By the time I created my third coaching website, I realized that a website should be more than an online brochure. It should do a lot of my marketing and enrolling work for me. And then I had a paradigm shift – my website should feel like home to my target market rather than just be all about me and what I do.
Whoosh! As soon as I aligned my website so that it spoke to the people I was serving, my list built exponentially and so did my income.
I often hear from coaches that their website’s just sitting there, doing nothing for them and they don’t know why. Many say they don’t really know what’s on their site without looking.
Sound familiar? If that’s you, I understand because once upon a time I put my website in the hands of my web designer, let go and hoped for the best. I truly thought that I could set it and forget it. Wrong. A website is a living thing.
If you get clients primarily from the Internet, as I do – or if you’d like to, it’s critical that your website is the HUB of your business.
Now, I have a blog for my main website. With all the fresh content and social network plug-ins, it’s a happy command center for my business. Most everything I do, plus all the clients and joint venture offers I attract, come and go from that hub. It’s like a busy airport and I’m really proud of it. (My site won the Best Coaching Blogs contest in 2010 and received Runner-Up honors this year, as well.)
There are three “secret” ingredients every website must have going for it to be a client winning site, one that:
- Showcases your brand and specialties.
- Inspires engagement with your freebie and offers.
- Creates an online community of fans who refer others.
- Increases your list daily with people who truly want to hear from you.
- Fills your group programs and brings you new clients even while you sleep.
Try this quick test…
Pull up your website right now and do your best to answer these questions from the perspective of your target audience.
- Will new web visitors, that you’ve never met, immediately know who you serve?
Within seconds, is it crystal clear by your company name, tagline or position statement, blog titles, product titles — everything… how this website will be beneficial to visitors? - Does your freebie and opt-in box draw your eye to it without scrolling?
Does the title of your freebie make people hungry to grab it right now?
Are you solving a very specific problem that’s urgent for your niche market? - After they sign up is it obvious how to take the next step with you?
Usually this comes in the form of auto-responders, but your site should also showcase your coaching programs in a way that’s easy to navigate and understand.
We live in an online social networking era. Attention spans are shorter than ever – especially when we’re on the Internet. People want to be seen, heard and understood… before they’ll give you their precious time and attention.
The temptation is to have your coaching website be all about you and coaching. Uh oh… that’s a miss. Guess who will be attracted by that… people who already know, like and trust you and who are already “initiated” into the value of coaching. You need to keep your pipeline full of future clients to have a sustainable biz.
What should your website be about? The home page should speak to the specific people you’re targeting — right where they live — about their biggest challenges, their pain, their hopes and most desired tangible outcomes. It should inspire, motivate, educate them and transform their thinking. It should build your credibility and be the start of a beautiful relationship.
So how’d you do? From the perspective of your target audience is your website rocking it? And what about your metric results… are you getting clients from your site? Is your list building up nicely?
Please share your comments below. Based on the quick test, what do you think is missing on your site? What shift can you make now? What turns you on about other websites and gets you fully engaged?
