When you’re marketing online, you’ve got to have a place to call home, where people can find you and learn about who you are, who you want to serve, and how you can support them. You’ve got to have a website. Yours can be just an online business card, or it can be a client generating hub for you, depending on what your ideal followers find when they get there.
Below you’ll find ten recommendations on what your website should include in order to attract just the right people to working with you.
1. A Home Page Video
In a crowded marketplace, having a video on your home page is a simple way for you to show potential clients the authentic you. Allow your personality to shine through as you describe your services, how to get started working with you, and make an emotional connection with those you want to serve.
2. A List-Building Opt-In
One of the best things you can do as a business owner is to start building a tribe via an email-marketing list. When done right, this list will be chock full of the most wonderful people you could consider working with and can be worth thousands of dollars a month to your business.
Start by offering a free gift on your website that focuses on the concerns of your ideal client. You provide it to them in exchange for their first name and email address. Give a little thought to this. Focus on what your client needs and wants a create a gift they will appreciate enough to share their contact details with you.
3. A Client-focused Bio or About Page
One of the most visited pages on any website is the “About” page. If website visitors take the time to investigate your site beyond the home page, this is where they typically go next. When developed properly, it should describe who you work with and what they struggle with. If you’ve developed a brand story about how you’ve come to doing the work you do, this is a great place for it.
Be sure that potential clients will recognize themselves in your words and self-select to learn more about you, or work with you based on their connection to you and your story. This helps make the sales process more straightforward for everyone and makes potential clients feel they are not being “sold to.”
4. Contact Information
Somewhere on your website you should have a way for people to contact you. At a minimum, this can be an email form where people can send you an email to express interest in your services. Or you can offer all of your contact information including the physical address if appropriate for your business. Whatever the case, make it easy for people to find this information, because it is the first step to making them a customer or client.
5. Success Stories
You likely have a list of happy clients who have worked with you and tell you that you’ve helped them tremendously. If you don’t yet have formal testimonials from them, request them! Nothing helps a potential client become a client faster than someone else one raving about their experience with you.
6. Social Media Connection Buttons
If you are working to build your business online, you’ve likely gotten started using at least one social media platform. Your website should have a link to it – and all those where you have a presence. This gives website visitors an easy way to see what you are up to and is less committal for them if they are wary of sharing their email address.
7. Information about Your Services
Your website should communicate how you serve clients and what you offer. Be sure to share what clients will achieve when they work with you. Focus on the benefits they will receive, how receiving them will make them feel, and how much better off they will be after working with you.
8. An Action Step
What action do you hope people take when they visit your website? It may be as simple as claiming your free gift and providing their contact information or it may be connecting with you for a free consultation. Lead your website guests down a clear path by recommending to them what to do. Not all of them will, but your chances of working with them go way up when you make a simple and specific request.
9. Visual Identity
Many people have very expensive logos made before they ever have a client because they feel they need to. I don’t believe this is necessary, but I do think that some visual identity needs to be created so that when people find you or your business in different places online they are making a clear connection across platforms.
If you aren’t ready to invest in a logo, consider these options: develop a color scheme that is used on your website and on your social media channels; use one headshot consistently; use your type-written name or that of your business in the same font and layout everywhere. Consistency is the key!
10. A Blog
A blog can serve many purposes for you: it is a reason to encourage people to visit your website regularly, it can highlight your expertise at what you do, and if written in consistently, it helps your website to be found in Google.
Consider what content you can create consistently that will keep your blog fresh and interesting so visitors return again and again.
Conclusion
As you can see, with the right elements, your website can be a client generating hub. If you don’t already have these ten elements, start working toward them one-by-one and eventually, your site will be helping you to serve the clients you know you are meant to.
