Most people decide within the first three seconds of landing on your website whether they will stay or go.

To say that you should put your best foot forward online is an understatement.

The Spotlight on your homepage is prime real estate and your first big chance to grab your visitors’ attention and get them to take action. It’s no time to be shy. You should embrace the Spotlight and use it to highlight everything from special promotions to your best sellers.

Several Spotlights come with your website with messages like, “More than a printer, we are your marketing partner. Learn more about our diverse services.” That’s great, but think of the impact you could have if you personalize and target your efforts. It’s very easy to make your own Spotlight, and something I’d highly recommend. Here’s what you can do with it:

• Showcase your work. People love pictures, plus they want to see what you’ve done for other clients.
• Promote a current campaign or a special that you’re currently running.
• Highlight awards you’ve won or community events that you’re sponsoring.
• Increase quotes or orders by driving traffic to those pages within your website.

Once you decide what to feature in your Spotlights, take the necessary steps to make them work for you. Here are three keys to successful Spotlights.

1. Each Spotlight should have a specific call to action. Tell the user what to do next. For example: request a quote, submit an order, save 20% now, get your Starbuck’s gift card. Whatever it is, just get them moving.
2. Create a new page on your website that is specific to each Spotlight. You want to create good user flow so that when a visitor clicks on the Spotlight, he’s taken to a page that’s consistent with what he just saw. This guards against confusion.
3. After creating a custom Spotlight, tie your other marketing efforts to it. Use the same message to drive people to your website through direct mail, email and social media. Create a cohesive message throughout all of your marketing materials.

Your website is the nucleus of your marketing efforts—drive traffic there and then use your Spotlights to direct users where to go next. Think of Spotlights as road signs pointing your guests to their next destination (only you get to decide the destination).

Ready to get started? It’s easy, especially with websites like picmonkey.com and lunapic.com. They can help you create custom Spotlights in no time.

Also, short training videos are available in your Springboard. Simply search for Spotlight in Support and view to your heart’s content. There’s also a downloadable PDF that will help walk you through the creation of the Spotlight.