Your website is a powerful tool for building your business. It is the primary piece of your online presence, and it acts as your 24/7 hub for attracting your ideal clients, selling your products and services, providing valuable content and expertise, and overall marketing you and your business.
But you can’t just throw up just any old website and expect it to work miracles! There are some very key pieces that you need to have in your website to make it really work. If you want a successful website, I have some secrets for you that will help you to make sure you get those most important pieces into your website so you can get the results that you want out of it.
Secret #1: Speak Directly to Your Ideal Customer and Her Pain
Most people miss this piece and end up with a website that is bland and boring and simply does not capture the attention of the people they are trying to reach! And if you can’t capture their attention, how are you ever going to be able to tell them about what you have to offer and how you can help them?
It’s vitally important that you write your website with your ideal customer in mind. When you sit down to write anything for your marketing, picture that one ideal customer and write to her (or him).
The second part to this secret is to address that ideal customer’s pain. What is the problem, frustration or desire that has brought them to you in the first place? Identify that, then talk about it right on your website! The first thing a visitor to your website reads should be written to specifically address that one thing that brought them to you.
Remember, people are coming to you for a solution to a problem! They want some kind of results, and YOU have the answer. But if you don’t talk about and identify the problem, how can they know that you have the answer?
And when you’re talking about the problem, and the answer you have, use the language that your ideal customer would use to talk about it. Talk about it in words that they use and think, and they’ll be able to much more easily and quickly identify with what you’re talking about and recognize that you are talking to them and have a solution for them.
By the way, if you’re not sure what problem your ideal customer has, or what words they might use to talk about it, ASK! Think of someone you know who fits the description of your ideal customer and take them out for coffee, have a phone conversation, send them an email, and ask them if you can get their feedback. Find out what their most pressing problem or frustration is around your topic and listen to how they describe it.
Secret #2: Build Your Email List
Another piece that so many people miss is to use your website to build your email list. In fact, that should be one of the primary goals for your site!
Remember, online people need to come in contact with you at least 7 times before they’ll be ready to buy from you! If they are coming to your website and just clicking away without doing anything, you have no way to follow up with them and give them that chance to get to know you.
Your email list is that follow up tool, and your website should be focused on getting people’s email addresses so you have that opportunity to keep in touch.
Use an Irresistible List Builder and put it in a highly visible place on your website. A list builder is simply a free gift that you give someone in exchange for their email address. You can see mine in the right sidebar here on the blog, and you’ve probably seen others around the interwebs.
The best spot to place your Irresistible List Builder is on the right-hand side of your site, above the fold – meaning, you don’t have to scroll down the page to see it. You want it to be clearly visible as soon as someone lands on your site, and that upper right side of the page is where our eyes typically go first.
Your free gift needs to be something that your ideal customer will find valuable, and ideally it needs to address that specific problem or frustration that brought them to you in the first place. Keep in mind, that problem that brought them to you in forefront on their mind! And if you can offer something to help them move closer to solving it, for free, that they can get immediately, they’ll grab it!
Secret #3: Create a Gorgeous, Professional Brand Design
We humans are very visual creatures! Our eyes play a huge role in how we interact with the world, and that includes the online world. If your website and branding doesn’t look attractive and professional, it will most definitely turn people away from you.
It’s vitally important that you make sure you have a gorgeous, professional website and branding. This piece is well worth investing in and hiring someone to help you get it just right, because this design will be the “face” of your business online. You want to set a good first impression.
It’s also extremely important that you like and feel good about how you look online. If you have a crappy design and feel insecure or shameful about it, that will affect how you show up and people will pick up on it when they visit your website.
On the flip side, when you have a gorgeous, professional design and branding that makes your heart sing, that energy will be reflected through your site as well and your visitors will pick up on it and be attracted to it.
Just taking action on these 3 secrets can dramatically increase the success of your website. You don’t have to have a complex strategy or change everything all at once, just focus on one thing at a time. Pick just one of these secrets to work on for your website, then when you’re finished with that one, pick another one to work on next.
As you focus more and more on your customer and what she is looking for, and how you can provide that through your website, you’ll start to attract more and more of those ideal customers who are the perfect fit for you.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Here’s what to do next:
Pick one of these secrets that you would like to work on and share it in the comments below.
Image Credit: CEBImagery.com
