: "These people have written extensively about this. They really know their stuff."

3. Engagement Points

Every article should make it easy to subscribe to your email list.

Not at the top—that's too soon. Someone who just landed on your article hasn't experienced any value yet. They don't know if they want to subscribe.

But at the bottom? After they've read (or scanned) your article? That's the perfect moment to ask. They've just received value. Now they're receptive to giving you their email in exchange for more.

Keep the form simple and the copy direct: "Get more insights like this delivered to your inbox."

Don't ask for their company, their role, their budget, or their project timeline. This isn't a contact form. This is a content subscription. Email is enough.

The Primary Action

The primary action on an article page is simple: subscribe.

But there's a secondary action that matters for prospects who came to your article from search or social media and don't know anything else about you yet: give them a path to your positioning.

This can be subtle—a brief author bio at the bottom with a link to your services, or a banner that says "Interested in working with us? Learn about our [relevant service]."

Don't be aggressive about it. The article itself should provide value regardless of whether someone ever becomes a client. But do make it easy for someone to go from "This article was helpful" to "I wonder if they could help me" without having to hunt through your navigation.

Examples

Article pages that demonstrate good prospect experience design in practice.

redstreamtechnology.com/insights greatjakes.com/insights weareparliament.com/insights tighten.com/insights thelinusgroup.com/blog

Now you understand what Prospect Experience Design is, how prospects actually behave, and what each page type needs to do its job.

The question is: how does your current site measure up?

Here's a simple audit process you can do yourself:

The Abstract Shapes Exercise

Pull up your home page. Now zoom out—make it small enough that you can't read the text, only see the shapes and structure.

Ask yourself:

• How many clickable elements do you see? Count them. Every blue shape (or whatever color your links are) represents a potential path. How many paths are you offering?
• What's the visual hierarchy? Which elements are largest? Which have the most white space around them? What does the structure tell you is most important?
• Is there one clear primary action? Or are there five things competing for attention?

Do this for every positioning page: home, offering overview, each service page, case studies, results page.

What you're looking for is clarity. Can you tell at a glance what the page wants you to do? Or is it visually ambiguous, offering many paths with no clear priority?

The Three Questions Test

Now zoom back in. Read each page as if you're a prospect seeing it for the first time.

Within three seconds, can you answer:

• What is this? Is it immediately clear what the page is about and what value it offers?
• Is it relevant to me? Does the positioning make it obvious who this is for?
• What should I do next? Is there one clear action that stands out?

If you can't answer all three questions in three seconds, your page is failing the heuristic processing test. Prospects are making snap judgments based on incomplete information.

The Path Audit

Start at your home page and follow the primary action you've designed (or think you've designed).

Where does it lead? Does it lead to your offering overview? From there, does it lead to services? From services, does it lead to proof?

Or does it lead somewhere unexpected—to a portfolio, to an about page, to a dead end?

Map out the actual path your current site creates. Then ask: Is this the path I want prospects to follow? Does each step build understanding and move toward qualification?

If not, you've identified where the path breaks down.

The Proof Check

Go through your positioning pages and look for the three forms of proof:

• Proof of results: Do you show quantifiable outcomes? Or just describe what you did?
• Proof of fit: Do you show recognizable clients or specific types of organizations? Or are all your case studies anonymized to the point of uselessness?
• Proof of quality: Do you show work in context, connected to outcomes? Or is it presented as art for art's sake?

If you're missing any form of proof—or if the proof exists but is buried—you're making it harder for prospects to build confidence in your capabilities.

Common Patterns That Indicate Problems

As you audit, watch for these red flags:

Too many paths from the home page. If you have more than 15-20 clickable elements on your home page, you're overwhelming prospects. Simplify.

Generic positioning. If your positioning statement could apply to any agency in your category, it's not specific enough. Sharpen it.

Hidden services. If prospects can't see a clear list of what you offer within two clicks from your home page, they're not going to find it. Surface your services.

Long-form content blocking the path. If your service pages, case studies, or offering overview are longer than 500 words, you're asking too much of prospects. Cut them down.

No clear CTAs. If your buttons say "Learn More" or "Click Here" instead of something specific like "See Our Services" or "View Results," prospects don't know what they're getting when they click.

Portfolio-first structure. If your home page leads to a portfolio gallery, and your portfolio pieces don't connect back to services or outcomes, you're in a death spiral. Redesign the path.

Every time I present these ideas to a client, I hear some version of the same objections. They're understandable. They're predictable. And they're wrong.

Here's how I respond:

"But our best clients come from referrals, not our website."

Yes. And where do those referred prospects go before they contact you? Your website.

Even when someone is referred, they still visit your site to verify what they've been told, to see your work, to build confidence. If your site doesn't support that—if it's confusing, if it lacks proof, if it's unclear what you actually do—you're losing referred business.

A good website doesn't replace referrals. It reinforces them. It converts warm introductions into qualified conversations.

"We're not Pentagram, we NEED leads from our site."

Exactly. So design for that.

Pentagram can afford to treat their website as a PR tool because they don't need leads. You can't. Your website needs to work as a marketing tool—which means clear positioning, controlled paths, and prioritized actions.

Don't copy firms that aren't trying to do what you're trying to do.

"What if prospects want to explore? Won't we lose them if we limit their options?"

You're already losing them. By offering everything, you're offering nothing.

People don't want infinite choice. They want clarity. They want to know what to do next without having to think too hard about it.

A controlled path doesn't eliminate exploration—it just makes one path much easier than the others. Prospects who want to explore still can. But the ones who are ready to move forward don't have to work for it.

"This feels too transactional. What about our brand?"

Your brand is the promise you make and your ability to keep it. Not your tagline. Not your hero video. Not your carefully curated aesthetic.

Prospects don't visit your site looking for a brand experience. They visit looking for a solution. Give them clarity first. Once they understand you might be that solution, then they'll engage more deeply with who you are.

You earn the right to share your story by first making it clear what you do.

"We don't have case studies yet. We're too new."

Then you need testimonials, client logos, and measurable outcomes from the work you have done—even if you can't publish full case studies.

Did you help a client launch faster? Reduce costs? Improve conversion? Quantify it. Get a quote from them about it. Show it.

You don't need five polished case studies to demonstrate proof. You need evidence that you've solved problems and delivered outcomes. Start with what you have and build from there.

"Our prospects are sophisticated. They don't need hand-holding."

Sophisticated doesn't mean patient. It doesn't mean willing to hunt through your site for information.

Everyone—regardless of how sophisticated—makes snap judgments when they land on a new website. Everyone scans before they read. Everyone wants clarity over cleverness.

Designing for how people actually behave isn't condescending. It's respectful. It's making the best use of their limited attention.

Here's what I want you to remember from this book:

Your website doesn't exist to showcase your work. It exists to generate qualified opportunities.

Everything else—your aesthetic, your brand expression, your portfolio—is secondary to that goal. And once you accept that, once you let go of the need to impress and focus instead on the need to inform and direct, everything gets easier.

You stop trying to predict what prospects might want to do and start designing what you want them to do.

You stop offering everything to everyone and start creating a clear path for the motivated.

You stop treating your website as a mirror—something that reflects your identity and worth—and start treating it as a tool that serves a specific purpose.

This is Prospect Experience Design. It's not complicated. It's not proprietary. It's simply applying what we know about how people actually behave—how they scan, how they decide, how they build confidence—to the structure and content of your website.

Most agency websites fail because they're designed by people who care deeply about craft but haven't thought carefully about outcomes. They're beautiful. They're well-executed. And they're not generating business.

You can do better. You know better now.

Start with your home page. Make your positioning crystal clear. Choose one primary action and make it visually obvious. Add proof—real testimonials, real outcomes, real evidence that you've done this before.

Then build the path. Offering overview. Service pages. Case studies. Each one building on the last. Each one moving prospects closer to understanding whether you're the right fit.

You don't need to redesign everything at once. Start with the pages that matter most—the ones that prospects actually visit, the ones where the current experience is most broken. Fix those first. Then expand.

And remember: you're not designing for peers. You're not designing for awards. You're designing for a future client who needs to know, quickly and clearly, whether you can solve their problem.

Make that easy for them. Design by intent. And your website will finally start doing the work you've always hoped it would do.